You can't have enough speed. When was the last time you said, "Gosh, this web page is loading up way too quickly"! Or, "Windows is booting up too fast for me"! Probably never. We could all use more speed, but what can you buy to improve your computer's performance?

In this article, you'll learn:

• What affects the speed of programs
• What affects the speed of the Internet

Bottlenecks

If you had a bucket full of one gallon of water, you could empty that bucket out pretty quickly. But if you had one gallon of water in a large bottle, it would take awhile to empty that bottle. That's because the neck of the bottle impedes the flow of water. Thus, we refer to parts of your computer that impede the processing of information as a bottleneck. Think of the bottleneck as four lanes of highway traffic trying to merge into a single lane. Ugh!

A computer's processor, RAM, and hard drive all work together in almost every aspect of your computer's operation. If you have a fast processor, like a 1400 MHz Pentium 4, but only 64 MB of RAM, your computer is not going to work as fast as it CAN. The RAM is causing a bottleneck. Likewise, if you have 512 MB of RAM on a 300 MHz Pentium II, your PC just isn't going to be very speedy. The trick is to balance these components.

Processor

You know the processor is the problem if you are using only one application, and it is not responding very quickly to your commands. This is the worst kind of bottleneck, because it is expensive and labor-intensive to resolve. If you click on a menu item, a split-second should pass before the results appear.

If you find yourself constantly waiting a second after you click before something happens, you need a faster processor. Unfortunately, processors work with only certain types of motherboards, so you may not be able to just install a new processor and call it a day. You will most likely have to swap out the entire motherboard with a new one. That costs money, and you'll probably need a technician to do it for you. It is not easy to swap out a motherboard.

RAM

You know you have a RAM problem if you begin to experience slow downs when you have multiple applications running at the same time. Any decent PC should be able to run two or three programs simultaneously with no detectable loss in performance. If it is starting to act sluggish, consider adding more memory.

A telltale sign that you have a RAM bottleneck appears when your PC's hard drive starts to make a lot of noise every time you issue a command or click on something. When your PC accesses the hard drive continuously (called disk thrashing), it is trying to use the hard drive as extra memory because it has run out of the much faster RAM memory. A quick way to end this is to install more RAM in your system. See the Related Articles for more details.

Hard Drive

If it takes forever for you to load up a file, or if copying files from directory to directory on your hard drive is incessantly slow, you may be experiencing a hard drive bottleneck. Hard drives get slower over time because they don't store information as efficiently as they did when they were new.

The easiest fix for a hard drive bottleneck is to run a "defragmentation" program. These utility programs are included with most operating systems. They reorganize your hard drive to peak efficiency, as if they were brand new, WITHOUT erasing any of your data. It's like cleaning up your hallway closet at home -- see Related Articles for more details on the process.

The other fix is to get a faster, cheaper hard drive. Hard drive prices drop significantly every year, as bigger and better hard drives are introduced into the market. If you are constantly running out of space on your hard drive, go for a new one. It probably won't cost you excessively, and the benefits are well worth it.

Almost everybody thinks the Internet is too slow. I've never heard someone say that it is too fast! But how can you improve the speed of getting web pages? First off, the processor has almost nothing to do with it. Sure, a Pentium 4 PC will be more responsive than a Pentium II, but the processor is the least of the bottlenecks when discussing the Internet. The two things that will speed up your connection are cache (pronounced like "cash") and connection type.

When your hard drive downloads web pages, it stores the page contents in a cache. Images and format information from these pages are keep in a special directory on your hard drive. In this way, when you return to a web page you saw earlier in the session, your PC reads it off of your hard drive rather than downloading it all over again. Every web browser uses a cache by default, but if you find yourself constantly returning to the same pages, you may want to increase the size of your cache. See Related Articles for a detailed discussion on web browser cache.

The most important factor is, of course, your connection to the Internet. The first stop is your modem. It is highly inadvisable to use a 14.4K or a 28.8K modem for Internet use. They're just not very fast. 33.6K gives a small boost over 28.8K, but for any kind of real access, get a 56K modem. They're cheap now, costing as little as $20, and the improvement in performance is very noticeable.

If you have a 56K modem and you need even more speed, consider a special Internet connection. Many areas now offer cable modem access, which can deliver speeds between 100K and 1000K, depending on Internet traffic. DSL (or ADSL or xSL), offers a constant 650K connection to your computer. Imagine, these lines offer connection speed more than 10 times that of a regular 56K modem! Prices are coming down quickly, too.

Another consideration is the speed of your Internet Service provider. Your ISP may not have the fastest access to the Internet, or if they DO have fast lines, they may be overloaded by too many subscribers. This happened to AOL a few years ago. When shopping for an ISP, ask about THEIR connection to the Internet. Do they have superfast lines (T3, DS3, OC), or are they leasing parts of lines (called T1 or fractional T1) from other ISPs? It could be the difference between good and substandard performance.

Conclusion

Keeping your PC speedy can take lots of work and money, but with these general guidelines, you can be sure that your hard-earned cash will actually be buying the promised performance increase. Remember to buy only what you need, and to use some of the preventative measures described in some of our other topics. Good luck!