A computer system is not a single entity, but is a collection of various subsystems, which may be broadly classified into two categories i.e. hardware and software. We'll talk about hardware first. The hardware may be further divided into many more subsystems like the CPU, Input and output units. The CPU may further be divided into many subsystems such as the soundcard, processor, motherboard, hard disk, CD/DVD, and so on. It is usually thought that the processor is the sole component that describes the performance of the entire PC. The general perception is - faster the processor, better the performance - whatever be the status of the rest of the system. In reality, this is not so. A faster processor helps in increasing the performance just by a fraction. It is the combined effort of all the components, which help in delivering the required performance. A team work!
We will now see how
different components of a computer system influence the performance.
Random Access Memory (RAM):
This is the temporary memory of a computer system. It is used to temporarily
store data during execution. All the programs are loaded in to the memory before
execution. Thus the availability of a spacious memory holds a lot of importance.
Performance can be boosted by a huge margin just by increasing the amount of RAM
instead of changing to a faster processor. Picture this: A Pentium 133 with 64MB
RAM works faster than a Pentium III- 600 MHz with 8MB RAM. As you can see there
is a huge difference in the clock speeds of the processors, which makes very
little difference in the performance, while just an addition of more RAM gives
the desired boost in the performance.
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