The most important part of YOUR computer?

[ñòóKýçrÕôK]

Tell me what is, in your opinion, THE single most important part of your pc and a little about why you think so. In my opinion, the most important part of my pc is the memory. I have seen 128meg of SDR ram upgraded to 512meg take a 400meg proc pc to speeds seemingly equal to those of a 3.2gig dual core proc pc as long as the 400meg proc wasn't overloaded. Windows open with similar speeds (until of course it overloaded the processor with process to FIFO). A 400meg is capable of processing millions of bits of info per second until it gets overloaded and that's very fast in my opinion. But memory makes it much easier for it to do.

[Cerebral]

hmmm......good question nooky i would say my hard drive for right now.

my processor is a 3.0ghz dual core,onboard video card,872MB of ram,dvd burner

my hard drive is 320GB the reason i say its the most important is cause i have a lot of data on it that i dont want to lose
and if my computer stops working i can just unplug it and put it into an other computer,   

[]-[êll.Ôñ.ËÀR'][']-[.]

The plug   

[White Stripes]

the retro ISA Soundblaster AWE32 soundcard with CSP chip and 8MB of installed 'soundfont' ram.... 85db SNR with .005 THD....

was a 400$ soundcard when it was new.... (no i didnt pay that price... i have a collection of AWE32s that ive rescued from ppl who didnt know what they were fixing to toss into the trash)

uses the EMU8000 synth chip... the 'older brother' of EMU10k1/2 chip used in nearly every creative labs product... tho i consider it better since it uses ram on the card rather than system ram for the soundfont storage... and yes... it can do all the same 'effects' the 10k1 can do...


then again it may be the 500mhz AMDK6 attached to the VIA mobo that doesnt want to 'give up the ghost'

the 220MB of ram?

the DEC etherworks 3 network card with RJ45, AUI and BNC connectors? (give me a network from any era and i can attach this thing to it)

the quantum harddrives that have not given me any trouble since they were installed?

the 4MB ATI Mach64 videocard? (oldie but a goldie)


i know.... its all of the above running a tweaked linux install.... and as a result, outrunning windows machines with 4x the specs... 

[FlapJack]

My current 6gb of ram is really helping me out.

[bu44er]

Intel Quad Core Q6600

[silicon_toad2000]

I think the most common cause of failure is the user.
Enhance your computer by enhancing yourself.

hardware wise, I love my evolving cooling system. 2.8 gig northwood running at 3.34 on air cooling, stable even in summer and quiet enough that I can hear my hard drives over the fan noise.

[Forested665]

a well designed PSU. one of the loudest componants in a pc and one of the most common to fail

[White Stripes]

PSUs are loud? mines silent as the grave... and has been running for years... my oldest system still has its circa 1992 PSU

its the case fan that makes the noise....



and i guess i should do some updates to this thread....

i now have a full-duplex tulip compatible NIC instead of the etherworks (PCI instead of ISA for nics makes a big difference)

322mb ram available to system... (two 128s and a 64)

and an "optisound mad16" soundcard (an odd tidbit i had in storage that i never could get to work with windows... regardless of what hardware windows was using...  but it came to life when i stuck it in the linux box) that looks like it was cheaply made but.... apparently wasnt... the DAC is crystal clear... makes ogg vorbis and cd audio shine... but unfortunatly makes the flaws in mp3 more obvious... (need to use the 'crystality' plugin on mp3s to make them sound... closer to what they should...)

the awe32 went to a dos box (the os where they perform their best)

course im still using the same hdds mobo and cpu... (if it aint broke)

...i really hate the mp3 format...