Poll: Your computer's weakest link...

[Sampler]

My weakness is my video. I got my computer two years ago as a present from my dad and it isn't built for gaming. Its integrated graphics chip set can barely play WoW on its lowest setting. It is actually not supported by the game and took some file editing help from the WoW forums to get it to work and run the game.

The Hard Drive.

It's a 2GB 7500rpm HD.

I've been planning to upgrade to a 120GB SSD and a 600GB Velociraptor 10000rpm Drive.

SSD for OS and essential programs and the Velociraptor for games.
The old drive will be used for storage.

How is your computer even running? There hasn't been such a thing as a 2GB hard drive that has run a computer in more than a decade.

Vista and all the necessary programs I need to keep my computer running properly take anywhere between 50 to 100GB of space. Heck I found out I was way behind and didn't have service pack 2 for Vista(Have a bad habit of not updating), but just the download starter program to download and install it was 475MB, and it downloaded at least 1GB or more for the upgrade.

My main hard drive that came with the computer says that there is a total of 451GB of space total free and used, though I'm betting it is a 500GB drive and all the necessary stuff takes up 49GB that it doesn't show me is there.

Is your hard drive like 18 or more years old? Because my smallest flash drive has as much space as 2GB, and that is a size that really isn't sold anymore, the only reason I have it is that it is the special apprentice minibot drive I got when I got the SW:Force Unleashed 2 collector's edition.

The smallest flash drive I've seen in stores these days is 4GB. I'm willing to bet you made some kind of number typo. You must have meant a normal 200GB drive.

You think someone may have wrote GB instead of TB?

Also the "49GB that it doesn't show me is there" isn't what you think. It's a difference between measurements of gigabytes [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabyte] (GB) and gibibytes [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibibyte] (GiB) - the former being 1,000,000,000 bytes and the latter being 1,073,741,824 bytes so when multiplied out over the hundreds the difference becomes quite noticeable.

Hard drive manufacturers quote the drive size in gigabytes with the correct GB suffix whereas your operating system quotes drive size in gibibytes but displays the incorrect GB suffix to cause confusion (well not, there's a reason for it which you can google if you're really bothered).

So that's where your "missing" space has gone.

 

[Cipher1]

My computers weakest links besides being 4-5 years old are 32bit vista and its complete and utter lack of maintenace yeah it sucks

 

[12GaugeLobotomy]

Also there's the space that the file system and indexing doodads cordon off

 

[Xrysthos]

My laptop is using Windows Vista 32-bit. Not that it's really awesome in any other aspect, but I do believe that is what is holding it back the most.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

I am fairly sure at the moment my Ram is my bottleneck as I have 2gb of ram. I am forgetful about processors but I think my quad core ~2.4GHz is alright and my 1,016MB(according Dxdiag) dedicated memory graphics card is fine. I could use a bit more Hard drive space but that isn't an issue at this point in time.

Oh wait OS is Vista so yeah.

 

[Shock and Awe]

Definitely the Video Card. I have a decent 2.6ghz processor and 2gbs of ram so those aren't to much of an issue. But my video card is a piece of shit.

 

[RadiusXd]

well, speaking in todays terms, my rig should handle anything.
2 GTX 460's, 6 GB DDR3 (triple channel), i7-950 processor all pretty good, but ultimately with a rig that can run modern games well unless you have an SSD or some crazy HHD array, hard drive is gonna be a bottleneck every time.

so though I have a pretty quick RAID 0 config with a couple 500 gig drives, it is the limiting factor in performing all operations involving its heavy usage. To remedy this completely, it would have to be at least as fast in data read/write as my ram (or potentially motherboard) can receive or send it.

I'm not sure if SSD's can compete with the speed of RAM, but I suppose if one didn't an array of them large enough would do the trick.

anyone know the answer to that?

EDIT: The good news though guys, is that it doesn't really matter, a good SSD as opposed to a good HHD will speed up OS load times, file transfer/install times, and also make a noticeable difference to game loading screens. None of this however means the gaming once begun will be influenced by the speed of your HHD. it just means waiting around a little bit more or less. I found a happy medium with two 500BG HHD's in RAID 0.

Seeing as smaller HHD's are generally faster and less expensive then their larger counterparts, having the two work in tandem gives me a full TB of space, while being more then twice as fast and only slightly more costly.

 

[baker80]

Getting a quadcore sounded like a good idea back in the day, but when I'm not compiling something it really doesn't do much good for most games. 2.66 gHz per core is pretty slow these days.

 

[Ranylyn]

I've got a gaming rig.

Except the video card died. Like, literally melted.

It's a gaming rig WITHOUT A VIDEO CARD.

I am a sad sad gamer.

 

[Snotnarok]

Too little space, 2 500 gb HDDs and a 750 external just doesn't seem to cut it with the crap I do with my pc. That being art, gaming, videos and music. Maybe steam needs to be on the second HDD ...I'm thinking outloud in text on the internet...time for bed.

 

[Scipio1770]

it's always the graphics that kill ya.

 

[monken8]

its vista on a 7 optimised computer need i say more

 

[fenrizz]

My weakness is my video. I got my computer two years ago as a present from my dad and it isn't built for gaming. Its integrated graphics chip set can barely play WoW on its lowest setting. It is actually not supported by the game and took some file editing help from the WoW forums to get it to work and run the game.

The Hard Drive.

It's a 2GB 7500rpm HD.

I've been planning to upgrade to a 120GB SSD and a 600GB Velociraptor 10000rpm Drive.

SSD for OS and essential programs and the Velociraptor for games.
The old drive will be used for storage.

How is your computer even running? There hasn't been such a thing as a 2GB hard drive that has run a computer in more than a decade.

Vista and all the necessary programs I need to keep my computer running properly take anywhere between 50 to 100GB of space. Heck I found out I was way behind and didn't have service pack 2 for Vista(Have a bad habit of not updating), but just the download starter program to download and install it was 475MB, and it downloaded at least 1GB or more for the upgrade.

My main hard drive that came with the computer says that there is a total of 451GB of space total free and used, though I'm betting it is a 500GB drive and all the necessary stuff takes up 49GB that it doesn't show me is there.

Is your hard drive like 18 or more years old? Because my smallest flash drive has as much space as 2GB, and that is a size that really isn't sold anymore, the only reason I have it is that it is the special apprentice minibot drive I got when I got the SW:Force Unleashed 2 collector's edition.

The smallest flash drive I've seen in stores these days is 4GB. I'm willing to bet you made some kind of number typo. You must have meant a normal 200GB drive.

Ah yes, sorry.
I seem to have typed GB instead of TB.

 

[Fleischer]

My sound card. I'm still rocking out the on-board. :\

 

[MindBullets]

OS. I'm presently stuck with... Vista.

OH THE SHAME!

 

[Lovesfool]

I was tempted to vote "other", by that implying "my pocket".

 

[Acenamedvlad]

My laptop can run most high end games but it tends to make it overheat and shut down. Often times I risk a shut down if I don't put it under ventilation or in a chilled room.

 

[The Lunatic]

Video card is a bit of a beast.

4870X2, stock cooler is just awful, if it wasn't for custom fan settings, I'd be idling at 80c.

Gets the job done, although, if a game doesn't support Crossfire, the second GPU goes to waste and just generates heat.

The worst part of my computer is likely my Motherboard.

Old and cheap.

 

[Balgus]

core i5 2500k 3.33Ghz
4Gb 1333MHZ ram
AMD 2GB 6950 DDR5
and my rubbish 500Gb main drive <---- all of the above is Great but is bottle necked by this because a solid state drive is just too expensive for so little storage

 

[Mad World]

I'd say my processor. Only an E6600. My GPU is a GTX 260. Not amazing, but if I had to change one, it'd probably be the processor.