What Makes a Computer Fast? Here Are Main 8 Aspects

The performance of a computer can be decided by a lot of factors including the speed of CPU, the size of RAM, the space of hard disk, the speed of hard disk, type of graphics card, cache, and so on.

If the performance of your computer is pretty low, you may get a worse usage experience or it will lead to some worse situation. Thus, you may ask how to speed up my computer?

So, in order to improve the speed of your computer, you need to know what makes a computer fast.

What Makes a Computer Fast – 8 Aspects

In the following section, we will show you the several aspects that can make your computer faster.

1. What Makes a Computer Fast – CPU

CPU or Central Process Unit is the brain of a computer. It is a small computer chip that sits atop the main circuit board of a computer or a laptop. The clock speed of the computer and the speed of processing data are managed by the CPU of a computer. If the CPU is able to execute more instructions per second, the speed of the computer will become faster. In general, the higher the bit of the CPU is, the faster the CPU performs calculation.

Another aspect you need to know is the CPU cache and it usually lists L2, L3 and L4. This is the super-fast memory that makes the CPU process a more complex task.

So, in order to improve the speed of a computer, the CPU would be an important aspect.

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2. What Makes a Computer Fast – RAM

RAM is a form of computer memory that can be used to store working data and machine code. The RAM allows data items to be read or written in almost the same amount of time irrespective of the physical location of data inside the memory.

In addition, a computer with more RAM is able to store more programs which are currently using in memory and allows more programs to do more thing at the same time.

So, in order to make your run faster, you can add more RAMs on your computer or choose to replace the small RAM with a larger one. You can click here to know how to install new RAM on your computer.

But before proceeding on adding or replacing the RAM, you need to know how much RAM your computer can support. In general, the 32-bit OS can support 4GB RAM, and the 64-bit OS can support up to 128GB.

What makes your computer run faster? RAM is also a key point.

Related article: Windows 10 High Memory Usage [Causes and Solutions] – MiniTool

3. What Makes a Computer Fast – Cache

In computing, the cache is a component of hardware that stores data so that further data request can be served. Because the RAM and hard drive are slower than the CPU, computer processor and motherboard use the cache to transfer data between the processor, memory and other components in the computer.

In general, the cache memory holds the data which will be required next and it can faster access memory than the RAM since it is on the same chip as the processor.

So, the more cache there is, the more data can be stored closely to CPU and the transmission time will be improved greatly.

What makes your computer run faster? Cache memory would be one of the factors.

4. What Makes a Computer Fast – Hard Drive

What makes a fast computer? The hard drive also plays an important role. When your hard drive is out of space, the performance of your computer will be affected and it may become pretty slow. A larger hard drive is able to speed up computer.

Besides the hard drive capacity, the hard disk performance is also a factor of fast computer. In general, SSD works better than HDD so that it is able to make your computer run faster. You can read the post: SSD VS HDD: What’s Difference? Which One Should You Use in PC? to know more differences between HDD and SSD.

From the above, you can know what makes computer fast. They are larger hard drives or SSDs.

Therefore, to improve the performance of computer, you can choose to replace your hard drive with a larger one or replace with SSD without reinstalling the OS.

To do that, the clone tool – MiniTool ShadowMaker is recommended. It enables you to clone OS from HDD to SSD without reinstalling OS.

Now, download it to have a try and we will show you the detailed tutorial.

MiniTool ShadowMaker TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

How to Upgrade Hard Drive?

Step 1: Install MiniTool ShadowMaker and launch it, and click Keep Trial to continue. Then choose Connect in This Computer to enter its main interface.

Step 2: After entering its main interface, go to Tools page. Then click Clone Disk to continue.

Step 3: Then you need to select the disk clone source, just click Source module to continue. Here, you are required to choose the system disk as the clone source. Then click Finish to continue.

Step 4: Choose the disk clone destination. Here you need to choose the larger hard drive or SSD as the destination.

Step 5: Then confirm that there are no important files on the target disk. Otherwise, all data on it will be destroyed. After that, the disk cloning process will begin. 

When the process is finished, you will receive a warning message which reminds you that the source disk and the target disk have the same signature. If both are connected with your computer, either of will be regarded as offline. So, you need to remove either of them. In addition, if you want to boot your computer from the target disk, please change the BIOS setting first.

After cloning OS to SSD or to a larger hard drive, the speed of your computer will be improved. So, what makes a fast computer – SSD or larger hard drive.

5. What Makes a Computer Fast – GPU

GPU, also called Graphics Processing Unit, is a specialized electronic circuit designed to rapidly manipulated and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device.

Installing a graphics card can effectively improve the computer’s performance. In particular, when you are playing the latest computer games, a powerful video card and its own CPU can make the game run faster. The graphics card enables to make the computer run faster through taking on the responsibilities of processing 3D rendering and other complex tasks.

If you want to improve the speed of the computer, try installing a new GPU on your computer.

What makes a computer fast? The answer could be GPU or graphics card.

6. What Makes a Computer Fast – Motherboard

Now, we will show you the sixth factor which can improve the speed of computer. It is the motherboard. The motherboard is also known as the mainboard, main circuit board, and so on. Motherboard is also the main PCB found in general purpose computers and other devices.

Motherboard holds and allows the communication between many of the crucial electronic components of the system such as the CPU, memory or others.

As the carrier of all computer hardware, the specifications of motherboard determine the hardware specifications you can use on the computer and it will not directly affect the speed of the computer. But its configuration such as the interfaces or the types of CPU can affect the performance of the computer. And the motherboard is also related to computer stability.

What makes a computer fast? The motherboard would be one of the factors.

7. What Makes a Computer Fast – Software

Uninstall Unnecessary Programs

Software is another factor influencing the computer speed. If you have installed a lot of programs on your computer or there are a lot of pre-installed programs on your computer when buying a computer, the performance of computer will be affected.

In such a situation, you can choose to uninstall unnecessary programs. To do that, you can go to the Control Panel and choose Uninstall a program to continue. Then you can choose to uninstall the unnecessary programs.

Disable Programs Running on Startup

And there is another situation where the computer performance will be affected. If there are too many programs running in the startup process, the speed of the computer would be pretty slow.

Hence, to handle this situation, you need to disable the programs running on startup.

Now, here is the tutorial.

Step 1: Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys together to open the Task Manager.

Step 2: In the pop-up window, go to the Startup section, then select the program you want to disable and choose Disabled from the context menu to continue.

After that, these programs will not start when booting your computer. This action can improve the performance of the computer.

So, how to make computer faster? Choose to uninstall unnecessary programs or disable programs on startup.

8. What Makes a Computer Fast – Latest Operating System

Besides the factors we listed above would affect the performance of your computer, the operating system would affect the speed of the computer, too. The latest operating system also includes the latest software updates. The software updates often repair the security hole and fix bugs that may make your computer become slower. And the latest operating system can guarantee the security, speed and efficiency of the computer.

Another reason for keeping the latest operating system is that the new technology is being introduced every day, so having the latest operating system to support the new technology is required.

Therefore, what makes a computer fast? The operating system is one of the factors. In order to make computer faster and more powerful, you can choose to upgrade the operating system to the latest version.

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So, to make a computer faster, you can take the above 8 factors into consideration. However, apart from those factors, the computer speed may also be affected by the Internet connection, the virus attack, outdated drivers, insufficient power supply, and so on. Meanwhile, for more information, you can read the post: 10 Reasons for Computer Lagging and How to Fix Slow PC.

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Bottom Line

In conclusion, this post has introduced what makes a computer fast with 8 different factors. If you want to speed up your computer or buy a computer, these hardware specifications should be considered. If you have any idea to improve the speed of computer, you can share it in the comment zone.

In addition, if you want to upgrade hard drive without reinstalling OS, MiniTool ShadowMaker would be a great assistant. If you have any problem with MiniTool program, please feel free to contact us via the email [email protected] and we will reply to you as soon as possible.

What Makes a Computer Fast FAQ