What affects the responsivness of the computer?

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I want to buy a new computer and what's the most important for me is the responsivness : the computer could be running for 200days in a row, have 50apps running I want to be able to open a new app or open an idle app that was running in the background but that I didn't use for 30days and still it should pop up instantaneously.

What are the important parametres to achieve that : ram latency over ram frequency, motherboard, hard drive, distance between cpu and ram on the motherboard ?

Wicelo

Posted 2015-04-22T10:40:09.687

Reputation: 105

Question was closed 2015-04-22T17:41:58.847

Your question is pretty broad and likely to attract a lot of opinion-based answers, and will probably be seen as a shopping question. So the odds are pretty good that it will be considered off-topic. However, the biggest factor in responsiveness will probably be money -- how much you have to spend. General guidelines: fast CPU, an SSD for your OS and critical programs and a fast HDD for your data, and a freaking lot of RAM. Main consideration with the mobo: what's on it and what you can add. You'll never see a difference due to distances in one that can handle what you need. – fixer1234 – 2015-04-22T11:12:02.200

@fixer1234 : is 16gb of ram sufficient or 32 would be better ? Also can ram latency and frequency affect responsiveness ? – Wicelo – 2015-04-22T11:29:46.930

It depends on the size of the apps. If you want 50 "full size" apps running and instantly available with their data, 32 sounds better. Fast RAM is better, but given a tradeoff of quantity vs. speed, adequate quantity will be more important. – fixer1234 – 2015-04-22T11:37:04.610

Your scenario is not very realistic for a end user. If it would be I think this question would not only be related to hardware. Then you should also consider the operating system. – Valinho – 2015-04-22T12:52:53.450

Answers

1

Responsiveness is really only significantly affected by five things:

  1. The total amount of RAM, more is better.

  2. The speed of the CPU, high end is better.

  3. The speed of the primary storage system, high end SSDs are better.

  4. The cooling, it must be sufficient to let the CPU run at full speed continuously.

  5. Drivers and resident programs. Stick to common hardware by well-known manufacturers, avoid complex driver suites, and be very careful in your selection of things like malware protection.

A reasonable configuration might be a Core i7-4930K, H100i liquid cooler, 32GB of 1600MHz RAM, and a 512GB 840 Pro SSD. The machine I'm using now has pretty much those specifications (plus a GTX 770 video card and two large hard drives for storage) and I have no responsiveness complaints.

Some applications can feel non-responsive if your network connection is slow. And some applications can perform poorly if you don't have a decent video card. The motherboard has very little effect on performance.

David Schwartz

Posted 2015-04-22T10:40:09.687

Reputation: 58 310

Plus, if the apps include complex 3D rendering, you probably also want high-end graphics. – fixer1234 – 2015-04-22T11:40:10.183

That usually doesn't affect responsiveness all that much, though it definitely affects the performance of the applications. Obviously, if you play games, you want high-end graphics as well. – David Schwartz – 2015-04-22T11:42:05.993

Asked: 2015-04-22T10:40:09.687

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Active: 2015-04-22T17:03:02.420