Whats the most important comp. component for certain type of tasks???

[Lombardaga]

RAM, CPU, videocard...???? I like to know this for certain tasks like 3D gaming, multiple OSs, Video editing, burning, watching DVDs/DivXs on the PC as well as on the TV etc, etc.

 

[Shagga]

I believe that each component is as important as the other. What I mean is, the PC is only as fast/reliable as the slowest/unreliable component.

 

[Giovanni]

For all the tasks you listed, I'd say the CPU was the most important. In 3D gaming, I'd say the video card is just as (if not slightly more) important than the CPU. For video editing and burning you would also want a fast, large hard drive. However, I agree with Shagga that no one component can "save" a crappy system. A Ghz Thunderbird won't help you much if you have a TNT1 and 32 Megs of RAM

 

[chansen]

3D gaming: Video card

multiple O/Ss? All O/S need RAM, CPU power and hard drive speed, perhaps in that order. Win2K likes RAM even more than Win9X; I recently upgraded from 128 to 192MB and noticed a difference.

Don't know enough about the others to comment, but Shagga is very correct: having balanced components is a must. I'm trying to fix up some of the computers in my wife's lab. I'm posting from a P100 w/32MB that feels faster than a Celeron 400 w/32MB with a crappy Houston m/b that shares 2MB RAM with the built-in video card. What a waist - on my wife, that is. The Celeron is a waste on that stupid board with only 30MB of available RAM.

Regards,
Craig