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Everybody wants the fastest computer they can get, but what really makes up the computer’s speed? Computer clock speeds now reach over 2 GHz these days, but clock speed is not the only factor that determines the speed of your computer. Performance of your computer can be determined by different hardware factors. Some of the hardware factors include the speed and size of your RAM, frontside bus speed, clock speed of the CPU, cache memory, and access time for hard disks. The speed and size of your RAM is very important. The amount of memory your computer has installed can determine its performance. The more memory installed, the faster your computer can access information without having to use its virtual memory which is slower than RAM. The width of the memory’s data path can also affect its access time. The time that the CPU has to wait for memory to be accessed limits it performance. The frontside bus speed is another factor that can determine the speed of your computer. The frontside bus is the pathway from your CPU to your I/O devic