What speeds up a system most?

[canton_kid]

I been watching at times when loading 3d content and rendering images, saving work files etc..

It seems the Drive runs a bit, stops, runs, etc... loading content. So I would think the drive is reading/writing faster than something else? Should be a 3G Sata anyway, fastest I can go, other than keeping it defraged a bit more often LOL

The CPU is generally about 50% or less, except when rending then it Maxes out. So for the final render a faster CPU and more cores will make allot of speed. Most of the work in not a final render though.

Ram I think is DDR2 800, one system has 2 gigs the other 4 gigs, I think watching the ram it never shows maxed either when loading content, just more I have the more I can load. If this is a speed bottle neck how would I check?

Both system boards should be able to handle far more speed than the installed parts like CPU Ram Hardrive.
Both boards are Gigabytes though not same models.

I know if I install a faster CPU with more cores then my render times will decrease, but they aren't too bad now. Both systems need a new Quad core soon/someday. The only time I really see the CPU maxing out though is doing a render. I spend more time loading content and saving files than doing the final renders. Of course nothing will speed up how fast I work to make an image, that is the main time spent.

I mostly use Carrara Pro, sometimes Daz Studio a bit, rarely use my Poser 6 but sometimes.

[normalicy]

Kinda depends on what is the slowest thing on the system.

Lately, the speed of the ram won't hold you back, but the quantity will. 2gb these days is kinda on the low end. I try to have at least 4gb (jeez, I remember when 128mb was the bomb). I have 8gb right now (need Vista or Win7) & I don't remember the last time my system lagged.

It's obvious that the quad core will make a difference on rendering (if the program you use is optimized for the extra cores).

If the content you're loading is in the gigabytes, then there's not much you can do about the speed unless you wanna get a RAID 0 going with some super fast drives (actually, the 1TB drives are pretty snappy so long as you don't get the "green" versions).