Q: I'm upgrading my computer and I was wondering how hard drive speed affects modern gaming, and if my system would actually benefit from a faster hard drive or if my current hard drive will end up being a bottleneck. I mostly play fps. The parts I've ordered are: Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz, 6MB L2 Cache, FSB 1333MHz Memory: 4GB (2 x 2GB) of OCZ Platinum DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Motherboard: ASUS nForce 780i Video Card: GeForce 8800GT 512MB, 256bit, GDDR3 The hard drive I currently have is 200GB Maxtor 7200 RPM, SATA, 1.5 GB/s maximum data transfer rate. If getting a faster hard drive would actually make a difference, then I'd also like to ask if this RAID setup stuff I've heard about provides useful speed increases? Thanks for any info! Would adding more than 4GB of RAM actually do anything? I've heard people say that 4GB will never be used to it's max even in the most demanding games. I'd definitely consider getting more RAM if it's actually worth it...
A: a 10,000 RPM HD would only increase the loading time by a a second or 2. No significant difference and the PC will get about 5 degrees hotter.