> > I'm using 512 meg of RAM and just upgraded to a faster #2 hard disk (my > #1 hard disk has only the operating system - Win2k - on it; hard disk #1 > has all my applications and data files). I noticed a big speed > improvement with Photoshop after the upgrade. I'm going to upgrade the > other hard disk soon. > > Interestingly, my motherboard only supports ATA 66 and my hard disks are > ATA 100 and ATA 133. I may do the motherboard upgrade next.
I'd guess that your new hard disk has a faster sustained throughput rate; either a faster rotational speed, or higher capacity per cylinder, than your original disk. Although an ATA 133 disk can transfer burst data faster than an ATA 100 disk, that only works while the disk cache is providing the data. Image files are far too large for that, so transfer at the throughput rate of the actual disk hardware, which is directly proportional to rotational speed. I'd suggest you do the calculations for your hardware before you consider updating the motherboard - you may find that even ATA 66 is fast enough to keep up with your disks.
