What Effects My Computers Speed

[Scott8571]

Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6001) Service Pack 1 (6001.vistasp1_ldr.100218-0019)
System Manufacturer: DELL Inc.
System Model: Studio XPS 435T/9000
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.7GHz
Memory: 3062MB RAM
Page File: 3809MB used, 2533MB available

Thats my computers information if it helps with anything, and Im curious what effects the speed. I know ram is one of the biggest things with speed but is there anything else that changes it? Does the amount of available space make it run faster or slower? Im just looking for some help because it has seemed a little slow lately.

Also I have noticed a few issues and wondering if they are serious. I have heard from some people that it is just vista but I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask here.
1. The computer apparently crashes when in standby. This has never happened when it was in use, but some times I will come back and it says it recovered from an unexpected shutdown.
2. Cant connect to the internet, even though it is hard lined to my router. I will have to restart it before it can connect again. It just says no connection found. This happens every once in a while, and I think it happens after it is in standby or does the crash. Im not sure, it hasnt happened for a while.

Any tips or information is greatly appreciated.

 

[JorgeHGPR]

I don't know even tho it's a Dell the Core i7 is amazing. Maybe the hard drive is about to die. Not sure though. Or maybe even the power supply is going bad, Dell has a reputation for it's bad power supplies, too.

 

[Bacon]

I'm sure all the hardware is fine. You said it hasn't happened in a while. Its likely Microsoft released an update to fix the problem. If you really want to speed things up, get Windows 7.

If you ever have a problem with connection found, try unplugging the router for 30 seconds and then plug it back in. Your router could be having problems.

Lastly, if you feel your computer is running slower than normal, try running a defrag. Clean up some junk files with a program called CCleaner first though. That should refresh your system.

Oh and to answer your thread's title. The only things you really need is maybe 1 gig of ram, windows 7, and to really speed things up a high performance hard drive. Personally I'd still opt for a velociraptor, they are cheaper than SSDs and easier to use, but still faster than a conventional drive.