larryk

I know there are some good posts regarding Windows Experience Score if you want to know more about it.

Here's my summary of understanding: When Vista was released, 5.0 was the highest score achievable based on the best hardware available at the time. I would guess they are using standard benchmarking tools and just readjusting the top end score as hardware improves - hence all the 5.9s.

So your processor is being rated against whatever processor happened to be the best when they bumped the score to 5.9 - note the Q-based machines are hitting the top. As for RAM, it appears to have less to do with quantity and more to do with throughput (operations per second), which encompasses far more than the sticks you have installed. My primary hard drive (WD Raptor) most likely IS the current benchmark and explains the 5.9.