FSB//\\PSU//\\RAM//\\TP...?

[Whyzman]

I'm fixing on TP-ing somebody's house pretty soon! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/tongue.gif

Would someone, in plain English, mind setting things straight for me regarding the FSB and PSU and RAM (PC/DDR) connection? When one is looking to upgrade the MB, what do you want to be looking for to have traffic all flowing at the same speed?

Since I have an affinity for cement...I'm a concrete kinda guy, it would help if whoever decides to pour over my answer would pick a specific MB and form an easy to understand picture. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

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May all your dealings in life be win/win!


Whyzman
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Reserved for Punishing Humor...A Pessimist's blood is always B-negative!

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Is this the same type of TP as in the After Hours club thread? Would you like to throw it under or overhanded as to it coming off the top or the bottom of the roll? How about sidearmed for those that like to leave it on the edge of the bathtub to eliminate the need to reach behind themselves when the dispenser is next to the tank? http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif Now that we've "Taken care of Business,"

Don't you mean CPU instead of PSU? An adequate power supply is all that's needed, while a central processing unit would need to blend with the rest of your question. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

[kayofcircles]

I can't match the erudite, but I remember when we were first purchasing a puter, and I listened to a telephone Help file about the chip speed versus the bus speed..said basically the chip speed is limited by bus speed. Pete did an excellent post months ago on the chip speed, and how it spins zillions of times "uselessly"...in my humble, female, opinion anyway. It's apparently a "guy" thing to have the chip WAY faster than even the newer bus speeds, but to me seems like revving your engine while tooling through a school zone. And my understanding is that the "speed" of the hard drive factors in as well.

Edit: I don't think this is the one I was remembering, but it is on the subject...Yoda's For us that are a little slow (http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000259.html).

[This message has been edited by kayofcircles (edited 06-20-2002).]

[Whyzman]

Nice catch there Ted!

Yeah, was trying to get the post in there before I headed off to work...meant CPU. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif

I've been too busy lately to do the research myself...so, I was hoping that someone with the homework already done would step up to the plate! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

So, when one is contemplating putting a system together...purchase a MB with a particular FSB? Processor...that will match the MB's FSB? RAM, that will match the FSB?

I'm trying to remember...and it's almost 2AM! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/eek.gif Was it 200/266 FSB...and how do these numbers impact the choice of CPU (got it right this time Ted! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/tongue.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif ...and, RAM?

Whew, I'm bushed....catch you in the "later" morning! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

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May all your dealings in life be win/win!


Whyzman
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Reserved for Punishing Humor...A Pessimist's blood is always B-negative!

[rond36]

When building a new system, the first decision is what processor I want to use, AMD or Intel. The second decision is how fast of a processor can I afford. Third decide what type of RAM I want to use.

After these decisions are made shop for a motherboard that will support the processor's socket type and system clock. The MB should also support the type of RAM that you have decided to use. The MB should have any onboard devices that you want and maybe some you don't.

For my Athlon system I chose to use an AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1200MHz CPU with a 100MHz system clock 200MHz FSB (front side bus). The FSB for an AMD processor is double the system clock (DDR) 100MHz clock=200MHz FSB 133MHz clock=266MHz FSB

The RAM I chose to use is PC100 ECC SDRAM because I already had 384MB from another system.

I went shopping for a motherboard that would support a socket A (462 PGA) 100MHz system clock 200MHz FSB Athlon Thunderbird 1200MHz CPU and support PC100 ECC SDRAM I found the ECS K7VZA.

The ECS K7VZA Rev 3.0 (http://www.ecs.com.tw/products/k7vza3x.htm) motherboard supports a socket A processor with a 100MHz or 133MHz system clock, 200 or 266 FSB and also supports PC100 or PC133 ECC SDRAM

When I built my Pentium 4 system there where other decisions to be made. I decided on the P4 2.0GHz CPU but it comes in 4 flavors the 2.0GHz socket 423, 2.0GHz socket 478 256k cache, 2.0A socket 478 512k cache, and 2.0GHz Xeon 512k cache socket 603. I chose the 2.0A socket 478. The FSB on a P4 isn't 2X (DDR) the system clock it is 4X (QDR quad data rate) 100MHz system clock = 400MHz FSB. I also had to decide whether to use SDRAM, DDRSDRAM, or (QDR) RDRAM. I chose to use DDRSDRAM and they had just started making motherboards that would support PC2700 333MHz DDRSDRAM.

I went shopping for a motherboard that would support a P4 2.0A socket 478 100MHz system clock 400MHz FSB and PC2700 DDR (333MHz) at the time the only motherboard chipset that would support this was the SIS 645. I Found the Soyo P4S Dragon Ultra (http://www.soyousa.com/products/proddesc.php?id=6) it supports a P4 socket 478 2.0A 100MHz system clock 400MHz FSB CPU and PC2700 DDRSDRAM.

Now Intel has added a new choice a 133MHz system clock (QDR) 533MHz FSB on the new P4 B type processor.

When you see 200/266 FSB in the motherboard specifications it means either/or the board supports both which one you use depends on the system clock and FSB of the processor installed on the board.

For example my ECS K7VZA board is capable of running a 100/133MHz clock 200/266MHz FSB processor but I have installed a 100MHz clock 200MHz FSB processor if I tried to run my 100MHz clock CPU at 133MHz I would be over clocking my CPU by 396MHz and it probably wouldn't POST.

On the other hand if I were to install a new P4 2.26B 133MHz clock 533MHz FSB processor on my Soyo board I could adjust the clock to 133MHz (it is adjustable between 100 and 255MHz) but doing so would over clock my RAM, PCI bus, and AGP bus and probably cause general instability. The motherboard for this processor is the Soyo P4S-645DX Dragon Ultra it supports 100/133 clock 400/533 FSB processors.

As for PSUs I recommend Antec 400W+ for all systems except the P4 Xeon for it I recommend the Antec 400W X 400W redundant


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Antec SX1040B 400W, Soyo P4S-Dragon Ultra, Intel P4 2.0GHz(northwood), 768MB Samsung PC2700 DDRSDRAM, 2 WD 100GB HDDs, ATI A-I-W 8500DV 64MB AGP video, SB Audigy MP3, Creative Inspire 5.1 Digital 5700 speakers, Plextor 40X12X40 CD-RW, Pioneer slot load DVD-ROM, Multi-boot Win ME, XP Pro, XP Pro striped down for games, Viewsonic G90mb 19" monitor.

[hiredgoonz]

AMD Athlon XP, available in speeds of 1333-1800Mhz and uses either DDR2100 or 2700 (266 or 333mhz) depending on the motherboard

Pentium 4, available in speeds of 1.4-2.53Ghz and uses either PC1066 or PC800 RDRAM, DDR 2100 or 2700, or SDRAM, depending on motherboard.

The FSB of the system, multiplied by the multiplier gives you the clock speed of the CPU.

An Athlon XP at 1400Mhz has a multipler of 10.5 and a FSB of 133. If you run this chip on a DDR2100 mobo, the RAM will run at 133Mhz DDR or 266Mhz. If you run it on a DDR2700 based board, the chip would still run at 1400Mhz, but the memory would run asynchronously at 333Mhz.

Right now, I would buy an RDRAM1066 P4 if I were looking for the absolute best performance with no concern for price. A DDR P4 is still good, but I think I would rather have a DDR Athlon XP over that.

Power supplies are pretty simple: buy a good one. Antec is good as rond pointed out. Go for at least 350-400W

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When all else fails, read the instructions.

Microsoft Knowledge Base (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;rid;kbinfo)

Drivers (http://www.driverguide.com)

Google (http://www.google.com)

[rond36]

The FSB of the system, multiplied by the multiplier gives you the clock speed of the CPU.

Shouldn't it be system clock not FSB.

My 1200MHz Athlon with a multiplier of 12
12 X 200MHz FSB = 2400MHz

My P4 2000MHz has a multiplier of 20
20 X 400MHz FSB = 8000MHz I wish!

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Antec SX1040B 400W, Soyo P4S-Dragon Ultra, Intel P4 2.0GHz(northwood), 768MB Samsung PC2700 DDRSDRAM, 2 WD 100GB HDDs, ATI A-I-W 8500DV 64MB AGP video, SB Audigy MP3, Creative Inspire 5.1 Digital 5700 speakers, Plextor 40X12X40 CD-RW, Pioneer slot load DVD-ROM, Multi-boot Win ME, XP Pro, XP Pro striped down for games, Viewsonic G90mb 19" monitor.

[hiredgoonz]

You're right, the term FSB equates to processor bus, which is 400mhz on the P4 and is the 100mhz "quad-pumped" system bus.

Th terms are usually used interchangeably, but that's not exactly right...

[This message has been edited by hiredgoonz (edited 06-22-2002).]

[Whyzman]

Rond and HG,

Thanks so much for the time you spent putting together your relies to my query! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

I put in 12 hrs yesterday and am taking off in a couple minutes to do it all over again...just adding this so I can hear the, "Oh you poor baby!" http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

Well, not exactly...I'm going to print it up and take it with me to read when I break for lunch today. My brain is a bit foggy, so as I read through your explanations with the double this and multiplier that...I can see my cursory first read isn't going to cut it. Hopefully, after I wake up a bit it'll all fall together! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

Thanks again!!

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May all your dealings in life be win/win!


Whyzman
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Reserved for Punishing Humor...A Pessimist's blood is always B-negative!