i'm just wondering purely out of curiosity what the difforance between all these strange processors. i know that pentium is better than celeron but don't know by how much or why. i also don't know anything about amd processors besides that they don't fit in intel motherboards

The Celeron is Intel's "value" CPU line. They have lower clock speeds, cache and FSB speed than most Pentium 4 CPU's. They're not meant for gaming, but rather for office and internet. For the general public who don't care for insane speed.

The Pentium 4 is obviously Intel's "normal" CPU line up. The clock speeds get pretty high *up to 3.8Ghz currently I believe*, the FSB goes up to 1066mhz I think, and the cache is at 1 or 2mb versus 512k for most Celerons.

Someone else explain AMD CPU's, that was too much typing.

Posted by masher i'm just wondering purely out of curiosity what the difforance between all these strange processors. i know that pentium is better than celeron but don't know by how much or why. i also don't know anything about amd processors besides that they don't fit in intel motherboards

Must you pester us with your lack of simple intelligence and horrid puncuation? I'm going to hurl a thesaurus at you, in hopes taht it A: whacks you square in the eyes and B: that you would then pick it up and read it.

But I must say, this post caught my attention only because you acctualy used puncuation and only misspelled one word. GOod job. This rantish comment is directed to your other posts.

Particle Man got the Intel side covered pretty well.

The current AMD chips are based on the K8 core. On the desktop (ie, not server chips) there is the Athlon 64 and the Sempron. The Athlons have either 1024 kB or 512 kB of L2 cache and most of the current ones have dual channel ram. For dual core versions each core has it's own L2 cache. Semprons are the lower end; they have either 256 kB or 128 kB of L2, have only single chanel ram and lower clock speeds. Some of the older Semprons also lack 64 bit support.

Before that was the K7 (32 bit) Athlons and Durons. The early K7s had 512 kB of half speed L2 and used a slot cartridge. Next they moved to a conventional socket with 256 kB of full speed L2. The Athlon XP chips added SSE support and higher clock speeds. The last set of Athlon XPs had 512 kB L2 and higher bus speeds. Durons hav e64 kB of L2 and always use a socket. Later Durons gained the SSE from the XP core. Confusingly, there are some Semprons which are just K7s and not based on the K8 core.

Before that were the K6 and K5, but those are pretty old (comparable to the PII and P1).

Little bit of additional AMD info:

The Athlon64 CPU's come in two major socket styles: Socket 754 and Socket 939. Socket 754 was the first socket that the Athlon64 CPU's used. The Sempron CPU's are based out of this socket now. Socket 754 CPU's are restricted to single channel RAM only. This was a major improvement of Socket 939 (dual channel RAM support). There is also Socket 940 for Opteron (server) CPU's.

Athlon64 CPU's start at 2800+ (1.8Ghz I believe) and go up to Athlon64 FX60 (2.8Ghz I think, dual core). There is also the separate Athlon64 X2 line which are dual cored versions of the normal Athlon64 CPU's. This line goes from 3800 to 4800+ if I remember correctly. Its based on Socket 939 as well I think.

AMD is soon to release its new socket type, AM2. Its major improvement will be the ability to use DDR2 533mhz RAM... something which Intel introduced with the Socket 775 (Laser Grid Array) back awhile ago.

Theres probably a bit of incorrect or lacking info there cause I did it all from memory but for the most part its correct.

this may just be heresay but I heard that (for example)if a 2ghz AMD were to be compared to a 2ghz Intel the AMD would do more work. in the alloted time. It has something to do with the architecture and the instruction set/logic. Just what i've heard anyways.

In actual practice, though, I think the amount of RAM you have actually affects processor speed a lot more than a few tenths of a MHZ here or there. I mean, some processors are obviously faster than others, but for most machines the amount of RAM available determines how fast they can realistically go.

I guess what I am trying to say is that sometimes a memory upgrade might make your machine run faster than a processor upgrade would.

Posted by Napoleon_Solo this may just be heresay but I heard that (for example)if a 2ghz AMD were to be compared to a 2ghz Intel the AMD would do more work. in the alloted time. It has something to do with the architecture and the instruction set/logic. Just what i've heard anyways.

This is true when comparing a Pentium IV to an Athlon or Athlon 64. However, the Pentium-M/Core processors are very competitive per-clock to AMDs now, close enough that it's pretty much a wash at the same clock speed.

They each have their own strengths. The p4 was better at compressing and extracting files, but amd is a better gamer. Personally, I use both.

-Sinister Crayon
http://www.drainfreaks.net/

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800-4800+ dual-core socket 939 is the way. I'm tired of hot running Pent 4's. This bad boy runs cooler, and uses less power. 64 bit ready. In a 32 bit system it's dual core still has advantages, but not all apps are design to work with dual cores. Still it's fast, and can run two demanding apps at once. They all overclock well, the 4800 (2.4 MHZ) can easily be overclocked to 2.56 using an air cooled solution.

I've been meaning to OC my Athlon for ages. Its 1.1Ghz currently. I have no idea where to start and all the tutorials i've read dont pertain to my chip specifically and are generally very heavy on the lingo. I know how to configure my bios but I dont know what to configure and to which end to configure it to. any help?

Posted by Napoleon_Solo I've been meaning to OC my Athlon for ages. Its 1.1Ghz currently. I have no idea where to start and all the tutorials i've read dont pertain to my chip specifically and are generally very heavy on the lingo. I know how to configure my bios but I dont know what to configure and to which end to configure it to. any help?

To use the technology you need to learn the jargon, and to some extent how it works. It takes time, and is a never ending process. What do you mean by this? "I know how to configure my bios but I dont know what to configure and to which end to configure it to." Clarify.

heres what I found in my BIOS (organized by current setting followed by a > and then other possible settinggs)

MISC. CONTROL (change CPU's Clock & Voltage)

CPU RATIO: DEFAULT(enabled) > x11, x11.5, x12, x5, x5.5, x6, x6.6

Auto Detect DIMM/ PCI Clk: enabled > disabled

**Current host clock is 100/33MHz

Host/PCI clock at next boot is: 100/33MHz > MIN:100, MAX: 132, Key in DEC:_____

**Current DRAM clock is 100MHz**

DRAM clock at next boot is: 100MHz > 133MHz, 133MHz, 166MHz, 200MHz

VDIMM Select: 2.5V(default) > 2.6V, 2.7V, 2.8V

AGP VddQ Select: 1.5V(default) > 1.6V

Vcc2.5V Select: 2.5V(default) > 2.6V



The one thing thats got me confused is the CPU ratio. Since the default setting is simply called "DEFAULT" and has no value.

Posted by Napoleon_Solo heres what I found in my BIOS (organized by current setting followed by a > and then other possible settinggs) MISC. CONTROL (change CPU's Clock & Voltage) CPU RATIO: DEFAULT(enabled) > x11, x11.5, x12, x5, x5.5, x6, x6.6 Auto Detect DIMM/ PCI Clk: enabled > disabled **Current host clock is 100/33MHz Host/PCI clock at next boot is: 100/33MHz > MIN:100, MAX: 132, Key in DEC:_____ **Current DRAM clock is 100MHz** DRAM clock at next boot is: 100MHz > 133MHz, 133MHz, 166MHz, 200MHz VDIMM Select: 2.5V(default) > 2.6V, 2.7V, 2.8V AGP VddQ Select: 1.5V(default) > 1.6V Vcc2.5V Select: 2.5V(default) > 2.6V The one thing thats got me confused is the CPU ratio. Since the default setting is simply called "DEFAULT" and has no value.

I'm no expert on this, I use my Asus's auto OC feature which just does it! Sweet.

What mobo, CPU, memory are you trying to OC? What type of CPU cooling?

Are you willing to sacrifice your components to the ever hungry fire gods that rule this uncharted netherworld? Ha! Bring on the heat.

well if I do OC i'll definitely be looking for a liquid cooling solution. M
y mobo is Jetway KT400, Memory is DDR 400, CPU is AMD Athlon (1.1GHz) currently its purely air cooled but i'll definitely be hooking up some water cooling of i bring the temps up above the shut off temp.( I think its set to 58c). The hottest i've ever had is 50c it was on a full load and it was a hot day. But I have AC now so that should help.

Posted by Napoleon_Solo well if I do OC i'll definitely be looking for a liquid cooling solution. M y mobo is Jetway KT400, Memory is DDR 400, CPU is AMD Athlon (1.1GHz) currently its purely air cooled but i'll definitely be hooking up some water cooling of i bring the temps up above the shut off temp.( I think its set to 58c). The hottest i've ever had is 50c it was on a full load and it was a hot day. But I have AC now so that should help.

That's not very high, look up your CPU's max operating temp. Cooler is always better. I like to CPU below 140 F, and HDs below 110 F. F is easier to use in the real world than the metric version. Not sure how hot your ambient room temp was, but at 70 F room temp my 15% OC Athalon 64 X-2 4800 is running at 125 F at full usage for 10+ minutes with an aftermarket air-cooled heatpipe. Water-cooled solutions can fail and require more maintenance, don't use if not necessary. Make sure the case is well ventilated, keep an eye on memory, vid card, and chipset temps. Do a search to see how others with your CPU/chipset have OCed, and how high they were able to OC. Take small steps with voltage increases, use AMD Cool & Quiet if available for that CPU/mobo.

So do I even have to bother with the CPU ratio? or do I just op the voltage on the other parameters?

Posted by Napoleon_Solo So do I even have to bother with the CPU ratio? or do I just op the voltage on the other parameters?

I'm no expert on this, but someone here might have played with this. Google search. Try this site too. http://www.planeta...dex.php?act=Search


As you start to increase the speed at some point your will need to increase the voltage, always use sparingly. No more than is needed for stable operation.

In my case the 15% increase was enough to make me happy, and the mobo did most of the calculations. This is not a big increase, and it does not run at full speed if there's no demand due Cool & Quiet, it also cuts the CPU voltage back when reducing speed. So I'm not pushing this CPU, or any components past their specs, and this OC most likely will not shorten the system life to the point where it would be seen during it's services life.

You can fry stuff easy if your not careful, so consider how much your willing to lose.

that site was really helpful. Turns out I cant actually raise the voltage of my CPU and according to some of the diagnostic tools recommended, my CPU is already using the highest mulitpier. I can still OC my RAM tho I raised it from 100MHz to 133MHz and its noticeably faster, I'm gonna try 166 next week. I cant figure out how to use the RAM stability tester so i'm just gonna run it for a week and see what happens :s if anything breaks, I need to upgrade anyways so whatever.

Posted by Napoleon_Solo that site was really helpful. Turns out I cant actually raise the voltage of my CPU and according to some of the diagnostic tools recommended, my CPU is already using the highest mulitpier. I can still OC my RAM tho I raised it from 100MHz to 133MHz and its noticeably faster, I'm gonna try 166 next week. I cant figure out how to use the RAM stability tester so i'm just gonna run it for a week and see what happens :s if anything breaks, I need to upgrade anyways so whatever.

That's a good site. I really like AMD too.
You probably can, and might have to raise your RAM V if you OC it. Don't raise any Vs unless the system is unstable; it will generate unneccessary heat, and can shorten/instantly destroy components.

If your not getting any/much performance gains ...test to see if the OC is really helping. Monitor all heat generating components on mobo, don't forget to check the RAM sticks temp. You can Mem test the sticks to see if their OC is stable. You may need to add more case, mobo, or CPU cooling. Remember; small steps at a time. Have fun!