Hi there. As someone who recently (like, about an hour ago!:Q) upgraded systems, I can speak w/a bit of experience.
Admittedly, I knew what I'd be getting, and what I wouldn't. I went from:
1GHz 100MHz FSB/512mb SDR PC133/GF3
TO:
1.53GHz 133MHz FSB/512mb DDR PC2100/GF3
The difference is astounding (benchmarks to follow as soon as I tweak a bit more)
From some experience and a lot of reading I know that FSB is where it's at, performance-wise. Once you get up to 1GHz CPU speed, anything above that is kinda a moot point, unless you are doing PURE CPU cycle stuff (RC5/Seti/Folding/Unfolding/Ironing/Washing/other geeky semi-useless stuff...j/k)
Based on the above "before and after" rigs, I knew (hoped?) I'd be getting around a 33% performance increase...and luckily that's exactly what I've gotten. (Again, b-marks to follow...I've run SANDRA/3DM but want to tweak some more!)
When dealing with regular, everyday things, such as surfing/EXCEL/unzipping stuff/light gaming (UT) there really wasn't too much of a difference b/t my GF's 850MHz TBird PC133 rig and my 1000MHz TBird PC133 rig. I was running W2K, her Win98...mine was a bit snappier...but other than that, not much diff.
But NOW, with a 33% faster FSB as well as a faster CPU (I still think my performance gain is 90% FSB!) I can honestly say that every thing loads much faster. Programs open almost simultaneously with the mouse click.
I think I need to try 140 or maybe 150FSB.....
