Hmmm.... my charts spacing kinda disappeared. At any rate, you're CPU speed is made up of the following formula.
Multiplier x FSB = CPU Frequency.
So what you have is any CPU comes with a set multiplier (be it 8, 9, 10, 10.5 etc, they only come in 1 or half increments eg 8, 8.5, 9.0). You're CPU is then determined by the speed of the FSB it can run at. So if you're FSB frequency is say at 200mhz FSB and you're CPU multiplier is at 8, then you'd get a 1600mhz CPU. Ok, now that's outta the way, Intel so far only has 100mhz FSB (so they advertise as 400), 133mhz FSB (advertised as 533) and recently they've released their new 200mhz FSB CPU's (advertised as 800). If you'd notice, they're all the actual frequency of the FSB multiplied by 4, which is where they're marketing comes in. That was what i meant by "quad-pumping". They're claiming that for every 1 mhz FSB, they're motherboard architecture allows for 4 times as much data.
Now, AMD's have used something called a PR-rating. If you remember what that is from the good ole Cyrix days, it actually is rating the CPU higher than the actual frequency. There really isn't any formula, however if you head on over to
OCinside.de they have a nice little applet that converts PR Ratings to actual MHZ. Now the idea behind this is that an AMD 1700+ CPU will perform at a rate equivalent to a 1.7Ghz T-Bird (according to their PR department) whilst only being clocked at 1.467ghz. Now this is really directed towards Intel CPU's although they don't say so. So essentially, when you're buying a 2400+ AMD Athlon XP (Actually it's running at 2.0 Ghz), AMD is saying it will perform about equivalent to a 2.4 T-Bird (essentially 2.4 P4) if not faster (thus the Plus at the end). The PR-Rating can be quite misleading at times, so often you should check out the actual frequency before purchasing a CPU, however I can say that a 2400+ CPU does indeed perform around 2.4ghz. This has to do with the nature in which the hardware was developed for the Athlon XP. They are very strong FPU performers compared to Intel CPU's.
Now the ram, almost all new DDR-Ram Motherboards run really any speed ram (faster is ok, just slower might be an issue). If you're planning to get a 133mhz FSB CPu, then you need at least PC 2100. To make things simple, get at least PC-2700 (166mhz memory), and it'll do you fine, unless you're getting a 200mhz FSB P4 which then you would need PC3200, although it would probably be out of you're price range.
Oops.. it's purely coincidental that the RAM case Latency is 2.5 and the Voltage is 2.5v. Most ram voltages is 2.5v. You really can't run the voltage any lower so keeping it at 2.5v is great. Ram Latency is usually 2.5, although it is adjustable in the motherboard. The CL=2.5 means the CAS Latency is 2.5. It seems that a lotta memory manufacturers find the CAS latency most important to advertise, but there are other governing factors on how fast your memory can run. So a crash course on memory latency.
Essentially the Speed of you're ram is governed by a few things. Cas Latency, Act to Precharge Delay, the RAS to CAS delay, and the RAS delay. Now i won't pretend I know what all that means exactly, but it will suffice for most to know that the lower the number, the faster the ram. Now when most people give a slew of memory timings (i said 7-3-3-2). The last number often represents the CAS Latency, the first representing the RAS Delay, and the two in between represent the Act to Precharge Delay and the RAS to CAS delay. To put those speeds into perspective, 5-2-2-2 is about as fast memory timings as you can get, and 8-3-3-3 is the slower end (nobody ever really goes slower). So all of these are adjustable in the BIOS, and just adjust for lower.
So back to how it affects you. When say you get a PC3200 stick of Ram. That memory can run at 200mhz default. (that would be 400mhz for AMD and 800mhz for Intel). If you can only run your CPU at say 133mhz FSB, then you ram would be running at 133mhz FSB (266 AMD, 533 Intel). That is in no ways challenging you're memory at all, so you can lower your timings. Now in that scenario, you would technically be underclocking you're memory, but running faster timings.
Memory doesn't really need to be matched. It's like a car. If the speed limit to your road is 60mph, you're not going to go out and buy a car that does only 60mph, you'd get a car that goes over that speed. Same with memory, the CPU can only run at 133mhz FSB, but to be say, buya stick of 166mhz FSB just so you have leeway to overclock or when you're upgrading, use the memory in the future with higher FSB memory.
If you do what I did, buy a stick of PC2700 (166mhz FSB) and run it at PC3200(200mhz FSB) speeds, then you'd be overclocking. My point was just to say that Generic ram can often do quite well, while you pay MUCH less.
Now the case, a lotta new cases come with something called a motherboard tray. Essentially this tray is where you'd mount your motherboard, but is removable from the case. A lotta people that do a lotta work on their hardware (swapping in and out, etc) often find a motherboard tray helpful, but for the average consumer, it is useless. My advice to you is don't take that into too much consideration (if any), and get a case that you like that looks good and fits you're budget. As for wattage, I'd say go for a high quality 350watt PSU. My enermax 350 watt does
+3.3v 32A
+5v 32A
+12v 26A
Combined +3.3v and +5v is 185w and max combined DC output is 350watt combined. Now the key here is to look for good Ampage on each of the + rails as well as a good combined +3.3v and +5v. In comparison, the total wattage is somewhat less significant (although definately go for 350 or higher). I'm quite sure a 350 watt would suffice for your computer usage (unless you go crazy and buy like 10 SCSI 10000RPM drives or something, now those eat up power), but for the average consumer a 350watt good quality power supply will do quite well.
Hope that helps
😀 Lotta info
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