What does the C in Pentium4 2.4C stand for???

[BlameTheBigBang]

I'm looking into buying a new P4 cpu. What is all this talk about 2.4C and 2.6C and 2.8C??? The cpu that I intend to buy says Pentium4 2.4. Should I be looking for one that says Pentium4 2.4C??? What is the 'C'?

 

[mrzed]

P4 2.4 - 400 fsb. 2.4B 533 fsb. 2.4C 800fsb.

Edit: and C has hyperthreading. Basically, if your motherboard supports these features, get the C, it's very worth it, and supposedly overclocks like a demon, if that's your bag.

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

also remember 3.06 has hyperthreading
but ya, characteristics of "C":
-hyperthreading
-oc's like hell
-800mhz fsb

 

[BlameTheBigBang]

The cpu that I intend to buy says 'Pentium4 2.4 with 800mhz front-side bus.' So that means that it's a 2.4C then? The 'C' just means it has an 800mhz front-side bus.

Another newbie question for you: Isn't the front-side bus something that's on the motherboard? Or is the front-side bus something that's actually part of the cpu?

 

[Flakk]

yes, FSB is something that goes with your motherboard.. but it relates to the CPU because that determines how fast your cpu runs when multiplied by the cpu multiplier... (533 is actually after being quad pumped on a pentium system, so the bus speed is 133) theres a lot more to it, but maybe that will help a little.. someone else may be able to offer a better explanation.

 

[mrzed]

Correct on the first question. 800 fsb must be C.

On the second, neither. The front side bus is the link between the processor and main memory. It determines the bandwidth available between the two, and in modern CPU's it works in conjuction with a multiplier to determine clock frequency.

Basically, when the bus speed becomes a system bottleneck, the CPU companies upgrade to a faster bus, requiring a new motherboard I/O chip (AKA the northbridge) and a new memory type/interface (eg moving to dual channel DDR from single channel).

Without dual channel (or fast RDRAM, but dual channel has won the memory war), there would not be enough memory speed to effeciently match the faster CPU FSB. Therefore, you really have to have a newest generation motherboard for these processors.

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

fsb: connection between the cpu and ram
the way it works on p4 motherboards, is the cpu freq is taken, quad pumped (the design of p4's and its mobo's is like that) and then the resultant is the fsb

 

[sman789]

canterwood

 

[pdntspa]

Crappy

sorry, couldnt resist.

 

[Confused]

P4 - Willamette core (0.18, 256k, 400MHz)
P4A - Northwood (0.13, 512k, 400MHz)
P4B - Northwood (0.13, 512k, 533MHz, HyperThreading on the 3.06)
P4C - Northwood (0.13, 512k, 800MHz, HyperThreading)


Confused

 

[Tom]

Mebbe there in some sort of alphabuttecal order ?

 

[redhatlinux]

FSB, between the CPU and the Northbridge of the chipset, NOT memory. The Northbridge has its own memory controller built in with its own memory bus. Data from memory uses the memory bus, either single or dual channel depending on the chipset, into the memory controller. From the memory controller, data then is clocked onto the FSB to the cpu and cache. The exception to this is AMD Opteron which uses a dual channel memory controller built into the CPU, Athlon64 has only a single channel memory controller.