How do you know?

[gaara]

Bus speed determines several different things. First, bus speed will determine the speed of the memory which you use. A 333mhz FSB will only be able to utilize a memory bandwidth of 333mhz, while a FSB of 400mhz will be able to utilize a bandwidth of 400mhz. Obviously faster is better.

Also, the FSB determines how far a CPU can overclock without adjusting the multiplier. If you don't plan on overclocking, this shouldn't be an issue. The CPU speed is determined by two things, the FSB speed and the multiplier, for example, a 2Ghz proccesor may have a FSB of 200mhz, and a multiplier of 10. 200 x 10 = 2000

By slowly increasing the FSB speed, you can slowly overclock a CPU. Obviously a higher FSB speed will be able to overclock higher.

 

[almost2new]

COOL so 400 is the obvious choice even for me. Do I then need to look for all other components to be compatable with 400 or is the cpu the only thing. Also with RAM the new stuff is DDR yes? and then there are several speeds 2700 etc. How does this work? does the 400Mhz FSB effect this or? Tell me when you get tired of answering questions. I just don't want to learn by spending money on the wrong stuff.

 

[gaara]

The motherboard must support a 400mhz FSB for the CPU to work at it's full potential. PC3200 Memory is 400mhz speed I believe, and PC2700 is 333mhz. The newest type of RAM is DDR2, although there are currently no Athlon 64 boards which support it, and DDR is still fine, as I've heard of many problems associated with DDR2.

 

[Nubius]

Don't get that 3000+ XP processor man. You can pay like $90 and get a 2600+ XP-M which means it's a mobile processor meant for laptops, BUT it's still socket A which means it'll run in a desktop socket A motherboard too.

Those CPU's are basically guaranteed to get atleast 2.2GHz which is 3200+ XP speeds

Especially if you get a decent after market heatsink


The best board for OC'ing would be:

Abit NF7-S v2

DFI Lanparty "B" series

or DFI Ultra Inifinity

Even if you don't want to heavily get into overclocking...it's a matter of changing it's stock 133x13 to 200x9 and you'll have the exact same clock speed, BUT it'll be running on a 400FSB with 200x9 opposed to the 266 of 133x13 see what I mean?

Theres tons of us here who have the NF7-S v2 and XP-M combo

I have my XP-M at 2.5GHz, guy named 4W4K3 has his at like 2.4GHz I believe, Guy named Lazerman has his at 2.5GHz or so I believe.

It's fairly easy to get them up to and beyond 3200+ XP speeds without spending that much money

 

[almost2new]

So if I want every thing to work smoothly, and quickly the motherboard needs to support at least the speed of the CPU as far as FSB. Also the ram should run the same FSB speed to maximize? Are there any boards that are better for the AMD any real junk to stay away from. Also i noticed a board that has "on board" ethernet is this a plus or minus? You keep answering so I keep asking Thanks!

 

[almost2new]

The best board for OC'ing would be:

Abit NF7-S v2

DFI Lanparty "B" series

or DFI Ultra Inifinity

Even if you don't want to heavily get into overclocking...it's a matter of changing it's stock 133x13 to 200x9 and you'll have the exact same clock speed, BUT it'll be running on a 400FSB with 200x9 opposed to the 266 of 133x13 see what I mean?

Theres tons of us here who have the NF7-S v2 and XP-M combo

I found this one @ newegg is this the same or better or?

ABIT "NF7-S2G" nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket A CPU - Retail
**This item is warranted through the product manufacturer only.


- Specifications -

Supported CPU: AMD Duron/Athlon/Athlon XP Processors
Chipset: nForce2 Ultra 400 + MCP-RAID
FSB: 266/333/400MHz
RAM: 3x DIMM Supports Dual channel DDR266/333/400 Max 3GB
Slots: 1x AGP 8X/4X, 5x PCI
Ports: 2x PS/2, 1x COM, 1x LPT, 6x USB2.0(Rear 4), 1xRJ45, Audio Ports
IDE: 2x ATA 133 up to 4 Devices
Onboard SATA/RAID: 2x SATA with RAID 0,1
Onboard Audio: 6-Channel AC 97 CODEC on board
Onboard LAN: GbE LAN
Form Factor: ATX

Model#: NF7-S2G

 

[Apokalipse]

the athlon 64's are in socket 754 and socket 939, and some early FX's in socket 940. the Opteron's are the main socket 940 processors

all of these socket processors have an onboard memory controller, so they can transfer data to and from RAM at much higher speeds. because of this, they technically don't have a FSB. instead AMD has called it Hypertransport or HTT

socket 754 has an 800MHZ to 1.6GHZ HTT and doesn't support dual channel

socket 939 has a 1.6GHZ to 2GHZ HTT and supports dual channel

socket 940 has a 1.6GHZ HTT and requires ECC RAM to run, which is slower but more stable. this suits servers more than anything

Most Sempron's are actually in Socket A, although the 3100+ is in socket 754, with the Paris core (a newcastle without 64-bit)

the early Athlon 64's have the clawhammer core, and are in socket 754.
the later Athlon 64's are in socket 939, with the newcastle core
the latest Athlon 64's are the Winchesters which have smaller curcuits (90nm instead of 130nm)

the Opteron's are all in Socket 940, as is the FX-51, and some of the FX-53's

Socket A, for the Athlons, Athlon XP's and most of the Semprons support a 266, 333 or 400MHZ FSB. dual channel RAM does not really help if you have DDR400, since the FSB doesn't allow for more than 400MHZ

 

[almost2new]

Sorry don't mean to be dense but you lost me.

 

[Nubius]

ABIT "NF7-S2G" nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket A CPU - Retail

No that is a completely different, non-overclockable board. Newegg doesn't sell the NF7-S v2 anymore, here it is on zipzoomfly though:

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=240109

You are looking for the NF7-S board, and when I say NF7-S v2 that means it's the second revision of the NF7-S series, the NF7-S2 is a completely different board altogether, the 2 in that doesn't mean the same as the v2 in the NF7-S v2, and the -S2g is just another version of the -S2

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

I have a 939 3400+ with only a 1 ghz HTT