Confused; Does the CPU or the mobo define comp speed?

[True_Orb]

Most of the time I see a P4 that says it runs at 2.5 GHZ, or 3.2 etc, and I see an AMD Athlon running at 1.8 or 2.2...so I assume the CPU defines the speed of the comp, but my mobo says its a 1.313 Ghz mobo, and I don't see a speed by my AMD Duron CPU.

Which is it that defines the speed of the comp, or is it both?

 

[JELL-OE]

Well... The speed of the comp is a little diffrent then just the speed of the cpu or motherboard, cuase you have ram, hard drive, etc. to take into consideration. But for the most part, its the cpu that defines the "speed" of your computer. I think whats confusing you, is what the motherboard can handle as far as speed. Atleast thats what i think, i may be rong.

 

[HoLoCroN]

Most of the time I see a P4 that says it runs at 2.5 GHZ, or 3.2 etc, and I see an AMD Athlon running at 1.8 or 2.2...so I assume the CPU defines the speed of the comp, but my mobo says its a 1.313 Ghz mobo, and I don't see a speed by my AMD Duron CPU.

Which is it that defines the speed of the comp, or is it both?

Good Question, here is how it goes.

The CPU is designed to run at a certain frequency (Speed) lets say 2.5 GHZ by its manufacturer. (Intel/AMD.. etc.)

The CPU is inserted onto the motherboard, and the motherboard has to be told what the frequency (Speed) of the CPU is so it can register...2.5 GHZ! (Most of the time this is done automatically by the motherboard but there are motherboards out there that let you set this up manually.)

The motherboard runs the CPU at the specified speed.

Here is a simple illustration: You are in a car with a V8 440 engine. How fast can you go?? It depends on how much gas you give the car. The more gas, the higher the speed. So even though the engine (CPU) has the capacity of going fast, it is up to the accelerator to proportion the gas to the engine (MOBO).

Cars have a limit on the top speed (lets say 160 MPH) this is regulated by the car's computer. The MOTHERBOARD is what regulates the speed of the CPU. The motherboard is what controls how fast your CPU will run.

If you can find a way to tell the motherboard to crank up the juice on your CPU... Your 2.5 GHZ CPU can work at 3.2 GHZ. This is a technique called Overclocking.

So, the speed of the computer goes hand in hand with the CPU and the motherboard.

Also, if you intend on overclocking your computer, you have to make a few adjustments, you have to make sure your CPU has proper cooling.

What happens to a car that is driven and it overhearts???? It shuts down. Same holds true for a CPU.

You can go to http://overclockers.com if you have anymore questions on overclocking.

 

[preet2u]

Holocron's given a very nice description to explain the concept to u Orb ...
Good work dude ..

Anywayz i just wanted to add ..that ..I just looked up ur mobo n' it supports upto an AthlonXP 2600+
U check the CPU support list here

 

[ekÆsine]

thats a nice technical explanation, but if you ask me it is much more simple than that. the 2 biggest factors that affect how fast a computer is are these. note that i am making up these terms:

processing power: how much power can the CPU actually output. this is not measured in Mhz or Ghz. example, a 1.4Ghz duron does not match up with a 1.4Ghz athlon.

hard disk power: generally the faster the interface type & memory cache, the faster the hard disk, example, ATA133 is slower than SATA'a ATA150 by a little bit if both have 8MB cache. interface type is directly porportional to seek times which is what counts most.

most people overlook the hard disk and concentrate on other things that don't matter much. if you really want to see the difference check your boot time with windows using an ATA100 hard disk and then try with a SATA 8MB disk or ATA133 8MB disk, windows will load almost instantly assuming you have a good processor also.

 

[True_Orb]

How do I know what ATA and SATA are? And if my mobo supports them, how do I use them?
I have an IDE setup right now if that means anything. If I want to switch to ATA or SATA, how would I do it and would it be worth it?

Thanks for all your help fellas!

 

[ekÆsine]

i can't beleive you said that Deadguy. ATA133 and SATA cost the same as ATA100. installation is the same way, so the only difference is disk speed which translate into a faster computer.

i see people all the time who have no idea about hard disk so they get the fastest processor like pentium4 3.4Ghz and they pair it with an ATA100 western digital IDE hard disk. what a waste of a processor. the hard disk bottlenecks the processor if the disk can't keep up.

True_Orb just tell me your hard disk brand and model number. all western digital and seagate IDE drives are ATA100 i am sure. the only 2 makers of ATA133 is maxtor and samsung i think.

Sata and ATA 133 arnt worth it less you got a server.

 

[True_Orb]

So I HAVE to buy a maxtor or seagate if I want a fast hard drive?

That sucks, I wanted a quiet seagate! =/

Anyway its a Maxtor and the code # is FA500S60, there's a host of other numbers and letters on there. The cable for it is ATA 133. It's a rounded cable I bought a few weeks ago, does that mean that it's running at ATA 133?

 

[BlindApex]

I would go for SATA...faster than both ATA 100 and 133...the Western Digital Raptor drives (36 and 72 GB respectively) are the fastest I've seen currently on the market

 

[True_Orb]

I also hear Raptors sound like F-22 Raptors =/
I will take a slightly slower hard drive if it is quiet.