"Steven Smith" said:
I was reading a magazine which says that my Asus i845pe board cannot
take advantage of the front side bus of the Pentium 4 I have installed.
I have the FSB533 version, which in theory can transport 4.2gb of data
per second. So which motherboard should I buy to get the full performance
of this processor?
Don't believe everything you read. Yes, performance does depend on
memory bandwidth, but not to the extent you think. For a pathological
case (running Sandra memory benchmark) the dependence could be
quite strong, but a typical number would be a 30% memory bandwidth
improvement, gives 10% more application speed. And, 30% is roughly
what you get from a dual channel board, like an 875/865 based
board. P4C800 and P4P800 series boards are examples of motherboards
using these Northbridge chips. You'll need two matched sticks of
RAM plugged into the correct two slots on the board, to take advantage
of dual channel operation, and the added bandwidth.
Apparently, when the 845PE is run with an FSB800 processor and
one stick of PC3200 ram (the so-called "official overclock"
configuration), the first cycle latency rivals the 875/865.
This means, for applications with random access patterns to
memory, the 845PE is every bit as good as an 875/865. So, I
wouldn't class the 845PE as a complete dog.
If you do nothing but run Photoshop, a memory dependent application,
making a motherboard change might make sense. For many other
applications, it would be a waste of money. Combining a new processor,
new motherboard, faster RAM etc., would still not win you a
difference you would appreciate every time you sit in from
of the computer, unless the CPU clock speed was roughly
double what you currently own. That is my "rule of upgrade"
HTH,
Paul
