Why should I favor 400MHz over 533MHz FSB?

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Linux Lover

Greetings,

The time has come to replace my old P2-350MHz system...

Wow! the world has changed so much since then and the choices are
overwhelming.

I don't need the latest and greatest, but I would like to get a
reasonably good deal for my money. I am basically thinking about two
main options:

(1) Build my own AMD based system (Asus A7N8X, XP 2500+, 400MHz FSB)
(2) Build an Intel based system (Asus P4B533-VM or similar, P4 2.4MHz,
533MHz FSB)

I know some folks may blame me for comparing apples to oranges :)
Please bare with me as I am still overwhelmed/confused by the huge
number of options.

My question: are the two options I listed above comparable. Is one
MUCH faster (i.e. more than 10% or so) than the other?

Many thanks in advance!
 
Yes the specs can drive you a bit crazy, seem to be several factors all of
which are probably not that major but give a little more boost.

Front Side Bus : 400, 533, 800
Memory Type: DDR 266, 333, 400
Hard Drive ATA: 100 (Parallel), 133 (Parallel), 150 (Serial)
Network Interface: 100, 1000 MBit

Here is a pretty good article that explains some benchmarks.

http://www6.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20030929/index.html

Believe the bottom line is that all give small increments of lift as you
move up the ladder and Hard Drive ATA seems to be the most critical for
general use. If you read the article I kind of get the impression that the
increments are even less meaningful since other issues prevent you from
gaining significant improvements. (i.e. slow PCI bus).

Always interested in other opinions.
 
Linux Lover said:
My question: are the two options I listed above comparable. Is one
MUCH faster (i.e. more than 10% or so) than the other?
Click to expand...

I try to pinpoint the things that bother me the most about a given system.
* application startup time
* raw processing power (i.e. applying filters in Photoshop)
* framerates in 3D games
* etc.

Different parts of the computer affect different measures of performance.
RAID 0 SCSI drives will perform better than a single 5400RPM drive, most
noticeably in starting applications, opening large files, and copying files.
The newest 3D cards will get you 100FPS in Half-Life as opposed to a
GeForce2 that might get you 50FPS. A P4 3GHz 800MHz FSB machine might do a
series of Photoshop filters in a few seconds while a PIII 1GHz 100MHz FSB
machine might do the same thing in a few minutes.

The FSB affects how fast your processor can read/write data to your memory,
and some applications will benefit from that speed while others will not.
It's been a while since I've studied this, but if you have an app that takes
many small chunks of data from memory, manipulates them briefly, and writes
them back to memory then the faster FSB will benefit you. If you have an
app that takes a few sizeable chunks of memory (no bigger than the CPU's
cache), performs numerous operations on that data, and then writes it back
to the CPU, then you probably won't see a performance difference.

Personally, I would focus on the FSB and hard drives and not necessarily the
CPU. I would actually prefer a 2.4GHz system with an 800MHz FSB than a
2.8GHz system with a 533MHz FSB.

BTW, many FSB's are actually lower speeds but some marketing people take
advantage of "quadspeed" RAM or something to quadruple the speed (i.e.
200MHz FSB in reality, but x4 = 800MHz). Just an FYI... :)
 
gorf said:
I try to pinpoint the things that bother me the most about a given system.
* application startup time
* raw processing power (i.e. applying filters in Photoshop)
* framerates in 3D games
* etc.
Click to expand...

Yeah, in addition to looking over the reviews on Tom's Hardware et al,
that's good advice. Sometimes I hear people oversimplifying - "You
definitely need more memory - it's speed things WAY up!" How do they know?
Because it worked for them? The only way more memory will speed up your
system is if you're swapping. The only way to know that is to monitor your
system, while doing the things *you* usually do.

Which CD will be faster for you, the one that spins up the fastest, or the
one with fastest throughput? It depends. Mostly huge file transfers - then
the faster throughput. Mostly a lot of small fetches - then the faster
spinup. Same is true with just about everything in your system.
 
BTW, many FSB's are actually lower speeds but some marketing people take
advantage of "quadspeed" RAM or something to quadruple the speed (i.e.
200MHz FSB in reality, but x4 = 800MHz). Just an FYI... :)
Click to expand...

That was a great post. On this last point, my understanding is that
it is *effectively* the same as 800MHz so there's no point in knocking
it. But maybe you do need to understand it in order to get the right
kind of memory or something...

Regards,
Thunder9
 
Howdy!

I don't need the latest and greatest, but I would like to get a
reasonably good deal for my money. I am basically thinking about two
main options:

(1) Build my own AMD based system (Asus A7N8X, XP 2500+, 400MHz FSB)
(2) Build an Intel based system (Asus P4B533-VM or similar, P4 2.4MHz,
533MHz FSB)

I know some folks may blame me for comparing apples to oranges :)
Please bare with me as I am still overwhelmed/confused by the huge
number of options.

My question: are the two options I listed above comparable. Is one
MUCH faster (i.e. more than 10% or so) than the other?
Click to expand...

Well, they're not directly comparable, no.

The AMD is a double-data-rate 200MHz. The Intel is a quad-pumped
133MHz.

To compare, you really need to look at an 800MHz FSB P4.

RwP
 
(1) Build my own AMD based system (Asus A7N8X, XP 2500+, 400MHz FSB)
(2) Build an Intel based system (Asus P4B533-VM or similar, P4 2.4MHz,
533MHz FSB)
Click to expand...

These are interesting choices similar to what I have been contemplating.

The AMD system built on an nForce2 chipset board with or without
integrated video is a great choice. If your not a bleeding edge gamer
the intergrated nVidia video is fast and excellent. The Barton 2600+
Retail is $104 at newegg. Shuttle MN31N with integrated video $81. Asus
equivalent is fine as well.

If I were going Intel, I would get the P4 2.4 GHz 800 FSB Retail at
$166. I would not use intergated Intel video, but go with a separate
card here. Get an Intel chipset 865 or 875 board that supports Dual
Channel DDR like the nForce2. Get a matched pair memory kit like
Kingston sells. I have had good luck using Crucial RAM on the nForce
boards but have been told the matched pair kits are a good idea with the
Intel chipset. Shuttle AB60N without integrated video and Intel 865PE
chipset $88. I did not take time to look up what chipset the Asus P4B533
uses.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Intel introducing a 2.4 P4 at the 800
FSB at a competetive price. It's the first time in a long time I've
considered an Intel system again over the usually much more value for
the buck AMD.

Interesetingly, Intel is reporting strong chip demand and stock prices
are up.

Peter
 
Ralph Wade Phillips said:
The AMD is a double-data-rate 200MHz. The Intel is a quad-pumped 133MHz.
To compare, you really need to look at an 800MHz FSB P4.
Click to expand...

I didn't know that. That changes the picture completely, as I need to
look for (and compare to) an 800MHz FSB P4 Motherboard.

Do you have a URL that explains the development of the various FSBs
and how they relate to memory speeds (DDR, dual channel, etc.)? The
revolution seems to have skipped me and Tom's hardware web site has
become overwhelmingly heavy with material. I need something that
summarizes concisely similar to what you have just posted.

Ralph (and all others!), thank you very much for your answers - you
really clarified things. I can now make a much better informed
decision. I can't promise I won't be back with more questions,
though... :)
 
Linux said:
Greetings,

The time has come to replace my old P2-350MHz system...

Wow! the world has changed so much since then and the choices are
overwhelming.

I don't need the latest and greatest, but I would like to get a
reasonably good deal for my money. I am basically thinking about two
main options:

(1) Build my own AMD based system (Asus A7N8X, XP 2500+, 400MHz FSB)
(2) Build an Intel based system (Asus P4B533-VM or similar, P4 2.4MHz,
533MHz FSB)
Click to expand...


What are you going to use it for? That will decide which is best.
 
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