[M4d$k1llz]

Hey, someone i know is getting a pc delivered soon, in parts, to be built and they are like "ohhh what Graphics card have u got..?" etc and i know not alot about computers, and their speeds, and im wondering, what all the numbers etc mean on different parts to the computer. Like for this processor ::

Athlon 64 3700+ 2.2GHZ S939 1024KB SAN DIEGO OEM

I thought that there are 4Ghz processors out there.. and ithought, ohh a 3700 that is almost top brand, but then 2.2Ghz and i thought... hey that is real slow.. i know people running on pentiums at 3.0Ghz....
What does 3700+ mean? And what is the Ghz all about.. ?

And a few more things, he is getting a £250 graphics card, what is something like this ::

256MB Leadtek7800GTX 1250 MHz ,450 MHz , 24 Pipes, Dual DVI-I

what is the 256 MB about, my brother told me that 80% of 256mb graphics cards are better than most 512mb cards.. and what is with the 7800? does this make it a GeForce 7? and 1260MHz.. what is this the speed of??



And just a few other things, Hdd, RPM & Cache, what do these 2 things mean? And what on earth does all the writing and numbers mean when u look at a motherboard.. ?

Cheers

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well to answer your first question:

amd have created a naming system to identify their proccesors. the way they do this is buy comparing them to the intel proccesors
for example a
AMD 3700+ 64 means that compared to an intel it runs at 3.7 GHz but its true clock speed is 2.2GHz
now i no this seems a little comfusing but the reason that the true clock speed is lower is because AMD's move a larger chunk of information than the intels

intels move smaller bits of information quicker

AMD's move larger bits of information slower
but compared to each other the AMD's would really be running at 3.7 GHz

thats put simpily
so when you see AMD 64 4000+
just think ok so compared to an intel it would run at 4.0 Ghz but really it has a slower clock speed,

just in case you wanted to no the 64 infront of the speed is the type of proccesor it is
64 bits has twice the amount of pins that conect to the motherboard than a 32 but proccesor so it can procces twice the amount of information than a 32 bit processor

currently the AMD's are leading the feild by a long shot when it comes to 64 bit proccesors
but intels are far better at multimedia and multitasking

secondly,
according to graphics cards the amount of memory it has really isnt that much of a factor when it comes to performance the more memory it has the more breathing room it has to store its proccesed information
when measuring performance the best thing is to look for both memory clock and GPU clock,

the 7800 is just like a model number it has nothing to do with performance or anything it is purely an identifiying number

but yes a 7800 is a geforce branded card
1250MHz is the speed of the memory clock which would make it GDDR3 (graphics double data rate)
this determines how fast the information can be trasfered between the GPU and the memory

thirdly regarding HDD's
RPM 's is how fast the recording surfaces spin around under the recording head
the faster the disks rotate the faster information can be passed under the head of the hard drive,
cache is described here
http://www.vtec.co.u..._disk_cache.asp

well different numbers on the motherboard are for different things some times it can be jumpers or jumper settings
description of what goes where or what this connector is ( usaully abreviated )
but come on i cant tell you exectly what every little peice of writting says and what its for we could be here for hours lol
i hope this has helped a little bit and i hope it has been clear its late and im tired but never the less im always here to help,
troppo

Edited by troppo, 08 April 2006 - 07:38 AM.

[troppo]

well to answer your first question:

amd have created a naming system to identify their proccesors. the way they do this is buy comparing them to the intel proccesors
for example a
AMD 3700+ 64 means that compared to an intel it runs at 3.7 GHz but its true clock speed is 2.2GHz
now i no this seems a little comfusing but the reason that the true clock speed is lower is because AMD's move a larger chunk of information than the intels

intels move smaller bits of information quicker

AMD's move larger bits of information slower
but compared to each other the AMD's would really be running at 3.7 GHz

thats put simpily
so when you see AMD 64 4000+
just think ok so compared to an intel it would run at 4.0 Ghz but really it has a slower clock speed,

just in case you wanted to no the 64 infront of the speed is the type of proccesor it is
64 bits has twice the amount of pins that conect to the motherboard than a 32 but proccesor so it can procces twice the amount of information than a 32 bit processor

currently the AMD's are leading the feild by a long shot when it comes to 64 bit proccesors
but intels are far better at multimedia and multitasking

secondly,
according to graphics cards the amount of memory it has really isnt that much of a factor when it comes to performance the more memory it has the more breathing room it has to store its proccesed information
when measuring performance the best thing is to look for both memory clock and GPU clock,

the 7800 is just like a model number it has nothing to do with performance or anything it is purely an identifiying number

but yes a 7800 is a geforce branded card
1250MHz is the speed of the memory clock which would make it GDDR3 (graphics double data rate)
this determines how fast the information can be trasfered between the GPU and the memory

thirdly regarding HDD's
RPM 's is how fast the recording surfaces spin around under the recording head
the faster the disks rotate the faster information can be passed under the head of the hard drive,
cache is described here
http://www.vtec.co.u..._disk_cache.asp

well different numbers on the motherboard are for different things some times it can be jumpers or jumper settings
description of what goes where or what this connector is ( usaully abreviated )
but come on i cant tell you exectly what every little peice of writting says and what its for we could be here for hours lol
i hope this has helped a little bit and i hope it has been clear its late and im tired but never the less im always here to help,
troppo

Edited by troppo, 08 April 2006 - 07:38 AM.

[warriorscot]

If you want specs on your own system then i would use a piece of software called PC wizard. For detailed info try wikipedia it has a huge amount of information on computers and its all easily accessible.

7800GTX is the product name, the 7 means it is a geforece 7 series gfx card 800 means its high up in the range GT is the mid range 7800 GTX means its the faster version.

Memory is actually one of the more important factors it should be the first thing you look at as clock speeds are largely irrelevant when comparing different cards as the different architechtures can be more or less efficient, most 512Mb memory cards will be faster because they only put 512 on the high end cards usually and more memory is better but at the moment games are primarily designed for 256 but if you want the highest settings on the newest games(even older ones like Q4) you need 512. A big factor is what memory type it is, you need GDDR3 for a gaming card, cheaper cards use DDR2 or even DDR, DDR3 is much higher performing than DRR 1 and 2. Another factor is memory interface some lower end cards use 128bit interface thats not a good thing what you look for is the full 256bit interface.

Number of pipelines is also a good performance indicator the more pipelines the better the card generally.

A simple explanation of cache is it is a resevoir for information, it lets data be transferred faster as the cache is faster memory than the hard drive itself so it means there is always data on hand to be transferred, again bigger the cache the faster it will work, you get cache on CPUs as well it works in a similar way holding data ready in fast memory so there is always data to process.

The AMD intel difference is a good example why clockspeed is a poor performance indicator. There are CPUs being developed that run in the 1Ghz range but are faster than some of todays best CPUs. To get a good indicator of performance do a google search for reviews on the piece of hardware you are interested in and read a few that will give you accurate tests and direct comparisons to other chips.

But theres lots of info online in guides, and wikipedia is great.

[M4d$k1llz]

hmmm thankz this has helped alot.