1.5GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 400MHz FSB ??? (1 Viewer)

[Lord Ac]

Ok, can someone explain to me what each of the THINGS in my title refer to ... and what I want when buying a good laptop ... cause the cache and the 2mb thing and the 400mhz FSB are fully confusing me and all notebooks seem to have differnt compiations?!

Thanks!

Ac

 

[Abide]

1.5 gigahertz is 1500 megahertz. It refers to the chip speed, usually the higher this number, the faster the computer overall.

An L2 cache is a small amount of memory that retains your most frequently used stuff, so that they operate faster.. kinda like the cache in internet explorer, or something. It stands for level 2 cache, and generally, level 1 caches are faster.

The front side bus (fsb) is something that just connects the stuff on the mother board together.. a higher speed fsb means it can operate those faster so in theory make games and other applications run faster.

As you can probably tell, I'm a computer newbie so take what I say with a grain of salt. Or two.

 

[Jesus]

the fsb just means the start up speed, 400MHZ isnt exactly fast, most comps now days are 800, but thats deskptop so im not sure if it applies to laptop as well.

 

[neuro_logik]

the fsb just means the start up speed, 400MHZ isnt exactly fast, most comps now days are 800, but thats deskptop so im not sure if it applies to laptop as well.

It doent mean start up speed!,it relates to the frequency and speed the CPU and RAM and other devices pass information.

 

[neuro_logik]

1.5 gigahertz is 1500 megahertz. It refers to the chip speed, usually the higher this number, the faster the computer overall.

A faster clock cycle doesnt always mean the computer will be faster will be overall

 

[doe]

the mhz refers to cpu speed. things like bus speed and disk speed will affect overall performance. in general the higher the numbers the better.

cpu's typically have built in caches, its kinda technical why and how they work, but in general they make things go faster. layer 1 cache is very fast access and is quite expensive, most cpus have this. layer 2 cache is still a lot faster than main memory and cheaper to produce than layer 1 cache, so most desktop/server cpus have this and have more of it than layer 1 cache (eg the cpu's L2 cache is bigger than L1 cache). some more advanced cpus also have layer 3 cache, but you dont really need this in desktop systems.

i havent bothered to find out what exactly a front side bus does, but im pretty sure 400mhz will be fine. like the cpu number the 400mhz refers to how fast the bus can operate, which in turn affects how fast the pc will run. when the cpu needs data from memory or disk, it is transferred over the bus, and the bus speed dictates how fast this data can be transferred. so a faster bus means faster speed (in theory) but this will also be limited by memory speed and more importantly disk speed (ie how fast data can be read off the disk and written to the bus).

if you're not playing games (in any serious fashion, which i assume your not cause you wouldnt be buying a laptop for that) or writing music, that should be fine for what your purposes are. in general i find with laptops the harddisk is usually the bottleneck anyway, so cpu and bus speed arent big concerns.

 

[sunny]

I guess I'll throw in my 2c too.

Clock Speed.
Basic unit is cycles per second (hertz). This is the CPUs clock frequency. Generally higher frequency = faster. 1.5GHz = 1500MHz

Cache
Part of the memory hierachy. CPU registers -> L1/L2/L3 cache -> primary storage -> secondary storage, etc. Cache is used to create the illusion of all the information in the world being avaliable at the speed at which the CPU operates. By caching frequently used information temporal and spatial locality are exploited, and the computer saves clock cycles otherwise wasted fetching data from memories lower in the hierarchy. Cache size is a major factor in processing power/speed.

FSB
To be kinda specific, the FSB/system bus is the interconnection between the CPU and the northbridge. This tends to be the fastest bus in the system, and the northbridge would connect things like RAM, AGP and CSA or other things that have a high bandwidth requirement. Of course, the faster this is the better.

 

[loquasagacious]

It would help more if you told us what this chip is, From the sound of it it is a centrino Pentium M (as opposed to a pentium 4 M). I'll explain the numbers then tell you what is really important lol.

Firstly a 400 Mhz FSB refers to the speed at which the processor communicates with other system components, it also determines what the CPU itself speed is. For your purposes this number doesn't matter, it is only important if you are building your own desktop or the like.

1.5Ghz essentially refers to how fast the CPU is, or thats what you will be told, 1.5ghz gives an indicatioon of the speed but is by no means comprehensive. More simply (and in car talk) 1.5ghz refers to how fast the processor will rev. Actual speed is more accurately represented by combining this with the Instructions Per Cycle (IPC) which is essentially how much it can do each cycle/rev. The irony being that in the case of CPUs the faster they rev the less they do each rev, a centrino/pentium M chip balances these two requirments so that a 1.5Ghz pentium M chip will perform as well as a 2.8Ghz Pentium 4, the saving being that the lower CPU speed is the less power used and heat produced.

L2 cache has previously been explained, basically it makes a CPU go faster, and more is better.

Yes you are right all notebooks like all computers have differing compilations and yes they are ften confusng to the layman, unfortunately most salesmen dont know much more than the laymen which doesnt help. I hope i've been abit more help, if you have any queries please ask. I'd be happy to explain anythinmg in more detail or anything else u have trouble with.

 

[sunny]

Firstly a 400 Mhz FSB refers to the speed at which the processor communicates with other system components

You mean my mouse runs at 400MHz?

Instructions Per Cycle (IPC) which is essentially how much it can do each cycle/rev.

Typical calculations use Cycles Per Instruction (CPI).

 

[acmilan]

Ive got a question thats a little off the topic. Im looking to buy a new PC and decided to specify the configurations rather than buy an already made one. I was wondering what opinions people have on the configuration im thinking of. Im not a hardcore gamer, dont need a huge amount of space, mostly i use my comp for programming and just other documents. This is the configuration i was thinking:

Motherboard: Intel BLKD915GUXL I915G, LGA775, Gfx, PCI-Ex16, 4xDDR400, Audio, Sata, Lan
Processor: Intel® Pentium® P4-530 3.0 Ghz L775 800FSB Processor
DDR2 RAM: Corsair Value Select 1024MB PC-4200 (533 MHz) DDR2 RAM
IDE Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 80Gb Serial ATA 8MB Buffer (NCQ80G)
DVDROM: Lite-On LTD-166S Black 16x DVD-ROM Drive
DVDRW: Pioneer DVR-108 16x DVD-RW +/- Format Dual Layer Black Drive
PCI Express Cards: ABIT Radeon RX300SE 128MB with DVI, VGA, TV Out, PCI-Express Interface

There are also some other extras such as speakers, subwoofers, cordless mouse/keyboard. Also how much would you pay for something similar to this?

 

[loquasagacious]

www.arc.com.au probably the cheapest shopfront store in Sydney, price the parts there and it will give you an idea, buying parts from a warehouse operation would probably save $50 total on ARC's price.

 

[velox]

Advice. Listen to Sunny, the rest are a bit lost.

 

[loquasagacious]

Thanks for correcting my rather obvious gaffes sunny, I rushed that post lol.

 

[Lord Ac]

Thanks all! Very helpful info indeed. The one thing i am still confused about is the cache ... do I want it as 1, 2 or 3?

Basically I would use it mainly for uni, etc, but I am a very hard gamer and would love for it to run games as well, even though this is secondary.

AddyMac ... I dunno which chip I am looking at specfically, just wanted to get the terms right. But are you serious that diferent chips and their numbers compare so unevenly?

Thanks all again!

Ac

 

[sunny]

There will always be L1 cache - its almost implied. L2 is mentioned because its bigger. It doesn't sound very good from a marketing perspective to try and sell 32kb of L1 cache.

If there is L2, there is L1, if there is L3, there is L2 and L1.

 

[Templar]

I was wondering what opinions people have on the configuration im thinking of. Im not a hardcore gamer, dont need a huge amount of space, mostly i use my comp for programming and just other documents.

Since your demands aren't high, you'll be better off sticking with a 865PE chipset with a LGA socket. Not only do you use the cheaper DDR RAM with virtually no difference in memory, the price of AGP graphic card is also cheaper and faster than PCIe varieties except for the high end, which you don't need.

However if you intend to upgrade in the future to a more powerful machine, then stick with the 915 chipset.

From what you wrote the motherboard you chose uses DDR RAM, but you chose DDR2 for RAM. I don't know about Intel motherboards but check to make sure the RAM fits.

Otherwise the system is fine, although in my opinion the performance of X300 is quite bad and that 80Gb is a bit small.

 

[loquasagacious]

The only level cache you will get much variation in is L2 and so go for more. As a note and as a demonstration of the performance differance, the main differance between a Pentium 4 and a celeron is the ammount of L2 cache eg the Pentium has four times more (from memory).

As for the usage of a notebook, I understand completely that's what mine is based on uni next year and as many games as will fit.

As for a comparison the difficulty is the makers who make it hard to compare at best someone who knows computers can take a stab or you can look at bench marks.

If you're looking at a notebook, then centrino is the only logical choice, for my desktops I use AMD but for my notebook centrino looked best and has turned out to be best. Basically it goes best to worst centrino pentium 4 - centrino celeron m - AMD - pentium 4 M - celeron. So avoid pentium 4 M's and celerons at all costs. Basically they are desktop chips and so they run hot and use lots of power, AMD desktop chips use less power and run cooler anyway so its not quite as bad when they are put in notebooks, centrino though really kicks arse as I mentioned its as good as a fast pentium 4 or AMD chip yet uses less power and makes less heat.

Less heat = more comfortable to use, less power = longer battery life (eg 4 times as long).

And from a gamers perspective I can confirm that it will game, not doom 3 very well but its fine for vast majority of games hgavnt installed Hl2 on it yet though. And because I was tight I only got the celeron M pentium M would probably go much harder.

 

[McLake]

Advice. Listen to Sunny, the rest are a bit lost.

I agree.

I guess I'll throw in my 2c too.

Clock Speed.
Basic unit is cycles per second (hertz). This is the CPUs clock frequency. Generally higher frequency = faster. 1.5GHz = 1500MHz

Cache
Part of the memory hierachy. CPU registers -> L1/L2/L3 cache -> primary storage -> secondary storage, etc. Cache is used to create the illusion of all the information in the world being avaliable at the speed at which the CPU operates. By caching frequently used information temporal and spatial locality are exploited, and the computer saves clock cycles otherwise wasted fetching data from memories lower in the hierarchy. Cache size is a major factor in processing power/speed.

FSB
To be kinda specific, the FSB/system bus is the interconnection between the CPU and the northbridge. This tends to be the fastest bus in the system, and the northbridge would connect things like RAM, AGP and CSA or other things that have a high bandwidth requirement. Of course, the faster this is the better.

I just want to explain what sunny has said about Cache and FSB in a more Englishy way.

Cache is like your desk, and the hard drive is like your cupboard. Assuming a clean room, it is a lot faster to get things from your desk, then it is from your cupboard, but less things can fit on it. But you want a big desk, so you have fast access to more things. Now someone will say "Doesn't clock speed affect how fast I get things?" Well, think of clock speed as the speed you can walk to your desk or cupboard. Even if you can walk really fast, your desk is still closer.

FSB is like the highway for all the information on your system. The larger it is, the more lanes on the highway, so more information can go through at once. How is this different to clock speed? Again, think of the clock speed as the speed limit of the highway, then although there is a speed limit, there is still a question of how many cars can fit on at once, at that is sort of what the FSB measures. It is most important when you have lots of applications running at once.

I hope that analogy makes some sense, and make it easier to understand than lots of techno babble.

 

[acmilan]

Since your demands aren't high, you'll be better off sticking with a 865PE chipset with a LGA socket. Not only do you use the cheaper DDR RAM with virtually no difference in memory, the price of AGP graphic card is also cheaper and faster than PCIe varieties except for the high end, which you don't need.

However if you intend to upgrade in the future to a more powerful machine, then stick with the 915 chipset.

From what you wrote the motherboard you chose uses DDR RAM, but you chose DDR2 for RAM. I don't know about Intel motherboards but check to make sure the RAM fits.

Otherwise the system is fine, although in my opinion the performance of X300 is quite bad and that 80Gb is a bit small.

I think the DDR2 Ram for the motherboard i specified was fine because i checked with the person building it. As for the 80Gb, i think it will be plenty mainly because i dont use the computer to store a whole lot, at this time i am only using about 7Gb on my PC

 

[doe]

Advice. Listen to Sunny, the rest are a bit lost.

I agree.

i await the error(s) to be pointed out in what i wrote.