.: Understanding Your PC's CPU Clock Speed And Front Side Bus
By:Otis Cooper
Copyright 2006 Otis Cooper
Have a computer in your home that is put to use often? Why not take the time to fully understand the terms, the components,and software used to make it work. To understand your PC is not hard and you'll be rewarded greatly.
How you ask? By upgrading your own system as well as repairing those of your friends while earning extra cash in the process. One of the more important PC components are the Motherboard,CPU Chip,and your computer's Hard Drive.
The CPU or Central Processing Unit is the brains of any computer and the two major manufacturers are Intel and AMD or Advanced Micro Devices.
For many years Intel CPUs were found in nearly all PCs. And now the Intel is found in most systems but the newer Athlon class cpu from AMD have taken a large chunk of the cpu market.
AMD's top cpu is the Opteron which compete's with Intel's Itanium and the Xeon.The Athlon is next on AMD's cpu lists and is intended for mid to high end computers.The Athlon XP was introduced in 1999 and is there most popular CPU.
Intel advertised their CPU's by their clock speed but now have introduced a rating system using a three digit number such as Intel Pentium 735.To understand the meaning of the number you can visit www.intel.com/products/ processor_number/info.htm
There you will see a list of all Intel CPUs, their rating numbers and meanings.This information is a valuable asset in helping you further understand your computer's CPU.
What then is meant by the term Clock Speed? This is the speed at which the CPU runs and is measured as a frequency such as 500 MHz or 500 million cycles per second.
As every action carried out by the CPU requires one or more cycles,be means that the higher the clock speed, the more instructions it will be able to process in any given second.Take the time to know the clock speed of your current CPU.
Want to know the clock speed of your CPU? There is a handy little utility named CHKCPU that will show your CPU's speed,and type.It can be downloaded in either DOS or Windows versions and its absolutely free.
The CPU's clock speed is an important indication of its quality but is by no means the only one.You must also understand and consider its FSB or Front Side Bus speed.
The FSB allows the CPU to communicate with the rest of the computer.The 3 GHz Pentium 4 PC has a FSB of 800 MHz and the 3 GHz Celeron's FSB is 533 MHz. Other names for this technology is the CPU Bus Speed, Memory Bus and System Bus.
Note that they both have the same processing power but the Pentium 4 can transfer data much more quickly since it has the faster FSB.
To make it easier for us pc users,manufacturers of the motherboards made them to support several FSB speeds within a specified range.To find the FSB rating for your computer look in the owners manual.
The Front Side Bus speed can generally be set either using the system BIOS.Short for Basic Input/Output System,this small software is responsible for starting the computer's bootup procedure.
The BIOS also recognizes and configures the system's hardware prior to the loading of the operating system. To access the BIOS,you must press a combination of keys such as CTRL-ALT-DEL on older systems but newer PCs allow you enter setup by press F1 or F10.
As your computer boot's up,watch the screen for a key to press to access your Setup.Once inside the BIOS, look for references to the FSB.Other motherboards allow FSB setup with jumpers located on the motherboard.
While most motherboards allow you to set the FSB to any setting,ensure that the FSB is properly set unless you plan to speed up your system by overclocking the Central Processing Unit.
The AMD has its own Hyper Transport Integrated I/O Bus and don't use FSB numbers.This technology resulted in communication much faster between the CPU,the RAM and other parts of the motherboard.
Now when you decide to upgrade your CPU or the Motherboard, don't overlook the Front Side Bus capacity and the CPU clock speed.You'll further boost your PC know as you understand these terms in more detail.
Article keywords: pc repair, computer training software, computer training, computer maintenance, pc tips, pc help, computers, pc training courses
Article Source: http://www.articles32.com
Otis F. Cooper is solely dedicated to boosting the knowledge and confidence of every computer user. Sign up to receive his informative articles every month and learn PC Repair absolutely free.Sign up now at www.ultimatepcrepair.com
.: New Computers Articles
1). Is Spyware Slowing Your Computer Down To A Crawl?
Everyday more and more computers are becoming infected with Spyware and Adware (advertising tracking).
2). Writers and Ergonomics
This article talks about the need to pay attention to your body if you sit in a chair at a computer for long hours and talks about some of the ergonomic solutions to this problem
3). Anti Adware and Spyware Programs
Adware is any software application software which makes banners appear the whole time it is in function. Also, the adware program can install components that will transmit information about the user and its behavior and this work on his PC.
4). Why HP Toner Cartridges Are The Best
Many factors determine a quality toner cartridge. Find out why HP toner cartridges always seem to come out on top.
5). Microsoft Dynamics GP Customization Tools Evolution, Overview For Consultant
This small article is targeted to Microsoft Dynamics GP audience. Recent Microsoft marketing move from Microsoft Business Solutions to Dynamics means Project Green wave 1 progress.
6). Data Recovery Software: At Your Rescue
Computers are an integral part of our lives. They are used at every juncture, and of course play a major role in businesses. In fact, the smooth working of small, medium, big and very big enterprises depend heavily on the computer. But they arent perfect, and it would be unfair to consider them as perfect.
7). Consumer Beware... Identity Theft Tools & Techniques
Identity theft is very quickly becoming the crime of choice for thousands of criminals worldwide. With online Internet access to just about any kind of database you want becoming easier and easier to acquire, the crime of Identity Theft is becoming so easy, a child could do it, if they are even mildly adept at using a computer.
.: Top Computers Articles
1). Httpwww.google.com, httpgroups.yahoo.com, Invalid URL, Why?
So you have heard of Google or Yahoo, fired up the trusty Internet Explorer and typed one of the following phrase's in the search bar, httpwww.google.com, httpgroups.yahoo.com, httpyahoo.com, or perhaps wwwgmail.com, hit search, "--" Eh, Nothing, WHY?
You are not alone, over 3,000,000 people a year type in httpwww.google.com, over 2,000,000 type in httpgroups.
2). Understanding Your PC's CPU Clock Speed And Front Side Bus
Copyright 2006 Otis Cooper
Have a computer in your home that is put to use often? Why not take the time to fully understand the terms, the components,and software used to make it work. To understand your PC is not hard and you'll be rewarded greatly.
How you ask? By upgrading your own system as well as repairing those of your friends while earning extra cash in the process.
3). Holiday Myspace Backgrounds For Your Myspace Profile
Myspace is now one of the top five most-visited websites in the world. Indeed, it has taken the Internet world by storm. At last count, they had more than 30 million users from around the globe. Amazing, isn't it? This article is for regular myspace users.
A lot of changes can be made in your myspace profile to make it look more colorful, cheerful and appealing.
4). Step By Step: Add Image Validation To Your Website Form
Copyright 2006 David Picella
If you are a do-it-yourself programmer and you want to know how to add image validation to a form on your web site then this is the article for you. While there are many ways to do this, if you follow these steps, you will learn the easiest way to get the job done. Once you have mastered the example here, you will have all the concepts and experience you need to incorporate the final product into your form on your website.
5). The danger behind peer-to-peer file sharing
File sharing is very common nowadays. You can get a P2P (peer-to-peer) program for free, and soon start sharing stuff like music, videos and programs. We use these applications freely and most of us don’t know the risks involved when using them.
Questionable reliability of files – Once we get our hands on a P2P program, we download everything we want like crazy.
6). RAM and Latency... what you need to know
RAM latency is one of the most overlooked methods of optimizing your computer. Find out exactly how you can tweak your memory timings in order to make your system run quicker.
7). Verizon DSL - It's Cheaper Than You Think
Verizon DSL is a digital subscriber link (DSL) internet service provided by Verizon communications. Internet can be accessed in many ways like cable, ISDN, dial-up, optical fiber, power line internet, satellite, wi-fi, DSL etc. The advantage of DSL is that the voice telephone and fax can be used simultaneously with the internet connection. DSL technology takes advantage of the fact that on the telephone line, voice occupies a very small bandwidth and a large bandwidth is unused.