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    Is a 800MHz FSB CPU really useful?

    Discussion in 'HP' started by frank99, Sep 17, 2004.

  1. frank99

    frank99 Newbie

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    I am considering buying a Compaq R3000T, noticed that for P4 3.2GHz and above, the FSB is 800Mhz. Will I get any serious speed gain by choosing a faster FSB? or how should I configure other components to really make use of the faster FSB?

    Thanks,
    Frank
     
    frank99, Sep 17, 2004
    #1
  2. Venombite

    Venombite Notebook Virtuoso

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    The faster FSB is mainly for faster data transfers from your memory to CPU. I think the 800Mhz FSB is utilizing Dual Channel memory. So 400Mhz memory will operate similar to 800Mhz speeds. I think it was something like, while data is being written to module 1, module 2 can be reading data, therefore doubling overall speed.

    To be honest, you're probably not going to notice the speed difference.

    -Vb-
     
    Venombite, Sep 17, 2004
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  3. DaGreek

    DaGreek Notebook Evangelist

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    I'll try to add to what Venombite said. The 800MHz front side bus can help out but it depends on your ram. For normal windows use IE, AOL, e-mail, it won't matter. If your into gaming you could see and performance increase of 3-20% The fastest RAM you will find in any notebook is PC3200 (400MHz) this means that the FSB is only being half used and the other half is not used at all. In this case you would have no gain with the faster bus speed. If you have a notebook with a motherboard that supports dual channel memory, and you have to sticks of ram of the same size example(2 sticks of 512MB) then your system will operate with dual channel memory you it would behave like it had 800MHz speed ram. On dual channel motherboards instead of having 1 memory controler there are 2. As VB said one stick of ram can write while the other can read. Also note that dual channel memory can not be used with a Pentium M system.

    Compaq R3000T (CTO)
    P4 Desktop 3.0GHz w/HT
    1 X 512MB RAM
    Radeon 9600 128MB
    60GB 5,400 RPM HD
    AquaMark3: 24,257, 3DMark03: 3,115
     
    DaGreek, Sep 17, 2004
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