opinions of the 266 FSB...

[RoscoPColtrane]

Hey guys my mobo is the asus a7v266 and im kinda wondering if it would be worth while to upgrade this setup! I noticed that some 333fsb mobos are starting to come down in price. Should i put the money into upgrading the 266 or would it be alot better with a 333? THis may sound like a dumb question but im kinda worried about spending money on this system and it being bottlenecked cause of the fsb. Im considering upgrading the Video card (can support 4x agp) picking up more ram and also going with an athlon 2600+ cpu. Just kinda wondering how much better the 333 fsb would be....thanks

btw if i go ahead and pick up the xp2600+ w/ a 333fsb would i be able to put it into the mobo with the 266? i know with ram you can go BETTER than the mobo is capible and it will downclock it to its capibility...are cpus the same way? Just kinda thinking if i did that then i could save up for a mobo and reuse the CPU ....


jbkm

[Brent]

what will you be doing with this computer

[RoscoPColtrane]

Originally posted by Brent
what will you be doing with this computer

Games, inet, stuff like that! :D

[Brk]

Originally posted by Brent
what will you be doing with this computer

Brent, you av won't last long LOL

[Brent]

Originally posted by Burke
Brent, you av won't last long LOL

why not, there is no nudity

[Brent]

Originally posted by JBKM
Games, inet, stuff like that! :D

what type of games do you play

very intensive latest games stuff? or what

give exapmles

[RoscoPColtrane]

Well i just picked up the newest rainbow six...it seems to be running pretty smooth right now with settings mostly on high. I like alot of different games. Mostly First Person shooters...I usually leave my sport games to my xbox/ps2...i plan on getting some new flight sims as well.

[Jstyr]

I can tell you that right now my A-Bit 266FSB board /w XP2400+ AND a GeF3 64mb (at ti500 speeds) is more than enough to play the latest games and play them well. I don't think the upping the FSB that slight amount is going to make a noticeable difference in your performance.

If you ahve the money and WANT to upgrade..then sure. However, you may be able to save a few bucks by using the older 266 FSB components and putting the saved cash towards a better vid card.

Right now my vid card is the obvious lagging component in my system. It isn't bad...but in heavy FPS'ers I can get some lag when alot of action is going on around me.

One other thing that the 333FSB Barton's have going for them is an increase in on die L2 cache. They have like 512 L2 cache as opposed to the T-bred 256?? L2 cache. But, again I don't think you'll NEED that...IF you have over 512 mb's system RAM, that 2600+ you were talking about, and Radeon 9500 or Geforce4 in your system. Iam also a gamer and can tell you...when things don't cut it any longer I upgrade. Good luck on your system and keep us posted.

[Blisster]

if you get the Barton XP2600 and run it on a 266FSB board you will not be getting 2600 speeds out of it, more like 2200. if you dont want to do the whole shebang of mobo, proc and RAM I'd just get an XP2400 T-bred or something ike that, as you'll pay a much hetier price for the 333FSB 2600 and not get the performance out of it.

[RoscoPColtrane]

Originally posted by Blisster
if you get the Barton XP2600 and run it on a 266FSB board you will not be getting 2600 speeds out of it, more like 2200. if you dont want to do the whole shebang of mobo, proc and RAM I'd just get an XP2400 T-bred or something ike that, as you'll pay a much hetier price for the 333FSB 2600 and not get the performance out of it.

So if i get the 333 xp 2600 i will not be running at actual 2600 (2.xx ghz) speeds? But if i get the 266 xp2600 i would actually be getting the mhz of the processor? i got kinda confused there!

:D

[Blisster]

well the 333FSB 2600 is a Barton core processor and its speed is based on a fsb of 33MHz, which is really a 166MHz FSB, soooo if you run that chip at 266 which is actually 133MHz your actually shortchanging yourself by the 33MHz difference in bus speed.....get it?

[Jstyr]

Originally posted by Blisster
well the 333FSB 2600 is a Barton core processor and its speed is based on a fsb of 33MHz, which is really a 166MHz FSB, soooo if you run that chip at 266 which is actually 133MHz your actually shortchanging yourself by the 33MHz difference in bus speed.....get it?

Haha! Blissterr!!

I think you confused her/him with that post pretty well. I know I'm lost :p

No, seriously. Let me see if I can explain it a little easier. Your processor when plugged in to your motherboard will operate at a speed BASED UPON your FSB AND a MULTIPLIER. Basically what this does is take the FSB and multiply by a number to get the core(internal) speed of your processor.

For example-I'm running a T-Bred 2400+ at 2Ghz. My mobo's FSB is a duel pumped (meaning x2) 133mhz. So the FSB is running at 266. Now in order to get 2Ghz...or 2000mhz (same thing), we have to multiply that 133 by some number. Turns out my mobo actually multiplies it by 15.

So 133x15=1995. So in reality it's actually running about 5mhz short of 2Ghz.

What does all this mean to you and your choice between a Barton or T-Bred???

Well simple. If your processor is factory clocked to expect a 333 FSB, then it's multiplier will be set so differently than if it was going to expect a 266 FSB. So you see, by running at a lower FSB you inadvertintly lower the core speed at which your processor will run.

you may be able to work around this by adjusting the multiplier higher in your motherboards BIOS. Or unlocking the chip and gaining access to additional multipliers. But that is a bit more complicated.

[Blisster]

LOL yeah it was a bit late when i typed that, and I'm sure the typo in htere doesnt help anyone :p!!!!!

[Blisster]

JBKM, I recommend a book called "The Anandtech Guide to PC Gaming Hardware". Its an excellent resource that explains the different systems of a PC and their respective architectures. Rather than having us here trying to explain something in our own terms it gives you an understanding of things like FSB, and multipliers and dividers, RAM timings etc. It's the first book I read when I decided to build a new system and it made life sooo much easier. Its available at pretty much any bookstore or at Amazon.com .

[RoscoPColtrane]

Originally posted by Blisster
well the 333FSB 2600 is a Barton core processor and its speed is based on a fsb of 33MHz, which is really a 166MHz FSB, soooo if you run that chip at 266 which is actually 133MHz your actually shortchanging yourself by the 33MHz difference in bus speed.....get it?

Lets see if i get this right. :D

THE xp2600 runs at 2.13ghz regardless of the FSB speed.

so 133 x 16 (multiplier) = 2128 or roughly 2.13 ghz

and the

166 x 13 (multiplier) = 2158 or roughly 2.13 ghz

so if i get the 333 version it would have a 13 multiplier and at my 266 (133) that would only be 1729 (13 * 133)

so pretty much the 266 version has a higher multiplier than the 333 version to reach the same speeds. So if the multiplier is higher does that mean the chip will have to run at a higher temperature?

I hope im understanding this correctly!

One more thing WHY do the companies adverties with 266 and 333 FSB if the frequencies are only 133 and 166? Why do we times that by 2? That is the one thing im missing!

Hopefully you read threw this cause i would really love a reply!!

thanks for the time

jbkm

[RoscoPColtrane]

Originally posted by Blisster
JBKM, I recommend a book called "The Anandtech Guide to PC Gaming Hardware". Its an excellent resource that explains the different systems of a PC and their respective architectures. Rather than having us here trying to explain something in our own terms it gives you an understanding of things like FSB, and multipliers and dividers, RAM timings etc. It's the first book I read when I decided to build a new system and it made life sooo much easier. Its available at pretty much any bookstore or at Amazon.com .

I think im gonna look into finding that book! Thanks for the tips...

jbkm

[Blisster]

Originally posted by JBKM
Lets see if i get this right. :D

THE xp2600 runs at 2.13ghz regardless of the FSB speed.

so 133 x 16 (multiplier) = 2128 or roughly 2.13 ghz

and the

166 x 13 (multiplier) = 2158 or roughly 2.13 ghz

so if i get the 333 version it would have a 13 multiplier and at my 266 (133) that would only be 1729 (13 * 133)

so pretty much the 266 version has a higher multiplier than the 333 version to reach the same speeds. So if the multiplier is higher does that mean the chip will have to run at a higher temperature?

I hope im understanding this correctly!

One more thing WHY do the companies adverties with 266 and 333 FSB if the frequencies are only 133 and 166? Why do we times that by 2? That is the one thing im missing!

Hopefully you read threw this cause i would really love a reply!!

thanks for the time

jbkm



we multiply the true FSB speed (133, 166) by 2 because we are using DDR RAM (Double Data Rate), which means that information is being processed on both sides of the cycle. In older systems this wasn't the case.

[Jstyr]

Originally posted by Blisster
we multiply the true FSB speed (133, 166) by 2 because we are using DDR RAM (Double Data Rate), which means that information is being processed on both sides of the cycle. In older systems this wasn't the case.

Yes and with some of the latests systems like Burke's you'll see quad pumped (or 4x) speed FSB. The new Canterwood Intel boards run a 200mhz quad pumped (4x) FSB...which gives it an effective 800mhz FSB. No really a TRUE 800mhz FSB...but maybe someone else could explain to you a bit more about how that works.