Ok, after seeing the guides here I thought it would be nice if I just did a big compendium of everything to do with a PC, so here we go, lets start with the most important part of a PC.
ProcessorThe Processor as you will hear is compared to that of a Brain, it is used to calculate and communicate with the other parts of the computer. There are currently two big companies which deal with processors, they are:
AMDand
IntelFirstly, this isn't trying to make you like one more than the other as the fact remains, they are both very good companies. But here is a summary of their current CPUs.
Processors work out their speed by this formula:
FSB x Multiplier = Speed (overclocking will have more on this)
aside from speed, Processors also have something called Cache which is an incredibly fast storage system, processors usually have 64kb of L1 cache, 512kb - 1mb of L2 cache and sometimes they have some L3 cache which is very expensive.
Intel processors are commonly 32bit and AMDs processors are now 64bit, this refers to how large the Registers inside the processor are, these store commands and the larger the register, the more complex or plentiful the commands can be.
IntelIntel's current CPU is the LGA775 Pentium 4, common tongue is the Pentium 4 is a very good Media processor which is fantastic for encoding and handling media. Also, Intel concentrate on getting the highest clocks imaginable which is why you hear things like the Overclock 6ghz Pentium 4 3.6ghz. (more on overclocking later)
One problem I find with Intel are their processors are very expensive compared to AMD but you literally do get what you pay for. Another exciting thing about Pentium 4s are they have something called a Quad Pumped Front Side Bus, you will find out what a Front Side Bus is later but it pretty much means that the Pentium 4 can transport 4 times more data per clock cycle (thats a good thing), Pentium 4s also have something called HT technology which stands for "Hyper Threading" what this means is that when you are "multi-tasking" the processor will instead of doing one thing after the other, it will share the workload 50:50 so instead of doing 3ghz, it will do 1.5ghz for 2 different things.
Intel's latest Processor core structure is the Prescott.
AMDAMD are renowned currently for their 64bit Athlon processor, something Intel have only just had due to the reason Microsoft said they weren't going to produce a different version of Windows X64 for both processors.
AMD's current processor is the AMD athlon 64 skt 939 which is renowned for it's high performance in games. The biggest difference between an Athlon 64 and a Pentium 4 is that the Memory controller (reroutes data from the Processor to the Memory) is not on the Northbridge (a chip on the motherboard) but is instead inside the Processor itself, this means it has no FSB but instead has something called a Hyper Transport bus which is currently at 2000mhz max.
What makes AMD completely different from Intel processors is that people will immediately notice that they aren't the same speed as their Intel Counter parts, take for instance the AMD athlon 64 3000 cpu (skt939), it is rated at 3000 which means it should be the same as an Intel Pentium 4 3.0ghz, yet it only has 1.8ghz of processing speed. The reason for this is very simple, Intel concentrated on getting the highest clock speeds while AMD concentrated on getting the most performance out of each clock. Funnily enough, the AMD 64 3000 cpu woops the Intel Pentium 4 3.0ghz cpu's ass badly.
AMD's latest core is the Winchester 90nm.
MemoryMemory is as the name suggests, is what the computer stores stuff in, this kind of memory is called "RAM" which means "Random Access Memory".
RAM is where the computers short term data is stored which means that when you turn the computer off, the RAM is wiped clean. Currently, the most common RAM is DDR ram which means "Double Data Rate" which means the RAM runs at twice the speed which it is designated.
RAM is rated by Speeds, the most common RAM nowadays and cheapest is PC3200 RAM / DDR400. The way RAM works is that it runs at the speed of the Processor (or in Ratio to it). Now when I say at the speed of the processor, im referring to the Front Side Bus. So if your Processor's FSB is 200, your memory is running at 200mhz which is 400mhz due to DDR. Now, I'm not going to go into Overclocking just yet but aside from a Processor, memory is the second most important thing in terms of overclocking.
MotherboardThe motherboard is what "is" the computer, this is where everything plugs into and hosts a range of features which interest buyers. Currently the most talked about motherboard at the moment is Nvidia's new Nforce 4 chipset which hosts a range of features ranging from a built in Firewall to dual Graphics card slots. Here is a list of all the types of slots a motherboard hosts or does host:
IDE - IDE (Intergrated Drive Electronics) is what CD drives and HDD are connected into
S-ATA - (Serial ATA) Faster than IDE, this is what HDD use and what CD drives someday will use
P-ATA - Parrallel ATA is another slot used for CD drives
Floppy - Floppy drive slot
ISA - Industry Standard Architecture - this is no longer used but acted as PCI nowadays
PCI - Peripheral Component Interconnect, this is what Graphics cards, sound cardsm network cards use.
AGP - Accelerated Graphics Port - a high speed port dedicated to Graphics cards
PCI-E - PCI - Express is a faster version of PCI and AGP and will replace it eventually
SCSI - Small computer system interface, an incredibly fast and expensive port used for Hard drives most of the time.
Motherboards host a range of features as well such as onboard sound, video, RAID etc, usually, onboard is never as good as the real thing but audio is quite useful as well as RAID (we'll look into this later)
Power SuppliesFunnily enough, the powersupply could very well be "the" most important part in the whole damn computer, it supplies current to the computer using things called "Rails" there are 5 types of Rail:
3.3v
5v
12v
5v Standby
-12v
they are used to supply current to different components of the computer, the most important ones to look for are the 3.3v, 5v and 12v, the 12 in particular since this is the rail that supplies electricity to the processor, so the higher this is, the more electricity you can flow into your processor.
You should never skimp out on Power Supplies since the power of it will determine your upgrade path, getting a cheap just means headaches and usually if your computer is having trouble remaing stable then a power supply upgrade is in order.
I recomend these makes:
PC Cooler and Power (i forget it)
Enermax
X-Pro (new on the block and they're PSUs seem really good)
Tagan
Antec (highly good!!!)
the ones you don't want in particular are Q-Tec PSUs, they suck
Power Supplies are rated in watts but don't be fooled by their rating, these are most likely never true and are worked out in a very strange and bizarre way, that cheap Q-Tec 600watt powersupply is most likely going to perform similarly to a 350watt Antec Truepower Powersupply yet with the antec, you'll still be able to supply more current over the rails without the powersupply going BOOM and destroying most of your computer, people say overclocking is dangerous, you ain't seen Q-Tec PSUs.
Hard Disk DriveA very important part of the computer, this is the computers long term storage, it is slower than RAM and is the main component which affects the dreaded "loading time" Hard drives have become very cheap nowadays and only the incredibly large HDDs cost alot.
There are three ports HDDs use, they are:
SCSI
S-ATA
IDE
funnily enough, I have put them in order of fastest to slowest as well as expensive to cheapest. The most popular is S-ATA although thats followed by IDE.
Hard drives measured in Gigabytes, if you do not know what that means, he is a little table.
8bits = 1 byte
1024bytes = 1kilobytes
1000kilobytes = 1megabyte
1000megabytes = 1gigabyte
You do get riculous amounts such as Terrabytes and even highger but currently, we use gigabytes, megabytes and kilobytes most of the time.
Hard Drives use special discs called Platters which are typically Discs which can hold a huge amount of data, the more platters there are, the more the disc can hold as well as the drive becoming slightly slower.
A hard drive works like a Record player, the disc spins and a spindle finds the information. The faster the disc can spin, the faster the data is found which is why 10,000rpms is very expensive for a S-ATA drive and 15,000rpms is what makes SCSI very good.
You will also want to look for buffer size which is how large, the chunks of data can be juggled although its doesn't really effect performance a great deal.
RAIDRAID or Redundant Array of Inexpensive (or Independent*) Discs is a concept where 2 cheap HDDs would outperform 1 Expensive drive. The way it works is by combining 2 or more drives together to form 1 invisible drive which exists as stripes of data, this improves performance but isn't really worth the money.
This isn't really a place where you can learn alot so search google for more information.
Disc DriveA computer should have atleast some sort of disc drive, this is commonly where you insert the disc into. There are lots of drives and here are the main ones:
CD drive
DVD drive
Floppy Drive
ReWritable Drive
they are very self explanatory, CD drives play CDs, DVD drives play DVDs and Rewritable drives and write data to discs (burning).
The deciding factor is how fast it can do these things and these are shown by how large the multiplier is, also you will look for features such as, does the DVD drive support Dual Layer which is a 2 platter DVD with 8.5gb of storage on it.
Graphics CardPossibly the most talked about feature, the graphics card is the main factor when it comes to running games on a computer. There are two big companies that fight out the battle for the best card, they are:
ATiwith it's latest line up being the X800 gpu
and
Nvidiawith it's latest lineup being the 6800 gpu.
What alot of people get wrong is what makes a graphics card good and there are 4 main things that this comes down to:
GPU speedThe GPU is the processor on the graphics card, the faster this is, the more geomotry can be calculated. The type of GPU is also important which is why a 6800 gpu is better than a Geforce 4 GPU etc.
Memory SpeedThe faster this is, the more textures can be imported and exported to and from the memory.
Memory TypeThere are surprisingly a huge amount of types of memory that are used in computing, graphics cards use 2 types.
GDDR (DDR3) and DDR, GDDR is super fast compared to DDR and runs at 1.6 - 2.0 nanoseconds while DDR runs at about 4 - 5.0ns, quite a small difference but means alot with the next factor.
Memory WidthThis refers to how many Bits the memory is comprised of, it is 128bits or 256bits, this is crucial with memory as this is how bandwidth is formulated:
(6600gt)
1000/2.0 = 500 (GDDR) = 1000mhz
128 / 8 = 16 x 500 = 8000 (GDDR) = 16000GB/s bandwidth.
Slow memory with a small bus width will result in low bandwidth which is much more crucial than how much memory you have. This is why some cards with 128mb of RAM perform much better than cards with 256mbs of RAM.
OverclockingOk, the bit you have been waiting for.
I WILL NOT TAKE ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR DAMAGED PARTSOk, now, overclocking is where you raise the speed of a component above factory settings. From what you have probably heard, it is a very good thing, extra speed for free and the funny thing is, that is exactly what happens, people have these crazy obsessions that overclocking will blow up your processor or melt your motherboard when in actual fact, the chances of that happening are incredibly low and even then, people that will know what they are doing will know what they are doing anyway if ya get my drift
Anyway, the test subject is going to be a 3.0ghz Pentium 4. Now the speed which you already know if you have read all of this is:
FSBxMultiplier=3000mhz
it is actually this:
200x15=3000mhz
Now, a successful overclock is an overclock that raises the speed of the entire system, simply raising the multiplier (which can't happen unless you use a special board) won't raise the FSB, so no speed increase.
So, lets take a look at the whole systems speed:
CPU - 1:1 (200mhz) (200x15=3000)
RAM - 1:1 (200mhz DDR400)
PCI - 1:6 (33mhz) (1/6th dividor)
AGP - 2:6 (66mhz) (2/6th dividor)
so these are the ratios that a computer works, so if we raised the FSB from 200 to 210 it would be:
CPU - 1:1 (210mhz) (210x15=3150)
RAM - 1:1 (210mhz DDR420)
PCI - 1:6 (35mhz)
AGP - 2:6 (70mhz)
Now you might think increasing the PCI and AGP buses is a good thing but it ain't, it just causes them to crash. To stop them crashing, the motherboard will have to support something called a "PCI/AGP" lock which will stop the AGP/PCI buses getting overclocking which is a must for an overclocking system.
So now, lets take a look at a heavily overclocked system:
CPU - 1:1 (250mhz) (250x15=3750)
RAM - 1:1 (250mhz DDR500)
PCI - 1:6 (41mhz)
AGP - 2:6 (83mhz)
Now then, we have achieved an overclock of 3750mhz, thats a 750mhz increase. Now it all seems like cake on paper but when your overclocking, the problem is that the higher the clock is, the more voltage the processor will need, this is where the heat comes from as the more voltage through a processor, the higher the temperature will go. This is why people will use water cooling, phase change cooling or even liquid nitrogen to reduce temperatures.
The next problem is memory, since memory at default runs in sync with the processor, a higher overclock will mean faster memory, changing the ratios still means a faster processor but it won't give as good results as running the memory in sync.
Changing ratios works like this:
1:1 ratio:
FSB 200
RAM 200
5:4 ratio:
FSB 250
RAM 200
it works but it won't give good results as running faster memory.
Overclocking is done in the BIOS, you can do it in windows but you don't get the same flexibility as a good BIOS will give. Then what you do is raise the FSB in small increments, usually 2mhz to 5mhz, then reboot and see if the computer boots, if it does, run a benchmark like SiSoft Sandra benchmarks and see if it works, if it does, give yourself a pat on the back, you need to remember that if you overclock successfully without increasing the voltage, you can't have gained any extra temperature (or hardly any)
If your computer fails to boot, you pull a cable out the motherboard entitled "CMOS", take it out for a minute or two and then put it back in and re-enter your BIOS settings, now there are 3 things you can do:
1. Leave it at the last successful overclock
2. Increase the voltage (as low as you can)
3. Lower the multiplyer, remember, its the FSB that creates a good system, not the multiplyer.
Once again
I WILL NOT TAKE ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR DAMAGED PARTSQ & AQ. When I overclock, will my processor explode?
A. There is an incredibly low chance of this happening, the main things to look out for are:
Warranty Void
Decrease in lifespan (hardly a big decrease)
Raised Temperatures
You have to remember that modern processors will turn themselves off if they get to hot.
Q. When's it time to upgrade?
A. Sadly, it's always time to upgrade, as soon as you buy something, chances are that there will be something immediately faster available, usually you have to know when you need to upgrade, such as there isn't much point upgrading if you can play all the latest games but there is point if a game comes out that you can't play.
My RigHere is my computer:
(Pictures to come soon)
AMD Athlon 64 3000 skt 939 1.8ghz @ 2ghz (225x9)
Gigabyte K8NF nForce 4 skt 939 motherboard
MSI Geforce 6600gt @ 500/1000 (stock)
2x512mb GeIL PC3200 Value RAM
Hitachi 160gb Deskstar
NEC 3520 Dual Layer DVD rewriter
Soundblaster Live! 5.1
X-Pro 460watt Power Supply
Antec Plusview 1000AMG Case
Ok, what ya think?
(Oh, and no stealing
)
*Thanks to Hyper-X for the input
19/12/2004
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OR1G1NAL'S COMPLETE GUIDE TO OVERCLOCKING[hr]
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The guide to Overclocking by Or1g1nal
(please read whole guide before doing, as you may not understand some parts if you do it as you read)
Key:
Mobo = Motherboard
CPU = Computer Processor
PSU = Power supply
CMOS = Small BIOS memory unit
BIOS = Basic Input Output System
WARNING: If you are not 100% certain you know what you are doing never even open up your computer, nor even think about overclocking.
I take no liability for anything that you say or do in accordance to my guide as problems can occur for other reasons depending on your individual hardware and tools.Overclocking is the process used to increase the speed your motherboard and processor talk to eachother, it also increases processors MHz speed depending on how high you overclock it.
Why to Overclock it?
Possibly to speed a not so fast computer up to play certain games without lag or to increase the general speed of your computer. If Overclocking is done correctly it can greatly increase you processor spec.
Why not to Overclock it?
Because when a computer is overclocked it works harder than it is meant to, thus heating it up a lot more than un unclocked computer. If you overclock you must be completely sure you have the cooling devices in your computer to handle a processor that has heated up considerably more than recommended. If not cooled correctly can lead to an easily fried processor (not exactly the cheapest part of your computer). A computer processor is not meant to be heated above the recommended 50 degress Celsius for pentium and and between 70 to 90 degrees Celsius for Amd Athlon models depending on the Series.
With all new Cpu’s they come with there own heatsink fan which is extremely important for the cpu’s survival. Here is a video of what happens to a CPU that is not cooled correctly.
http://www12.tomshardware.com/images/th ... ooling.zip
(9mb)
Computers that are not cooled correctly will either fry or throttle (lower speed to reduce heat i.e. a Pentium4 3.0GHz could go down to even 1.0GHz which is a major loss of computer speed.
If you ever build a pc or overclock a pc, make sure that you have installed a computer thermometer which can be downloaded from a number of computer hardware sites. Also if you purchase many of the new Pro series Asus motherboards for Pentium Processors, they automatically turn off when they sence the computer is overheated too much which is a wonderfull feature to have.
(the reason I have focused on cooling so much here is because it is very important to a computers survival and computers can result in a number of problems if not cooled correctly).
Another reason for not overclocking your computer is because many professionals have made opinions on overclocking saying that in time it can cause damage to your computer anyway even if cooled efficiently and done correctly.
A basic Step by step guide to overclocking by Or1g1nal
(before following my guide find out from your supplier or the internet a realistic clock size for your computer that is safe and is not pushing your CPU too hard, different Processors can overclock to different speeds. Before doing anything too stress filled to your computer i.e. playing games, running certain programs etc it is recommended you install and run this file which will see if your computer is stable at this speed, if unstable return settings to default or reduce to a safe level. This test should be done after computer is overclocked
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm )
(not all motherboards are overclock capable and thus cannot be overclocked at all, before you overclock your system you should read your manual and see if your motherboard is overclock capable.)
1. When you first turn on your computer press Delete straight away which will bring up your computers BIOS (Basic Input Output System) menu where you will need to start the process.
2. Look for a little section of this menu that says CPU speed or Advanced Chipset Features.
3. When you have reached this section you can change raise CPU clock ratio and FSB Frequency to the desired level. Making sure that you are 100% sure that the level of overclock you have chosen is not too high for your CPU and MOBO to handle.
4. I suggest you raise your FSB and CPU settings in step 3 a small amount at a time then run your system and check the tester above to make sure its stable. Then keep raising a little bit at a time taking note of your last amount of increase so that if it is unstable you can restart and you’l know that the last increase is the highest overclock your system is capable of.
5. If for some reason you accidentally raise your FSB and CPU settings to a much higher level than is possible and your computer shuts down and wont turn on don’t fret. There is nothing to worry about, because your computer just wont run long enough to fry anything. To restore your computer to its original state you will need to restart your BIOS back to there default settings and starting right back from the beginning of the guide. This is done by reseting the CMOS (a very small piece of memory on the back of your motherboard of which’s purpose is to remember your BIOS settings), to do this change the position of your CMOS jumper (a little wire knob on the end of your CMOS) on your mobo and waiting a few minutes for it to reset and then re-placing the jumper in its original position. Some CMOS batteries however don’t come with this jumper and a different process is then required. You must turn your computer off (unplug aswell) and remove the CMOS battery completely from your mobo, then turn your computer on again (keep it unplugged but just press the on button anyway), it will then discharge of CMOS memory, though u must still wait a couple of minuter before this will occur. Then plug your computer in again place the battery back in it’s original position and start the process again.
Here is my guide to Overclocking I hope it has helped in any of your questions, even though I have this knowledge I choose not to Overlock my system because of potential risks.
If you are unsure of certain parts do not commence overclock and make sure you know what every step means and understand it completely before starting.
If anyone has any suggestions for this guide please send them to me.
This guide was written entirely by me with no help. I encourage you to learn from it.
(I cannot stress enough how important it is that you understand everything before attempting this and the dangers that could happen if not done correctly.)
Thanks for reading my guide
By Or1g1nal
Dan
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INSOMNIAC'S GUIDE TO VIDEO CARDS[hr]
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Looking to upgrade your graphics card? This is a guide to help you choose.
Why Upgrade?Games are constantly getting more demanding, as they require higher specs from a PC, better cards are needed.
Every couple of years, you may need to buy a more up to date one unless you want to play games with the lowest settings and at a low resolution.
How Do I Know When I Need A New Card?The obvious reason is games do not run fast and getting very low framerates. You can view your framerate by using a program called FRAPs, which gives you your framerate in FPS (frames per second) in the corner of the screen.
FRAPs download link -
http://www.fraps.com/download.htmBear in mind that the video card may not be the only component providing performance issue, a RAM (Random Access Memory) upgrade may be neccessary.
How Do I Know Which Card I Currently Have?This is simple.
Windows users, Go to Start> Run and type "dxdiag". This will show you your proccessor (CPU) and other components. Go to the Display tab and it will show you your card, or if you have integrated graphics like this computer I'm on.
As you can see, my graphics have 32MB RAM, not good for today's games. At least 128MB is required for decent gameplay. 64MB is okay if you don't want eye candy.
Who Make Video CardsThe two main brands in the video card industry are Nvidia and ATI. Companies like Intel do integrated graphics solutions but a gamer would not want a card like this. Nvidia and ATI have been battling for years for supremecy over the market.
http://www.nvidia.comhttp://www.ati.comOkay, But How Do I Decide Which Card To Get?First, you need to know what kind of cards your motherboard can take. Most PCs take AGP and PCI cards. Some Intel machines have PCI-Express, a new technology, soon to arrive on AMD machines with nForce 4. Basically, PCI-Express beats AGP, which is better than PCI. Most cards at the moment are avaliable in AGP.
AGP CardsThese are the cards you should be looking for, I will put these in price format, depending on how much you'd want to spend. Obviously thr higher the price the better.
Low budget - Below £100 ($190)
Prices taken from EbuyerThese are really the lowest you can get in modern cards. The higher priced ones are good enough though but they fit in the cheaper price margin.
ATI Radeon 9250 with 256MB DDR - £40-50 ($90)
Nvidia Geforce FX5200 256MB DDR - £50 ($90)
GeForce FX5500 256MB DDR - £60 ($115)
Radeon 9550 256MB DDR - £57 ($110)
Radeon 9600XT 128MB DDR - £95 ($180)
Geforce FX5700 128MB DDR - £103 ($197)
Last one's just a little over, prices
do vary.
You may have noticed there are some with 256MB DDR, not really neccessary, specially on budget cards. 128 is perfectly fine.
Personally I'd go with the 9600XT, it has the edge over the 5700, XT being the equivelent of an Ultra verison of an Nvidia card.
Mid Range - £100 - £200
Looking to spend more? This will get a much more capable and up-to-date card.
GeForce FX5700Ultra 128MB DDR - £125 ($240)
Radeon 9800 128MB DDR - £110 ($211)
Geforce FX 5900XT 128MB DDR - £140 ($270)
Radeon 9800 PRO 128 MB DDR - £142 ($274)
GeForce 6600GT AGP8x 128MB DDR3 - £145 ($278)
The Geforce 6600GT is a new card, the latest modern tehnology, has the edge over the rest in this bracket and for a few pounds more. I have bought one myself.
Don't get it confused with the PCI-Express version.
Top Range - £200+
The best cards on the market!
Radeon X800PRO 256MB DDR3 - £275 ($526)
GeForce 6800 GT 256MB DDR3 - £320 ($612)
GeForce 6800 Ultra 256MB DDR3 - £490 ($937)
Radeon X800 XT 256MB GDDR3 - £330 ($631)
The VERY top cards, as you can see are extremely overpriced. The Radeons are cheaper for about the same performance, but the x800 probably takes the lead there.
I do apologize if the exchange rates are wrong, I used XE for the conversions, could someone please correct me if they are wrong?
Where can I buy a Card?UK -
http://www.ebuyer.com or
http://www.pcwcomponentcentre.co.ukUS -
http://www.newegg.com or
http://www.tigerdirect.comLook for good prices, good manufacturers are XFX, Gainward, BFG for Nvidia Geforce and ATI Radeon have Sapphire, Connect 3D, Powercolor.
What's Next In Video Card Technology?Nvidia are releasing their SLI technology in the next few months. This is where two GPUs are connected together in the motherboard, with an nForce 4 SLI chipset. This enables, effectively, double the power and can be done using 2 x Geforce 6600GT, 6800GT or 6800 Ultra cards, this can only be done with PCI-Express cards. It's unlikely that SLI will be supported in Socket 754 AMD 64 CPUs, only 939.
And lastly, good luck!
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