Calling all computer nerds!

[Conor]

Alright. As you may or may not know, I am planning on building my own PC. However, I have some questions, some being, perhaps, very noobie.

1. Whats the difference between socket numbers?
2. Is there a 'better' memory type? (ie PC3200)
3. Sempron vs Athlon.....benefits of each?

More coming

 

[Jordan K]

All I can say right now, is that sempron is old and outdated, if you're looking at a desktop PC your going to be looking at an Athlon 64.

*Edit: Also, socket numbers are used for motherboard and CPU integration. You can't run a socket 755 processor on a socket 939 motherboard. So anyways, whatever processor you're looking at buy the correct motherboard for the socket number. (base the motherboard around the processor, because it costs the most and you should be able to choose which one you like best).

**Edit: If this helps you, I accept payment in the thanks button aswell as point donations. LOL jk.

 

[Conor]

Hah didn't help at all I know you need to match them but is there a speed difference also?

Also.... Say you have: Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz and a Athlon 3800+ 2.2Ghz.....I hear that the athlon is equal to like 3.2 Ghz? =s why?

 

[Jordan K]

Hah didn't help at all I know you need to match them but is there a speed difference also?

Also.... Say you have: Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz and a Athlon 3800+ 2.2Ghz.....I hear that the athlon is equal to like 3.2 Ghz? =s why?

That is true to some degree... Processors have like a waiting line where all the information is thrown in and eventually it gets processed. Now AMD waiting lines are much, much shorter than Intel's. Thus making information wait less and process more. So to some degree, but not 1GHz faster. But, the AMD Athlon 64s (the 64-bit processors) double the speed of all the 32-bit processesors (the common processor today, and most of Intel's processors, there is no residential 64-bit by Intel yet). So if you have a 64-bit processor at 2.2, if you compare it to a 32-bit it is the equivalent of a 4.4GHz. I hope this helps.

Although you said my original post didn't help you at all because you already know that, you should rephrase your question because it is too open, it could ask for an answer like mine or what are the performance differences.

I am pretty sure, the higher the socket number the more information that can pass through it, so the information is faster to transfer itself from the motherboard into the CPU and back. Not sure though.

 

[Conor]

Thanks Thats helpful Any recommendation on cooling products?

 

[Jordan K]

Not too sure on cooling products because I don't use them myself. You should do a little research into this field and find some reliable brand names with high reviews. If you choose liquid cooling this is the best thing to do because if you get low-end parts then your risk of leaking and frying your parts becomes excessively greater.

 

[Matt]

I reccommend 4 sticks of 256mb rambus. lol

 

[Jordan K]

I reccommend 4 sticks of 256mb rambus. lol

Lol, can't get any older.

 

[Matt]

Rambus was good though. expensive but good...

 

[Spartan Erik]

well for cooling, you might look at getting watercooling if you dont want a normal case fan
if you check on cnet they show how to install a watercooling system.. pretty neat!

but like i said, this is if you dont want a normal case fan, and you're using this computer as a gaming station

all because a processor's clock speed is higher than the other doesnt exactly mean that it will perform better.. cnet ran 7 or 8 tests comparing amd with intel, and amd owned them all, even with lower clock speeds

 

[Conor]

Thoughts on the company Maxtor? Considering one of their harddrives...

 

[Brandon]

Go with Seagate 5 year warrenty. I have had problems with Maxor and WD.

Please add to my reputation if this post helped.

 

[Alejandro]

I use Seagate, it's very goodm but I never tried Maxtor, also go fo a SATA HDD.

 

[Brandon]

I would go for a nice Seagate SCSI! More reliable than SATA.

 

[Tyler]

Good questions and great answers I just built mine a couple months ago, I personally go for Intel's but everyone has their prefrence. Do stay away from maxtor, I've had no luck with them... I have replaced my maxtor drive with a samsung, It's actually pretty decent. Im only wishing right now I went with a 64 bit processor.