Normally you go to your local computer retailer to buy a new computer. The salesman may boast looky here this one has a such & such speed, this much memory, a huge hard drive, etc. You read the box and sure enough it seems like a powerhouse.
But is it? What the salesman or the box for that matter, fail to tell you is all computers run on whats called Front Side Bus (FSB). In a nutshell its how fast each component can communicate with each other. FSB's can be anywhere from 100MHz to 2000MHz.(even 33MHz or 66MHz on very old systems) Its like trying to fill a swimming pool with 1 garden hose as compared to trying it with a few fire trucks with fire hoses. Hence the higher the FSB the faster all of your data tranfers to all the hardware components. For instance the CPU, Motherboard, Memory(ram), Graphics card, Hard drive etc.
all are made with different speeds and have a different speed FSB. Here is an example of various CPU's SPEED - INTERFACE - FRONT SIDE BUS SPEED - PRICE 64 3200+ / 2.00GHz Socket AM2 2000MHz $84.99 64 3500+ / 2.20GHz Socket AM2 2000MHz $94.
99 64 3800+ / 2.40GHz Socket AM2 2000MHz $114.99 64 3800+ / 2.40GHz Socket AM2 2000MHz $116.99 SP 2800+ / 1.60GHz Socket AM2 800MHz $55.
97 SP 3200+ / 1.80GHz Socket AM2 1600MHz $69.99 SP 3400+ / 1.8GHz Socket AM2 1600MHz $75.99 SP 3600+ / 2.0GHz Socket AM2 1600MHz $107.
99 355 / 3.33GHz Socket 775 533MHz $69.99 351 / 3.
20GHz Socket 775 533MHz $39.99* As you can see in this example The first cpu on the list(64 3200+) runs at 2 Gigs and has a FSB of 2000MHz. The last cpu on the list(351) is a 3.2 Gig and runs on a FSB of 533.
In fact i have seen low end computer makers boast of a computer with a fast cpu but with further examination the motherboard could only run a FSB of 100. The end result is a bottle-necked system. The Cpu does a fast job every few milliseconds only to wait on the data to travel to the other components at turtle speed. You want a system that basically runs at the same or near the same FSB speeds on all the components. That goes for the CPU, Motherboard, Memory and somewhat the Hard Drive.
In the fowolling example i will show the differences in the speed of various Hard Drives.(NOTE by no means am i trying to refer one hard drive over the other. I picked these at random.
These manufactorers make various hard drives with varying capacities and speeds. 1.Seagate / 20GB / 5400 / 2MB / ATA-100 / IDE / OEM / Hard Drive 2.Seagate / Barracuda 7200.10 / 400GB / 7200 / 16MB / ATA-100 / EIDE / OEM / Hard Drive 3.
Hitachi / Deskstar 7K160 / 80GB / 7200 / 2MB / ATA-133 / EIDE / OEM / Hard Drive 1. The seagate in this example holds 20 gigs of data/ spins at 5400rpm/(ATA-100) has a FSB of 100. 2. The seagate barracuda in this example holds 400gigs of data/spins at 7200rpm wich is 33% faster than 5400. So it delivers data to the mainstream 33% faster and boots up 33% faster. But it only has a FSB of 100.
3. The hitachi in this example holds 80gigs of data/spins at 7200rpm and has a FSB of 133 wich is by far the quickest of the three. So you can see from this example its not the size(gigs) of the drive but the spindle speed and FSB that make it fast.You can even get a SATA Hard Drive wich deliver data even quicker.
I could go on and on with various examples with other computer components but by now you should be getting a good idea by now. Of why some computers give blazing speed while others crawl along showing the hourglass as you wait. But how do you get this information you ask? Its easy, buy your next system online.
You can purchase a Deeply discounted hi-quality system. Whereas you can check on the speed of each component to be sure you are truly getting a rabbit and not a turtle!.
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