Shoutbox

I have been using computers for many years (5< years at least if not much more), but have hardly concentrated on the hardware side of things so therefore I no little about hardware details that are more than the very basic. Recently I am wanting to upgrade my computer and have therefore ran into some questions I'd like to ask. Any help is much appreciated.


Are there different motherboards made to suit different brands of cpus? e.g. a motherboard that fits athlon cpus won't fit intel cpus? I heard you have different sockets for each kind of cpu; is that correct?

Also I heard that e.g. athlon 2800 is only like 1.7ghz while pentium 4 is normally like 2.4 ghz or above? if pentium is so many more ghz more than athlon then why do people buy athlon?

I heard if the volts of a video card isn't the same as a motherboards then the video card won't work?

thanks

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Originally posted by jukaimessenger
Are there different motherboards made to suit different brands of cpus? e.g. a motherboard that fits athlon cpus won't fit intel cpus? I heard you have different sockets for each kind of cpu; is that correct?

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Indeed. Make sure you have the right CPU for the right motherboard and visa-versa. If you're buying your parts from a store they should be able to tell you what is compatible and compatible CPUs should also be listed on the box containing the motherboard.

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Originally posted by jukaimessenger
Also I heard that e.g. athlon 2800 is only like 1.7ghz while pentium 4 is normally like 2.4 ghz or above? if pentium is so many more ghz more than athlon then why do people buy athlon?

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Intel purposely designed their CPUs to provide less processing power per cycle, making them hotter and less efficient than competitive Athlons, in the aim of making the public believe that they were better. They were also ~20% more expensive. See the Megahurtz Myth.

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Originally posted by jukaimessenger
I heard if the volts of a video card isn't the same as a motherboards then the video card won't work?

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Don't worry about that. Though, make sure if you're buying a motherboard with a PCIe graphics card slot that you buy a PCIe graphics card. The same for AGP. I suggest you get a PCIe graphics card if you're looking for anything decent

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Originally posted by Underlord
Intel purposely designed their CPUs to provide less processing power per cycle, making them hotter and less efficient than competitive Athlons, in the aim of making the public believe that they were better.

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Not strictly true. They wouldn't purposely design the chips to be less efficient. What it actually is is Intel focussed on clock speeds, AMD focussed on work per cycle. Ultimately, Intel ran out of steam, whereas AMD are still getting faster speeds.

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Originally posted by jukaimessenger
I heard if the volts of a video card isn't the same as a motherboards then the video card won't work?

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if the video card your getting needs more power then teh mother board can supply, usualy it will have a plug to go directly to your power supply

thanks you all your replies they were quite helpful. if you have say a rather good motherboard the extra bang in the m/board won't be utilised if say you only have like a celeron 2.4 cpu so is it better to buy cpus and mbs that are similar in like their own price level? (for the respective products)

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Originally posted by jukaimessenger
if you have say a rather good motherboard the extra bang in the m/board won't be utilised if say you only have like a celeron 2.4 cpu so is it better to buy cpus and mbs that are similar in like their own price level? (for the respective products)

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Well, the motherboard does no processing, it mainly has the buses that connect everything together (CPU, GPU, RAM, storage). You  don't really get motherboards suited to a Pentium 4 2.8 GHz, and then others suited to a Pentium 4 3.2 GHz. Rather, the differences are manufacturing and design quality, amount of slots, onboard controllers and adaptors (integrated RAID, sata, graphics, sound, IR or not).

Motherboards also have limits that they put on components, but if your components are lower than this, the motherboard isn't really being underworked. For example, some RAM speeds are not supported, and AGP/PCIe speeds. For examply, my motherboard has AGP 4x, and if I put in an AGP 8x card, it will run at 4x. It it were an 8x motherboard, and I had a 4x card, the card would run it's best, and the motherboard doesn't really do work anyway, so the 8x capability isn't really being wasted.

you can buy a slocket if you are buying a socket cpu with a slot motherboard, although slot motherboards are outdated. I myself are using an ASUS A7V133 Socket A motherboard, which is pretty old, i think.

Nearly all recent CPUs have a socket connector. There are different types though, and you need a motherboard and CPU that match (and matching RAM and graphics card).

There were different types of slot connectors as well. I wouldn't refer to them as outdated, as date has nothing to do with why they aren't used. They are not "bad" either. It's just that socket connectors can be made more complex while still being kept small. For older CPUs, the difference between the socket and slot versions doesn't determine performance.

If you're getting a PCIe graphics card (that's good) chances are you'll need an atx 2.x power supply unit which has a pci-express six pin cable on it to plug directly in to the graphics card.

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Originally posted by RaceProUK

quote:

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Originally posted by Underlord
Intel purposely designed their CPUs to provide less processing power per cycle, making them hotter and less efficient than competitive Athlons, in the aim of making the public believe that they were better.

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Not strictly true. They wouldn't purposely design the chips to be less efficient. What it actually is is Intel focussed on clock speeds, AMD focussed on work per cycle. Ultimately, Intel ran out of steam, whereas AMD are still getting faster speeds.

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I don't want to start an Intel vs AMD debate but focusing on clock speed, for marketing reasons, IS purposely designing the chips to be less efficient. These things don't just happen by accident.