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"Yay! Upgrading time!"

Okey.

Running currently:

P3 450
384 MB Ram
Matrox G400
Some crappy motherboard that's crap.

I want:

P4 something.
Lots of Ram
Really decent graphics card
Decent motherboard.

I have limited money.

Any ideas on what I should go for? Any recommendations on motherboards, graphics cards?

Heh, that is pretty cool.
Has Grix actually bought anything? :)

Cool, thanks for the info.

Well, on-die cache is basically RAM that comes with the CPU - small amounts however, 128k-256k-512k etc as opposed to, say, 512mb of normal RAM. However, whatever is in the on-die cache is instantly available to the CPU. In really, it's all the CPU can use. Don't forget that the CPU needs to be told what to do - instructions/data/etc is held in the cache and RAM for the CPU's disposal.

If what the CPU needs at that instant is in the cache, everything's disco. However, if the CPU suddenly needs something that for whatever reason (small cache eg) is not in the cache, it needs to get there *pronto*. The longer it takes for it to get there, the more time the CPU spends idle - lowering performance. This brings us to...

...memory throughput. This is more simple. You've heard of DDR - double data rate RAM? DDR RAM runs at twice the system clock of the computer, which is 266mhz for an AthlonXP, and 532mhz I think for Pentium 4s. Yes, that is significantly faster. Note I give this in mhz, but this can be converted into a real speed. I know 266mhz is 2.1gb/s. However, this can be limited by your motherboard, if you have a poor motherboard then you can have a poor throughput.

Don't worry though, it's hard to buy poor motherboards if you buy from teh right places. Only OEMs tend to sell you crap mobos.

Those are the basics, but there are other things to consider, such as hardware prefetching which AMDs do, etc.

Turbonutter wrote:
> You'll have a crap motherboard with poor memory throughput. Also, P4s
> are known for small on-die cache, although I'm not sure how this will
> affect DVI performance.

TBN, could you explain on-die cache a little further? Not sure what 'on-die ' means...

Also, elaboration on the 'poor memory throughput' would be handy. I've spent ages looking up stats for vaious PC peripherals, but motherboards are still a mystery to me.

:)

I didn't want a combo, seperate drives look like better quality/speed.

Cheers for the info on the drivers :d it says it only comes with Windows drivers although after a little browing of the www I came across some other drivers..
It helps if Linux is actually installed before trying drivers though :D

How much are you paying for your monitor? Why don't you get a combo DVD/CD-RW?

Also, your Radeon will come with drivers. For Linux drivers you need to use the "ati" driver in XF86Config-4.

Section "Device"
Identifier "Radeon 9000"
Driver "ati"
EndSection

Bah, Just worked out the total cost of my PC: £569.58
thats without a burnproof CDRW and an extra 40Gb hdd which i'm buying next weekend.

£66 CDRW
£53 40GB hdd

specs:

XP1800+
ystech hs
2x ystech fans
512Mb SD ram (133Mhz)
48x CD, 16x DVD
40Gb IBM hdd
15" CTX monitor
300w psu
round cables
Radeon 9000 pro 128Mb video
300w psu + case

Logitech Trackman mouse

not sure about the video card, it's actually my biggest problem, not sure where to find the drivers for it :/

Probably

Was probably a 64bit Mac then :)

Turbonutter....ok? I saw a 10Tb Mac server, theres quite a few 6/4/2/Tb servers advertised in magazines too.

Doughnut Monster, i'm 100% you won't have 800Gb in your home PC :)

I'm just about to purchse the componants for my PC..yipeee!! should be here by Tuesday...Linux for me!!