flashgordon666

is there a max proccessor speed for your motherboard like max ram??

I can have max 2gb ram on my motherbaord, so is there any limit on cpu?

PeteBrant

Yes. The limit will be dictated by the Front Side Bus speed, and the available voltages, and the package type of the Processor.

rmtypeR

Modern processors set their speed by multiplying the motherboard speed (hope that makes sense).

E.g. motherboards these day generally run at 266 or 333 Mhz and CPUs multiply this between 6-10 times. So a 3GHz cpu would probably have a motherboard speed of 333 and a multiplier of 9 so 333x9=2997 Mhz (or basically 3GHz).

You can usually increase the motherboard speed (overclocking) but the cpu multiplier number is locked.

PeteBrant

An FSB of 266/333? Where are you from? 2001?

FSB1600 is just round the corner.

rmtypeR

Hey, I remember when 486 DX2 66MHz was top of the range!

PeteBrant

With 8MB of RAM and a 540MB Hard Drive.

spectrum48k

8MB ? You POSH BA$TARD!

Living in a cardboard box as our family did at the time, I'd have to get up an hour before I went to bed just so I could sweep the box in the hope I could DREAM of affording 8MB OF RAM!

flashgordon666

lol im only 25 but i remember when we had 2 amstrads for the whole of the school, and my first pc cost $1,500

Shark Man

Thats pretty current (well, 12month at least) 266MHz is the base speed for a 2.4Ghz dual core Intel CPU (multiplyer set at x9) or a 2.66Ghz quad core (x10)

The FSB is at 266MHz but is measured at 1066MHz due to Intel's quad pumping - Intel multiply it by 4 to get 1066 between the CPU and Northbridge.

This means other system components carry on running at the base FSB speed or multiples of it, like RAM - 266Mhz using a 4:5 ratio gives 333Mhz, which is 666MHz for DDRII RAM. Well it should be 667, but it seems a few decimal points get lost in the calculations.