I need some simplification

[kosova]

I had some questions that I'm wondering about and I have yet to find the answers of these questions so here I go...

1. DDR= Double Data Rate, thats great but what is the diff between DDR and PC# like DDR3200 = PC400 what does that mean, why are there 2 ways to classify ram?

2. If a PSU say runs at 500W its peak is 520W, and it has an efficiency of 70%..does that mean that u when u use uer comp and u dont need all that power the computer will conserve it and save money on uer electric bill or all PSU that run at certain Wattage cannot "recycle" VAC energy so u waste energy anyways?

3.Is there some type of a monitor which u can also buy those 3d glasses so u can actually serf the net play 3d games in 3d? how does that work, is it cheap, expensive, is it cool or just plain stupid? or can u only do 3d only with projectors?

4. Please some light on HTT and HT info, and what is the diff between HTT and FSB and what HT is all about?

5. Do software application receive and transmit data based on the system bus? is this why ppl say that comps with 32-bit applications wont benefit from a 64-bit processor do to that the 32-bit application works slower then hardware can transmit and receive data?

6. How can i tell which CPU is a true 64-bit processor and which one CAN support it?

7. Do the hardware BIOS'es (i.e vid card bios) communicate with the Software Drivers to display like the picture on the screen? Can you actually update the vid card bios aka flash the bios of the vid card?

8. Burning CD's/DVD's how many can a person actually burn at a time?

9. If a processor is duel core and runs at operating speed of 2.0Ghz doesn't that mean the processor should be running at around 4.0Ghz(2*2)

Guys, I'm sorry for the inconvience, I hope I haven't posted too many or too hard of questions. I was just wondering, and if anyone is willing to explain, clarify or better yet give me some links to some of these questions (point me in the right direction) I will be THANKFULL

[MakeYourslf2012]

1. http://www.crucial.com/crucial/pvtcontent/memorytype.asp?model=&memtype=CHOOSE This link will help you alot, it simplifies "PCXXXX" terms and such.

4. http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=142256 this thread may help.

sorry i could only answer 2 of your questions (somewhat), i just saw no responses yet.

I'm not as knowladgeable as some of the memebrs here :)

[blue60007]

1. DDR400 = PC3200 because it runs at a speed of 400MHz

2. 520W peak basically it can put out that much power for a short amount of time
70% efficiency means that 70% of the power actually goes into DC power for your system. The other 30% goes into heat energy. That level actually varies with load on the power supply, usually it is a bit more efficient at higher loads, but for simplicitiy's sake lets assume the average is 70% and 70% at every level.

Let's say this computer hooked up to a 500W power supply is drawing 150W at idle, this means the computer must use 214W from the outlet, 70% is going into the system, and it's putting out 64 watts of heat. I'm pretty sure how that works, so don't quote me on that.

3. Sorry don't know
4. Sorry don't know

5. 32 bit applications don't benefit at all from a 64 bit CPU, unless you have a 64 bit OS. Even then, the 64 bit OS will run it in 32 bit mode, because the program wasn't compiled in machine code to "think" in 64 bit

6. As far as I know, a 64 bit CPU is a 64 bit CPU is a 64 bit CPU. It either is a 64 bit CPU or it isn't (Again, don't quote me)

If you are referring to Intel's marketing, where they say their EMT64 processors "support" 64 bit OSs and apps, because it is a 64 bit CPU and will "support" a 64 bit OS and apps (if the 64 bit OS is installed).

7. Yes, and yes

8. Probably as many as you have RW drives, but, burning media needs full attention from the computer, and unless you have a software program to support dual burning (I think some backup software does), burning multiple discs at a time will result in errors on the disc

Again, don't quote me on any of this stuff until a more knowledgeable person can verify

[pillainp]

4a) Hypertransport/HTT (http://www.hypertransport.org/tech/index.cfm)

4b) HT (Hyperthreading) (http://www.intel.com/technology/hyperthread/)

7) Yes you can update your video card BIOS. Visit your manufacturer's website. There should be a section in the downloads that supplies updated BIOS versions for better performance etc.

8) You can burn multiple CD's/DVD's on a system with multiple writers. The only limitations are that the system should be able to provide a sufficient bandwidth to prevent one or both drives choking for data (empty buffers), which will cause write failure. Also, when writing two disks at once with two drives, you will typically be limited to the highest speed supported by the slower drive.

9) Just because a CPU has two cores that each run at 2 GHz does not mean that the CPU runs at 4 GHz. The effective top speed (sic) is still 2 GHz. Since two cores are available, the CPU will run apps that support threading much more efficiently, but the top speed achieved will still remain 2 GHz.

[thefultonhow]

Edit -- the two links I provided point to the same page! Read the top half for info about HyperTransport and the bottom half for info about the 64-bit registers.

1. DDR= Double Data Rate, thats great but what is the diff between DDR and PC# like DDR3200 = PC400 what does that mean, why are there 2 ways to classify ram?

Back in the day, the "PC" rating on RAM actually measured its speed. PC66 was 66 MHz, PC100 was 100 MHZ, and PC133 was 133 MHz. When RDRAM came along, Rambus continued this naming scheme with PC600, PC700, and PC800. Each of those were quad pumped (so PC800 was 200 MHz x 4 reads per cycle), and was 16-bit as opposed to 64-bit for SDRAM and later DDR.

But that's a tangent. When DDR came along, it ran at much lower speeds than RDRAM, but gave very similar performance. The original DDR (133 x 2, or 266 MHz) would have had to be labled with PC266, which would not have looked good going up against PC800, and later PC1066. So instead, they took the bandwidth of the memory, 2.1 GB/sec, and turned it into the PC rating (PC2100). So DDR400 has a bandwidth of 3.2 GB/sec, and thus is called PC3200.

It's all really just marketing -- same as AMD's "performance ratings" and Intel's new chip numbering system. But whatever.

2. If a PSU say runs at 500W its peak is 520W, and it has an efficiency of 70%..does that mean that u when u use uer comp and u dont need all that power the computer will conserve it and save money on uer electric bill or all PSU that run at certain Wattage cannot "recycle" VAC energy so u waste energy anyways?

Yeah, your computer only draws the amount of power you need. So if you only need 300W, the PSU will only produce 300W and if its efficiency is 70%, it will only draw ~430W (300W divided by 70%).

3.Is there some type of a monitor which u can also buy those 3d glasses so u can actually serf the net play 3d games in 3d? how does that work, is it cheap, expensive, is it cool or just plain stupid? or can u only do 3d only with projectors?

Yes, there is a type of monitor (a type of LCD) that can do 3D. Sharp actually includes it in some of its laptops (none of which are sold in the US, of course). However, IMHO it's just an expensive gimmick, and would probably be fairly disorienting to use. And you need to wear those dorky goggles.

4. Please some light on HTT and HT info, and what is the diff between HTT and FSB and what HT is all about?

HTT = HyperTransport Technology. It's a high-speed bus protocol (as opposed to other bus protocols like PCI-Express) that in the Atlon 64 connects chip-to-chip (for Opterons), core-to-core (for x2s), chip-to-chipset, and in some cases northbridge-to-southbridge.

HTT is essentially the frontside bus of the Athlon 64, and since it runs at the same speed as the chip, it gets rid of a major bottleneck. It actually essentially eliminates the traditional frontside bus in favor of this AMD-developed open standard of sorts.

For more on HyperTransport:

http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030422/opteron-06.html#a_big_deal_opterons_64_bit_registers

HT = HyperThreading. Before dual-cores came out, HyperThreading was extensively used in the P4 and Xeon lines. Essentially, it split a chip into two "virtual cores," so to speak, allowing the chip to do different operations if they used different registers. The same registers could not be used simultaneously, so performance was slightly lower than in a real dual-processor or dual-core machine.

5. Do software application receive and transmit data based on the system bus? is this why ppl say that comps with 32-bit applications wont benefit from a 64-bit processor do to that the 32-bit application works slower then hardware can transmit and receive data?

You might want to read this:

http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030422/opteron-06.html#a_big_deal_opterons_64_bit_registers

That details the new x86-64 registers in the Athlon 64 line. Essentially, if an application isn't taking advantage of those, it's not taking advantage of 64-bit. And none of the 32-bit applications take advantage of the extra registers -- they only take advantage of the darker, 32-bit subsets of those registers.

6. How can i tell which CPU is a true 64-bit processor and which one CAN support it?

The Athlon 64 line (Athlon 64, Athlon 64 x2, Opteron, and Sempron 64) and the Turion are all 64-bit chips. On the Intel side, the P4 6xx series and 8xx series take advantage of 64-bit, although it's not implemented quite as well.

7. Do the hardware BIOS'es (i.e vid card bios) communicate with the Software Drivers to display like the picture on the screen? Can you actually update the vid card bios aka flash the bios of the vid card?

I'm not entirely sure on the interactions -- but I'm pretty sure that the video BIOS serves the same sort of function as the system BIOS: it lays down the basic hardware framework and then lets the software take over. Machines nowadays rarely access the BIOS after bootup, and I'd assume it's the same with the video BIOS.

8. Burning CD's/DVD's how many can a person actually burn at a time?

A lot. I have two DVD burners in my computer at work, and I make a lot of copies of the CDs I put out, so I set Roxio to burn the same CD image to both bunrers at once. If your computer has four burners, then you can burn to four at once. However, you have to be burning the same image; you can't be burning different CDs.

9. If a processor is duel core and runs at operating speed of 2.0Ghz doesn't that mean the processor should be running at around 4.0Ghz(2*2)

Nope. It just has two cores running at 2 GHz. That means that if you're running one non-multithreaded application, like a game, you'll only be getting 2 GHz of performance and will only be using one core. The only times dual-core produces a performance boost (and it was and is the same for dual- and multi-processor systems) is under heavy multitasking or when running a program like PhotoShop that is multithreaded.

[pillainp]

Originally posted by thefultonhow
A lot. I have two DVD burners in my computer at work, and I make a lot of copies of the CDs I put out, so I set Roxio to burn the same CD image to both bunrers at once. If your computer has four burners, then you can burn to four at once. However, you have to be burning the same image; you can't be burning different CDs.

Not true. If you have the retail version of Nero (and probably in the OEM version as well), you can write a different CD to each writer simultaneously simply by starting up different instances of Nero for each compilation (CD you want to write.

By the way, here is a Flash Demo that explains Intel's Multicore/HT technologies (ftp://download.intel.com/technology/multi-core/demo/multicore_community.htm)

[thefultonhow]

Not true. If you have the retail version of Nero (and probably in the OEM version as well), you can write a different CD to each writer simultaneously simply by starting up different instances of Nero for each compilation (CD you want to write.

Well, you could do that, but be prepared for it to either take twice as long, or for you to get two coasters. CD burning is extremely resource intensive.

[pillainp]

Well, you could do that, but be prepared for it to either take twice as long, or for you to get two coasters. CD burning is extremely resource intensive.

Not to get into a word war here, but there is no real difference in speeds between writing one CD and two CD's at a time, as long as your system is capable of providing sufficient bandwidth. For example, I regularly write multiple CD's at one time using the system in my sig, and I have never managed a coaster so far.

And running two instances of Nero has one great advantage: it lets you write to each writer at the highest speed supported by the media/drive.

[thefultonhow]

Not to get into a word war here, but there is no real difference in speeds between writing one CD and two CD's at a time, as long as your system is capable of providing sufficient bandwidth. For example, I regularly write multiple CD's at one time using the system in my sig, and I have never managed a coaster so far.

And running two instances of Nero has one great advantage: it lets you write to each writer at the highest speed supported by the media/drive.

Hmmm, I guess it might be true with really high-end systems, but I can't get anywhere close to maximum speed burning one on a P4 1.4 GHz, and I very much doubt the 2.66 GHz in my office could deal with two at once (although it doesn't have too much of a problem with one).

I'm also probably remembering the days of Nero 5.x, when it wouldn't let you run more than one instance.

[David M]

Those were some good questions...and equally good answers. Thanks