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Questions about PC hardware

Started by Ahmad, March 29, 2012, 04:27 AM

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Ahmad

Hello dear friends.  :)

First, What is the job of Cache Memory of processors and how does it affect the speed of PC?

Second, Is INTEL better or AMD, or no difference ?

Third, Regarding motherboards, I like ASUS. But they say here that Gigabyte is the best.

What's your opinion?  ??? ::) :-\
Thanks.  :D
Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.

humbert

Quote from: Ahmad on March 29, 2012, 04:27 AM
Hello dear friends.  :)
First, What is the job of Cache Memory of processors and how does it affect the speed of PC?

I realize Bladeshark is the real expert at all this, but I'll do my best. HEY BLADESHARK - if my information is inaccurate, please enlighten me.

Cache memory is nothing more the most frequently used data stored there for faster retrieval. You'll noticed that a browser (for example) with plenty of cached memory fill be much faster than one without, simply because there is no need to re-download all the data, only what's different is downloaded.

Quote from: Ahmad on March 29, 2012, 02:31 AM
Second, Is INTEL better or AMD, or no difference ?

I wish you had asked me that just 2 weeks ago. I had my copy of PC World magazine with a page with a head to head comparison of both brands. I would have scanned the page and sent it as an attachment. Anyway, from what I read, in raw speed Intel's i7 is king. AMD's lastest model (the FX) can just barely reach (or exceed) the speed of Intel's i5. Then again, to me it's not like their word is law - they said in their tests that Google Chrome was the best browser, followed by Firefox. Having tested both, I strongly disagree. Similarly, I've been an AMD fan forever and I've never had a problem nor have I ever had a need to complain about their speed. And of course, the icing on the cake is the fact that they are just plain cheaper.

Quote from: Ahmad on March 29, 2012, 02:31 AM
Third, Regarding motherboards, I like ASUS. But they say here that Gigabyte is the best.

I too have always been a die-hard Asus fan. It's the only brand I've used for the past 8 years, without a single problem. Add to this the fact that they even have very good tech support, although the only time I've used is is to ask questions what weren't in the documentation. My wife's old clunker which I took out of mothballs and restarted has a Gigabyte board with an old AMD Athlon 64 (model 4200+). It's slow only because it's old, otherwise I have no complaints.


topdog

Hello Ahmad and humb25.
I have a PDF of that edition of PC World magazine. If I knew what I was doing I would cut the article out and send. If you think it may be of use to you, I will have time tomorrow to experiment. Or could give links to download (60-80 Mb's from memory)
  Hei konā rā    
they call me domesticated ..... I CALL THEM FOOLS !!!

humbert

Quote from: topdog on March 29, 2012, 10:52 PM
Hello Ahmad and humb25.
I have a PDF of that edition of PC World magazine. If I knew what I was doing I would cut the article out and send. If you think it may be of use to you, I will have time tomorrow to experiment. Or could give links to download (60-80 Mb's from memory)

Hey there! Any respectable PDF program will allow you to print just the 1-2 pages you want. Even then, you don't have to send the print job to a physical printer. There are many programs out there that will allow you to print to a file, in PDF format or whatever. If you have trouble finding one, I'll be more than happy to put one in my Dropbox and send you the download link. With Foxit Phantom (which Bladeshark posted a link) you can extract the pages you want to a separate file without having to print anything.

Quote from: topdog on March 29, 2012, 10:52 PM
Hei konā rā

Out of sheer curiosity, can you define this word for me?

topdog

Hello humb25,
"Hei konā rā" is a standard farewell in te reo Māori. Used in place of goodbye (but not literally meaning "God be with you", closer to "I leave the place to you"). I think I left a translation the first time I used it but have been lazy since.
As for that PC mag item, I'm sure I can extract the pages one way or another (a bit map at last resort).
You may not believe this in the 21st century. But I've never sent an attachment! Am happy to have a play around and see what I can do.
Amazing. After spending 10 min's typing above, kicked computer power cord out, when got back here post was still live. Is that an example of browser cache at work?
   Haere ra (also goodbye but in this case I'm staying[to read more])
they call me domesticated ..... I CALL THEM FOOLS !!!

humbert

Quote from: topdog on March 31, 2012, 06:34 AM
Hello humb25,
"Hei konā rā" is a standard farewell in te reo Māori. Used in place of goodbye (but not literally meaning "God be with you", closer to "I leave the place to you"). I think I left a translation the first time I used it but have been lazy since.
As for that PC mag item, I'm sure I can extract the pages one way or another (a bit map at last resort).
You may not believe this in the 21st century. But I've never sent an attachment! Am happy to have a play around and see what I can do.
Amazing. After spending 10 min's typing above, kicked computer power cord out, when got back here post was still live. Is that an example of browser cache at work?
   Haere ra (also goodbye but in this case I'm staying[to read more])

Hi there! I had no idea you were from New Zealand, let alone Māori. How I'd love to travel to your country now in the upcoming months from May through September to escape temps of 40°C+ common to this area during those months! You mentioned "te reo Māori" - does this mean there are several Māori tribes (or something of that nature)? I assume you're familiar with Rugby. I've been a fan of the All Blacks forever. Tell me more about the ceremony they perform before they play. If my assumptions are right about all this, I have some questions for you about Rugby which I don't fully understand, just like I need to ask Bladeshark something about Cricket.

Relax about not sending attachments. Computing is very broad and I am far from familiar with many aspects, you just have to sit down and make mistakes until you get it right. We've all been in that situation. As for the power cord, how easy is it for you to buy a UPS? If it's just a simple desktop and you've using a flat panel monitor (as almost everyone is nowadays), it doesn't have to have all that much capacity. As for the cache question (and I'm not too sure about this), I tend to think it was the forum's software that saved it because you never logged off. As I see it, if your browser's cache did save it to disk but the forum deleted it, then clearly there's a mismatch.

I'm happy to have you around. Hope you'll stay.

topdog

Sorry humb25, I would answer now, but a wave of exhaustion has just hit me and I need to crawl off and collapse.
they call me domesticated ..... I CALL THEM FOOLS !!!

BLADESHARK

Quote from: Ahmad on March 29, 2012, 04:27 AM
First, What is the job of Cache Memory of processors and how does it affect the speed of PC?

Cache (computing), a collection of data duplicating original values stored elsewhere on a computer
CPU cache, a small area of fast memory used by the central processing unit
Disk buffer, the small amount of buffer memory present on a hard drive
Page cache, the cache of disk pages kept by the operating systems, stored in unused main memory
Web cache, a mechanism for the temporary storage of web documents to increase performance
DNS cache, a server in the domain name system which stores queried results for a period of time
P2P caching, a technique used to reduce bandwidth costs for content on peer-to-peer networks
Database caching, a mechanism used to cache database content in multi-tier applications

A CPU cache is a cache used by the central processing unit of a computer to reduce the average time to access memory. The cache is a smaller, faster memory which stores copies of the data from the most frequently used main memory locations. As long as most memory accesses are cached memory locations, the average latency of memory accesses will be closer to the cache latency than to the latency of main memory.

When the processor needs to read from or write to a location in main memory, it first checks whether a copy of that data is in the cache. If so, the processor immediately reads from or writes to the cache, which is much faster than reading from or writing to main memory.

Most modern desktop and server CPUs have at least three independent caches: an instruction cache to speed up executable instruction fetch, a data cache to speed up data fetch and store, and a translation lookaside buffer (TLB) used to speed up virtual-to-physical address translation for both executable instructions and data.

If you need more info:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPU_cache

Quote from: Ahmad on March 29, 2012, 04:27 AM
Second, Is INTEL better or AMD, or no difference ?
This site should answer your questions
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

If you are not onto that in Gaming then go for INTEL, if you are a gaming freak then go for AMD

Quote from: Ahmad on March 29, 2012, 04:27 AM
Third, Regarding motherboards, I like ASUS. But they say here that Gigabyte is the best.
Go for ASUS or INTEL's original motherboards.
�There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven't yet met.�

BLADESHARK

Quote from: humb25 on March 29, 2012, 06:22 AM
I realize Bladeshark is the real expert at all this
I am no expert. I just try to help with my knowledge.

Quote from: humb25 on March 29, 2012, 06:22 AM
HEY BLADESHARK - if my information is inaccurate, please enlighten me.
You are absolutely right.

Quote from: humb25 on March 29, 2012, 06:22 AM
from what I read, in raw speed Intel's i7 is king.
Yeah!! go go go for i7 Ahmad 8)

Quote from: humb25 on March 29, 2012, 06:22 AM
I too have always been a die-hard Asus fan.
Me too :D
�There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven't yet met.�

BLADESHARK

Quote from: topdog on March 29, 2012, 10:52 PM
I have a PDF of that edition of PC World magazine. If I knew what I was doing I would cut the article out and send. If you think it may be of use to you, I will have time tomorrow to experiment. Or could give links to download (60-80 Mb's from memory)
Hello topdog 8)
Why don't you upload the whole PDF on Mediafire or post the download link for every one [like me] to download. We don't get any pc world magazines here. :(
�There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven't yet met.�