First explanations of bus speed technologies... The DDR concept is best explained by taking a walk down memory lane...when it used to be bus cycles were utilized only on the rising side of the cycle. A CPU on the falling edge waited for the next rise in the cycle to work again. DDR was a way to utilize BOTH sides, rising and falling, to in effect yield twice as much bandwidth theoretically. Incidently, DDR isn't actually 2x the bandwidth due to increased latency, but that's a whole other issue. Quad pumped is a technology basically sending two signals in the bus cycle, in rising and falling. I'm no expert, but it's widely known and demonstrated that this does not double the bandwidth again in practice, just as DDR didn't double memory bandwidth either. In this case, the law of diminishing returns played a much heavier role. If quad pumping did increase bandwidth significantly, why are athlons still able to keep up very well against the p4? If quad pumping was that good, Athlons should have been left in the dust. On to what Mobiles are. Athlon Mobiles are basically a prestine silicon sample of Barton core CPU's. For example, the 2500 Mobile is a 1.83Ghz 266MHz bus CPU, which sounds not so great. But the fine print is this - it hits 1.83 GHz at 1.45V! A normal Athlon 2500 needs 1.65V to do 333MHz bus 1.83GHz. The mobile is set to 266MHz FSB only because it's going in a laptop, and it's a compromise to save battery life. IE, it can do 333MHz bus...or 400... ;-) Also, incidentally, its multiplier isn't locked, so that makes overclocking it even more flexible. So basically you set the core voltage to 1.65V or a little more if you're willing to take a small risk, raise the bus speed to 200 (400MHz DDR), and BAM, 2.2GHz or more. They are still socket A, they are Barton cores, so they are compatible with traditional Socket A motherboards. They also have the Barton core, including the same cache, etc. as the regular Athlons that are Bartons. In short, they're overclocking superfreaks! MCSE, MCSA Messaging, baby!

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"Quad pumped is a technology basically sending two signals in the bus cycle, in rising and falling." Exactly. So there for... We look at Quadpumped as if it were DDR. Rising and Falling. But then we look at an Athlon, which isn't quadpumped, so therefor it waits for the next cycle only when it is falling. So it would be like SDR. Quoting Symbios "LOL have you seen benchmarks comparing the 3.2GHz (800FSB) to the Athlon XP 3200+ (400FSB) It makes the 3200+ look like a piece of junk! AMD had better get their butts in gear if they want to compete with Intel!" So apparently there is a difference. Especially seen in benchmarks. I think im going to stick with a Pentium 4 2.4 533FSB. Pentiums seem just so much easier to deal with. It seems like they make more sense..... in may ways. But HeroPsycho.... tell me if you think Im making a mistake.

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Heh, ok now I know Im not making a mistake. Because, I plan to get PC3200 [DDR400] RAM. And Athlons allow no more than 2.1 gigs of bandwidth. Therefor having an Athlon Processor, and at the same time having RAM higher than PC2100 would be pointless. you can read about it here http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1696&p=1 So, I am definitely going to stick with a Pentium 4. I never did like AMD, but now I dont like them even more. :) heheh Thanx peeps. __________-SamZee-__________

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Dude...LOL...if quad pumped was so much better, why doesn't the P4 absolutely SLAUGHTER the 3200? It wins, hands down, but it should totally dog it, which it does not. P4 3.2GHz CPU's beat the Athlon 3200's hands down in performance. That's a rediculous question. We aren't talking about performance, we're talking performance for your money. If you want performance, try comparing an Athlon 64 3200 to the P4 3.2GHz. Now you're talking! But we're building an inexpensive box, are we not? Compare this... Athlon 2500 Mobile...will OC to 2.2GHz 400MHz DDR...$90, giving us an Athlon 3200. We'll add a Thermaltake Volcano 12 to OC it to be fair and consider that cost a wash because the p4 motherboard is WAY more than an Nforce2 motherboard would be. P4 3.2GHz 800MHz FSB...$292. Throw memory bandwidth numbers around all you want. Look at the bottom line. You mean to tell me Doom 3 would run better on that p4 running against that overclocked Athlon with $200 spent on other things...take your pick of the following...a gig of fast RAM compared to 512M (you'd still have $100 left, too)... OR a $200 better graphics card. $200 better would be like a 128M 9800 Pro to an X800 or 6800GT. I'd put my money on the Athlon box!!! MCSE, MCSA Messaging, baby!

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