The myth about RAM and CPU’s
I remember when I had my computer custom built I was pretty happy with it, Pentium 4 processor with hyper threading technology plus 1GB of RAM. Those specs where pretty high for that time and having it custom built I saved over $500.
But just a year ago when I upgraded to Vista I noticed that the computer was having performance issues. Naturally I would expect that the CPU and RAM could handle Vista basic, after all the clock speed of the CPU had a clock speed of 3.4GHz and the 1GB RAM should be more then capable of handling Vista Basic because it was lacking all the Aero effects.
What was even more puzzling was the fact that my Toshiba Laptop which was only pumping out 1.6GHz per core (Intel Core Duo) was beating the desktop in performance. So that got me to thinking and after doing some research I found my error.
The reason I decided to do an article about this is I have gotten the question many times. What should I look for in terms of performance when buying a laptop or desktop? To answer the question the three major things one should look for, (in order of importance), CPU architecture, RAM and GPU.
Clock speed is not the only thing that defines how good a computer is. In fact a Core Duo processor running at 2.4GHz cannot out do the performance of a 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo processor. The major reason is the architecture of both chips. The Core 2 Duo has a higher front end bus speed than that of the former chip. To put it in simple words, although the clock performance of the Core Duo is higher, the information is not being passed through the circuit board at a faster rate.
This is why you should always check the front end bus speed of a chip before you make a decision. The only time it is important to compare clock speeds is when it applies to the same type of chip. Otherwise it will be like comparing apples and oranges.
The second thing is RAM (random access memory). You might see these terms floating around the place, especially if you spend a lot of time looking at the specs of laptops and desktops, DDR, DDR2 and DDR3. If you guessed that each version is an upgrade to the former than you are right. Currently DDR is almost obsolete. You are more likely to see DDR2 and DDR3 in a computer system.
Now this is the part that fools a lot of people. They think that they are getting a better system because they can buy a laptop with 4GB of DDR2 RAM for a lot less than a system that comes with 2GB of DDR3. Unfortunately that is not the case. Again this lies in the possessing speed.
1GB of DDR3 RAM can processes up between 800–1600 MHz (usually you’ll find them in the 1066 region). On the other hand, 1GB of DDR2 only processes between 400–1066 MHz (again the general clock speed for them is 677MHz).
So as you can see if you buy a computer that has 2GB of DDR3 and can be expanded to 4GB, it might be a little more but it will give you much better performance over a system that is maxed out with 4GB of DDR2 RAM.
So the rule of thumb in RAM is 2GB of DDR2 generally equals 1GB of DDR3 in terms of performance.
These should be some helpful tips to consider when you purchase your next laptop or desktop.
