Just Two Nerds

Introduction

Choosing a CPU/processor and motherboard is one of the most important decisions, if not THE most important, that you will make when building your new system. If you are new to building a system, then the number of choices that are out there can be overwhelming. Do you purchase a Socket AM2 AMD CPU, or an Intel LGA 775 CPU? Do you purchase a motherboard with an nForce or Intel chipset? My goal is to make these questions easy to answer with this article, and to make researching future purchases easier. As a reference, I will include links throughout the article to sites (like Wikipedia) that give a little more information on terms that I use.

The CPU

Choosing a processor today is different from how it was 4 years ago. Historically, most people have looked at clock speed alone when choosing a processor. Because of changes in processor architectures and design, clock speeds are no longer the major indicator that they have been in the past. The new keyword when looking at a processor is efficiency. Instead of looking at how many operations are performed per second, processor design is moving towards reducing the number of clock cycles it takes to finish an operation. Intel?s newest processor, the Core 2 Duo/Quad, gets better performance per clock cycle than its previous chip designs by increasing efficiency.

Another new innovation in processor design has been multiple cores. For example, a CPU that is referred to as dual core is essentially two complete processors on one chip. This innovation is made available by manufacturing techniques that have vastly decreased transistor size (the transistor is the building block of CPUs). Current processors use a 65 nm manufacturing process to place multiple cores in the same space used by a single core in earlier manufacturing processes.

Other features to take into consideration when researching CPUs are cache size, front-side bus speed, and memory type. Cache is memory used by the CPU to store instructions, and is faster to access than conventional system memory. In most cases, a bigger cache size is best. The front-side bus is essentially the interface between the CPU and system RAM, which I will talk about in the Motherboard section. The memory type is an important consideration, since newer DDR2 memory provides more bandwidth with less of a voltage draw.

The two major players in the CPU market are Intel and AMD. The latest and greatest CPUs from these companies are the Intel Core 2 Duo and the AMD Athlon 64 X2.

The Motherboard

After you have chosen a CPU, it?s time to start looking for a motherboard that supports it. Besides the CPU, choosing a motherboard is the most important decision that you will make when building your system. Motherboards are categorized by socket or LGA, which is the interface between the CPU and the board itself. Before I continue talking about boards, here are some terms that are typically thrown out:

• Northbridge - Typically controls communication between the CPU, memory (for Intel systems), graphics controller, and the southbridge.
• Southbridge - Typically controls communication between I/O devices (Hard Drives, DVD/CD Drives), USB ports, Firewire ports, PCI slots, Integrated Audio (AC ?97), and other system management functions.
• Chipset - Refers to the combination of the northbridge and southbridge on a motherboard. Today, the main chipset designs are produced by AMD/ATI, Intel, and Nvidia with SIS and VIA also producing designs.
• BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) - Firmware that is executed when the computer is first powered on. CPU, Memory, and other hardware parameters are usually set from the BIOS setup program.

In the past buying a motherboard was simple. If you were building an Intel machine you went with a board based on an Intel chipset, and if you were building an AMD system you were probably buying a motherboard based on a VIA chipset. Today, there are many options available if you are putting together a system. Here are the most popular chipsets based on processor types:

• LGA 775 (Core 2 Duo)
  • NVIDIA nForce 680i - High performance chipset with full x16 SLI support and great overclocking ability.
  • NVIDIA nForce 650 SLI - Mainstream chipset with good overclocking abilities, but only supports x8 SLI.
  • Intel 975 - Intel?s flagship chipset. High price, but packed with features.
  • Intel 965 - More affordable chipset, with many of the same features of the 975.
• Socket AM2 (Athlon 64 X2)
  • NVIDIA nForce 590 - Flagship AMD chipset from Nvidia.
  • ATI?s CrossFire Xpress 3200 - Flagship AMD Chipset from ATI.

In addition to looking at chipsets, here are some important features that are included with motherboards:

• DDR2 Memory - This is the standard memory used in modern systems. This memory is not compatible with older DDR memory. I recommend at least 1GB of DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) memory. (This topic alone is enough for a seperate article)
• PCI Express x16 - The new standard for graphics cards.
• SLI/Crossfire - Uses 2 graphics cards to achieve higher performance than with one graphics card. Supported by most modern chipsets to varying degrees.
• USB (Universial Serial Bus) - Used by external devices such as as keyboards, mice, printers, and digital cameras. Look for motherboards that support USB 2.
• Firewire/IEEE 1394 - Used by external devices such as digital video cameras and external hard drives.
• Serial ATA - New interface for connecting internal hard drives. Boards that support 3.0 Gbits/sec are favorable, but not required.
• eSATA - External Serial ATA interface used by newer external hard drives. Higher performance than USB and Firewire.
• Parallel ATA - Older interface still used by many DVD/CD drives and hard drives. If you plan on using older devices, this is a good feature to look for.

If these chipsets weren?t enough to look at, many manufacturers create different designs based on the same chipsets. In these cases, it?s good to look at benchmarks and reviews as well as the features that are included with the board. Here are some popular board manufacturers:

• ABIT
• ASUS
• Biostar
• Foxconn
• Gigabyte
• MSI

Choosing a CPU/Motherboard Combination

I grouped these two components together in this article because choosing a CPU directly affects what motherboard you can purchase and vice-versa.

For me, the clear cut CPU choice is the Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 ($316 from Newegg). The E6600 is the upper-midrange CPU with a 4 MB L2 Cache, 1066 Mhz Front-Side Bus, and is also Dual Core.While I would have recommended AMD processors in the past, Intel has taken a huge step forward with the Core 2 Duo. The benchmarks and reviews definitely show a clear advantage with the Intel, except in budget systems where the price to performance is slightly in AMD?s favor. Also, make sure to purchase a retail CPU instead of OEM unless you are going to buy an aftermarket heatsink/fan. For a comparison and more information about Intel and AMD CPUs, check out these sites:

• Extremetech Roundup
• Toms Hardware Compairison
  
• ITP.net

The motherboard selection definitely is not as easy as choosing a CPU. With the wide selection, I looked at the features that I wanted (eSATA, DDR2 800 support, midrange price Quad Core Support for upgrades in the future) and chose the ASUS P5N-E SLI. This board is not for everyone though, especially for those that are looking for full x16 SLI support. Because the board uses the NVIDIA 650 SLI, it is great for one PCI Express x16 graphics card but not for two. I like to be on the cutting edge (without spending too much), so the wide variety of tweaking options is great for the time when I test out the overclocking features (still haven?t decided on that, but its nice to know that the possibility is there). A disadvantage of being on the cutting edge is the lack of testing for this first generation board. There are a few issues that are (hopefully) being worked on with BIOS updates.

If you find that this board is not for you, there are a TON of other choices. I would look at these sites for further guidance on the available options:

• Boot Daily Intel 975/965 Roundup
• Foxconn nForce 590 Review by Guru3D
  
• AnandTech P965 Roundup

Conclusion

I hope this article has given you at least a small understanding of CPUs and motherboards as they stand in today?s market. I admit that I have given the Intel Core 2 Duo a lot more consideration, and have not written much about the AMD offerings. As the market changes, there is a good chance that AMD will come back out on top again. If that happens, I will probably do an update with a focus on AMD technology.

Just to recap, my choices are the Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 and the ASUS P5N-E SLI. After I am finished buying other components, I will be sure to post my experiences and post benchmarks. Until then, I will keep more informative articles like this coming. Next stop, DDR2 memory? (maybe)