L2 Cache & Front Side Bus

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mark4man

mark4man

MoonMix Studios
Thinking about upgrading to a new Dell for Digital Audio work (PC based multitrack recording, sampling & sequencing.) The machine I looked at sports a 2GB P4 CPU, with I believe a 512KB L2 Cache; & a 533MHz Front Side Bus on the motherboard. My questions are:
1) What is the Level 2 Cache (how does it work; & how is it different from memory)?

2) Is the Front Side Bus the same animal as the PCI Bus?

As a general inquiry, how will these two items be more beneficial in recording audio to the PC?

Thanks in advance.

mark4man
 
First off, I personally wouldn't buy a Dell, or any name brand PC for that matter, to do audio work. I can build one with better parts cheaper with more options for "TWEAKING". With that said, L2 cache is memory that works with the processor. It stores frequently used instructions so the processor has faster access to them. The FSB is the main connection between CPU and memory(RAM) It's not really the same thing as the PCI bus. PCI bus operates at 33Mhz, 66Mhz or 133Mhz. A large cache is always good. I have a sever I built at work for running SQL server. It's a quad Xeon 700Mhz. Thing is, each processor has 2MB cache on chip. Things were $4000 each. A faster front side bus means that your PC will have more memory bandwidth. This definately comes into play when doing processor intense operations like DSP and encoding.
 
These are relatively unimportant statistics really. L2 cache is processor dependent, so you can ignore it and simply go with the fastest processor of the brand you chose (e.g. P4 or Athlon). (although as stated above, there are special varieties of certain processors, like Intel's Xeon, that have different specs, but for a DAW, we're just concerned about consumer grade processors)

The FSB, as described above, is for all intents and purposes the actual bandwidth available to the processor. It used to be easy in that it was simply the speed between the processor and memory, but things have gotten a little more complex, especially since Intel and AMD are no longer using the same architecture. However, we can simply say that the higher the FSB figure, the more data that can be passed to and from the processor, regardless of the platform.

The FSB is only a moderately important figure. Just about any machine today is going to have memory bandwidth in the 266 (low end DDR) to 533+ (RDRAM) range, and the difference between RDRAM and DDR performance in the real world has not been significant. RDRAM costs more than DDR, so it might be worth your while to look into a system with DDR, which companies will advertise with FSB speeds of 266Mhz (PC2100), 300Mhz (PC2400), 333Mhz (PC2700), or 366Mhz (PC3000). Both intel and AMD systems are available with DDR (but only Intel uses RDRAM).

Now, since you're buying a complete system, the price difference between DDR and RDRAM might not be that significant. If you get a reasonable P4 system with RDRAM, that's just fine and dandy, it'll work great for you. If you get a P4 system that uses any DDR, then that's just fine and dandy - it'll work great for you as well! Just don't get a system that uses regular SDR SDRAM (e.g. PC133).

On a side note, DDR = "double data rate" and SDR = "single data rate"...although my acronym recollection has been known to be a little off at times :) DDR memory is basically the same beast as SDR, except that data can move on both sides of the clock tick. So an SDR module running at 133Mhz gets 133 million clock ticks per second, and gets 133 million chances to speak its mind. A "266Mhz" DDR module, on the other hand, also only gets 133 million clock ticks (133Mhz) per second, but gets twice as many, or 266 million, opportunities to talk. Everything that the processor is going to process is going to be moved to and from the system memory, so if you don't have enough bandwidth, the processor can starve, and you won't realize it's full capability. How much bandwidth is necessary in most cases? Not yet the standard 533Mhz that RDRAM offers. DDR at 333Mhz (166Mhz x 2) is probably a safe bet.

Often times people sweat these somewhat insignificant figures when building a DAW....mostly because manufacturers blow these figures at us as if that's what makes the huge difference in performance....like if you're not careful you'll get a 2.5Ghz P4 with a smaller than normal L2 cache or something, which just isn't possible. It is good that you're looking into these things, the more you know the better, but I hope you concentrate on the big specs first (e.g. get as much processor as you can afford, at least 512MB of whatever memory the system uses, one or two good 7200RPM hard drives, maybe a nice Geforce4 video card, etc)

Slackmaster 2000
 
Thanks...

Thanks HangDawg & Slackmaster2K.

mark4man
 
Go over to www.amdmb.com and absorb all the good info.

I use the ABit KG7 board, AMD XP-2100, Matrox G450 video card, and the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card in all my client machines. This combination is rock solid and stable under Win2000/SP2.

The KG7 board is at end of life, and I'm looking at using the ABit KD7 board. I don't like VIA chipsets, but the AMD chipsets are going away when the KG7 line becomes obsolete. A real shame.

You can overpay for an Intel processsor, or get a less expensive AMD that will outperform the Intel.

When you buy memory, a single 512mb stick is less problematic than a pair of 256mb sticks. Win2000 requires 128mb for loading the kernel, etc, so 256mb is the minimum for business machine usage. If you are doing editing, etc that requires a lot of memory, consider the 512mb sticks, or even two of them. Memory is dirt cheap right now, and will get more expensive if/when the economy turns around.

I use Crucial memory exclusively. It works. System building is my business, and I cannot afford to use unreliable parts.
 
bgavin,

Thanks.

How much of a performance & audio quality difference are we talking here (between a customized setup & a top-of-the-line major brand PC?) To me, one of the only advantages in customization is being able to select the chipset, but what would be the disadvantage of having the new Intel® 850E chipset?

Now, I guess my main question would be (since you seem knowledgeable in these areas): The new Dell's have a PCI Bus speed of 33 MHz. That's no faster than my existing machine, which I purchased in 1999. If I go with a custom machine, can that be increased? How much does it matter (I know the PCI Bus is important for sound card DSP functionality, but is 33MHz enough?)

Thanks in advance.

mark4man
 
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