Baslinux mailing list

[Lee Forrest <lforrestster AT gmail.com>]

On Sun, Dec 17, 2006 at 05:03:24PM -0500, Sheldon Isaac wrote:

> On 17 Dec 2006 at 12:51, Lee Forrest wrote:
>
> > > This one was assembled in fall of 1998, and has had a few
> > > changes since.
> > >
> > > Currently an ASUS P5A mainboard ("super socket 7"), 100MHz
> > > FSB, 450MHz AMD K6- 2, 256Mb, Matrox Productiva AGP video,
> > > about 8 Mb?
> >
> > I know what a mainboard is, and an AMD CPU, and AGP and the
> > 8Mb must be its RAM , but what's "FSB" and what does the
> > "256Mb" refer to?
>
> Oh, sorry, Lee: The video card is I think a Matrox G100
> Productiva; maybe I got it because the name sounded "practical"
> rather than fancy-graphical?
>
> The Front Side Bus is apparently the thing on the motherboard
> that determines how fast things happen. Maybe that board can
> run at a few different speeds - 66Mhz or 85 or whatever.
> (There's something called overclocking, which I never had the
> interest or courage to do - it makes more heat, maybe shortens
> component life.) I thought the nominal speed rating of the
> system RAM is related to that; ie, use at least 100MHz rated
> RAM if the bus is 100MHz?
>
> Somehow the speed of other things is related to that bus speed:
> eg, maybe 33MHz PCI or ISA bus?
>
> 256 megabytes of system memory: the original 64 from Mushkin
> that I got with my 300Mhz, an added 64 that came with the
> second-hand 450MHz processor, and a purchased 128Mb.

Interesting. I know so little about hardware. Now I know a little
more. Thanks, Sheldon.

I have heard of "over-clocking" and added fans and custom heat
sinks and such. Those are for the game players and video file
sharers and so forth for whom downloading the mostest the fastest
is a mark of accomplishment.

I too have no interest in that crap.

Lee