Originally Posted By: daves66nova
Is there a list of cpu's,from oldest to newest type? Such as celeron,p3,p4,etc?
Dave don't take this the wrong way, but Quattro Pete is right. Based on the questions you're asking, you just don't have enough savvy to put together your own system. Its non big deal. Not everyone is enough of a tech geek to build from scratch.
That Pentium D you posted is was released sometime in 2006, that's not really much of an upgrade from what you have.
Wiki is your friend when looking at Intel CPU architecture.
Of those you listed though:
Celerons haven't been released since 2009ish and are just cut down versions of other CPUs with smaller cache etc.
PIII is very outdated (2001 ish last time they were relevant) though the PIII architecture led to the development of the Pentium M which in turn was the architecture Intel used for their Core and Core2 CPUs after abandoning the Netburst architecture of the P4 (Pentium D etc).
P4 was a dead-end from the get go. While powerful enough at the time the Netburst had serious limitations in terms of future expansion for speed along with a host of other issues (like thermal dissipation).
We're currently in the Intel Core i-series for the standard everyday processor. i3, i5, i7 all multicore processors.
The previous generation was the Core2 which were also multicore CPUs. An offshoot of the Core2 architecture was the lower end Intel Pentium Dual Core which was a Core2 architecture with a smaller cache and lower front side bus than its more powerful cousins.
Of course beyond just the P4, Core2 etc then you get into things like Wolfdale, Coppermine, and other names that all relate to the CPUs manufacturing process i.e. how man nanometers the fabrication process is which dictates thermal dissipation characteristics.
For example in the current i-series lineup you have:
Arrandale, Sandy Bridge, and Clarksfield for the different CPU cores available
Current hardware in my house consists of:
Laptops with: 1.6GHz Pentium M, 2GHz TurionX2, 2GHz Pentium Dual Core
Desktops with: Core2 Duo 2.57GHz overclocked to 3.1 with a 3MB L2 Cache, a P4 Northwood running at 3GHz IIRC
To build your own system you need a basic understanding of the following.
Motherboard design:
1) what socket (pin pattern) it uses which must match the socket type of the CPU you buy
2) what speeds of front side bus does the board support as you must match that to the CPU's FSB
3) What chips are being used for the north and south bridge as some are better than others and allow for different capabilities
4) Hard drive and DVD burner connections - moot point most things are SATA today. However, you do need to decide on what speed of hard drive you want (RPM spin rate) or will you go with a solid state disk.
5) RAM - how much will the board support and of what type? DDR2 DDR3. What speed? DDR2 for example comes in 533,667,800,1066. Also you don't need to but is nice to know about latency ratings and timings when buying RAM to get the best bang for the buck
6) Onboard graphics or a separate video card. Your choice, it depends on what you're looking to do. If you choose onboard you're looking at offerings from Intel, Nvidia, and ATI (the Nvidia boards from what I remember have always been rated the best). If you go separate card, they're all now pretty much PCI-e so then its a matter of choosing what level of performance you need out of the card and what kind of connections.
7) Audio - most boards have onboard audio that while not great is sufficient for most peoples needs.
8) A host of other things I'm probably forgetting such as which companies generally produce the most reliable ram or making sure you buy a proper CPU cooler if it doesn't come with one.
9) Oh yes, and how comfortable are you fiddling with BIOS settings to get things working right.
In summary, if what I have written has confused you, you need to educate yourself on these things before building a machine otherwise you're going to end up with a pile of parts that may or may not actually work together.
You've been asking questions that are so, well rudimentary when it comes to attempting to build your own PC that it seems you're in over your head. You've also been asking about hardware that is 5+ years out of date (the Pentium D you linked to).
Just buy a premade box from someone and save yourself the trouble. I'm sure there are plenty of people that if you gave them a budget target would be happy to recommend a good machine with decent specs within that budget.
