What is more important, bus speed or processor speed?

Question

I'm looking at notebook computers and have narrowed it down to two comparable machines. The main difference betwen them is that the one with the faster processor has a slower bus speed. Between the two machines, there is no significant difference in price (maybe $100 at the most for the one with the slower processor but the faster bus)

Which would you go with and why?

Answer 1

Not enough information and here is why. If the two processors were the exact same model (both Core 2 Duos, both Turions, etc) then I would probably say the faster processor, but it would depend on how much faster, and how much slower the speed was. BUT, I suspect that these might be two different models, my guess is one is a Core Duo, and the other a Core 2 Duo. If they are different processors, simply comapring processor and bus speeds goes out the window, there are numerous other factors like cache size and IPC that can affect performance. Post the exact names of the processors, or email or instant message them to me, and I can give you an exact answer on which is better.

Answer 2

Processor Bus Speed

Answer 3

To answer the question, processor speed usually has a bigger impact on performance. This is of course assuming you're talking about speeds no more than one rating apart- i.e. 667Mhz FSB vs 800, or 800 vs 1066.

Higher FSB speed allows for the use of faster RAM and leeway for overclocking, but in practical terms for systems running at stock speeds, the speed gain from moving to the next higher FSB speed is only about 3% per step. Where FSB makes a bigger difference is when dealing with the very high-end processors, like quad-cores in servers.

For desktops and notebooks, you'd see a bigger performance boost in choosing an E6400 over an E6300, or for AMD cpus, taking an Athlon X2 4600 over a 4200...

Answer 4

You don't give enough information to give you an answer. FSB can be supported, but it doesn't mean the computer runs at that speed. Lots of newer computers support 1000MHz and or 800MHz FSB, but run at 400MHz. All you are really telling us is that one of the MOTHERBOARDS supports faster FSB. FSB is controlled by the motherboard. CPU, RAM and motherboard must ALL support the highest speed in order to obtain that. FSB will only run as fast as the SLOWEST of the three in the chain.

Also, CPU frequency is is directly related to computer speed, but with newer double core and soon to be quad core processors, higher frequency does not always mean faster.

The best thing I could tell you, is match the computer to your needs. Which one suits you best, for whatever reason and choose that system.

Answer 5

it is very important thing the combination of processor & bus
the work of bus in computer tranfer the data one device to another device. mother to storage devices and ram
when the processor prosses the data very fastly (10 mb per second) it is depend on the bus how much data can be traveled by the bus if processor speed is 100 mbps but ur bus can be transfer data 10 mbps it is nor good communication. it should be good communication.

I am new in YAahoo Answers plz give me 10 points

Answer 6

the bus speed is the rate information is transfered between computer components, if the bus speed on the cpu is 1000mhz and the bus is lower, information only transfers as fast as the bus.

Answer 7

Don't go lower than an 800 front side bus, everything remaining equal.

Answer 8

mother board controls bus speed.

Answer 9

clock speed, cache, and bus speed