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Question about GHz Vs MHz.

L

Ladychyde13

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 2, 2004
3
0
What's the difference between GHz and MHz? If GHz is higher is ther anyway to upgrade an MHz to a GHz?



Alana :confused:
 
hmmm shouldn't it be 1Ghz = 1024 Mhz?

The whole 1000 v's 1024 thing is so confusing. Especially when peopel ask why they cannot fit 40 gig on their iPod
 
Doesn't work like that for clock speeds.

Processor speed comes from the BUS speed x the multiplier on the CPU itself.
For example, for a 400MHz G4 on a 100MHz BUS, the multiplier on the G4 would be 4 (4x100=400).
 
No worries Peter... simple mistake :)

Upgrading from Mhz to Ghz in a way is possible.. buy a new processor... easily done on a PC... upgrade cards are required on macs... see Sonnet Tech or PowerLogix websites (Google it)
 
PeterBonnar said:
hmmm shouldn't it be 1Ghz = 1024 Mhz?

The whole 1000 vs 1024 thing is so confusing. Especially when peopel ask why they cannot fit 40 gig on their iPod
Click to expand...

I have no idea why this is, but for every 1000 bytes you have, you get an extra 24

So a megabyte would be 1024 x 1024, a gigabyte would be 1024x1024x1024.

This is why when you look at your hard drive you may see 160,000,000,000Bytes or 148.92GB.

Hard drive manufacturers use this fact to make smaller capacity hard drives and advertise them as larger. For instance, when you buy a 160GB HD, you're actually getting 148.92 (in fine print it says 160GB =160 billion bytes, so as to be legal).
 
In clock speeds 1000Mhz = 1Ghz
In RAM or HD size 1024MB = 1GB

Because computers work in base 2 (1 = on, 0 = off) and 1024 = 2^10.

People cannot fit 40GB in an iPod since the actual formatted capacity is less than 40GB, even if the disk itself can contain 40GB of files. Think of it as the space needed at the beginning of the disk to have an index of all files there to be able to find files faster (this is not technically correct, but it gives you an idea).
 
kenkooler said:
In clock speeds 1000Mhz = 1Ghz
In RAM or HD size 1024MB = 1GB

Because computers work in base 2 (1 = on, 0 = off) and 1024 = 2^10.

People cannot fit 40GB in an iPod since the actual formatted capacity is less than 40GB, even if the disk itself can contain 40GB of files. Think of it as the space needed at the beginning of the disk to have an index of all files there to be able to find files faster (this is not technically correct, but it gives you an idea).
Click to expand...

That's half of the answer. The other half of the answer is that companies use 1000MB=1GB so the advertised size of the HDD is smaller than it's actual size.


-Lethal
 
Thanks

thanks for letting me know about MHz & GHz and that all I need is a card to upgrade, my G4 works just fine and I don't have the money to buy a new one.


Alana :)
 
LethalWolfe said:
That's half of the answer. The other half of the answer is that companies use 1000MB=1GB so the advertised size of the HDD is smaller than it's actual size.
Click to expand...

you do mean that the advertized hd size is larger than it actually is, right? :) the nice exception for this rule is hitachi, which very often gives something between the two - for example, a friend of mine bought a "80GB" rated hard drive, which should normally be 74,5GB real life capacity, but the hitachi was a 78GB drive when formatted. of course, that's not much, but a nice exception anyway ;)
 
4 Discs

In Media, (i.e. HD's or DVD-R's) capicity on the box is decimal, where as formated capacity (what your 'puter sees) is binery.

In other words a 40GB HD is 40000MB or 40000000KB (decimal)

But

Binary (base 2) Bytes are bigger (numericly) so they look like less. But if ur OS handled everything in Decimal (base 10) it would see the HD as 40GB instead of the 37ish Gig you get.

Modems confuse people in the same way as theyr speeds are in Kbps . Kilo bits per second and as a bit is 8X smaller than a Byte (8 bits in a Byte) and computers tend not to like displaying somthing so small you get people whyning "Y can i only download at 4.8 - 5.2 KB/s when my moden is 56Kb/s" or complain to the DSL company that theit DSL line is only downloading at 56KBps when DSL is supused to be 10X faster than Dial-up.

Sorry bout the rant tough day @office.
 
slipper said:
i almost laughed when i saw the topic title, basic math buddy.
Click to expand...


There was no math involved in the initial question. It was simply what is the diff between a MHz and a GHz. No need to be condescending. The average person shouldn't need to know the diff. This is partly why AMD stopped branding their CPU's with speed numbers and simply went to model numbers. Intel was kicking the crap out of them because of the Mhz myth even though AMD's CPU's kicked the snot out of Intel's.
I find it highly ironic that Intel is now doing the same thing with their Pentium M line: Dropping the CPU speed rating and going with model numbers. I somewhat expect this practice to become very commonplace as we approach the clock wall. Like it or not we are getting to the point where x86 and PPC aren't going to be able to push the clock much farther. Why do you think there is so much talk about multi-core CPU's?
So at the end of the day Alana doesn't need to know the diff other then possibly knowing the minimum system specs for software. Other then that *shrugs* Its a geek thing.
 
upgrading

I'll have you know, I upgraded my old sawtooth from single 450MHz to dual 1.2 GHz. best thing I ever did for it. I got another year plus out of my old video work horse. I dont have the money for a G5 and really don't have the money to take all 5 internal HDD's and convert them to external enclosures. The best thing to really do was to keep upgrading my sawtooth. It runs great, I can play BF1942 (granted i have the radeon 8500) but its a great and SOMETIMES cost efficient way to keep a computer alive. I know it was a casual joke, but hey its a great solution for some people when you have soo much invested into a tower. The iMac on the other hand, usually best to just upgrade to a newer machine.
 
JFreak said:
for example, a friend of mine bought a "80GB" rated hard drive, which should normally be 74,5GB real life capacity, but the hitachi was a 78GB drive when formatted. of course, that's not much, but a nice exception anyway ;)
Click to expand...

It can also depend on the file system you format your drive with.
 
FuzzyBallz said:
What do you think this is, a PC? If you're gonna upgrade a Mac CPU, might as well get a new Mac.
Click to expand...


I'm actually pretty impressed with the ZIF card CPU upgrades that are available for macs. I always thought that macs couldn't be upgraded easily but being able to throw a 1 ghz card into a G3 from 1998 is pretty amazing. The best I was able to do with my PC was a 500mhz to 1 Ghz upgrade and I couldn't even tell the difference in speed so I sold it 2 months later and bought a whole new 2.4 ghz system.
 
you get an extra 24 bytes because it keeps doubling
2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024
 
grapes911 said:
It can also depend on the file system you format your drive with.
Click to expand...
As an experiment to prove this, try formatting an external HD (that you aren't using of course) four different ways (all from Disk Utility):
1. Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
2. Mac OS Extended
3. MS-DOS File System
4. UNIX File System
and compare the available space reported in each format. They should all be different.
 
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