Single or Dual cpu?

[nojo]

As I replied in "Hardware".
Which is a better way to go, single or dual cpu configuration?
Right now I have a dual boot with MDK7.2 and Winblows 98. And since my MB crapped out this is a good excuse to upgrade.
So what do you think, guys? :D

[DrDebian]

Originally posted by nojo:
As I replied in "Hardware".
Which is a better way to go, single or dual cpu configuration?
Right now I have a dual boot with MDK7.2 and Winblows 98. And since my MB crapped out this is a good excuse to upgrade.
So what do you think, guys? :D

The same happened to me 2 years ago, which was why I decided to get myself a
real motherboard this time. Behold, the GigaByte GA6-BXDS (http://www4.gigabyte.com.tw/products/ga6bxdsp.htm)!

In the beginning, I used 2 SMP-modified Celeron-300a processors, overclocked to 450 MHz. The system was flaky however, so I decided to get 2 P2-350 instead. The performance was excellent (under Linux and WinNT4).

Last month, I decided to max this board out, replacing the 2 P2s with 2 P3-550 processors and upgrading the RAM to a total of 512 MB.

All in all, this board is really great, with its great stability, SMP support, onboard-dual-channel-SCSI and loads of other goodies. I wouldn't want to be without SMP anymore.

[nojo]

What would be the real benefit in using SMP, better game machine? Or such as a better server functions? :confused:

[Beowulf_Ghost]

SMP is nice, if your OS and software support it. Exact benchamrks are hard to figure out.

But from my experience With Linux (and FreeBSD) and dual Celeron 533's, is that the system tends to be more responsive. You always have that extra CPU to throw processes on. Compiling stuff, and running X, and playing mp3's, without missing a beat.

With BeOS, it simply screems. I don't wait for anything except the hard drive (next on my upgrade list), and I have to go out of my way to load the system down.

Now I just have to wait for dual Athlons ::drool::

[ph34r]

DrDebian - you still have those 350's? Interested in selling one of them?

[DrDebian]

Originally posted by ph34r:
DrDebian - you still have those 350's? Interested in selling one of them?

Sorry, I sold them a few days ago. But I'll let you know once I sell my 2 P3-550 processors. :)

[ph34r]

Heh. I've got a single p2-350 in a dual board capable of holding 2 p3-550's (or more with bios updates)... just can't wait to go SMP...

[DrDebian]

Originally posted by ph34r:
Heh. I've got a single p2-350 in a dual board capable of holding 2 p3-550's (or more with bios updates)... just can't wait to go SMP...

If I were you, I'd really get one of those "old" CPUs fast! They really are running out of stock with all those GHz things popping up!

[CanadaMan]

Getting back to nojo's question:

It depends on what you want to do. Since you've got winblows I'm guessing you play a lot of games. If so, get a real fast single CPU. Games don't use more than one.

If you're doing compiling, serving, or another task that supports multiprocessing or multithreading (not the same thing) you're in luck. Or if you want to run multiple CPU-intensive tasks a dual CPU machine is good. It can run applications on different CPUs.

The bad news is bandwidth. Each CPU has to share the same memory bus. So if you need lots of memory bandwidth it might not be such a good choice. At least wait for a DDR board. They're due soon.

Remember, Win9X can't use more than one CPU. And you'll need a bigger power supply (300W+) and lots of cooling.

There's lots of info out there. Start at www.BP6.com. (http://www.BP6.com.) Gigabyte has a new board (6vxcd7?) that's much better.

[HuggyBear]

http://www6.tomshardware.com/mainboard/01q1/010201/index.html

Good article on two boards but can be related to all.

Huggy

[Beowulf_Ghost]

BP6 user;

You will need the a bigger power supply. I put my BP6 on a 250W power supply, and I didn't do anything but give me the over-heating siren.

Expect to get another power supply (~$40)

[DrDebian]

Originally posted by Beowulf_Ghost:
BP6 user;

You will need the a bigger power supply. I put my BP6 on a 250W power supply, and I didn't do anything but give me the over-heating siren.

Expect to get another power supply (~$40)

I had power supply problems as well, which is why I got myself a LeadMan 400W power supply. It is recommended for almost all AMD Athlon processors as well as all dual-CPU setups.