Multi-Processor Boards....?¿

[Foo]

I've been looking around and toying with the idea of investing in a multi-processor system based around athlon MP chips... but the only boards I've found to support them have supported 2 chips and no more. Are there boards out there that will support between 2 and 8 chips? I know they'll be a massive investment but like I said, I'm only TOYING with the idea :D

[AllGamer]

Originally posted by Foo
I've been looking around and toying with the idea of investing in a multi-processor system based around athlon MP chips... but the only boards I've found to support them have supported 2 chips and no more. Are there boards out there that will support between 2 and 8 chips? I know they'll be a massive investment but like I said, I'm only TOYING with the idea :D


yes Asus has a really kick ***** mobo for AMD XP or MP CPUs.

i did not get that one because it only ran ATA 100, and i wanted ATA 133 for my RAID

and i did not want to buy an Additional ATA 133 raid just because of that.

so i went for another board.

but if you do not mind ATA 100 raid, then go for the that AMD x 2 board.

http://usa.asus.com/mb/socketa/a7m266-d/overview.htm

it's a sure buy.

[BipolarBill]

Originally posted by Foo
Are there boards out there that will support between 2 and 8 chips?Boards which support more than 2 CPUs are generally custom-made for server companies. They are indeed very expensive.

http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thundergche.html

[AllGamer]

Originally posted by BipolarBill
Boards which support more than 2 CPUs are generally custom-made for server companies. They are indeed very expensive.

http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thundergche.html


a Way around this is to load either LINUX or Windows Advance Server (NT/2k/XP)
and turn on the feature for Load Balancing, for both network and CPU.

ON all your old pc boxes laying around, to convert them into 1 big processing unit.

:)

that's a cheap way to make a super multiprocesor cruster.


So put those left over XT + 286 + 386 + 486 + 586 + P5 + AMD + CYRIX + PPRO + P2 + P3 + P4 + etc... to good use, if they are just sitting there on storage.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Hmmn - thats a pretty interesting idea that - would give the old 450 Celeron a bit of a boot up the @rse... hmmnn (deep pondering of brain, hamster treading extremely fast, wheel spinning in head, smoke coming out of ears :eek: ) .. i may just look into that ...

--Jakk:t

[evilsaint]

About the A7M266-D, it's great. Aside from my monitor, mouse and keyboard in my freshly built dual athlon system, its the only **** thing to not have any problems yet. Knock on wood.

[otheos]

AMD AthlonMP and chipsets (762/766/8) only support 2-way SMP, so no 4 or more cpu's.

As for motherboards, sorry to say this but the Asus is the poorest choice as it offers the less 32/33 PCI slots and yet requires you to use most of them since it offers no onboard NIC or extra IDE, and on top has no working USB (bug) yet (fixed but Asus is slow?) and ask you to eat one more 32/33 with that additional PCI USB card.

Since you all know by know that using 33Mhz cards on the 64/66 slots kills the halves the bandwidth between north and southbridge, using up the 3 33/32 slots with a Sound card, USB and NIC, leaves you little room to expand.

The best representation should come from Tyan (TigerMPX-4m) with onboard 3Com NIC, fixed USB and 4 32/33 PCI slots, it leaves room for expansion and on top Tyan has the longest AMD SMP experience.

Gigabyte and MSI, as well as Epox offer great solutions for "overclocking" and so does the new Iwill MPX2 (don't let the name confuse you, it's still the same chipset).

So avoid the Asus and you'll be fine :)

[BobyJo]

None of you guys mentioned the Epox M762a.
This mobo is one of the best MP systems out at present.
A little expensive and I have heard that no MPX systems OC well at all.
But witht he bandwidth of this system, why need for OC'ing?
The M762a is a new design MP MB, really worth looking into.
From my readings the Epox is far above the ASUS A7M266-D MB in all area's.

[otheos]

True, the EPoX is one of the best. I did mention it
Gigabyte and MSI, as well as Epox

but it's harder to find and the Tyan, while oc unfriendly is atm the highest recommended board. Given the choice I'd go for the Epox too. While the MPX chipset craps out at 150Mhz FSB, overclocking such a box is not really a good idea as its main use would demand stability and error free operation.

[BobyJo]

I did not see the bottom part of the post where you did mention these other mobo's.
The newest Epox has been completely redesigned and is trully one of the best around.
The AMD chipset is the best MPX chipset available, too bad they gave up on the single cpu chipset due to the cost.
They have the best idea, of how to manage the Athon CPU's.

[lito pospos]

Epox m762a the design for me is good in term of multi processor the way processor supply.
each processor have separate or independent power supply or pps processor power supply that’s good , its is must better if the processor power supply is in module type and must more better if they use scsi instead ide .