dual processor motherboard?

[Ramrod]

I am currently running a SuperMicro P6DNF mother board with two 200 mhz Pentium Pro processors. My OS is Windows 98. I was told by a friend that 98 would recognize and utilize a dual processor but so far no go. My system acknowledges the second processor in startup but there is no noticeable change in processor speed. I think my friend is mistaken. Do I need to upgrade my BIOS to make use of the extra processor or do I need to buy Win NT and do a dual boot, cross my fingers and pray it works... OR, since I'll want to buy the pro overdrive to get my chip speed to 333 mhz, and I need an AGP slot for any of the cool 3d cards coming out, can I fix the problem by buying a new motherboard with a faster bus speed and built in SCSI? I'll end up with another board in the next 6 months regardless... Still it would be nice to use that second chip before then. Please do not tell me to wait for Win2K! What board would you recommend I upgrade to? Thanks in advance.

[Bud]

The only operating systems that I know of that will use multi processors are. Win NT
OS2 and unix.
Bud

[DManly]

Dual boot works well (win9x & NT) but anytine you use your win9x the second proccesor is just along for the ride. One thing to remember about the P6 chips is that they are optimized to run full 32 bit code, meaning that when running the mixed win9x 16 bit and 32 bit code they are slower than a regular pentium cpu. They beg for NT!

BTW if you do set it up to use NT make sure that you edit the registy if you are running more than 256k L2 cache as NT defaults to 256k & will not reconize 512k, 1 or 2 meg without a bit of help.

Just a second thought, if you have fairly decent coolers on your CPU's they should overclock fine to 233 which I can attest to makes a noticable difference.

The overdrive proccesors are another way to go, but at about $500 a pop it's not cheap!

Good luck with it http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif Send me a email if you need any more info

[Josh]

I have two sugestions:

Linux...And....RC5.

heheheh...More Keys...hehehe

I would nix the idea of an overdrive processor, and just save your money until you are ready to upgrade to a new system.
If you must use the second processor then dual booting with NT workstation is definately an option for you. Without NT your second processor is useless, of Course you could load linux or some variant thereof to take advantage of your second processor, if you are feeling adventurous that is. Ideally this system is not that great if you are looking for future upgradeability and or gameplay. If you have upgrading in mind save your money and buy new mobo, processor, and ram in a few months.

Josh

[This message has been edited by Josh (edited 02-01-99).]