Dual Processor suggestion

[Duff]

I'm about to move to a SMP setup with P3 750's. I was going to get an Asus P2B but should I look at 8xx chipset board? Is it worth it.

Thanks

[xtremsabu]

Dual processors what up with people and dual processors. I don't think Win98 support dual processing i know NT does. Also most games and apps don't take advantage of dual processing i heard so whats the point? Do you really get a big differencE?? I think dual processing probably will never be used to its full potential. I have no idea man don't know much about dual processing expect that it not be taking advantage more and i don't think it will catch on

[This message has been edited by xtremsabu (edited 03-11-2000).]

[Duff]

I'm putting together a 3D Cad/Rendering system that will definately see the difference with SMP and the high end apps I use will support it. And believe me, I'll push it to its limits. However, I have a limited budget and I'm not going to sink $3000 into Rimms. So what's the difference between 440 BX Chipset and the 8xx series?

[dmcnamar]

At present, I believe a dual-processor BX board is the lowest cost route. Tom's Hardware (www.tomshardware.com)is a good source of chipset info. He recently compared a BX board at 133 Mhz to the 8xx series.. It did not directly address the dual processor scenario but might give you some good ideas on the relative merits.. Myself, I feel that without RIMMS there's no point to using the 8xx boards

dlm

[BBA]

Dual Processors rule!

In fact, I have my own forum for them at MrC's (mrcs.net).

If you haven't used them, then don't worry, you won't know, Hahahaha (j/k)

Ok, the availability of dual motherboards that work with the coppermines is very limited, almost to none currently, but several 840 chipset dual Coppermine boards are in the works.

AFAIK....Even though Dual boards support P3's, no current BX dual doard supports the Coppermine, because the boards weren't designed to correctly handle the voltage requirement. A FC-PGA adapter card with FC-PGA's will work, but requires you to modify the card.

[Carl Uman]

From what I have read the performance of BX boards with SDRAM performs better than SDRAM on the newer 8XX boards. Some kind of problem but I don't remember where I read it. I think you would be better of with a BX board.

[AuraEdge]

True
The 820 and 840 boards support Rambus RAM only, and must use a memory translator hub to use SDRAM, sacrificing proformance.
The i840 does look like a quality server platform, barring the MTH issues.

[Duff]

Thanks everyone, that's just what i needed to hear, BX it is.

[AuraEdge]

Uhmm...
I dont think any BX board or slocket pair can support 2 Coppermines as of yet

[gene1938]

What about BP6 with dual celerons?? I'm running one under 2K with dual screens for Multimedia work- seem s hard to beat this combo for the price
gene

[AuraEdge]

Ill second that - The BP6 makes it easy for a dual system, and it doesnt cost much more than any other board with ATA/66 on board. After getting a Dual system, I dont really see much difference, except maybe bragging rights.

--EDIT...and RC5...doubles your keyrates, since its all cycle driven.

[This message has been edited by AuraEdge (edited 03-18-2000).]

[Duff]

ok, help the junior member. what is a coppermine? It sounds like some sort of processor. is it a chip so heavy with circutry it's a copper mine? Thanks

[dmcnamar]

Coppermine is the Intel code name for their latest and greatest Pentium III processor. Its chief distinguishing characteristics are a 256k on-die, full-processor speed cache (instead of the previous 512k off-die, half-speed cache) and the .18 micron fabrication process (vice .25 micron)

dlm

[Duff]

thanks

[AuraEdge]

They call it coppermine cuz they name thier chip cores after rivers....its got no copper and aint a mine. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif
Next one will be Willammette, another river codename.

No offense, but I think if you dont have that much experience and knowledge with computers, it would be futile to make a dual system. A dual system helps only a small amount of programs to its fullest. Usually, it doesnt provide much of a help in processing because either the program doesnt support Dual processors, or the 2 processors are still choked but the shared bus bandwidth. I have a dual celeron system, and duals are by no means bad, if you have a reason to run them (Mine was...uhh...RC5 =P)
Shelling out for 2 P3 CPU's is a LARGE investment!

[This message has been edited by AuraEdge (edited 03-21-2000).]

[nastee]

I have a dual set up
with P3 550e coppermines
I have an EPoX KP6-BS
I'm using slocket cards and it works great
You have to make sure that you
get the right coppermines
they make 4 different styles (from intel)
~Nastee~

[fvay]

If I build a dual, I will not go more than celeron 500, and of course on Abit BP6. it should fit in a small budget

[alpha]

Be careful with FC-PGA cumines - only newer stepping cores will run SMP.

[Duff]

I thought Celeron's didn't have a math co-processor. Will dual Celeron's be any faster than a single processor for heavy-duty light rendering?

[Andy_L]

All Intel processors since the Pentium have had math co-processors, The Celeron does not have the SSE instruction set and has only 128 Meg of cache, which runs at full clock speed. You see a big diff between Celerons and PIII when the program can use the bigger cache or SSE instructions, and of course the PIII is available in a lot higher range of clock speeds.

[fvay]

math co-processor? there's no more math co processor after 486. Intel inegrate co-processor to the cpu chip

[Andy_L]

Umm, yeah, thats what I meant to say.