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Thread: dual processors and third HDD question

  1. #1
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    dual processors and third HDD question

    Hey all,

    I'm back for some more advice.

    I'm thinking of eventually getting dual processors for my pc, and I had some questions about that. What kind of motherboards support dual processors, and which ones are good brands...? They fit in a case like any other motherboard, don't they? And then the CPU's, do they have to be the same kind, e.g. both athlon, both intel, do they have to have the same frequency, etc? I figure an intel/athlon mix wouldn't work, but since I don't know anything about this I figured I'd ask anyways. But I guess if it's got 2 different sockets it'd be possible...who knows. Well, I hope you do.

    Also, does the dual CPU type setup take up more space then normal, other than an extra heatsink? That should cover that, pretty much. Any additional info you wanna supply is appreciated.

    I got another question though. I used to use an old HP Pavilion, and Had 3 Hard Drives set up. 2 hooked up to the Primary IDE socket, and the third set up as a secondary to my CD-ROM drive. Now I got an ASUSK7V VIA333 MB, and my previous setup doesn't work. I read somewhere that it's not recommended to set up an HDD as a secondary to a CD-ROM/DVD/etc drive, but it worked, so I didn't worry about it.
    This mb supports RAID 0 and 1, but I got it disabled, which disables the second set of IDE sockets, as far as I know. Is there any way to set up 3 or 4 Hard Drives without using RAID? I'm not much of a whiz on this subject, so any hints and help, no matter how trivial, will probably help me.

    Ok, I'll be waiting for replies, thanks so much,

    DrakeV

  2. #2
    Ultimate Member Ape0r's Avatar
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    Firstly, dual CPUs are not nearly all they are cracked up to be. They will slow down your games due to the fact that both CPUs have to access the system bus, thus dropping a significant number of FPS from games. Duallies are only advisable if you really need the power, common uses include video editing, servers, number crunching etc. If you do go for a duallie system (I STRONGLY advise against it, there are better things to spend money on), a dual mobo will fit in any standard ATX case. You will need a hefty PSU, I would get at least 350 or 400. Both CPUs must be indentical, and must support dual CPU boards. As far as I know the Pentium 4 can't be used in dual CPU setups, some Athlon XPs can. Athlon MPs are the best way to go, Athlon MP 1800+s will do nicely. Keep in mind that both must not only be the same model, but also the same speed.

    I see no reason why the drives shouldn't work in their previous configuration, are you sure it is indentical to how it was before? Personally, I have a DVD-ROM, CD-RW and four hard drives. Two of the hard drives are hooked into my RAID controller, which is set to standard ATA mode. Thus, the RAID controller acts as an additional IDE controller.

  3. #3
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    Well, I guess I can save my money. I'm just looking for some cool things to do with my pc. I'm fascinated by liquid cooling, and this dual processor thing just came into my mind. Well, thanks for that.

    Now with the hard drives. I'm really not familiar with my mobo, and I had a friend set it up for me, so I don't know if my RAID controller is set up as standard ATA, and I don't know how to set that up either. If anyone here is familiar with this mb (Asus k7v333) and can help I'd appreciate it. Otherwise I'll probably figure it out eventually.

    Thanks again,

    Cheers,
    DrakeV

  4. #4
    Ultimate Member Ape0r's Avatar
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    If it is disabled then it is set to disabled, go to your BIOS and look for it's setting under integrated peripherals or something similar, when you find it set it to ATA or IDE mode, plug a hard drive into it and see what happens.

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