Dual CPU's (SMP)

blimpyboy · 9th February 2002, 12:36 AM

I'd like to get a new mobo+CPU+RAM in about 6 months time.

I am seriously considering an SMP setup.

What are the options right now for dual processing?
I.e. which processor can you dual (Athlon XP or P4?)

How do quality dual motherboards compare with quality single CPU boards? Are they just as good but with dual processor support?

Can you run one CPU on a dual CPU board?

How does overclocking potential on dual setups compare with single CPU setups?

How much expensive are dual motherboards compare to their single CPU counterparts.

Anything important I need to know?

(Obviously not all OS's support SMP, but linux and XP pro do and thats all I will be using).

blimpyboy · 9th February 2002, 1:35 AM

You see, I didn't even know there was an SMP forum.

blimpyboy · 9th February 2002, 4:32 AM

Thanks for the responses thus far. Both been very helpful.

I've also taken a good long geezer at the other posts in this forum and at www.2cpu.com. There's definately a lot of thing sot consider when it comes to dual boards, more so than for single CPU's (or maybe thats just because I am less familiar with dual setups).

There have been a few strange things I have come across, one being there seem to be issues with sound cards working nicely in dual setups. I have no idea why.

I'll close with a question. What popular applications will make use of SMP (in the sense that one process will have its threads scheduled across different processes) ? (Does Office ? Any games ? ..)

ffindog · 9th February 2002, 9:29 AM

AutoCAD 2002 supports SMP.

Thats all i can think of at the moment.

NeXuS · 10th February 2002, 10:17 PM

Even thou a proggie may not be multi-threaded, it will still take some form of advantage by not having share processor with background tasks/services/apps (such as winamp, and icq

)

althou one thing thats confusing the shit outta me atm, is why cs uses about 40% on one cpu and about 70% on the other. And i am sure its NOT multi-threaded

9th February 2002, 12:36 AM	#1
blimpyboy Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: London, UK Posts: 643	Dual CPU's (SMP) I'd like to get a new mobo+CPU+RAM in about 6 months time. I am seriously considering an SMP setup. What are the options right now for dual processing? I.e. which processor can you dual (Athlon XP or P4?) How do quality dual motherboards compare with quality single CPU boards? Are they just as good but with dual processor support? Can you run one CPU on a dual CPU board? How does overclocking potential on dual setups compare with single CPU setups? How much expensive are dual motherboards compare to their single CPU counterparts. Anything important I need to know? (Obviously not all OS's support SMP, but linux and XP pro do and thats all I will be using). __________________ Folding@Home 200 Club Member \| Folding@Home 3000 points Milestone Pimpsmack (Windows XP) : Intel Tualatin Celeron @ 1236Mhz \| Abit BX6 Rev 2 \| 512MB Memory @ 112Mhz/CAS2 Nvidia Geforce3 Ti 500 \| SoundBlaster Audigy \| IBM UltraStar 18ZX Hard Drive Plextor PX-40TS CD-ROM \| Plextor PX-R820T CD-R \| Pioneer DVD-103S DVD-ROM Foomanchu (Linux 2.4.20) : Intel Coppermine Celeron @ 1120Mhz \| Asus P2B-S \| 312MB Memory @ 112Mhz/CAS2 Nvidia Geforce2 MX 200 \| SoundBlaster AWE64 \| Seagate Barracuda ST39173L Hard Drive \| Plextor PX-32TS CD-ROM

9th February 2002, 1:35 AM	#2
blimpyboy Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: London, UK Posts: 643	You see, I didn't even know there was an SMP forum. __________________ Folding@Home 200 Club Member \| Folding@Home 3000 points Milestone Pimpsmack (Windows XP) : Intel Tualatin Celeron @ 1236Mhz \| Abit BX6 Rev 2 \| 512MB Memory @ 112Mhz/CAS2 Nvidia Geforce3 Ti 500 \| SoundBlaster Audigy \| IBM UltraStar 18ZX Hard Drive Plextor PX-40TS CD-ROM \| Plextor PX-R820T CD-R \| Pioneer DVD-103S DVD-ROM Foomanchu (Linux 2.4.20) : Intel Coppermine Celeron @ 1120Mhz \| Asus P2B-S \| 312MB Memory @ 112Mhz/CAS2 Nvidia Geforce2 MX 200 \| SoundBlaster AWE64 \| Seagate Barracuda ST39173L Hard Drive \| Plextor PX-32TS CD-ROM

9th February 2002, 4:32 AM	#3
blimpyboy Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: London, UK Posts: 643	Thanks for the responses thus far. Both been very helpful. I've also taken a good long geezer at the other posts in this forum and at www.2cpu.com. There's definately a lot of thing sot consider when it comes to dual boards, more so than for single CPU's (or maybe thats just because I am less familiar with dual setups). There have been a few strange things I have come across, one being there seem to be issues with sound cards working nicely in dual setups. I have no idea why. I'll close with a question. What popular applications will make use of SMP (in the sense that one process will have its threads scheduled across different processes) ? (Does Office ? Any games ? ..) __________________ Folding@Home 200 Club Member \| Folding@Home 3000 points Milestone Pimpsmack (Windows XP) : Intel Tualatin Celeron @ 1236Mhz \| Abit BX6 Rev 2 \| 512MB Memory @ 112Mhz/CAS2 Nvidia Geforce3 Ti 500 \| SoundBlaster Audigy \| IBM UltraStar 18ZX Hard Drive Plextor PX-40TS CD-ROM \| Plextor PX-R820T CD-R \| Pioneer DVD-103S DVD-ROM Foomanchu (Linux 2.4.20) : Intel Coppermine Celeron @ 1120Mhz \| Asus P2B-S \| 312MB Memory @ 112Mhz/CAS2 Nvidia Geforce2 MX 200 \| SoundBlaster AWE64 \| Seagate Barracuda ST39173L Hard Drive \| Plextor PX-32TS CD-ROM

10th February 2002, 10:17 PM	#5
NeXuS Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Southern Suburbs, Melb Posts: 543	Even thou a proggie may not be multi-threaded, it will still take some form of advantage by not having share processor with background tasks/services/apps (such as winamp, and icq ) althou one thing thats confusing the shit outta me atm, is why cs uses about 40% on one cpu and about 70% on the other. And i am sure its NOT multi-threaded __________________ Gaming: C2D E8500 @ 4.0G\|DFI P45-T2RS-JR\|8G Dominator PC8500\|HD4890 1GB\|3x SP F1 1Tb TV: 2x XBOX 360 as Media Center Extenders Server: Xeon 3440\|16G DDR3 ECC\|Supermicro X8SIA-F\|LSI-9211i\|18x 2Tb F4EG\|LSI-9260\|4x V-Raptor\|2x HVR-2250\|Intel QuadGig\|Chenbro CK-13601 SAS Exp\|ESXi 4.1\|W7MC\|Nexenta\|W2K8R2\|Ubuntu\|Squeezebox Laptop: Lenovo T400\|8GB\|P9700\|250Gb Vertex\|500Gb\|3G\|14" LED

9th February 2002, 9:29 AM	#4
ffindog Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Toowoomba Posts: 12	AutoCAD 2002 supports SMP. Thats all i can think of at the moment.