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I have a P3 733. Would like to upgrade. I have heard that dual processors are way fast.
So should I go with 2 733's? Or a 1 gig, which is about the same price? The additional 733 would demand, I think, a dual processor motherboard.
Also, could I combine an 800 with my 733? or do they have to be the same?
Thanks
You are correct if you are going to have a Dual processor PC, you will need to buy a new motherboard that supports dual processors.
It may be cheaper to just buy the 1GHz Chip.
By the time you have brought the motherboard around £200-250 for a decent board then the processor it would be cheaper to buy the 1Gig.
I am not bagging dual processors though, they are very good but they are generaly only used for servers.
Dual processors are **** fast!!
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Ben Nash
here's a way to think about
two chips are alot faster than one but a good motherboard will be 150.00 and up and two chips about 200.00 each total 650.00 roughly so ask your self do i need that speed and power or is it a man thing in my cass i wanted it i needed so got it and found it be great i run a msi board two p3-933 chips 256k pc133 memory it is sweet so if you can afford it do it https://forums.windrivers.com/
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what will go wrong today???? never mind going back to bed
I've got two different computers, both using ASUS BX motherboards with P3-450 processors. The dual processor machine runs much more smoothly and quickly when multiple applications are open (which is very often my case). Unlike what many people think, the CPU's share processes, i.e., under Task Manager, you never see one CPU doing all the work before the second CPU kicks in (I'm running W2K). Overall, the switch from the dual-CPU system to the single-CPU system is like going from DSL Internet access back to a 56K dial-up modem...slow, slow, slow. I'll never go back to a single processor system again. One last thing, the very power of this system means that I'll be able to use it longer without feeling like I need to upgrade to a newer, higher-speed CPU.
The cost difference for me (late-1999) was about $120 for the single processor P2B-F motherboard versus $275 for the dual processor P2B-D motherboard; P3-450 CPUs were $225 each (again, late-1999). I've never regretted the decision to fork out an extra $375 for the dual processor system... https://forums.windrivers.com/ https://forums.windrivers.com/ https://forums.windrivers.com/
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Sometimes computer problems require extreme measures. Our hero, the Intrepid Spaceman Spiff, sets his blaster on "deep fat fry..." https://forums.windrivers.com/
I love my dual Xeons. I have thought about droping my personal computer down to a dual Xeon 450 system for the graphics that I do.
Dual processors are great if:
A. You can afford to go that way.
B. You are running a OS that supports it (*nix, NT, 2000, BSD..)
C. You will be doing multi-tasking, graphics, or other "cpu heavy" programs.
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.·°Danrak°·.
I possess a mind not merely twisted, but actually sprained.
This pretty much says it unless you have a need for duals you will never really notice a diffrence expecially at the speeds you are talking about a 1 ghz will do just fine reading an email or playing a game on duals wont really be much diffrent. The big kicker is deciding which os to run that will support it now. XQuote:
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Danrak:
I love my dual Xeons. I have thought about droping my personal computer down to a dual Xeon 450 system for the graphics that I do.
Dual processors are great if:
A. You can afford to go that way.
B. You are running a OS that supports it (*nix, NT, 2000, BSD..)
C. You will be doing multi-tasking, graphics, or other "cpu heavy" programs.
</font>
https://forums.windrivers.com/
To answer your last question, not only do they need to be the same speed, but also the same stepping code or else you'll have lockups and not enjoy your dualie experience, i am still debating internally about going to dual system, but since my home system is mainly for research gaming there really isn't a need to go to duals, unless someoe can prove that dual processor and geforce2 really do improve the gaming experience, otherwise, there is no use. Anyone know where I can find a good low cost p2 xeon mainboard. i see the processors all the time on ebay and may just pick up a set for myself but the mainboard is what holds me back https://forums.windrivers.com/
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we are number one, all others are number two......or lower
Used to have a dual p-pro 200 system just to try out with linux, winnt 4.0, beos, win2kpro, Ran pretty nice. Had to retire it because the case it was in had a very old and very big 250 watt at p.s. that I couldn't replace after it choked. Now own a 2nd hand abit bp6 board running dual cel 466's slightly oc to 525mhz at 75mhz bus speed. Runs even better!!!! https://forums.windrivers.com/ https://forums.windrivers.com/
I'll keep this setup for a little while until PIII 1 ghz processors go way down in price and a different board or amd can prove themselves worthy with their upcoming dual cpu support chipsets and boards for t-birds.
I think dual CPU's are the way to go. You get about 75-90% more power than a single CPU, and smoother performance, especially if you run lots of background apps like me. It just offloads all the TSR's to the idle CPU.
A dual PIII-1G? That'll probably run about the equivalent of about 1.8G. You can't even buy a single CPU system that fast! I can't wait for a Dual 266-FSB Athlon with DDR-SDRAM! MmmmmmmMMMMM!
Prices really aren't as bad as some people would claim, considering just how much power you're buying. Don't buy a pre-fab one, tho', places like Dell & Compaq will charge through the nose for dual-CPU. And forget Xeon, unless you are aiming for a Quad-CPU... For dual-CPU's, the plain-old PIII is a much better deal.
Only downside is that you must use NT, 2000, or Linux. 9x cannot make use of the second CPU (nor does BeOS, IIRC). But is that really a downside? https://forums.windrivers.com/
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Captain Troy D. Pack Rat
`akbar Press
If you're furry and you know it, hug the mouse!
dual is nice and dual with scsi is creeeeemmmy https://forums.windrivers.com/
be aware that most games won't utilize smp. for instance, while i was running Unreal Tournament on my P2B-DS I could see improvement because secondary processes get shoved to the other processor, freeing a single processor for the game but the game itself won't use both processors. it's just made that way. any of you who believe differently, start up a game in dedicated mode and look at task manager. one processor will be spiked and the other runs about 10%.
that abit board may be my next board...
The Abit VP6 is a dual CPU ATX board that uses VIA's Apollo Pro 133A chipset with dual processor support. The VP6 features two FC-PGA sockets that support 66/100/133Mhz system bus speeds. It also supports Ultra DMA 100 and RAID 1, 1, and 0+1 with a High Point HTP370 IDE Controller. It offers 5 PCI, 4 DIMM, and a 4x AGP slot.
See the review here:
http://www.thetechzone.com/reviews/m...p6/index.shtml
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=-iateyourcat-=
I'm getting along fine with my ASUS P2B-D running dual-P3/450s and 512MB RAM. I'm gonna wait for the dual-P4 before I move up... https://forums.windrivers.com/
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Sometimes computer problems require extreme measures. Our hero, the Intrepid Spaceman Spiff, sets his blaster on "deep fat fry..." https://forums.windrivers.com/
*A dual PIII-1G? That'll probably run about the equivalent of about 1.8G.*
The poster is in for quite a disappointment if he believes that....(dual 1 Ghz seeming like a single 1.8 GHz)
Very few applications will show that large of an improvement...most SMP capable apps show around a 10-15% gain. Prior to the advent of the Coppermine, a single Athlon 500 was able to defeat dual P3/550's in several benchmarks, even those benefiting form SMP. I'd say dual cpus are overrated except for true datbase server/video editing needs.
[This message has been edited by MDD1963 (edited February 10, 2001).]
What you are asking is if you are going to see any advantage from SMP (Symetric Multiprocessing) defined as: Processing that's devided evenly among multiple identical processors by a load-based algoithm.
What does this mean in the real world.
1. Expense - you are increasing the complexity of your computer and therefore are going to need reliable hardware - the more reliable, stable and efficient it is the more expensive it gets.
2. Software - this solution requires more powerful software written to take advantage of the load balancing algorithm required to harness the power of SMP - You will need a compatible OS (Windows NT, 2000, UNIX, Linux, FreeBSD) and you will find that these OS'es are for advanced users and not very game friendly.
3. You will need SMP enabled apps - you will only see and advantage from SMP capable apps, Photoshop, CAD, etc. It will not help with gaming.
4. Realize that your machine is only as fast as it's slowest bottleneck - you will need to run a faster I/O subsystem to see all the advantage from SMP as well as run a lot of RAM - if the processors are having to wait for the HDD to spin up to cache it's info in virtual memory you have just defeated the advantage to SMP.
If you do not have a known use for it just go with a faster single processor and more RAM with a faster hard drive (AT100) you will probably be happier.
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Death is lighter than a feather - duty heavier than a mountian.
i can get an at pwr sply, can i buy your old hardware?