1 Pentium 4 1.3 Ghz vs. 2 Pentium III 1 Ghz - Which is greater?

[Low Level Owl]

I have quite a dilema here, I'm looking to upgrade my processor and motherboard. Last week, I found a nice P4 1.4 Ghz/mobo combo for a good price and this week I found a Dual PIII 1Ghz/mobo combo for a bit less. I'm a casual user and I will be using Windows 2000/XP Pro as an O.S. What do you think would be better? I play the ocassional games, I have Broadband connection, I use my computer as a jukebox basically. What would work better for me? For me 2 PIII 1GHZ is better than 1 P4 1.4 Ghz. What does everybody else think?

[JungleMan1]

Definitely the 2 1ghz P3s!

As a matter of fact 1 1ghz P3 would come pretty close to the P4, since the P4 is so bad!

btw..how much is each setup? As much as I'm an Athlon fan, if the board is cheaper than the Tyan Thunder K7, it'd be nice for recommending to my friends..

[Fubarian]

My daul p3s 1ghz are faster than a single 1.6ghz p4, maybe a 1.7? or a 1.8?...but then we go to memory bandwith...and I get shot in the foot

if you send me an ICQ message, I'll post my benchmarks on it here (I'm using a supermicro 370DDE)

[Fubarian]

After reading your post over - if you won't use the dauls (the programs you run) don't even bother with a dualie.

[Low Level Owl]

if you won't use the dauls (the programs you run) don't even bother with a dualie.

well, i know that 2k/xp can use dual processors. here is the length of my computer usage. Outlook Express, Windows Media Player, AOL, MSN, Office XP and Morpheus.

<a href="http://www.bzboyz.com/store/product706.html" target="_blank">here is the information on the Dual PIII/mobo combo</a>

[Fubarian]

yea, don't bother. None of those you'd need the 2nd processor on. They'd open a heck of a lot faster, but thats about it...

[Fubarian]

--- after checking out mobo / processor deal ---

not too bad. If I was you, and wanted to go this route, just buy the mobo and 1st processor NOW and wait on the 2nd for later...if ya need it / want it...

Hehe, thats what I did, but got both processors within a week of each other (check out supermicro's 370DDE) and I'm loving my system, but I play a lot of games and love the extra processor to take care of "housework" tasks (running explorer, services etc) and dedicate 1 CPU to just the game...oohh is that fun

only thing I don't have - scsi160 - but I don't have the money for that after this upgrade but I'm VERY happy with mine

[Low Level Owl]

[quote]Originally posted by Fubarian:
<strong>I play a lot of games and love the extra processor to take care of "housework" tasks (running explorer, services etc) and dedicate 1 CPU to just the game</strong><hr></blockquote>

What O.S. are you using? Because from the quote above it seems that you can tell what Porgrams to run on what processor. Is that possible, and if it is, how?

Thanks

[Spaceman Spiff]

I've been running dual PIII/450s for a couple years now, first under WinNT4, and for the last year under W2K. Only these two Windows O/S will recognize the second processor. I will never go back to a single processor system. Everything runs better...everything. I'm ruined for life...no question...once you've done dual, you'll never stomach single...

[Fubarian]

[quote]Originally posted by Format_It:
<strong>
What O.S. are you using? Because from the quote above it seems that you can tell what Porgrams to run on what processor. Is that possible, and if it is, how?

Thanks</strong><hr></blockquote>

yea, its under 2k - its called afitity (in task manager). you can LITERALLY put a process on 1 processor and restrict it to that processor ONLY...

And as Spaceman Spiff said...once you go daul...you'll NEVER go back...its a disease, doesn't go away and can't break yourself from it.

Something that I did forget to mention is that say you run ...Half-life...for instance...well, its got more than 1 process that runs, so even though that 1 program can't use the 2...each process CAN use either processor, which in turn, helps with everything.

--- example --- HL is 1 thread (1 thing runs, HL.exe)

HL.exe takes 100% of processor 0; however, explorer.exe, ICQ, Outlook and so on, run off processor 1....

spiffy eh?

[Fubarian]

ran a benchmark (sisoft)on the 2 processors for kicks...

Dhrystone ALU - 5402 MIPS
Whetstone FPU - 2689 MFLOPS

[Tucsonan]

Check out this site to see why the P4 is crap (http://www.emulators.com/pentium4.htm), then go get your P3.

[cookin chef]

I'm addicted to duallies too.
Used to own dual p-pro 200's. Sold those off.
Invested in a dual Cel 466/oc to 525mhz with an abit BP6, Then got a special deal with dual PIII 450's /oc to 500mhz with an ASUS P2B-DS. I'm addicted.
Looks like you have a good setup there too. But only if you really need a dedicated 2nd cpu. Intel is definitely trying to phase out their PIII's to help move their botched up P4 plans.
The PIII's might only be available til Xmas???

[Fubarian]

they're releasing the 1.9 and 2.0 gig p4's on Oct 26th, and at the same time, releasing the 1.13, 1.26 at 256 and 512 cache p3s...which I'll be waiting on and hoping to buy

[Low Level Owl]

Hey Fubian, where did you get your information regarding the new PIII's? Are these mobile or Xeon/Itanium(sp?)?

I still haven't bought the dual cpu/mobo combo, but I've decided that I will buy that and it will keep me quiet for at least a year, maybe 2.

Thanks for everyones input!!!