dual mobo for amd

[MoonSafari]

hey everyone,
i'm considering a new computer and i'm a little lost in the motherboard department. i'm going for a dual athlon setup and was wondering if anyone had any recommendations on a good motherboard that is still reasonably priced (preferably something with 8x agp and support for a lot of ram). i'm planning on using this for running 3D applications like softimage|XSI and need it to be powerful and expandable.

cheers

thom

 

[Mephistopheles]

I don´t think there´ll be many problems in the price department, but actually, there are no good motherboards available at all for dual athlon setups. The chipsets are inefficient and don´t sport new techs like agp 8x. If by expandable you mean upgradeable, then there´s not a lot of headroom there either. The 2600+ is the last MP that´ll ever go out. Ever considered going Xeon? There are some reasonably-priced alternatives in the 2.4Ghz/533MhzFSB/HT range that might suit you. The motherboard might be more expensive, but the processor is not and neither is the memory. That´ll make for a <i>much</i> more robust setup, without a doubt.

What are actually your needs? Are those two apps (softimage/XSI) going to take advantage of multi-processing (don´t now these programs, sorry)? How big is your budget? This kind of information can help us to help you.

<i>I checked, and 2400XPs cost about the same as 2.4Ghz, 533Mhz Ht-enabled Xeons. The Xeons are generally a bit faster anyway, so that´s to the Xeon´s benefit. Problem is, the mobos for dual Xeon configurations are indeed more expensive. You can expect to pay up to twice the price of a typical dual-MP mobo for a good E7505 mobo, but you have to bear in mind that it´ll support techs like AGP 8X, several gigabytes (12GB or so) of system memory, PCI-X, and be considerably faster. It would take a lot of stomach to buy one of those for a desktop configuration, mind you. If you consider yourself a power user, then why not just wait for canterwood? Just a thought here...</i>

 

[MoonSafari]

thanks for the reply...much appreciated.
softimage|XSI is high end 3D animation software. i will be doing a lot of rendering a lot of stuff with this machine which is fairly intesive stuff, so power is a must. i have about $2000 USD to blow on this (including a monitor). hope that elaborates...

cheers

 

[Mephistopheles]

If indeed you´re going to do lots of rendering, then dual processors is a good setup for you. Rendering is quite CPU-intensive indeed, and takes almost full benefit from multi-CPU setups.

Just a reminder: a 3.06Ghz P4 with HT renders as fast as a dual 2000+ MP. Having that in mind, a top-configured 3.06Ghz is an excellent performer, and might be a good idea if you don´t have the stomach to go with a configuration like this one:

<i>2x Intel Xeon 2.4Ghz 533Mhz FSB HT-enabled: </i>
<b>2x$234=$468</b>
<i>|SuperMicro X5DAE (E7505-based, top-notch):</i>
<b>$430</b>
<i>4x 512MB Corsair DDR266 Registered ECC:</i>
<b>4x$99=$396</b>
<i>ATI Radeon 9700 Pro:</i>
<b>$244</b>
<i>Western Digital 120GB 7200rpm ATA100/2MB cache drive:</i>
<b>$109</b>

So this main core will cost you <b>$1601</b>. You´ll need a respectable case and power supply, as well as a monitor and the usual things like keyboard and mouse, of course, which you´ll probably get with $400 or so (if money is sufficient, you can get a better processor - dual 2.66Ghz will cost you $164 more - or you can get more memory). It takes a lot of guts to want that SuperMicro X5DAE, though, because it supports up to 12GB of ECC RAM (here configured with <i>only</i> 2GB of excellent-quality Corsair, mind you). This mobo packs a <A HREF="http://www.supermicro.com/PRODUCT/MotherBoards/E7505/X5DAE.htm" target="_new">mighty punch</A> (check link to specs). If you want to upgrade later, you can get 2 3.06Ghz Xeons, which are currently state-of-the-art and expensive as hell, or you can get more memory - there are 6 memory sockets on the X5DAE. Tell me what you think! Hope I´ve helped. And if anyone out there wants to flame me or agree with my suggestion, please do!