Dual Processor Boards...An Answer to Upgrades?

farhadf

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Hey there,
I've come back into the market to buying a brand new pc for myself. I've decided on an Athlon or P4. I was just thinking here....i'm going for more of a gaming machine with 512 megs of ram, dvd burner ( please recommend one ) and a 2.66 ghz processor. I'm thinking to myself would it be a better option to buy a server class motherboard that supports dual processing initially....running it with one high end processor and then later buying another identical one when the prices shoot down in a year and a half or so instead of having to upgrade in 2 years to a brand new PC? Just a thought...pros and cons please...tear my idea apart, i'm totally open to suggestions and comments. If so which dual processor board is best ( i want something from Asus preferably).

-Farhad
 

sjonnie

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If you want a dual ASUS board you want the <A HREF="http://www.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=a7m266-d" target="_new">A7M266-D</A>.

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/myanandtech.html?member=114979" target="_new">My PCs</A> :cool:
 

shadus

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Honestly, when you get into server mobos you get out of alot of the 'standard' manufacturers you hear about alot in the forums here. I honestly don't know jack [-peep-] about Ath MPs or chipsets that support them.

If you are going the intel route the e7505 boards are a good choice and IWILL and Tyan have both had good reviews, the boards have agp 4x or 8x support (i dont recall, not that it matters in reality), dual channel memory support, built in lan, usb2, glan, integrated scsi, etc... they're fairly comparable to the current intel p4 boards... not perfectly but close.

Multiprocessor machines are not a bad upgrade route for some applications and a totally lousy route for others. For games, it's really not worth it at this point in time, a few games have good smp support but not most.

As far as dvd-burners go, the only one I've heard pretty much universally good things about is the Sony DRU-500AX.

Also remember, P4's can't easily (I suppose there is a way) be used for multiprocessors, you have to use Xeons. Ath XPs can... SOMETIMES be multiproc'd, but not always. Xeons and MPs are much more expensive than the single processor models.

Shadus
 

ike

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If your making a gaming rig, dont bother with the double proc. You putting another proc in there a few years down the road wont make any difference, or they will make very little difference. dual procs will only help on dual optimised systems. you would be better off in like a year or so, OC'n the thing. It would be cheaper. I was looking at dual procs when i was goin into computer animation, now a days even a single proc system can keep within the realm of a dual. So in my opinion your goin to be spending more money than u need for something that (in gaming) will not give you the boost you would want.

iKe



The customer is not always right.
If they were, they would do my job.
 

Granite

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Just want to remind that P4 itself does not come with dual processor capability. You have to go to Xeon if you want dual.
 

sjonnie

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Duh. No way. A dual Xeon motherboard is going to cost the earth not to mention the price of the processors themselves. That's why I recommended the dual AMD board. He can just buy an AMD XP and put it in there, if he ever wants a dual system then simply buy another XP, mod them, and there you go, dual system at 1/3 the price.

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/myanandtech.html?member=114979" target="_new">My PCs</A> :cool:
 

Mephistopheles

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Maybe, but the chipsets for dual Athlon aren't nearly as new as the E7505, neither as powerful. They don't boast AGP 8x, which might be interesting for this guy, given that he wants an upgrade path. They don't have SATA support, are affected by high latency, and are little good in games. E7505 might do better, but it will be expensive.

If this guy wants upgradability, why not just get a 2.6C on Springdale/P4P800 and upgrade to prescott 3.4Ghz when it comes along? It'll be one hell of an upgrade... And Springdale has all the newest features, like SATA and AGP8x. Just my bit here...