I understand the basics about dual cpu and dual core, what I do not understand is when it is best to purchase one over the other. What are the pros and cons of both. Then add on top of that buying dual opterons. At what point does one know when that would be more beneficial. There has to be more guidelines than trial and error to determining this.
In a dual CPU system does the second CPU kick in automatically when the first gets bogged down or does the application have to be written for it? Is that the beauty of dual core only?
A lot is said about bandwidth nowdays. Does this apply to opterons also? Do they have a larger bandwidth therefore can push more data in a given timeframe?
Staying in the AMD family at what point would a single core A64 4600+ or 5000+ chip equal a single core Opteron.
LET ME EXPLAIN MY POSITION
I have a 2 year old machine that is running 6 monitors. I use it for trading securities/currency/etc. This is only for 2D no 3D involved.
CPU P4 2.8 GHZ
Video cards Quadro 900xgl-128MB(AGP), Quadro NVS 400-64MB(4 port pci card)
HDD - wd80 gig
Each monitor has a financial chart and shows the result of 10 real time trading systems analysis. This bank of 6 screens gets switched when I want to view a different security or currency. Everything from the old is taken down and everything from the new is put up. The problem is, it takes 45 seconds for the change over I need it/want it to take about five.
I have made some temporary changes.
Asus A8N-SLI Mb running A64 single core 3000+
2-2 port PCI-Express cards-(I did some benchmarks see below)
scsi - Seagate Cheetah 18gig/Adaptec 29160 - U160 combo in a pci slot (32bit)
My change over time has been reduced to no more than 10 seconds. I am considering buying a new rig to replace this temporary setup. Thank goodness the Core 2 Duos are here to give me more options. Here is the dilemma. What board? What type of CPU? and What CPU?
I will be getting an ATI FireMv, and Matrox cards designed to accelerate 2D work. I now have an Adaptec 2200S/64 RAID controller. This is a 64bit card U320 controller w/ 4 -5 18 gig U320 Atlas drives.
For motherboards I am looking at the
TYAN (K8WE-S2895A2NRF) up to 2 single or dual core 200 series Opteron CPU's
http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thunderk8we.html Dual Opteron CPU, and the
ASUS (P5WDG2-WS)
http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?1=3&l2=82&l3=0&model=994&modelmenu=1 -Core 2 Duo. Both are very nice with Pci-Express, Pci-X 133Mhz and Pci v2.3 slots.
In looking at the Core2Duos the most I would want to spend would be what would put me in the E6600/E6700 ballpark. (the Tyan board must have 2 CPU for both PCI-E slots to work.) What I need to get in dual Opterons to have at least the processing power of a Core2Duo E6700. The software I am currently using is not written to take advantade of multiple cpu's but may be in the future or I may change software in the future. This machine is dedicated to this task alone.
I want the best bang price performance for now and a path to upgradability in the future.
My biggest concern is how the CPU's compare. I did a total cost of ownership analysis on both motherboards and everything else is a virtual wash.
Thanks for your help. If you have any other questions feel free to ask. Also if you have found any documents explaining and comparing these CPU please send me the links.
Single core opterons seem to be cheap on Ebay. What minimum 200 series single core and dual core would I need.
In a dual CPU system does the second CPU kick in automatically when the first gets bogged down or does the application have to be written for it? Is that the beauty of dual core only?
A lot is said about bandwidth nowdays. Does this apply to opterons also? Do they have a larger bandwidth therefore can push more data in a given timeframe?
Staying in the AMD family at what point would a single core A64 4600+ or 5000+ chip equal a single core Opteron.
LET ME EXPLAIN MY POSITION
I have a 2 year old machine that is running 6 monitors. I use it for trading securities/currency/etc. This is only for 2D no 3D involved.
CPU P4 2.8 GHZ
Video cards Quadro 900xgl-128MB(AGP), Quadro NVS 400-64MB(4 port pci card)
HDD - wd80 gig
Each monitor has a financial chart and shows the result of 10 real time trading systems analysis. This bank of 6 screens gets switched when I want to view a different security or currency. Everything from the old is taken down and everything from the new is put up. The problem is, it takes 45 seconds for the change over I need it/want it to take about five.
I have made some temporary changes.
Asus A8N-SLI Mb running A64 single core 3000+
2-2 port PCI-Express cards-(I did some benchmarks see below)
scsi - Seagate Cheetah 18gig/Adaptec 29160 - U160 combo in a pci slot (32bit)
My change over time has been reduced to no more than 10 seconds. I am considering buying a new rig to replace this temporary setup. Thank goodness the Core 2 Duos are here to give me more options. Here is the dilemma. What board? What type of CPU? and What CPU?
I will be getting an ATI FireMv, and Matrox cards designed to accelerate 2D work. I now have an Adaptec 2200S/64 RAID controller. This is a 64bit card U320 controller w/ 4 -5 18 gig U320 Atlas drives.
For motherboards I am looking at the
TYAN (K8WE-S2895A2NRF) up to 2 single or dual core 200 series Opteron CPU's
http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thunderk8we.html Dual Opteron CPU, and the
ASUS (P5WDG2-WS)
http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?1=3&l2=82&l3=0&model=994&modelmenu=1 -Core 2 Duo. Both are very nice with Pci-Express, Pci-X 133Mhz and Pci v2.3 slots.
In looking at the Core2Duos the most I would want to spend would be what would put me in the E6600/E6700 ballpark. (the Tyan board must have 2 CPU for both PCI-E slots to work.) What I need to get in dual Opterons to have at least the processing power of a Core2Duo E6700. The software I am currently using is not written to take advantade of multiple cpu's but may be in the future or I may change software in the future. This machine is dedicated to this task alone.
I want the best bang price performance for now and a path to upgradability in the future.
My biggest concern is how the CPU's compare. I did a total cost of ownership analysis on both motherboards and everything else is a virtual wash.
Thanks for your help. If you have any other questions feel free to ask. Also if you have found any documents explaining and comparing these CPU please send me the links.
Single core opterons seem to be cheap on Ebay. What minimum 200 series single core and dual core would I need.