Dual chip Core 2 MoBos?

[mact]

I've played a little with the MacPro that uses two Xeon Core Duo chips. Quick box, even with (IMHO) the kludgy interface.

What's available to take a pair of, oh, E6600s? I've seen a Socket 771 used in some server boxes for sale on TigerDirect but haven't found much in the way of boards.

Is this an unlikely combination? Is it gonna be cheaper to go with a single QX6800/? or ??

TIA

 

[dasickninja]

Here's the problem. Currently there are no LGA775 Core 2 Duo (like that E6600 you mention in the original post) chips that have their multiprocessor capabilities activated from the factory. The only 775 chips that can MP are the Pentium 4 and Pentium D and you really don't want to go back there. Only the LGA771 (which hold the 5xxx and 7xxx series Xeons that are found in the Mac Pro and many servers) have the multiple processor function enabled. And no, these dual socket motherboards are quite expensive (see QuadFX) and depend on the expensive ECC RAM and also use the slow FB-DIMM. So for most applications, you are better of buying the QX6800 and a good single socket motherboard, such as the GA-965P-DQ6 from Gigabyte or the BX975XBX2 from Intel.

 

[djplanet]

Ninja, why did Intel allow the D and the 4 to MP? What's the point?

 

[dasickninja]

I have no idea. Ask an Intel rep. It could be that since they had no real viable option in the server market, especially with dual core options, which AMD dominated with the X2 Opty's, they just said "hey, send in what we got". then again, I could be totally off the mark.

 

[djplanet]

There were no dual core Xeons then? If there weren't, why didn't they bin good Pentium Ds as Xeons?

 

[dasickninja]

*shrugs* I don't know.

 

[mact]

Ah!

TNX

 

[dasickninja]

NP.

 

[darkangelism]

Unless you need more power then a single quad chip will offer there is no benefit to dual proc