Dual CPU or Single CPU ?

I'm intirested in building a new command line gaming server running Linux and maybe up to five Quake3 game engine games all at once (Note: Most likly only one or two games would be filled at any one time).

Should I go for the fast single CPU or spend the cash on the Dual CPU system? If only two or three of the five games will ever have players in them would the faster CPU work just fine? Q3 is somewhat of an older game engine now....

I'm am more intirested in stability and not overclocking.

well if you got the money go for a dual xeon. If you can wait go for a dual opteron. otherwise a dual pentium 3 will have to do. i'm sure it'll work fine. Ya know thats if you have the money. Otherwise go for a single pentium 4 3.06ghz with hyperthreading. I'm sure that would work too and you'll save quite a bit of money.

if you got the money do it man. i wish i could. but i don't have 3000 dollars to blow away.

have fun!

Life is irrelivent and irrational.

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=9933" target="_new"> My Rig </A>

What are you talking about if he can wait for an Opteron? In case you didnt know opteron based servers have been available for around 5 days now.
AREA_51

'It's only when you look at an ant through a magnifying glass on a sunny day that you realise how often they burst into flames'

thats a lie - everyone knows quake3 is optimized to run best on an intel. thats why in benchmarks quake3 would always be on top with the intel processor.

Life is irrelivent and irrational.

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=9933" target="_new"> My Rig </A>

No question about it, Quake 3 <A HREF="http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030217/cpu_charts-22.html" target="_new">runs best</A> on Intel CPUs. I´d also recommend the dual Xeon setup... And I don´t think dual Athlons are a good choice, anyway, because of the chipsets currently available to them (they are old, high-latency chipsets, with little or no new technologies)... Dual Xeons 2.4Ghz with 533Mhz come at a reasonable price (HT-enabled) and can be used on excellent chipsets (E7505, for example, is admittedly very robust). Also, the current dual Athlons (MPs) top out at 2600+ (and I´m not aware of any upgrades to the MP line, like a 2800+ MP or something...) while Xeons go all the way up to 3.06Ghz... And support Hyperthreading, all of them.

You could also get a dual Opteron 240 setup... That should be affordable (and 240 CPUs have a much lower cost than 242s or 244s...) Unfortunately, many review sites have adequate benchmark data on the 244, but we don´t know much about the 240 (at 1.4Ghz, 25% less clock than the 244). Plus, given the current status of things, and depending on your level of technical expertise, it might be much, much easier to get into "familiar territory" - the Xeons... The Opterons are, after all, brand new... I wouldn´t go that way just now, even if the top-model Opteron performs well under server benchmarks...

<i>Just so you know I´m not talking against Opteron because it comes from AMD, I was saying the same thing when Itanium was launched, OK, guys? </i>