Dual PIII 866 or 1 PIV1.7

[Guest]

I havant seen much about this subject anywhere but the question is would a dual 866 Piii be better than a single 1.4 Thunderbird or single PIV 1.7. I already have a single PIII 866 so for about 300 bucks I could upgrade motherboard and another 866. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Hades]

dual processor systems are best run with Processors from the same Batch #. Mine seems to work ok being from separate batches, but i am having problems i havent pinned down yet. I dont think its the processors, because its only just started to happen. Anyway, just a heads up

 

[Guest]

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[Kelledin]

It's not really so much an issue to run CPU's from the same batch, just CPU's with the same stepping. This used to be a real issue with the Pentium PROs.

With Pentium II's and Pentium III's, it doesn't matter so much. I've built and tested dozens of dual-CPU PII and PIII systems, and I have seen dozens more built and tested by co-workers. We have never had a problem with mismatched steppings on the CPUs, and our warehouse people do mix batches quite often. (I know, I know, so much for ISO9001 compliance) Honestly, we just don't bother to check the steppings anymore.

I personally have a dual PII-450 system built from spare parts, and it sits and compiles code day after day with no hiccups. Both CPUs came from a disorganized collection of used parts that came out of systems returned to us for RMA. I'd be surprised if both CPUs are from the same batch or were even manufactured in the same country.

Kelledin

"/join #hackerz. See the Web. DoS interesting people."

 

[peteb]

what are you going to use it for?

If you are doing business/work type stuff on 2000/NT/Linux then the dual cpu will work very well - the key is are your apps mutithreaded?

If you are gaming the 1.7P4 and 1.4 tbird will level out at better performance than the dual system (few games are multithreaded).

My advice - wait. An 866PIII is not slow, and you cannot be suffering greatly - hang on until the Athlon4s are out, the Athlon MP is settled and more boards are available and Northwood is released. Another 3 months and we have a complete swing possible in the best performers.

my .02c

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[killall]

it depends on what you do... which applications you use... photoshop... movie compression... if you just use the usual... internet explorer... office and the like... go for the 1.4 athlon...

you do not strengthen the weak by weakening the strong

 

[Guest]

I would be using this strictly for games, you are right I'm not really hurting, just wanted a project for a few vacation days, and thought I might build another computer or upgrade this one. I guess I will wait and see what the buzz is about with the Anthalon 4, makes good sense, I didn't know about games having to be mulithreaded to take advantage of dual processors, I've never really considered a dual processor befor, I just heard (read) someone talking about it on a game forum and they thought that was the only way to go, and since it was one of the developers of the game I thought their opinion of that kind of system might be on target. But then I thought about checking in a tech type forum for thoughts and I'm glad I did, one of my more brilliant ideas if I do say so myself I can wait 4 or 5 months and I like the idea of building a whole new system, and giving my old one to my wife.