3.2 GHz Athlon Power: Dual Boards From ASUS and MSI

Introduction

Ready For The Mass Market? Dual Athlon Boards

In principle, two processors are better than one. This fact is in line with the approach we've often taken: that you can never have too much performance. Even an Athlon XP 2000+, which is already quite powerful, quickly reaches its limit when dealing with certain applications. This is confirmed by the shop-talk among hardware fans, who like to have their films converted to DVDs in a matter of minutes. In other words, we need more computing power! It should be mentioned here that the restricted distribution of dual CPU systems can only be attributed to a lack of software support. Admittedly, the search for perfect software which uses the full capacity of two processors is like looking for a needle in a haystack. So, where are the multi-threading applications we've been hearing about?

Even among the heaps of modern PC games, the aging Quake III stands out because it actually supports dual CPU operation, albeit in a rudimentary way. On the other hand, using a program for converting DVD films to space-saving MPEG-4 format is a classic killer application - Xmpeg or Flask Mpeg uses 100% capacity of both CPUs.

Testing basis: Two Athlon MP 1900+'s.

And don't forget, two processors mean prestige - even the BIOS logon is enough to get you noticed among your friends.