Dual CPU Mobos vs Single Processors

[Zeorymer]

I was looking at some Dual CPU motherboards such as

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813151125
/w two AMD Dual-Core Opterons
as compaired to a single socket 939 mobo such as

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131568
/w an AMD Athlon 64 FX60

My question is this:

1, Are Dual Processor motherboards sutiable for desktop gaming / photo and video editing?

-The computer will be primarily used for these purposes and I am curious as to what the difference in preformance I will notice and will any be noticable at all as compaired to the single socket 939 mobo.

2, What are the merrits of having Dual 10/100/1000Mbps LANs?

-Aside from the redundance of having two wires instead of one for physical wire failure protection, why is this useful and what are its main uses?

 

[2kfire]

1. 4 cores wouldn't help with gaming, since a lot of games don't even take advantage of a 2nd core. It might help with photo editing, depending on the program you use (not sure if Photoshop supports multi-core (more than 2)). Video editing, you could probably render several videos at the same time with much less lag than a 2 core system. I think in the end, it all depends on the OS. Not sure if XP PRO supports more than 2 cores. You might have to go with 2k3 server or something.

2. I think the main idea for 2 LAN ports is to avoid buying a router. You can connect your computer to 2 networks. Then, you can have control of what goes between each network while having access to both networks yourself. You can share your internet connection with just a hub. Just set up your internet on one port, then connect your hub to the other port and use Internet Connection Sharing. Or, you can have 2 full-speed connections so you can transfer a huge file from your file server on one connection while playing a multiplayer game on the other connection with little noticeable lag.

 

[HardWarrior]

I can speak from the experience I've had since going dual-core, which was around Xmas. It rocks. I lost 200Mhz going from an A64 3400+ to a A64 4400 X2, and the X2 zooms, in both games and during multi-tasking. Q4 is the only game I have that uses dual-core and it never skips a beat or bogs down. This MAY have something to do with running SLI. I'm not sure.

As for dual-LAN connectors, I've been wondering that myself. Is there any practicle reason for having them and a cool way to USE them?

 

[Zeorymer]

With the dual core processors of AMD x2 and Dual X16 SLI support of mobos such as:

http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=15&l3=226&model=744&modelmenu=1

These are designed for gaming in mind. Are there any benchmarks with these systems avaliable? Or do you have any personal experience with what kind of power and how much these high end cards are really going to matter? 2kfire mentioned that many program dont even make use of the dual core of the newer chips, but what about running XP 64 for the OS? I heard there are come issues with hardware designed before the 64 bit CPU were put out. Im looking for a high end machine my rig now leave quite a bit to be desired. Im not sure if i want to stick with standard workstation boards or go with some multi CPU server boards and dual video cards.

White running dual NVIDIA® Quadro with the Dual X16 SLI do they take a lot of ram? I was loking at getting about 2 gigs of ram and also do I NEED dual processors with the dual video cards?

 

[HardWarrior]

XPro makes use of dual-core CPU's, and does so to great affect. I no longer have to turn off things like AV for butter-smooth gaming performance. XPro also loads up in less than half the time it used too. Dual 16x performance may be an issue months from now, but frankly, considering that the A8N32 has space issues, I decided to wait and see what happens late this year.

Being that you're running a hungy OS behind whatever game is in the foreground, at least a dual-core CPU would seem to be in order. Also, server boards, while powerful in their own right, may not be the best choice for high-end gaming. Plus there are MANY workstation-class enthusiast mb that work great with games.

 

[Zeorymer]

So your saying that XP Pro can make use of dual core CPUs? what about the new 64 bit dual core AMD chips? I was under the impression that XP64 was the only windows based OS that could actually make use of the chips. ???

 

[HardWarrior]

Yup, I'm using a dual-core, 64bit AMD CPU with XPro right now. Nope, 32bit XP was SMP-compatible out of the box.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: Zeorymer
I was looking at some Dual CPU motherboards such as

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813151125
/w two AMD Dual-Core Opterons
as compaired to a single socket 939 mobo such as

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131568
/w an AMD Athlon 64 FX60

That board is pretty old. It still uses AGP, plus almost all dual CPU boards require registered RAM so RAM will be very expensive. I don't think any of your stated uses will benefit from a pair of dual core CPUs. The dual core FX60 with 2 GB dual channel memory and a fast PCIe video card will do your three tasks just fine.

Consider an Opteron 180 CPU instead of the FX60. It is 200MHz slower, but also $500 less. Those Opterons are known to be mad overclockers, so bumping it up 200MHz to make up the difference wouldn't even cause it to break out in a sweat.

Dual NICs can be used to access two networks or use the computer for a router. Another use is for a fast server. You can bind the two NICs and have 2GB bandwidth. Imagine hosting a 64 player BF2 server on a LAN with everyone on 100mbit connections and the server on two gigabits.