Dual Processor is it worth the money.......

[Vinayak]

I have few questions on DUAL PROCESSOR systems.

Requirement: I need a system which should be able to run the following applications PRO E, Ansys, Mechanical desktop, Autocad 2000 and other related packages mainly as a CAD/CAM workstation.
I'm planning to go for a dual processor workstation board like Intel 440GX or Asus P2bd. P III 800 or up is fine for me. 512MB RAM is fine. Also I already have a Matrox Millenium G400 32MB 4X AGP card. I'm unable to find any dual processor workstation board which has a 4X AGP port on it.

Question: Is it worth the money I'm investing on the hardware? And how much PERFORMANCE gain I will get from a dual processor board.

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I just bought a 3dlabs Oxygen VX1 32MB AGP card as well!

I'm considering "ASUS P2B-D" board with 512 MB RAM. Can some one tell me if G400 OR VX1 work well with this mother board? AND whether "ASUS P2B-D" accepts PIII 800?

ANY comments/suggestions greatly appreciated.


Thanks,
Vinayak

 

[kponds]

to get the AGP 4x, your going to have to go away from the Intel BX chipset and look at the VIA chipset. Two MB's come to mind - the Abit VP6 as well as the MSI 694d. Both of these boards have 4x AGP and RAID available.

For more info on dual setups, I suggest you go to the following website:

http://www.2cpu.com/

These folks specialize in dual setups and there are boatloads of info there on what your trying to do. Its a tech site and not a sales site.

Good luck

 

[TheOverlord]

for what you're doing dual procs would really help out...i wouldnt put too much emphasis on the agp 4x cuz from what ive read it doesnt make a whole lot of difference in reality...but that said id rather have a VP6 or 694D over any other dual proc mobo cuz they're really nice boards...

 

[TheCorm]

I would like to say that I have read a couple of reviews where Celeron's have performed quite nicely as dual processors, better so than when compared to dual pentium 3's.

So theres an option that saves money.

Corm

 

[mazdarx7]

Read an article on the speed of the G4 as a dually. If your really going to work and need that power, getting a dually potentially achieves twice the speed. It might be worth it just to get the experience of one. If your work depends upon others that can't get you the data/information, you'll just be sitting around waiting for it. That doesn't look good to management. With 2 K6 III + SS7 systems, I'm going to build a small network for the experience of it. So it all depends upon what deeper ulterior motives you have for building the perfect system.

 

[seewhy]

Well, this topic has been repeated so many times in this forum...but anyway, here it goes...

You can only take advantage of a dual processor system if your 1) OS supports it, you can pretty much use everything except win9x. 2) Your software supports it. The programs you mentioned are usually run on workstations, I would guess they may have dual proc. support, but that is only a guess. If they don't support dual CPU, you won't gain anything out of it. If they do, you will probably see 20%-50% gain in performance, but not 100% gain. However, if you are planning to run more than one program at once, which will be a great idea using your G400 (if it a dual head), your system will divide up the task and handle it great. So the performance gain really depends on how you are using your system.

As for what mobo to use, I would recommend going with a good old BX mobo like Tyan Tiger 100 Rev. F. It only supports AGP 2x but you won't feel the difference between 4x and 2x anyway. Reason: 1) Price, it is like $160. 2) Stability, BX is still the most tested platform out there.

You can use other option though. The VIA chipsets supports 133 FSB, and 4X AGP. But from what I've heard, (see www.2cpu.com forum), many people are still have issues with the chipsets. True most issues have been resolved, but since those mobo are still relatively new, you may encounter various issues on your own. Beside VIA chipsets, you can go with Serverwork chipsets. The older one like Serverwork LE does not support AGP slot at all, so I guess it doesn't fit your requirement. They have the new Serverwork HL (??) chipset, which supports AGP Pro and 64 bit PCI slot, but they are hard to find and expansive. Try find tyan thunder2500, or Supermicro mobos (forgot the model number). Serverwork are the most stable chipset with pretty good performance, Dell, Compaq and others are using them on their server line. So they may be the way to go. GX is gonna go away soon, the Serverwork chipset is price at the GX level, so I would choose Serverwork because their support (CPU...etc) is going to be better.

But if you just want a basic dual system with good performance, Tyan Tiger 100 with dual P3 850/800 will give you the best price/performance/stability combination you can find. Or you can wait for about two month for AMD 760MP chipset to come out which will give you dual 1.5G processing power!!!!! Drroooolllllll!!!! (Assuming the new Palomino comes out at that time, it should be going at 1.5G AIR COOLED)

 

[Cosmic_Horror]

i would lso have to recommend a BX based motherboard , because of stability. It has been well tested and is still one of the best preforming chipsets around.

whethre it is worth it depends on what you are running and in what enviroment. If you are waiting for the systenm to do lots of calculational work (and the apps support 2 cpu's) then you will see a gain in preformance, or if you run lots of apps, or burn a cd as you work on something else.

hope this helps

 

[Lore]

I have a Tyan Thunder 2500 and it runs very nicely - except I can't figure out why the ATI TV Tuner that I have acts up with any AGP card. It produces a bunch of vertical static lines at the middle of the display with any AGP card; doesn't happen with PCI video cards.

Other than that it's rock stable.