need info about Dual Processors

[eofeapr]

have'nt done alot with dual processors and wan't opinions for a personal PC (unsure if I'll be MS or if GNU OS)

machine will be for doing graphics & webs, delving into games ,,, flight sims and fpshooters (splinter cell,, comando,, ww II 1948 ,, )

by the same token,,, be an entry level server ,, enough balls and band to serve,,,
- occasional ftp ,,, files 25 to 100 mb to a few admins
- and host 30 to 50 via www serivng clint from ide scsi contaning webs and small 500 to 1 gig dbase to support php and sql queery

am looking to set up 2 sata raid 0 for apps and os,
- using 2 ide scsi hdds master/slave via pci for saves and temps that get backed up,
- and 1 ide on the mobo as standby tandem os and apps backup in case a fly gets in the ointment,,,,,,

1 does this make sense ? am I using my drives efficiently ?

2 what pros and cons do you see in the different 64 bit mobo combos (board , cpu, chipset, ram considerations) ,,,
- who do you like and why?

3 what would you buy if you were spending about $10,000 us for monitor, tower, and all ???

 

[DannyBoy]

If I was spending that much on a system i would spend 2-3k on the comp and 7k on a plasma screen or projecter...

But anyway, that sounds like overkill for what your needing to do.

Could you create a more effecient list of the tasks involved and fully explain what will be running what etc, and perhaps some details on the software per task, and also perhaps a rough idea of what hardware you will be interested in.

Thanks
Dan

 

[digitalsm]

What type of graphics work? 3D? 2D? It all depends on what you want to do. And you have to answer the questions, Do you really need dual CPUs? Is it really worth it to you?

This is my workstation, granted it does not preform as an entry level server.

AMD Opteron 246
AMD Opteron 246
RioWorks ARMIA AMBHB SATA
4GB PC2700 DDR333 Registered ECC SDRAM
ATI FireGL X2 256MB AGP
ATI Radeon 9200 128MB PCI
Creative Labs Audigy2 ZS
Western Digital Raptor 10k 36GB SATA HDD (OS)
Western Digital Raptor 10k 36GB SATA HDD (Apps)
Western Digital Raptor 10k 36GB SATA HDD (Projects)
Western Digital Raptor 10k 36GB SATA HDD (Storage)
LaCie USB2 40GB HDD
LaCie USB2 40GB HDD
LaCie USB2 40GB HDD
LaCie USB2 40GB HDD
DVD +/- R/RW Drive
DVD Drive
Floppy Drive
Klipsch ProMedia 5.1 Ultra
Wacom Intous2 9x12
19" CRT
19" CRT
19" CRT

 

[eofeapr]

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: digitalsm
What type of graphics work? 3D? 2D? It all depends on what you want to do. And you have to answer the questions, Do you really need dual CPUs? Is it really worth it to you?

This is my workstation, granted it does not preform as an entry level server.

AMD Opteron 246
AMD Opteron 246
RioWorks ARMIA AMBHB SATA
4GB PC2700 DDR333 Registered ECC SDRAM
ATI FireGL X2 256MB AGP
ATI Radeon 9200 128MB PCI
Creative Labs Audigy2 ZS
Western Digital Raptor 10k 36GB SATA HDD (OS)
Western Digital Raptor 10k 36GB SATA HDD (Apps)
Western Digital Raptor 10k 36GB SATA HDD (Projects)
Western Digital Raptor 10k 36GB SATA HDD (Storage)
LaCie USB2 40GB HDD
LaCie USB2 40GB HDD
LaCie USB2 40GB HDD
LaCie USB2 40GB HDD
DVD +/- R/RW Drive
DVD Drive
Floppy Drive
Klipsch ProMedia 5.1 Ultra
Wacom Intous2 9x12
19" CRT
19" CRT
19" CRT

If that won't be an entry level server what will? I wish I had your budget...

-Por

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Raid 0 seems like a bad idea to me in most situations, especially this one. I would go with either 2 big drives and raid 1, or 3 drives and a hardware raid 5 if you can spend the money.

I would probably go for dual opterons. For most people, smp isn't worth it, but if your machine is busy with one thing and you want to be able to do something else at the same time without slowdown, then smp is awesome. Although with ide drives, often the machine still gets jerky if the other task is accessing the disk a lot.

PS if you have the money, DEFINITELY go for some fast scsi and a hefty controller instead of ide.

 

[eofeapr]

<FONT face=Times color=#330066 size=3>THNX for responses, the box will be for 3D,,, and as I stated want to serve intermitantly, for client machine via logon only, not gonna be open to the world only members... Can't really elaborate more at this time since this will be first set up like this for me so your questions serve to highlight new considerations. Thnx a bunch...

Am not too hot on plasma screens, heard they are prone to screen burn and I run my box 24/7, and for what it's worth would rather a really good quality large LCD with good ratio and refresh rate and truest posible color.

As for dual chips, well since I'm just staring to look into this I'm flexible about what I will do in the end. REALLY Like the sound of those AMD 64 FX chips, 700.00 plus right now for one of those pups,,, big OUCH regardless of your budget cause all other parts add up quick !!</FONT>

Thnx for the RAID tips, I'm stuck on 0, obviously I need to start thinking more NET ADMIN in my approach to RAID with this box...

JOE

 

[SUOrangeman]

AMD Athlon SMP config

I recently built a machine with these specs and it is happily humming along. I've had the same mobo and CPUs at home for most of this year with no problems.

Given that AMD has gone to Opteron, it's not likely that there will be any newer Athlon MPs.

-SUO

 

[selene]

2Cpu.Com

Lots of info and stuff

 

[Matthias99]

I'm not sure for that level of service that 2 processors would be even nearly justified. I think you'd get more bang for the buck with a uniprocessor workstation and a separate server. For games + graphics apps you won't get much out of dual processors, and you'll want to use a RAID0 array for high speed disk access. A server has a different set of priorities -- you'd want something like RAID1 or RAID5 for reliability, and a stable OS environment on top of a stable server motherboard. You're also *not* going to get as good performance for games if your system is busy processing web/file server requests in the background, even with dual processors.

Basically, the "jack-of-all-trades-but-master-of-none" approach often costs more (especially at the high end) and rarely gives as good performance as two systems each doing their own tasks.

 

[lameaway]

I agree with the above suggestion to build two seperate systems... with a single computer, you're stuck either trying to get all the apps/games you want to run on Linux or struggling to make a Microsoft product work as a decent server OS. Neither is pretty.

 

[eofeapr]

Originally posted by: Matthias99
I'm not sure for that level of service that 2 processors would be even nearly justified. I think you'd get more bang for the buck with a uniprocessor workstation and a separate server. For games + graphics apps you won't get much out of dual processors, and you'll want to use a RAID0 array for high speed disk access. A server has a different set of priorities -- you'd want something like RAID1 or RAID5 for reliability, and a stable OS environment on top of a stable server motherboard. You're also *not* going to get as good performance for games if your system is busy processing web/file server requests in the background, even with dual processors.

Basically, the "jack-of-all-trades-but-master-of-none" approach often costs more (especially at the high end) and rarely gives as good performance as two systems each doing their own tasks.

YEAH,,!! I see your point,, CRYSTAL n CLEAR... It's no wonder why big business systems are based on clusters of machines, something I should have considered, but I lack any real world exposure to network s and servers.
But what the hay !! you guys just helped me step it up a notch...
Learned a good lesson here,,, big thnx to all ....