Would a dual setup be worth the money?

[AMDPwred]

I'm giving thought to building a dual T-Bird Rig for my home workstation. I play games, surf the web, write papers, develop (in C/C++, Java, VB, HTML, and ASP), Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, and Fireworks 4. Would having a dual setup benefit me? I just read the Tyan S2460 review from Anand, for only $215 that's a damn good deal. Also, could I just add another 1ghz Bird or would I need to buy the Athlon MPs for it? Thanks for any replies.

 

[Lord Gwynz]

Hell yeah! Have you ever heard of anyone regretting getting a dually system? I was running a BP6 dual C366@550 until the mb suddenly died and just received the board back from RMA, and even though I'm running an Athlon XP 1800+ now, I'm still considering rebuilding the little dually rig since it multitasked apps soo smoothly

 

[AMDPwred]

Which apps would take advantage of that though? Cause I hear not all use both CPUs.

 

[AMDPwred]

Bump

 

[bozo1]

Photoshop, Premier, Illustrator, Quake3 will make use of it. Beyond that pretty much only highend 3D graphics apps like 3DStudio Max and the like are multithreaded. You see a slight boost in everyday stuff (slight meaning < 5% in my experience) because NT/W2K itself will offload some stuff to the 2nd CPU but in my opinion, unless you are using an app that will specifically benefit from SMP, it's not worth the money.

 

[AMDPwred]

It isn't really that much more money. I could sell all of my current RAM and my ASUS A7V133 motherboard. The grab the Tyan, RAM, and an extra T-Bird. Would the normal AMD 1ghz T-Birds run in those boards or must I have the Athlon MPs?

Also, what other affordable dual boards are there?

 

[squirrel dog]

dual rigs are real nice.I too had a bp6 366@550 and still miss it.Go for it,just because you can.Bump the ram up to 512 and try and get xp pro,or win2k.As stated apps do go smoothly.

 

[AMDPwred]

Yeah, I've already got Win2K Pro. So I hear I need special memory, can someone link me to what I'll need? I'm still stuck the CPU issue too. Do I have to have MPs?

 

[Confused]

normal athlons and durons will work, they're just not "AMD Approved"

ConfusedBW

 

[AMDPwred]

Cool, thanks alot!

 

[RSMemphis]

In Windows 2000, I am 99.9999% sure you can assign tasks to computers.
Soooooooo... You assign basic Windows 2000 and your long super-optimized compiler job to the first CPU, and while you wait, you don't drink coffee, but frag online or offline.

I am not sure I would get one for myself, but otherwise, go for it, if you have the money.

One thing I would like to say though. Dual 1GHz T-birds probably won't outrun a single XP 1800+ most of the time, unless you can really separate tasks very nicely.

Just a thought, though.