Dual CPU or not for my new rig?

[tablespace]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post and I'm naturally seeking advice from all the experts out there. I'm in dire need of a new machine. Sorry for the long post but I reckon I''d better give as much info as possible. This rig will be used mainly for:

*Web application development: Macromedia Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Java IDEs (e.g. Borland JBuilder
*Database development: Oracle 8i, 9i, Oracle Development IDEs, e.g. Developer 6i, Designer 6i
*Web server: iPlanet, etc.
*Application server: Oracle, Web Logic
*Database server: Oracle 8i, 9i
*Digital video editing: Using a Sony MiniDV camcorder (non professional, just family videos)
*Games: Formula 1 racing, Flight Simulator (occassionally)

The database and webservers will be running only while I'm developing an application. And typically I will have the database server, webserver, MS Outlook, an IDE (Integrated Development Environment), text editor and two different browsers open at the same time. This is in addition to all the memory resident programs such as Antivirus etc.

I am not interested in overclocking but I'm not opposed to it either depending on whether I can find the time for it. Most importantly I need a stable platform that can handle multiple tasks as I cannot afford a second machine to offload some of these tasks. I will eventually build a server platform perhaps in 9 or 12 months.

Some of the more basic questions I have are:

1) Will a dual processor platform benefit me? I believe it will.
2) Should it be an AMD or Intel based solution? I am leaning towards an Athlon because of cost although most of what I will be doing is content creation which I think favours the Intel.

Here's what I'd like to see on a board:
DDR SDRAM based solution.
IEEE 1394 Firewire and/or USB 2.0 support.
On board LAN and Audio would be nice.
On board RAID (SCSI is not important to me). I plan to put two drives in a RAID 0 array for video editing.

These are a few of the boards I have been considering:

AMD based
*SOYO SY-K7V Dragon+
*MSI K7T 266 Pro2
*Abit KR7A RAID
*ASUS A7M266-D - 760 MPX board

Intel based
*SOYO SY-P4I Fire Dragon+
*SOYO SY-P4S Dragon Ultra
*MSI 845 Ultra ARU
*Gigabyte GA-8IRXP

Please feel free to suggest any other board that is not listed. My current budget for the MB, case, 512 MB DDR SDRAM, cooling, 2 x 7200 RPM 40 GB drives is around $2000. Feel free to trear this apart. Perhaps my budget is too low for the kind of system I'm trying to build.

Thanks for your input and all the great info posted in this community.

 

[o1die]

I would read a review of 4 Pentium 4 motherboard comparisons at gamepc, which compares the asus P4s333 (sis 645 chipset) with 3 other intel boards. Don't know much about the 760 mpx boards. The new intel P4 northwood will officially be released tomorrow or monday. Look for slower versions of the cpu later. The 2.2 was selling at googlegear for $679, while the 2.0 was $479 at upgradepc.com. (may have the name wrong).

 

[tablespace]

Thanks. The reviews at gamepc were very informative. What is the benefit of going with the Northwood processor?

 

[AllDressedUp]

I guess the first question is whether to go dual or not. So you might consider changing the title of your thread to attract more specific replies along those lines (you can do that simply by editing your first message and changing the subject line). Right now you're gettin buried with all the other generic "help me decide" threads.

Based on a cursory look at your situation, from among your choices, I'd lean toward the ASUS 760MPX strictly for its brute force and rep for stability. But.... it may not have all the bells & whistles on-board that you're after, and the number of standard 32bit PCI cards you can add-on may be limited due to the presence of 64bit slots. I don't know if the ASUS 760MPX has a thermal shutdown feature either (one of my pet peeves).

I think there'd be some benefit in going dual for the kind of multi-tasking/serving you have in mind, but I'm not an expert on that kinda stuff. I'm looking at dualies too, but for different applications, and leaning toward an Epox or Iwill (neither of which appears to be available yet) for OCing and thermal protection features. Stability is probably lower on my list than shear speed though.

If you want a single processor platform, see my signature for some ideas on that...

 

[indianduddawg47]

for single processors, look at the ECS K7S5A - it's a flexible board (SDR OR DDR) (100/133), and supports all of the athlon xp's (which i would also recommend). it is extremely stable, cheap, and fast.

also, look at shuttle's ak31 rev 3.1.

 

[tablespace]

Thanks for the advice. I have changed the subject line. Hopefully this garners more responses.

Correct me if I am wrong but on the subject of 64 bit PCI slots on the Tyan MPX board: In my opinion, this is not a limitation. There are still 5 usable slots, the 64 bit ones will just default to 32 bit operation if you put a 32 bit card in it. Also 64 bit cards are not are not very common. 760MPX boards are looking increasingly attractive to me.

 

[AllDressedUp]

You might want to have a look at the 760MPX thread here as well. It's got the scoop on most of the new dualies. I think the 64bit slots on the original Tyan MP dualies may have been backward compatible, but the new ones on the MPX boards may not be, I guess because they're now true 66Mhz slots which use a different voltage.

FWIW, I just read a review of the ASUS (linkified in the 760MPX thread) and it apparently has 2-64s, and 3-32s. But it contains no onboard USB, so it appears you may loose one the 32s right off the bat. On the positive side though, the board does apparently come with C-media sound and some shutdown support for the Palomino's thermal diode.

You might also want to check out the forums at amdmb.com and 2cpu.com for some opinions.

 

[Daovonnaex]

<< Thanks for the advice. I have changed the subject line. Hopefully this garners more responses.

Correct me if I am wrong but on the subject of 64 bit PCI slots on the Tyan MPX board: In my opinion, this is not a limitation. There are still 5 usable slots, the 64 bit ones will just default to 32 bit operation if you put a 32 bit card in it. Also 64 bit cards are not are not very common. 760MPX boards are looking increasingly attractive to me. >>

The entire 64-bit bus defaults to 32-bit if one 32-bit is placed in. Just fill them with 64-bit SCSI and network cards, which leaves three more PCI slots. I recommend the Asus A7M266-D (solid 760MPX board), and dual CPUs given that your applications have SMP support. For HSFs, the Glacial II would work and provide outstanding cooling (allowing you two overclock ). Lean towards AMD because of affordability (you can use two Athlon XPs instead of MPs for more cost savings) and as of right now, superior performance (the prestonia core Xeon may change that, but thoroughbred core Athlons aren't very far away at all). This has none of the things on board you were looking for, but you can buy cheap cards for that (Tyan has some of those features, but the boards aren't as well engineered IMO, and have less support. Nor does Tyan have overclocking support, which you'll want in the future). Several of the Intel based boards have on-board SCSI, but they are extended ATX boards that require extended-ATX cases. For $2000, you could buy the everything you want on an Asus A7M266-D, including the additional necessary cards. If you'd like, I could post exact specifications for what I believe would meet your needs and budget. BTW--Windows 2000 does have built in RAID 0, 1, and 0+1 support FYI.