Dual Proc or Single Proc?

[bluearchtop]

I am thinking of building myself a new computer. Does WinXP support dual processors? Is there any AMD Chip that is recommended for dual processors? I'm thinking in the ~ 1 to 1.3ghz per chip range. Any recommendations on a good dual proc mb that supports a RAID? Thanks for your advice.

 

[BeauJangles]

Windows XP Professional has SMP support. Best mobo? the one made by Tyan seems to get great reviews around here. As for the raid, get a RAID card.

 

[skibird]

winxp like any other win NT system does support multi-processor. AMD MP = means amd multi-processing and is one of the best. You will find a lot of people agress with me on that. If money is a issue to you then amd xp is just as good. winxp will recognize it as soon as it boot up. Duron is another good chip for this setup if you are good at overclocking. I personnally perfer AMD 1600+ or AMD 1800+, cause their performance and their price. below is a website on the mother board you are looking for.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/story.html?id=1001352231

there you could see some new mobo to your liking. Good luck with it.

 

[Rahminator]

Let me clarify, Windows XP Home Edition DOES NOT support SMP.

 

[sohcrates]

1) Tyan is really the only current dual amd mobo maker (for the MP's) and their boards are pretty good, so i would recommend them as well

2) AMD MP's are the only amd cpu's approved for SMP, but XP's will apparently work in dual configurations as well

3) remember, in addition to needing an OS that supports multiple processors, you'll also need to use applications which support SMP. the biggest examples of that are programs such as photoshop, and some games such as quake3. for "normal" usage, you can set processor affinity for different programs, but you might not see the huge performance gain you might expect

what major apps do you use or plan to use with this system?

 

[SUOrangeman]

sohcrates-

NT, and most good SMP kernels, can also distribute and balance apps among the available CPUs.

"WinAmp, you take CPU0"
"AIM, you're on CPU1"
"Word, CPU0"
"SETI, CPU1"
"DNETC, CPU1"
"IE, CPU1 for you too!"

-SUO

DOH! I missed that last sentence, soh. My bad!

 

[sohcrates]

<< sohcrates-

NT, and most good SMP kernels, can also distribute and balance apps among the available CPUs.

"WinAmp, you take CPU0"
"AIM, you're on CPU1"
"Word, CPU0"
"SETI, CPU1"
"DNETC, CPU1"
"IE, CPU1 for you too!"

-SUO >>



yep, that's what i was talking about when i mentioned "processor affinity" in my previous post