Dual system Intel

[VitoVonAntwon]

Hello,

My brother is thinking of making a dual system.
DOes anyone know if this is cost effective?

TOday's single systems are so fast, and mother boards for duals are so expensive,
i'm not sure that making a dual system is so cost effective these days.

Also, is Xenon's hyperthreading yet?
What about amd's hammer, can that be multi processor?

Thanks.

Antonio

 

[Soulkeeper]

the opteron kicks ass on the xeon in dual proc systems
i believe the new xeons do have hyper threading but i'm not sure

i much rather have a fast 3ghz P4 system than an expensive dual xeon system personally
performance differences are minimal on things like gaming
unless he is going to run hard core programs that are optimized for dual proc systems (multi thread support) then i would say no

as far as which dual proc system to go for if he does choose that path i would suggest opteron cause the design and performance of the dual opteron systems is great (they each have their own memory controller)
this is of course assuming price is not too important to him

i suggest just price a dual xeon system and a dual opteron system and a single proc system(P4 or athlon)
then go around and find benchmarks online for systems configured similarly
this should give you an idea on price/performance

good luck

 

[mechBgon]

Dualies are best used as a specialty tool in cases where there's a specific reason for dual processors. 3D rendering is a solid example of that, because most 3D modelling software, even my junky trueSpace software, is built to take advantage of dual processors. trueSpace will render approximately 80-100% faster in multithreaded mode, at least until it crashes

If you don't know why you need dual, you probably should research it thoroughly. Can you give us more info on what your brother will be using the computer for?

 

[Duvie]

I noticed that TMPGenc (mpeg2, DVD, SVCD, VCD encoding) is setup for multithreading...I would love to test it out to see if the HT of the INtel p4 will take advantage of this....


Dual processor is for specific uses and for specific programs that are multi-threaded. Make sure you need this otherwise it is a real waste.

I think the opteron is quite nice, but I wonder in some of these program if 2 xeons with HT will be seen as 4 processors...Anybody know????

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: Duvie
I noticed that TMPGenc (mpeg2, DVD, SVCD, VCD encoding) is setup for multithreading...I would love to test it out to see if the HT of the INtel p4 will take advantage of this....

Yes it does,TMPGenc loves hyperthreading.

 

[rgreen83]

Yes, two HT enabled xeons will be recognized as 4 cpus.

Questions,
1. are there some programs that can only take advantage of two processors but not more (like the 2 HT xeons) if you had them, or can all multithreaded apps take advantage of as many threads as possible?

2. For true multithreaded app, i.e. photoshop, is HT as useful as a second cpu?

 

[beatle]

Originally posted by: rgreen83
Yes, two HT enabled xeons will be recognized as 4 cpus.

Questions,
1. are there some programs that can only take advantage of two processors but not more (like the 2 HT xeons) if you had them, or can all multithreaded apps take advantage of as many threads as possible?

2. For true multithreaded app, i.e. photoshop, is HT as useful as a second cpu?

1. Depending on the program, you may reach a point of diminishing returns when adding cpus. They will still use them, but how useful they would be, I'm not sure.

2. No. HT is basically a way for the CPU to process a few more instructions while it would otherwise be idle. A dual 3.0 GHz Xeon w/out HT will blow away a P4 3.0C with HT in apps that make heavy use of SMP.

 

[VitoVonAntwon]

EVerybody,

Thank you so much for your help.

My brother uses programs like Digital fusion and lightwave. Compositing and 3d software.
I've built myself a p42.8c, o/c to 3.28ghz, using kingston hyperx-3500, and ran benchmarks on lightwave.
(right in line with tom's hardware)

And, the rendering, you would think would be faster with hyper threading on. You can set lightwave to render
using more than one thread. But it didn't really seem to notice the hyperthreading. Although, My friend
with a g5 apple, ran a benchmark, and we forgot to turn the threads from one to eight. The difference in the benchmark was
127seconds, down to 67secs, so ya 2 cpu's kick ass.

I really wonder if the xenon with hyperthreading and showing up as 4 cpu's would really be utilized by LIghtwave....
Ok i'm rambling.

I was telling my bro, that I think for bang for the buck, just to build a single system now, or if he does all that work,
getting benchmarks on dualies, and some singles, and then pricing it all out, then he will know....
I'll tell him to post here if he does that.

THanks again.
VitoVonAntwon

 

[beatle]

Originally posted by: VitoVonAntwon
I was telling my bro, that I think for bang for the buck, just to build a single system now, or if he does all that work,
getting benchmarks on dualies, and some singles, and then pricing it all out, then he will know....
I'll tell him to post here if he does that.

THanks again.
VitoVonAntwon

Sounds like a good idea. Really, the only time I would advise a dual cpu setup is for a person (or company) where their time is valuable and/or their money isn't.