Experience setting up dual Athlon XP Mobile

[irenealan]

hi does anyone here has experience and know about how to setup dual Athlon XP Mobile... I remember someone here mentioned that he put up a system with dual Athlon XP Mobile OC to 2.5 ghz each... just wonder if such setup is possible if these chips are not the MP or Opteron? if so what board should I get? Is there any good recommendation? Thanks.

 

[myocardia]

What happened, Irene? Did that Athlon64 3400 for $320 turn out to be a scam? Anyway, there aren't many people around here running dual processor setups (which is called SMP, btw), but there are a couple. Let me tell you what I remember about what they've said. First of all, you have to modify a desktop Barton to be able to use it in an SMP setup, but not the mobile Bartons. It sounds crazy, but it's true. I have a mobile, and I looked at the chip myself, and they can be used SMP the day you receive them. Anyway, since I personally think that anyone who orders from anywhere besides newegg, zipzoomfly, and sometimes tigerdirect, is taking way too many chances with their hard-earned money, here's a link to newegg's server motherboard page: link. Here are the two boards everyone who has an AMD SMP setup is using: Tyan Tiger. Now, you will have to buy new memory for that board, because it will only allow Registered ram. This is the one that most seem to be using, and are happiest with: Gigabyte GA-7DPXDW-P. The Gigabyte has really good features, especially considering it's price, and it doesn't require registered ram. Now, if I remember correctly, both MSI and Iwill at one time made socket 460 processor dual motherboards, but I don't think either is still making them.

 

[Mingon]

I have 2 x 2500+ mobile chips in my k7d, they are at 17*138 at the moment and performance is damn good. PM me if you need any help

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: Mingon
I have 2 x 2500+ mobile chips in my k7d, they are at 17*138 at the moment and performance is damn good. PM me if you need any help

Yeah, that was the MSI board that some people are using, and seem to like. And it's actually a pretty new board.

 

[osage]

If you check the 2CPU forum you will see that a number of ppl have has good luck with the Athlon XP Mobile in SMP mode.

You will also see that a fair number of ppl with the Tyan Tiger MP S2460 are able to run with regular unbuffered ram, myself included.

taken from a review on Anandtech "If you only install two modules then you should be fine with regular DDR SDRAM (provided that it has no specific compatibility issues with the Tiger MP). During our tests we ran the board with Corsair Registered DDR SDRAM modules and the same Crucial unregistered DDR SDRAM we use in all of our other tests."

the full review can be found here.
Tyan's Tiger MP: Affordable Multiprocessing

 

[Soulkeeper]

that kinda setup should kill a prescott at 4ghz

 

[Mik3y]

which has better performance? duel mobile 2600+'s? or an a64 3400+? or are duel MP 2800+'s stronger then all of em?

 

[Mingon]

Originally posted by: Mik3y
which has better performance? duel mobile 2600+'s? or an a64 3400+? or are duel MP 2800+'s stronger then all of em?

Depends on what your doing, but dual mobile's 2500+'s at 2.35ghz are fast enough at most things with the added bonus of creamy SMP. A good example is divx encoding, my 2.4c@3.0ghz on Dr divx manages around 55-60fps. My dual mobiles only get around 45fps, but I can run 2 instances of it and both will run at 45fps.

 

[saechaka]

what would be the best cpu heatsink for these boards? how would these server boards run with xp pro? will the dual setup give any performance boost compared to a single cpu setup? are there any reviews of a dual cpu sys versus a single cpu? thanks

 

[Soulkeeper]

get watercooling

or get two big mean copper thermalright heatsinks with 92mm fans

 

[Soulkeeper]

with two 92mm cpu fans blowing air onto the cpu/board and two 80mm case fans you should have a nice cool running mean server
but i suggest installing airfilters if at all possible
could get dusty

 

[saechaka]

will there be room for two heatsink and fans? will these server boards fit into a regular atx case, lets say an antec piano black case? just wonderin cause seems like it might be a fun project to build a server.

 

[Soulkeeper]

check the dimensions after you decide which parts you want, just to be sure
and you better have a killer PSU for that system
atleast 450watts imo

i suggest either the antec 550 or a pcpower and cooling psu
a cheesy 300 watt enermax isn't gonna cut it
look for strong 3.3 and 5v rails

 

[saechaka]

would you go for a p4 3gig setup or 2x 2500xp mobile setup? under which circumstances would you choose to go with the p4 setup? i currently have everything i need for a new system except board and cpu. i have 2 sticks corsair xms 333mhz. if i go p4 i will probly have to buy ddr 400mhz. but if i get dual setup i would have to pay a little more for mother board but hopefully won't have to buy new ram. what would you choose soulkeeper?

 

[Mingon]

You would be surprised I have used an enermax 350watt with no problems and a q'tec cheapo 550watt and had no issues.
A board like the k7d is a little wider than others but not much difference say 1" or so, you can fit quite large heatsinks I had 2 x coolermaster aero7+'s on my other machine (see sig for current setup )

 

[Soulkeeper]

a 2x athlon xp system would stomp a P4 3ghz system anyday
except maybe in stupid programs optimized just for the P4 (very few with sse2 support let alone sse3 support)
hehe

 

[saechaka]

thanks for the reply soulkeeper i'm going to look into getting a dual xp mobile setup to try out. now who's going to help pick out the cooling for my antec piano black case.

 

[aka1nas]

I am using a pair of SLK800Us on my MSI K7D. If you go with a midtower ATX case, then I would make sure you get enough airflow inside the case, as the air of cpus put out alot of heat.

 

[irenealan]

No Myocardia, although it's a good deal I went ahead to get a refurblish retail version of the A64 3000+ for 168... it saves me 150 plus I may OC it to the 3400+ speed. Since many people advise getting the NewCastle and they commented that there's not much difference between the 3000+ and 3400+ so I save myself $150 to get a better video card! Is it a good choice? Hope I made the right decision!

Thanks for all your help Myocardia!

Originally posted by: myocardia
What happened, Irene? Did that Athlon64 3400 for $320 turn out to be a scam? Anyway, there aren't many people around here running dual processor setups (which is called SMP, btw), but there are a couple. Let me tell you what I remember about what they've said. First of all, you have to modify a desktop Barton to be able to use it in an SMP setup, but not the mobile Bartons. It sounds crazy, but it's true. I have a mobile, and I looked at the chip myself, and they can be used SMP the day you receive them. Anyway, since I personally think that anyone who orders from anywhere besides newegg, zipzoomfly, and sometimes tigerdirect, is taking way too many chances with their hard-earned money, here's a link to newegg's server motherboard page: link. Here are the two boards everyone who has an AMD SMP setup is using: Tyan Tiger. Now, you will have to buy new memory for that board, because it will only allow Registered ram. This is the one that most seem to be using, and are happiest with: Gigabyte GA-7DPXDW-P. The Gigabyte has really good features, especially considering it's price, and it doesn't require registered ram. Now, if I remember correctly, both MSI and Iwill at one time made socket 460 processor dual motherboards, but I don't think either is still making them.