Good dual processor workstation motherboard?

[rkoenn]

I was wondering if anyone has experience with dual Athlon or Xeon motherboards? I have two friends who want me to build very high end engineering workstation systems for them and I am looking at dual Athlon or Xeon motherboards. Preliminary investigation seems to indicate that the Athlon boards will only support 4 GB of memory. First question is if that is true or not? Then, looking at Xeon boards, it appears that the Intel 860 chipset only supports 4 GB of RDRAM. Is that true also? These guys were looking at putting in more memory than 4 GB if possible. I found an Asus board using a Server Works chipset that apparently supports up to 12 GB of DDR Dram. Very expensive board. There are other server boards out there based on the Intel 870 DDR chipset, but apparently designed strictly for server apps. They have onboard low end video and no AGP slots. Does anyone know of any other Xeon dual boards designed for high end workstation? Also, does anyone also know if 2 GB DDR modules are available yet? I know 1 GB modules are available but don't know about 2 GB. Thanks for any help.

 

[Vette73]

Why the need for that much RAM??? What programs will they be running? and what the budget.


The best bang for your buck is a Dual Athlon system. Anandtech did a review of the Dual Xeon and Athlon system and THIS board is being run by Dual Athlon's after they did the review, that is how good it is.

I am running dual 1600+'s with 768Mg of Reg. ECC ram in my 760MPX board.

The 760MPX boards are very stable and easy to setup. I am running Win XP pro, but there are Linux drivers out there for 760MPX boards also.

But yes the 760MPX chipset will do UP to 4gig of Reg. DDR ram, more than I would think anybody would need or any 2 Cpu's could really use.

 

[rkoenn]

Thanks for your respsonse. These guys make their living running high end numerical analysis and simulations for aerospace and technology companies. They use NASTRAN and other high end programs for this. The more memory you have the less time the system has to spend going out to the hard drive. If the entire simulation can be run in RAM, it cuts down on the time significantly. They sometimes have sims running up to 8 hours at a time. So, the money returned on one job can pay for all that memory. If you have any other info, please let me know. rkoenn@cfl.rr.com

 

[Vette73]

Well I have built several 760MPX systems, so PM me if you have any direct Questions and I will try to help.

Beofre I built mine I looked at all the Dual setups and AMD keep rising to the top, wether it be price or performance, and also upgradeability.

 

[TonyB]

I recommend looking into the intel E7500 based chipsets for the Xeon platform. Specifically the Supermicro P4DP6 because this board is inexpensive ~$600 and can support up to 16GB of Reg. ECC DDR-200 memory. Its a dual channel setup so all memory must be installed in pairs, and a quick look at the supermicro memory list, there are 2GB module memory from Samsung. Chip part #K4H510438M-TCA2 Part #M383L5628MT1-CA2

I dont know of any AMD dual based chipset that can support more than 4GB.

 

[rkoenn]

Thanks again gentleman. However, none of the Supermicro boards have a dedicated AGP slot, which is a requirement for this system. We want to put in a high end 3D video card such as a Radeon 9700 Pro. That is an absolute requirement also. The only system I found at all that came close was an Asus board using a serverworks chipset, but very expensive board, $620+. I think we are going to end up going with a dual AMD box.

 

[Ziptar]

Go with an AMD 760MP or MPX Solution. VERY stable and it is the best performance for the $$.. Check out 2cpu.com If you haven't already...

 

[lahockey]

Check out the Iwill DX400-SN.
Product info
This should suit your needs!
Fry's carries the previous version of the board on their web site Iwill DP400
You can probably call their sales people and ask to have it special ordered

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: lahockey
Check out the Iwill DX400-SN.
Product info
This should suit your needs!
Fry's carries the previous version of the board on their web site Iwill DP400
You can probably call their sales people and ask to have it special ordered

That board will only do 2gig, he wanted more than that. Also it is more than twice as much as a 760MPX board that will hold twice the Ram and sorry but the Rambus boat has sailed and no one got on.

That and the Xeon's in P4 setting kinda suck, even Hp and some others are still pushing P3 Xeons as the way the P4 works it does not do as well as a Athlon/P3 setup, and The Athlon MP systems are still supported and still have some head room for growth.

 

[Vette73]

Here is the review of the Xeon vs. the Athlon MP

Anandtech Review

 

[yodayoda]

if you are using a 32 bit operating system, isn't 4 GB the upper limit anyways? so how could over 4 GB be implemented anyway without a 64 bit OS? what OS were you planning on setting up?