New system for me - confirm my research.

[vlack]

I'm soon to be buying a new system, and I've done some research that has left me with some questions.
Here are my constraints:
I need PCI-X (for future 3ware 8-port ATA RAID card).
I need AGP (This is a system that will be used as a workstation (and will therefore play the occasional game). And besides, I don't want to throw away my 2-port AGP video card just yet.)
I want 64-bit
I want dual processors.

A motherboard with all of those things is extremely expensive. I think that I'm going to have to pick and choose...

Dual Athlon MP Setup:
Athlon MP 2400+ @ 2GHz: 120$ ea -OR- Athlon MP 2800+ @ 2.1 GHz: 180$ ea
Tyan Tiger MPX Dual Athlon MP board w/ PCI-X: 200$
One of the points against this particular configuration is the maximum FSB: There are no Athlon MP processors or 2-way Athlon boards with more than 266MHz FSB.

Dual Xeon Setup:
2.4 GHz P4 Xeon w/ 512KB cache: ~200$ ea (1M-2M cache seems to go waay over my budget.)
I don't really know what boards to trust in the Intel arena, but I can't seem to find a dual-Xeon board with PCI-X and AGP that is in my pricerange. I'd prefer not to spend too very much more than ~200$ on the board. Is this even possible? It's certainly not possible with an Opteron board .

Athlon64 Single Processer Setup:
Athlon64 1MB cache 3000+: 220$
Board: is there an Athlon64 (NOT OPTERON... Opteron Processors are too expensive for me) board with PCI-X? If there isn't, then it's not really worth it to me I suppose, and I can wait until Opterons come down in price to consider 64-bit)

Dreamy No-Way-Can-I-Afford-This Dual Opteron Setup (Unfortunately there's no consumer-grade Athlon64 that supports SMP; only expensive Opterons do that):
Opteron 1.4 GHz: 215$ ea (holy crap, you can spend up to 900$ on a single Opteron processor. Wow.)
Tyan Thunder K8W Dual Opteron board w/ PCI-X: 400$


Questions:
I think that I'm going to go with the dual Athlon MP setup with dual 2400+ processors (the 2800+ procs don't seem to give me much more for an extra 60$/ea) unless someone dissuades me (they would have to find am Intel Xeon combination that I liked, make a dual-Opteron look a lot cheaper ^_^, or find an Athlon64 setup with PCI-X and AGP). Thoughts?
Am I just missing something - is there a higher-FSB Athlon MP + Mobo combo out there? 266MHz is the highest I could find.
Is there a P4 Xeon board with PCI-X and AGP in my pricerange (~200 for the board)?

 

[larciel]

i learned this from couple years of building and dismantling several of my 'dream system'..


if you step back a little and take a look at your plan, and put a priority list on items, and be CLEAR between 'NEED' and 'WANT', and your current budjet, you'll build a comp that might not be 'perfect' for you in the first place, but one that you'll feel better with it after a while. whereas, if you build whatever you feel like, you might be satisfied with it at first, but you'll be wanting to replace it very soon due to fast change in the market and your 'suddenly empty wallet'

just my take ,

personally, i wouldn't buy MP setup, because it's really old tech, i'd get an A64 setup and play a little with it

 

[Peter]

Well if you want to get serious about the system, you need to be ready to spend serious money on it.

Tyan do have a dual Xeon workstation board (w/ AGP and PCI-X) as well. Of course it's no less than the K8W.

Go the Opteron/K8W route, and to cut down on price, put only one processor and two DIMMs in for now, and add the 2nd processor and two more DIMMs later.

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: Peter
Well if you want to get serious about the system, you need to be ready to spend serious money on it.

Tyan do have a dual Xeon workstation board (w/ AGP and PCI-X) as well. Of course it's no less than the K8W.

Go the Opteron/K8W route, and to cut down on price, put only one processor and two DIMMs in for now, and add the 2nd processor and two more DIMMs later.

We have a winner.
Athlon MPs aren't bad, but not good, and at a dead end.
Xeons cost as much as Opterons, so whichever suits you.
The trick is finding the right mobo with an AGP slot and PCI-X slots

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

This is a little bit of friendly advice from someone who once spent $5000 on a PC...

Don't do it.

Go for best bang for your buck, and avoid early adoption of new hardware. You pay a premium for being first... and it is not worth it.