OVERCLOCKERS.com: "Multi-processors are unnecessary!"

[MadRat]

Overclockers.com Article Ed Stroligo - 6/7/01

On one hand he bashes the common man who wants SMP because its unnecessary. On the other he withdraws the criticism for the "You're doing it because you enjoy the hobby, not because you're going to get a major improvement out of it" user. He then implies that to want SMP is to drag the rest of the industry down.

What an arse.

 

[TravisBickle]

yeah, what an arse. everybody knows NT5 can use 2 processors. but what is NT5? I cannot find this "NT5" OS on the store shelves. does it really exist?

 

[julianf]

I've been running dual cpu's since 1998, winnt4.0 and win2k, linux, beos.. and so on, anything running 32bit kernel supports dual cpu's... i'm the world of audio,,, dual processors is a MUST---

old system:
asus p2b-ds
dual 550mhz PIII
256mbpc100

upgraded yestoday to:

asus cuv4x-dls
dual 933mhz PIII cumine
256mbpc133

anyone interested in a p2b-ds with two 550 PIII?

 

[Remedy]

I would be interested but i have enough MP systems in my room as it is , Need to go rackmount soon(22U). OC.com won't be getting anymore visits from me. Me thinks they are on the sh1t list now.

 

[bjc112]

<< Me thinks they are on the sh1t list now. >>



LOL,, well Even if dual proc. aren't the greatest.. they are still much better and a single CPU for most things!!

 

[julianf]

me 2

 

[dowxp]

<< yeah, what an arse. everybody knows NT5 can use 2 processors. but what is NT5? I cannot find this &quot;NT5&quot; OS on the store shelves. does it really exist? >>




nt5 is win2k. unless ur being sarcastic there.

 

[BlackWob]

Uhmm.. I kinda sensed sarcasm from him.. don't know about you.

 

[Noriaki]

Without actually reading the article...

I would like to say, Dual CPUs feels snappier in general use. You can actually run two apps at the exact same time. It seems kind of obvious but dual CPU systems really do feel snappier for every day use.

Even my Dual Celeron @550 still feels snappier than my Duron at 1Ghz.
The cellies have half the RAM, and it's 1/3 the bandwidth (PC2100 on the Duron, PC100 on the Cellies).

Of course in games (Single Processor intensive) the Duron destroys it. But just for average Windows use, an SMP system feels more responsive. Not enough so that I feel it worth while to upgrade my main rig to SMP, but still. I think it's a nice feel

 

[Muerto]

Maybe once MSI gets there $200 socket-A SMP boards out more people will go down the SMP road. I know I'm thinking about it.

 

[julianf]

well, i burn cd's, compress mp3's and render small animations in 3dmax... without performence drop... i would like to see that on a single cpu....

 

[MadRat]

<<i would like to see that on a single cpu.... >>

You forgot the [sarcasm] tags.

 

[Remedy]

Yeah but see this is what kills the SMP arena now. No offense to the ppl who wish or will be going SMP that never been there before. But The industry or community itself has too many ppl jumping on smp like a fad and those ppl don't even have Applications or any serious use for dual processor systems. So Yes in a sense it does become &quot;unnecessary&quot; for ppl who want to play games or Just browes the forum and post their current system specs so others can go &quot;ooohh, awwwww&quot;. I'm saying to myself like dood please you can barely handle Uniprocessor on the socket A format and you want to go dual already? But that editorial still blows my mind, just like i don't see the point in ISA slots anymore but that doesn't mean it should be &quot;Unnecessary&quot; to the rest of the consumers. I think this is the same dood that punted Anand for the Rambus article he did last year. Take what he and I say with a grain of salt. IMO atleast

 

[splice]

I still don't see how it's going to kill the SMP arena. The more people have SMP systems the more programmers are going to structure their programs to taylor to SMP systems. I see consumer SMP as a great thing. It makes absolutely no sense as to why it would or should hurt this market area by selling more of these types rigs. Hell it'll probably help the Linux initiative.

 

[jhu]

oh good, so i don't have to throw away my 4096 node beowulf system

 

[dowxp]

i heard compiling programs are good too. what c++ compiler is multithreaded?

 

[johneetrash]

<< Mind you, if you're doing serious activity with a program or programs that makes real use of two processors, or plan to use one of these as a server, I can see that. I'm not talking about you. >>



its in bold too

 

[Soccerman]

actually I agree to a certain point to what he says..

dual CPUs are a waste for a computer intended only for games. Games barely take advantage of a second CPU first of all, and second of all, games are moving away from CPU reliance..

as for people who want the fastest feeling computer (in other words, great responsiveness etc.), then Duals are the next step for you, just like SCSI would be...

btw, just get a Dual, then you'll have twice the RC5 keyrate as me! Duals aren't wasted for everything you know!

 

[splice]

Hmm... you're still only talking about the present. If SMP picks up in the consumer market, I am willing to bet you will start to see apps/games start to take advantage of this. Not many people buy computer for the present, they expect some sort of insurence that their system was a good investment for the future. If this wan't the case, we would all still be using P2-500's, cuz they are good enough to run present applications. Who needs a 1.7GHz processor currently? Very few people. Does it hurt to have a faster processor, no... Why would it be any different then owning an SMP system? It wouldn't! It's a future investment and your betting that SMP will be the next wave for the consumer market.

 

[sharkeeper]

I'm shocked at the number of people that I've run into that have a SMP system running Windows 9x!

I want SMP for multitasking plain and simple. SMP sure does work as I was using a dual PPro system and it rocked. I'm in the process of building a dual 1.2 system with no intentions of overclocking whatsoever. My wife doesn't believe me. Even my 512kb PPro 200's that cost $700 each back in 1996 were running at 233!

Cheers!

 

[joohang]

I would take a dual Coppermine 500 over my single Athlon 1 GHz any day.

SMP rules. Should've kept my BP6. I loved the system response on that machine.

 

[splice]

joohang, why are you under clocking all of your CPU's? You say you have a Duron 800MHz @ 600Mhz. You like to decrease performance of your systems? Usually it's the other way around. heh

 

[Soccerman]

I'm shocked at the number of people that I've run into that have a SMP system running Windows 9x!

yeah, you should all be running Linux

the problem is, only an extremely bloated OS (cough Windows XP) could actually need SMP..

though it certainly would be nice to have SMP (especially with AthlonMP's), I just can't afford it..

 

[joohang]

<< joohang, why are you under clocking all of your CPU's? You say you have a Duron 800MHz @ 600Mhz. You like to decrease performance of your systems? Usually it's the other way around. heh >>


I gotta update that rig page.

I used to underclock because I try to keep my systems as quiet as possible. Sometimes my CPU heated up a bit too much so I underclocked &amp; undervolted them.

 

[splice]

heh, i see