Two Dual-Core CPU's?

[imported_Meridian]

I'm new to dual-core technology, and I was hoping you guys might be able to offer a Noob some insight. Ok, here goes:

(1) Is it possible to run two FX-60 chips (or their Intel counterparts) on the same motherboard? If not, do you think it will be possible in the near future?

(2) Would you need an OS other than the standard Windows XP Professional?

(3)Would the SMP coding that some games are utilizing (E.g. Quake 4, Call of Duty 2, etc.) take advantage of two dual-core CPU's?

I'm sorry for the barage of questions, I'm just new to this area. Dual-core technology is the first advance I've seen in a long time that real grabbed my attention. I'm excited to see what the future has in store.

Regards,

Ben

 

[Green Man]

Well, not two FX60s
But 2 opteron 2xx

It'll be pricey, though

AMD Dual-Core Opteron 280 $1,324.00 ea
MSI K8N Master2-FAR $249.00

So you're looking at about $2900 for a Mobo and two CPU's that are the equvalent of 4800+ x2s

Sure multithreading programs will benefit including games

Comes up short in the cost/benefit analysis, though.

Expect similar prices and lower performance from the intel solution

 

[Justin343563611]

I think, Yes, No and Yes.

 

[Wentelteefje]

1) Not that I know of... The only ones that can be coupled are AMD Opterons (Socket 940) and Intel Xeons (Socket 604), but the latter ones aren't compatible with Windows IMHO... I don't see why there would be a need for this, as they are already experimenting with triple core CPU's, and quad core processors are planned by INtel and AMD for 2007 or 2008...

2) Normally not, as Windows XP Pro can work with two processors, no matter how much cores they have... It's the number of sockets that matter...

3) IMHO, it'll still take some serious time before that's going to happen... There are hardly any games that can be optimised for dual core nowadays, so what to expect with quad core CPU's...?

 

[Lord Banshee]

Intel Xeons are compatible with windows, why do you think they are not?

Quad Cores will not be out till 2007 so AMD says 🙂

Having more than 2 cores for home will not be very effecient unless you do CFD analysis, scientific simulations, or CAD rendering. I really do not think too many people do that at home lol. And untill normal application become SMP aware (i would guess mid-2007 will really start it)

 

[Wentelteefje]

Originally posted by: Lord Banshee
Intel Xeons are compatible with windows, why do you think they are not?

Quad Cores will not be out till 2007 so AMD says 🙂

Having more than 2 cores for home will not be very effecient unless you do CFD analysis, scientific simulations, or CAD rendering. I really do not think too many people do that at home lol. And untill normal application become SMP aware (i would guess mid-2007 will really start it)

You could be right, my bad... However, I thought that they had a 64-bit functionality that wasn't supported by Windows... No?

 

[themusgrat]

I also thought xenons were a different 64 bit architecture, not the x86 extensions like desktop procs. Here is a good mobo. http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thunderk8we_spec.html
As soon as you get to dual socket, I would recommend Tyan for mobos. Its little brother can be found for 240, and is a great deal.
And XP Pro would not help, unless you need advanced networking and security that requires servers.

 

[RichUK]

You guys are getting mixed up with Intel Itanium processors, which are designed for use in large server farms etc, and do not run on x86 code, but instead have specialised Microsoft OS?s created for it.

Xeon is just another x86 netburst processor and is akin to the Pentium 4, it is designed for the server market.

 

[dmens]

I saw a quad yonah setup recently. Not sure when that board will be out though. I guess it is the sossaman (sp?) platform.

 

[Fox5]

Windows XP Pro may not have quad cpu support? Perhaps Windows Server 2003 would be needed.

 

[Pabster]

Yes, it is possible. Dual Core Dual Opteron has been here for some time now. And XP Pro can run it just fine.

 

[Hard Ball]

Originally posted by: Fox5
Windows XP Pro may not have quad cpu support? Perhaps Windows Server 2003 would be needed.

Win XP Pro will run 2 Dual Core CPUs fine, I have been doing so a while on the machine in my sig.

 

[Lord Banshee]

Originally posted by: RichUK
You guys are getting mixed up with Intel Itanium processors, which are designed for use in large server farms etc, and do not run on x86 code, but instead have specialised Microsoft OS?s created for it.

Xeon is just another x86 netburst processor and is akin to the Pentium 4, it is designed for the server market.

This one speaks the truth 🙂

And MS said that windows licenses will be based off socket not cores like someone above stated so, in theory, when quad cores come out you could use winXP Pro with 2 quad core chips and run winxp fine.

I have never seen such a setup but maybe someone with a dualcore xeon with HT enabled can tell us 🙂

 

[Pr0phetX]

Originally posted by: Green Man
Well, not two FX60s
But 2 opteron 2xx

It'll be pricey, though

AMD Dual-Core Opteron 280 $1,324.00 ea
MSI K8N Master2-FAR $249.00

So you're looking at about $2900 for a Mobo and two CPU's that are the equvalent of 4800+ x2s

Sure multithreading programs will benefit including games

Comes up short in the cost/benefit analysis, though.

Expect similar prices and lower performance from the intel solution

wow

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: dmens
I saw a quad yonah setup recently. Not sure when that board will be out though. I guess it is the sossaman (sp?) platform.

A quad Yonah setup? I find that VERY hard to believe...even Xeon requires a special processor (Xeon DP) for more than one processor. While Sossaman is a just released 2P (32bit only), they haven't even announced that they will attempt an MP version.

 

[Sc4freak]

Originally posted by: Fox5
Windows XP Pro may not have quad cpu support? Perhaps Windows Server 2003 would be needed.

I think WinXP Pro has the ability to run ~32 cores or something like that.

 

[Shimmishim]

Originally posted by: Green Man
Well, not two FX60s
But 2 opteron 2xx

It'll be pricey, though

AMD Dual-Core Opteron 280 $1,324.00 ea
MSI K8N Master2-FAR $249.00

So you're looking at about $2900 for a Mobo and two CPU's that are the equvalent of 4800+ x2s

Sure multithreading programs will benefit including games

Comes up short in the cost/benefit analysis, though.

Expect similar prices and lower performance from the intel solution

you mean equivalent of 2 4800+ X2's.

 

[davegraham]

ok, since this happens to be an area of specialty for me.
1.) no, you cannot run 100-series, FX-60s, or X2s in a dual processor board because they only have 1 coherent HT link. You can run 200-series and 800-series dual core procs on the same board, however.

2.) WinXP Pro should work just fine. however, given the payload you're dealing with, i'd suggest Win2k3 x64 or one of the excellent Linux x64 distros.

3.) no. you're basically starving 2 of the 4 cores.

dave

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: Viditor

Originally posted by: dmens
I saw a quad yonah setup recently. Not sure when that board will be out though. I guess it is the sossaman (sp?) platform.

A quad Yonah setup? I find that VERY hard to believe...even Xeon requires a special processor (Xeon DP) for more than one processor. While Sossaman is a just released 2P (32bit only), they haven't even announced that they will attempt an MP version.

He gets the benifit of seeing things way before they are released..

 

[Cooler]

Originally posted by: stevty2889

Originally posted by: Viditor

Originally posted by: dmens
I saw a quad yonah setup recently. Not sure when that board will be out though. I guess it is the sossaman (sp?) platform.

A quad Yonah setup? I find that VERY hard to believe...even Xeon requires a special processor (Xeon DP) for more than one processor. While Sossaman is a just released 2P (32bit only), they haven't even announced that they will attempt an MP version.

He gets the benifit of seeing things way before they are released..

Xeon DP is over $1000 chip for low end. This where intle makes its money its just uber tweaked PD.

 

[dmens]

Not ubertweaked, ubertested, just like how the opteron is an ubertested amd64. The difference between DP and MP is minimal, most of the effort goes into platform validation of MP protocols. Most chips out there have all the logic necessary to do MP, if you know which fuses to short.

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: stevty2889

Originally posted by: Viditor

Originally posted by: dmens
I saw a quad yonah setup recently. Not sure when that board will be out though. I guess it is the sossaman (sp?) platform.

A quad Yonah setup? I find that VERY hard to believe...even Xeon requires a special processor (Xeon DP) for more than one processor. While Sossaman is a just released 2P (32bit only), they haven't even announced that they will attempt an MP version.

He gets the benifit of seeing things way before they are released..

I figured that...but a quad Sossaman seems like it would be a step backwards based on when they would be releasing it. If indeed they are developing a Sossaman MP, they need to release details WAY before the chip is ready in order to validate the platform. If they haven't even announced the development of the platform, then we would expect release at least a year from now...
Unless there is a problem with Woodcrest, I don't see the logic of using the Yonah core for this.

 

[dmens]

Just to clarify, the quad yonah I'm talking about is 2*2. As for the platform, why would it need any external validation considering how it uses the exact same setup as previous xeons.

I don't know why they'd use yonah either, besides low power blades.

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: dmens
Just to clarify, the quad yonah I'm talking about is 2*2. As for the platform, why would it need any external validation considering how it uses the exact same setup as previous xeons.

I don't know why they'd use yonah either, besides low power blades.

The external validation is because it's a new architecture for the server space. For example, while Sossaman is a nice idea for 32bit only blades, it will be at least 6 months before they validate it and sell any real volume on it. I can't think of any Xeon that has the same architecture as the Sossaman (e.g. shared cache w/dual core), and I certainly wouldn't reccomend an untried/untested server architecture to a client...
A good example would be the Preslers...these are predominantly 65nm versions of the Smithfield, but if you read through some of the reviews and posts, there are numerous reports of erroneus results on the way mobos are reporting temp. I'm sure these will be fixed quickly, but you'd want to run a test server for at least 6 months to be sure that the fix was permanent...

 

[dmens]

From an external pov, yonah looks just like everything else, even if it has a shared cache on dual core. If it were intended to be a MP capable part, the MP validation could have been done in parallel with regular core debug, and that's been going on for a long time. I still don't see why there needs to be any external validation since the interface has not changed. I can see HT 2 (or whatever they call it) or CSI requiring that type of testing, but not sossaman.