Dual CPU Crunchers! Advice Needed...

[meep]

Hi chaps,

Bit of advice from the more experienced of you with 64bit and Dual CPU setups...

Can you give me some recommendations of CPU's which have high CPU ratings within DC projects, that are good Duallie systems - ideally being 64bit too...

I am looking for top top end, ie, not clocked LV Xeons...

Are the brand new AMD's chips good?

Are dual core really worth it at the mo?

I am looking to replace all of my current systems with this one. It has to do everything

Any tips welcome..

Cheers, Ta.

[rsbriggs]

There's safety in numbers - think "single point of failure" and all that. IMAO, running two slower boxen is more flexible than running one single faster system.

Also IMO, it is pointless to think about springing for $1,000 US each on dual core processors, either AMD or Intel-EE at this point. In six months, they'll be affordable and in a year they'll be commodity priced.

Just talking about MOBO and CPU prices, my thoughts go like so:

As far as dualies go, just a pair of Opteron DP 248's is going to set you back $1100 US, and with the MOBO, that's somewhere around $1500 US.

Given that much cash, I'd be more likely to build 4 separate A64-3200+ systems instead - that would come in around $1000 US - if you must have 64 bit systems. There isn't any software support (64 bit applications) to speak of yet.

Using a PC-DL MOBO ($190) and a pair of intel Xeon 2.8 Ghz Noconas at $255 each might be a possibility - that puts you more in the range of $700 US... Don't know about performance - IB could better tell you about the strengths and weaknesses of that system....

But then I have "odd" preferences, I suppose, since I like having things in cases, so consider this as just my $0.02 worth. YMMV and someone else might have much better suggestions to pass along, but my bottom line is:

Dual core systems won't be viable or affordable for another year, then they'll be about the only game in town.

Dual proc systems are possible, but a decent one will still take a big bite out of your wallet. I prefer several smaller bites to one big one...

[meep]

Thanks for your views m8, the main reason for the switch is that I do not want lots of little systems... i have given it a try, stealthed them like mad - but it does not suite a small flat.

The systems I am going to sell will pay for a big chunk of a dual system, if not all of it. If i ditch my gaming pc too the budget would be quite large.

I did think the dual core jobbies are just too dear - Xeons seem to be the favorite but I want 64bit, and that means going for the new 800HT Xeons which are fairly expensive for their actual performance.

Some feedback on those would be good - have not found anything amasing on the hardware guide sites - perhaps they are better than the stats let you think...

[Bok]

IB is running a dual 3.6Ghz Nocona setup on Gentoo64.

Runs SoB VERY well and I suspect it would run most thigns well. But they are expensive, considering you can get the 1.6/2.0 lv's and overclock them to 3.0Ghz easily enough for a lot less.

Bok

[Helix_Von_Smelix]

i bought a ASUS NCCH-DL motherboard, and BOK supplied two 1.6GHz XEON's. They ran at 3.2, okay ish. Got a better PSU and they were happier, before the change of PSU sometimes an instance of a DC project would stop for no reason. Because of this i bought two 3.6GHz Nacona's these run quite happly at 4.0GHz (increased the FSB)

Although these are fast i think i would have been happier if i had gone for a dual AMD opteron 250, i will let you know in a few months time when i build one.