Dual Xeons (maybe single?) vs Dual P4's

[Gregory_WE]

Too much background info to give out, so basically for now, what's the pro's and cons of each? Obviously, P4's would be cheaper and it might have more mobo choices, but what exactly is the benefit of Xeons? This isn't a gaming platform, this is going to be for a workstation for my Dad. He says he primarily wants floating-point performance and IO performance...

[Gregory_WE]

Actually... are there even Dual P4 mobo's? I don't even see any lol.

[everclock]

Unless you mean a single pentium 4 with hyperthreading, dual P4's do not exist.

There has never been, and will never be dual pentium 4 boards.

If you are asking if you should go with a single HT P4 vs. a single HT Xeon, go with the Pentuim 4 unless you need PCI-X

[DayUSeX]

yes there is no such animal, but if you are going single go P4 as that is what they are built for, plus u get higher FSB and what not

[Gregory_WE]

So with just a single Xeon vs a single P4, the only thing the Xeon really has is (some of them) more cache?

[dagamore]

in single xeon to p4 (non xeon) the p4 (non xeon) will normaly win, beter chipsets, and faster ram, plus faster FSB (800/533 vs 533/400) but the xeons are multi unlocked down, and tend to OC better, but in dual xeon vs p4 (non xeon) the dually will almost every time, win hands down, and if the program is multi-threaded it will stomp on the p4 (non xeon). but i think everyone should have both of them at home :p

[Gregory_WE]

Ok thanks, money isn't really a huge concern, mainly performance, so most likely we'll go with dual Xeons...

[dguy6789]

definately go dual. If money is not an issue, i suggest a dual opteron rig. If you can afford the hefty price, that will get you THE fastest rig money can buy.

[SpaceRangerJoe]

Xenons are the SMP chips for Intel. There is no such thing as Dual P4's.

[Skiing Squirrel]

There are only xeon (zeons :p ) chips for smp apps. I actually heard way back in the day intel plans on making some low end smp chips.

[fiji]

xeon's have more cache than a standard p4

[everclock]

Originally posted by fiji
xeon's have more cache than a standard p4

Not the ones he would buy.

The Xeons meant for dual systems have the same amount of cache as Pentium 4's excpet for the top end models that allow for 1MB of L3 cache, thenagain top end p4's can have 2 MB of L3 cache.

[markodude]

but i think everyone should have both of them at home
Me too ;)
I think you can get 2mb xeons as well, thats what the P4EE are, based on the Gallatin core.
If you have time then wait for the 800FSB xeons.

[theotherphil]

Originally posted by markodude

Me too ;)
I think you can get 2mb xeons as well, thats what the P4EE are, based on the Gallatin core.
If you have time then wait for the 800FSB xeons.

2MB Xeon's are Xeon MP's and can run in systems of 2, 4, 8way+. Regular Xeon's are DP's and are for use in duals only.

[kb9skw.net]

Originally posted by Gregory_WE
He says he primarily wants floating-point performance and IO performance...

Then why are you looking at a Xeon, not that they are not good setups but if what you say above is what he wants then you should be looking into a dual Opteron system.

[everclock]

Originally posted by markodude

Me too ;)
I think you can get 2mb xeons as well, thats what the P4EE are, based on the Gallatin core.
If you have time then wait for the 800FSB xeons.


I realized that, but they cost upwards of $3700!! (soon to be cheaper as 4MB versions take its place). If you didnt notice, i said:

Not the ones he would buy.

I knew that he would not be buying the 2MB versions.