are dual processors worth it?

[CPIETRAS]

Ok, is it worth it? I cant imagine it will be twice as quick, and are there any games that take advantage of dual processors?



Thanks

[eh?]

unless you do video editing or graphics then no duals are not worth iy. I can't think of any games that take advantage of duallys

[BigRed]

Originally posted by drdingo21
unless you do video editing or graphics then no duals are not worth iy. I can't think of any games that take advantage of duallys
Q3a and any game that uses the Q3a engine :p

[CPIETRAS]

Does RTCW, ot MOH or any other current Quake based games use that engine?

[BigRed]

Originally posted by CPIETRAS
Does RTCW, ot MOH or any other current Quake based games use that engine?
RTCW uses the q3a game engine, and whats moh? lol

[wolfsid]

Originally posted by BigRed

RTCW uses the q3a game engine, and whats moh? lol

medel of honor i think moh

[Colin]

If you use your box for gaming, there is no advantage to dual CPUs. Games run a tad slower on duallies. Fro most folks, where a dually shines is when you want to run more than one program at a time. There is no sputtering or pause when printing, etc. They are smoother and more responsive than a single CPU system. If the supercooled overclocking crowd ever figures out how much better a duallie feels, there will be a stampede to buy dually boards that will make the 49 gold rush look like a bunch of old ladies pushing shopping carts at Wal Mart.

[CPIETRAS]

LOL, Thanks guys.

[wolfsid]

FUNNY MAN I am building 2 new systems right now i don't have a dual but i want one real bad

[CrystalMethod]

Originally posted by drdingo21
unless you do video editing or graphics then no duals are not worth iy. I can't think of any games that take advantage of duallys

SHHHHH!!!!

Go dual! :D j/k Like Colin said, unless you normally do graphics work or run multiple CPU intensive programs, should be the deciding factor whether or not to go with dual CPU's.

..and Medal of Honor uses the Q3 engine.

[rogerdugans]

Go Dual! I have 2 now, and planning a third.

Right now I am using my AMD XP as my workstation, but only because my VP6 burned a trace- still runs, but no oc, and somehow it messed up something weird: it has run fine as a dedicated cruncher for a few weeks staright, but only runs a short while as a workstation!

The VP6 with dual PIII 1000s is faster with any two programs running: might not bench that way, but for opening aprogram, saving files, burning a cd while gaming- well, you get the idea!

And it is a LOT quieter too.

Duallies just ROCK. I don't think I'll build a single cpu rig again (at least not for myself :D )

[Ice_Gargoylle]

yup yup, i love my dualies;);)

but for the average user, not worth it. mobos are more, 2 cpu's, and if ya go amd, thats twice the heat u goto take care of.

oh ya, i do work off this thing, and also, i dont wanna be upgrading every2 yrs. this thing shud last for a long long time.
dual p3 1.26 on a supermicro p3tdde

[DS]

Once you go dual you'll never go back.

[Yodums]

Dual systems are really meant for multi tasking if you were to open like 18 IE browsers and run folding, seti etc. IF its not meant for anything else like Adobe Video editing or heavy resource programs then no its not worth it.

Yodums

[TUK101]

A lot of how a dual processor system runs is base on how you set it up. I know a few guys that have set up thier dually systems to run one processor as the main, and the other as the math co-processor. They claim huge increases in performance, especially for burning discs while doing other things at the same time. But that probably goes back to what the other posts where saying about multi-tasking. The main reason that the dually system runs better for multi-tasking is the fact that you are getting double the cache in a dually system, not the increase in mhz. I hope that I made a little bit of sense, for I have never owned one for myself, just know a bit about them from what a few guys from tech class that told me about thiers.

[BigRed]

Originally posted by TUK101
A lot of how a dual processor system runs is base on how you set it up. I know a few guys that have set up thier dually systems to run one processor as the main, and the other as the math co-processor. They claim huge increases in performance, especially for burning discs while doing other things at the same time. But that probably goes back to what the other posts where saying about multi-tasking. The main reason that the dually system runs better for multi-tasking is the fact that you are getting double the cache in a dually system, not the increase in mhz. I hope that I made a little bit of sense, for I have never owned one for myself, just know a bit about them from what a few guys from tech class that told me about thiers.
dont all cpus now except for stuff before the 486 have the math co-processor built in? :confused:

[rogerdugans]

Originally posted by BigRed

dont all cpus now except for stuff before the 486 have the math co-processor built in? :confused:

Yep, but some are better than others.

As to the in-depth details of how a duallie does its magic, I don't know. But I have a few computers here: 3 fast AMDs (900@1096,1000@1400 and 1533@1670-XPchip) and one fast Intel (1ghz laptop is SLOW): the dual PIII 1000.

I prefer using the dual 1000 over the XP1800 because it beats the snot out of it in real-world use: I can burn cds in the XP and surf OR play a game OR do something else.

With the duallie I can burn cds, surf, download a service pack and defrag a hard drive. And NOT make a coaster( no burn-proof)!
And while I'm doing it the thing responds faster too!

[Colin]

I'll go one further than rogerdugans. I picked up a dual PII 400 box with a pair of Cheetahs in SCSI RAID 0 for $200 at a computer show a few months ago. I prefered it to my 1718 MHz Athlon system for all the reasons rogerdugans pointed out. It's been a couple of weeks since I replace the Athlon rig with a VP6 and a pair of PIIIs at 1333 MHz. I could not be happier. :D Then again, I can't wait for the 1.6 GHz PIII S and a Serverworks chipset board. ;)

[rogerdugans]

MAN! My PII 400 Duallie is on a Supermicro P6DGE- cost me about $750 to put that thing together!

Funny though- I still have it, case is a cardboard box and its running RH Linux, and it crunches Seti work units in about the same time my 1ghz Celeron laptop does!

[Colin]

Well I did spend another $100 on 512 megs of ECC ram to bump it up to 640 megs. It's still the best value in computers I have ever run across. :D I should give atribution to Nevin. He talked me into it. The result was a total and most pleasent change in my view of personal computers.

[ken257]

Dualies may cost a bit more to set up at first but the do stand the test of time better then single cpu systems. For example I just this week gave away my old BP6 with dual Celleron 366's to someone in need. I had them running around 600mhz for I guess close to 3 years now and the board to this day still feels very snappy and is a pleasure to use. The bigest place where it was starting to show it's age was because of the lack of SSE other then that it still rocks. I know I certainly got my use out of it and now someone else will for a couple more years. I don't think it will be long before I build another dual rig :D

[CPIETRAS]

Is there one operating system or amother that works better with dual processors?

[saytan]

windows 2k/NT/xp pro :)

[Cooler666]

yes Windows 2000 professional and advanced server does, XP, basically NT based OS

[rogerdugans]

Most if not all Linux distro's also support SMP, as do BeOS, QNX, Solaris Unix and BSD.

But to get the most benefit out of newer hardware,Win2K(or XP) or Linux are the best bets I think. WinNT 4.0 is also good, but getting outdated- no usb, game support etc. Can be found fairly cheap though, sometimes.