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To dual or not to dual...

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EyelessFace

EyelessFace

Member
​
Joined
Apr 22, 2002
Location
West Virginia
That is the question!

Which one should I do?? Any help would be appreciated!

Have:

CPU - AMD Athlon XP 1600+
OS - Win2k Pro
Video - VisionTek GF4 Ti4400
Sound - Sound Blaster Live X-Gamer
CD-ROM – Creative 8x4x32x CD-RW
Power Supply – Antec 430W True Power

Single CPU

Need:

Motherboard - ABIT KX7-333 - $89.00
Memory - CORSAIR MEMORY XMS 512MB PC-3200 DDR RAM - $216.00
Hard Drive – IBM 40GB 120GXP - $72.00
Case - Min Maw Int'l Inc. Full ATX Tower Case Model 3900 - $65.00
Monitor - SAMSUNG SyncMaster 753DF - $142.00
Mouse - Samsung OMA3CB - $15.00
Keyboard - KB-2000 - $3.50

Total - $602.50

Dual CPU

CPU - AMD Athlon 1600+ - $67.00
Motherboard - MSI K7D Master - $199.00
Memory - Crucial Micron 512MB 64x64 PC2100 DDR RAM - $138.00
Hard Drive – IBM 40GB 120GXP - $72.00
Case - Min Maw Int'l Inc. Full ATX Tower Case Model 3900 - $65.00
Monitor - SAMSUNG SyncMaster 753DF - $142.00
Mouse - Samsung OMA3CB - $15.00
Keyboard - KB-2000 - $3.50

Total - $701.50

P.S. - System will be water cooled, all prices from www.newegg.com

The single CPU system will be heavily overclocked - I might OC the dual a bit - not to much as I dont want to break it.
 
That KD7 works great. If you dont have any issues with unlocking and enabling SMP on those XP's I'd spent the extra hundred bucks and go dually you'll never go back.
 
Your doing exactly what i'm going to do i need't a motherboard and some other stuff and it wasn't to much more and i have the money so i decided to go dual. beacause i love running lots of programs at on time. plus i will get bragging rights to my friends. but all in all it's your choice.
 
i hvae a dual and it is just great. i had one processor die for a little while. while i had it being rma'd to AMD i only had one and it stunk!!! i just got the second chip back yesterday and i am back to never having slow perfomance. dual all the way
 
UPDATE:

I am starting college soon, and as I will no longer be able to work 35 hours a week, I will probably go with the single CPU system unless newegg drops prices some more. I got bills to pay too... my broadband and my IRA (most people my age don't have a IRA, much less know what one is) - It is like $100 a month for both bills combined. And since college isnt far away (WVU Tech), I will be driving everyday, which means my gas bill will probably be $75 more a month as well.

Too bad college will take 6 years :(.
 
Well if you're looking for a longer term solution, SMP is where it's at... the SMP system will be faster in everything except games than most single CPU systems for the next three to four years...


so....

NEWS FLASH!!! Duallies save money in the long run, LOL.

sb
 
yea... I can expect my dualie to last me a very long time. Unfortunately I like to game and didn't really take that into consideration when building this. (it is my 1st sys).
 
DOH! I just realized I get on more superbig paycheck before college... duallie, here I come :)

Question though - should I use Registered DDR or should I just use unbuffered?
 
Registered is the safer bet for stability and expandability.

I use unbuffered, and my system is rock solid, though I'm at my max, since you can only use 2 slots with unbuffered. If you want to use more than 2 slots you have to use registered RAM in ALL slots.

So it's a toss up...
 
Would a DCP run any faster on a duallie? For example, I run SETI... would it run any faster or instead of doing 1 WU at a time could I do 2 WU at time?? Any help would be appreciated!
 
EyelessFace said:
Would a DCP run any faster on a duallie? For example, I run SETI... would it run any faster or instead of doing 1 WU at a time could I do 2 WU at time?? Any help would be appreciated!
Click to expand...

Oh ya you have two cpus so you run two clients at one time its twice as fast.
 
I can't speak for SETI but for folding I know that if you run 1 instance per CPU, you get the full potential of that CPU. So basically, a dual system with two XP1600+ chips will put out double the work units for a given amount of time that a single XP1600+ system would.
 
SickBoy said:
Well if you're looking for a longer term solution, SMP is where it's at... the SMP system will be faster in everything except games than most single CPU systems for the next three to four years...


so....

NEWS FLASH!!! Duallies save money in the long run, LOL.

sb
Click to expand...

Excellent point and may I say Amen! :D
 
Shop carefully I grabbed a NEW Tyan MP for 127 on ebay and the ram I use is samsung and it is like 108.00 for 2x256 ecc regestered.

Also power supply I use the 500 watt Comp Usa and it has run rock solid for months and was a great price.

Case look at used towers most areas have a used retailer.

H/D Western 60 gig 7200 rpm 77.00

Circut city ot comp use has a 17 inch moniter for 79.00 I run a 21 inch Dell Moniter {refurb}by sony I got on ebay for 135 plus 60 shipping

Its been awhile but the MPX and MP chipsets are equal in performance ....
 
Henry Rollins II said:
Don´t watercool if going dual. It´s a waste of money.

regards,
Henry
Click to expand...

Yea I O/Ced mine to the max, and temps were never over 50 full load. And I just have sk-6's on mine
 
Henry Rollins II said:

Don´t watercool if going dual. It´s a waste of money.
Click to expand...

Performance isn't all you get. Not listening to a duet of 5000RPM fans wailing away on the CPUs is quite a plus. Just ask Colin about his Quiet Power case.
 
donny_paycheck said:


Performance isn't all you get. Not listening to a duet of 5000RPM fans wailing away on the CPUs is quite a plus. Just ask Colin about his Quiet Power case.
Click to expand...

Hey I can´t even HEAR my Titan D5-T´s. They kept temperature same as with non-OCed: XP1700@[email protected](/w KT266A). Packed up with 4 case fans+PSU fans still makes almost no noise. The harddrives is the main cause of all noise problems, water cooling aint gonna slove that. Better buy two hsf´s for $30 than spending $250 on a dual water cooled system. The extra $220 is better spent on faster cpu´s since the AMD 760MPX chipset doesn´t overclock very well.

regards,
Henry
 
The difference in quality of life from listening to a PIII dually with dual (and quite) Glaciators whining in synchronicity to my Quiet Power Xeon system is amazing. Watercooling certainly is not a waste of time and money, even if you don’t overclock.

Another advantage for Xeon systems is even in high ambient temperatures, you don’t have to worry about clock throttling. BTW, my guess is this is happening with many of the high P4 overclocks using marginal cooling.
 
Henry Rollins II said:


Hey I can´t even HEAR my Titan D5-T´s. They kept temperature same as with non-OCed: XP1700@[email protected](/w KT266A). Packed up with 4 case fans+PSU fans still makes almost no noise. The harddrives is the main cause of all noise problems, water cooling aint gonna slove that. Better buy two hsf´s for $30 than spending $250 on a dual water cooled system. The extra $220 is better spent on faster cpu´s since the AMD 760MPX chipset doesn´t overclock very well.

regards,
Henry
Click to expand...

$250???

Since I am build the watercooling system myself - heater core I bought, blocks designed by me, pump I bought... total price is has only been bout $100 so far for cooling equipment... and the neat part is I dont have to buy anything else! I already have fans that I can use, and I can mod them to run slower and quiter if need be.
 
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