Dual Socket 370 questions

I'm looking into building a game server for CS, America's Army, typical stuff like that. I don't know if it will be only our LAN or maybe a public server, but here is what I was intending on so far:

ECS D6VAA
1 GB Kingston PC133
30gb Maxtor 7200
cheap video card
Netgear Gigabit NIC
360 watt power supply

I have monitors, keyboards, mice, cdroms, floppys, etc at my disposal as well, and a case.

I cannot however decide on which processors I would like. I have looked at the VIA C3. They are cheap. Can they run in SMP? And I would probably get the 100x9 chips and run them at 133 FSB for 1.2 GHz. I think that that would be plenty for a game server, assuming that they can run SMP and overclock well. Am I correct in thinking this? My only question would be voltage pins. I don't believe that ECS board has much in the way of voltage options, so I'd end up wrapping pins to get a higher voltage. Since the VIA chips use the same socket as P3s, would it be safe to assume the pinout is the same as well? Or should I check VIA white papers for an official pinout.... If you don't think those VIA chips would work as I want them to, would dual P3 850 OC'd to 133 FSB work well? I think that as long as I keep the FSB at either 100 or 133, motherboard stablity should not be compromised. Thanks for any input.

They only cpu's that run dual in socket 370 are celeron ppga and pIII. I would actually get the MSI 694d pro which has proven to be quite a stable platform. Get some pIII 700 to run at 933 and plug 2gb ram in.

I'd find a board with better memory bandwidth too. Older VIA chipsets and duals aren't the greatest match, although it may be fine for what your intended use is.

If you're starting from scratch, I'd suggest a dual AMD system. It will cost the same, or less, have better memory bandwidth and have room to upgrade.

With all due respect, I believe that a dual AMD system would cost a great deal more. The ECS motherboard I would get is a mere $80, not $180 as in an AMD motherboard. A gig of PC2100 is also substantially more than PC133, and then we have to worry about a higher output power supply, better cooling needs, etc. I think that a dual P3 system would be less than half the cost of the dual AMD system, and for the simple gaming server, it would suffice.

#1 the c3's cant be used in SMP
#2 they suck as single cpu's power wise, so wouldnt be a good choice for anything needing a bit of power (like your game server).
Dual p3 850's would go well, dont know if you would get them to 133mhz fsb tho.

lonewolf1983 said:

#1 the c3's cant be used in SMP
#2 they suck as single cpu's power wise, so wouldnt be a good choice for anything needing a bit of power (like your game server).
Dual p3 850's would go well, dont know if you would get them to 133mhz fsb tho.

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You should be able to get the ecs board for about 50 dollars.
The P3s are the only optionfor dual. Coppermines only. With the price breaks the best deal is the 1gigs at about $93 apiece.

There is a bios available for the board that enables individual cpu voltage adjust. The max you can realistically get is about 1.150 ghz.
The memory bandwidth is as good as any other chipset for sdram if you enable 4way interleave.

That said, a dual Amd board can be had for $79 on up.
All of my dual Amd board cost in the $100 range.
1.3 Durons cost $34 each and will outperform the P3s 2 to 1 in this configuration. Standard DDR more but well worth it for a dually setup. I would rather have 512 ddr than 1gig sdram.

If you still want to spend the extra money to go P3 over AMD then I can help some. This was my first dually.

Oh, I forgot that Durons could be used in SMP! If I can indeed get a dual AMD motherboard for about $100, the Durons would actually cost a lot less than the dual 1 GHz P3, so the DDR memory being more expensive would cancel it out. Which dual AMD board would fit my needs? Is there any one that could run the Durons at a higher FSB with high end air? (copper heatsinks with ducted 80mm fans). What would be a realistic OC goal for dual Durons? Stability must remain high, however, but it need not be 99.999% or whatever. It just needs to survive maybe 8 hours or gaming per day, i'd estimate, and i'd probably end up running seti or folding for the other time. I'm new to SMP, and i want it to be cheap (relatively) and fun. If I do get dual Durons, should I be concerned about the power supply? I was originally looking at an Enhance 360w power supply upgrade (the current case I have lying around is only a 200w, old P1 case). Thanks for the help.

edit: I just looked at newegg.com and the least expensive dual AMD board is $230. Where do u get ur $80 dual AMD?

speedy4500 said:

Oh, I forgot that Durons could be used in SMP! lying around is only a 200w, old P1 case). Thanks for the help.

edit: I just looked at newegg.com and the least expensive dual AMD board is $230. Where do u get ur $80 dual AMD?

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I got most of mine Newegg refurbished.
They get various boards in periodically.
They got the last load in last week.
Most are gone but the tyan thunder boards are in stock.
The 2462ng has dual lan and onboard video for 149 shipped.
The 2460 was $79. 2466 with lan $99 dollars.
The Asus 266d was $89.
I bought 2 gigabyte dual boards with lan and raid for 109.
You can usually get the 2460s on ebay for about $100.
I have also got 2 boards from people at 2cpu.com.
You'll have to wait a little for a better selection from newegg but they will come back.

The dual amd can require some extra setup skills. Especially the Tyans. But I am use to them so the setup always goes smooth and quick now. You have to watch the parts you buy on any dual.
There are incompatabilities to worry about.
The P3 dual boards have problems booting from some scsi and ide raid cards. The older Tyan 2466s don't like radeons until you flash them etc...
You might checkout 2cpu.com for info on the right parts to get for your chosen board.

The 2462NG is actually a good deal for their higher end board but you would need the special PS. I can usually get them for about $50.
Most of the non-tyan boards can clock up to 150 fsb. The tyan 2460 and 2466 can be Fsb adjusted with FSBCPU.
The iwill mpx2 can go higher on fsb and has multiplier adjust.
You need at least 400 watts. Antec preferably.

Dual durons rock...

If you can wait maybe a week or so until they get some more refurb dual Athlon boards in at newegg you should be able to land one for $130 or less. That being said I would recommend either 1.2 GHz Durons (some 1.3's have the L5 cut), or if you don't mind doing the L5 mod, some XP1600's or 1700's. They're a bit of a step up in price but definitely a huge step up in performance. Assuming you can land a dual Athlon refurb board on the cheap, a dual Duron or dual XP/MP system will outperform any dual S370 system by a country mile.

On my dual AMD rigs, I always just buy a cheap 500-550 Watt PSU off Pricewatch. Usually costs about $50, but be sure to check out any reseller on resellerratings.com first.

If you want lots of tweaking options, I wouldn't recommend any Tyan board. They are stable, but no tweakable or particularly high performance. The MSI K7D Master is the absolute best, but you could save some money and still get excellent performance from a refurbished dually from Asus or Gigabyte.

A dual AMD rig, even with Durons will smoke a P3 rig, and you'll have an upgrade path. With dual P3's, you don't. They are an old chip at the end of their lifecycle.

SickBoy said:

Dual durons rock...

If you can wait maybe a week or so until they get some more refurb dual Athlon boards in at newegg you should be able to land one for $130 or less. That being said I would recommend either 1.2 GHz Durons (some 1.3's have the L5 cut), or if you don't mind doing the L5 mod, some XP1600's or 1700's. They're a bit of a step up in price but definitely a huge step up in performance. Assuming you can land a dual Athlon refurb board on the cheap, a dual Duron or dual XP/MP system will outperform any dual S370 system by a country mile.

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The new 1200s have the L5 bridge cut. Possibly all the new ones.
I just got my first Duron with the L5 cut. From newegg. The sticker covers the bridge. My gigabyte wouldn't recognize both and my 2460 wouldn't post with both in. Took me a moment to realize what was happening.
I peeled the sticker and dropped a single drop of defrost fluid on it, now everything is fine. The gigabyte does work with the durons.

You can pick up the dual i815 board, two PIII-1000EBs, and 512mb (2x256) of PC133 for under US$300. But don't plan on overclocking too much.

- JW