• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

Planning for a dual cpu/dual core rig

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

ihrsetrdr

Señor Senior Member
Joined
May 17, 2005
Location
High Desert, Calif.
For my next build I am looking to build a machine whose motherboard has 2 cpu sockets that support 2 dual core processors. The reason being is that I want to be able to have 4 physical cores with which to run four folding@home clients in support of OC forums folding team 32. Intel will be the likely platform, although AMD is near & dear to my heart. I'm looking at a TYAN S5370G2NR Dual Socket 771 on newegg, with a couple Intel Xeon 5050 Dempsey's to go with it. Another choice might be the ASUS NCCH-DL

Overclocking ability is not a high priority, but it would be nice to have some options.

Any recommendations?
 
That sounds good.

I would go with between 2 and 4 Gigs of mem on that bad boy for folding.

If you could OC it would help, that way she would probably be good for up to 2k ppd all by her self.:eek:
 
check out the SMP section which I've posted a thread about dual socket 771 board and dual woodcrest rig....

the Asus is NOT a socket771 board thus it doesn't support Dempsey nor Woodcrest. and trust me, you want to wait a tiny bit more for woodcrest to hit the retail than go for the dumbsey!! a dual woodcrest @ 2.3ghz will net you over 2000+ppd it you can feed all 4 core with dgromac!! however, for the high price and no o/c'ablility of the current 771 board, it might not worth much as a folding box.... a conroe @ 3.33ghz which is very doable on air could net you around 1600+ppd already! and the latest test of conroe from other is hitting high 3ghz on air!! so, a high o/c'ed conroe will have a very high chance to match the ppd of a dual non o/c'ed woodcrest and cost you less...!! (at least save a single woodcrest's price) unless there's a <$400 o/c'able dual 771 board available or someone figure out how to pin-mod a 1066fsb woodcrest to a 1333fsb, I'm on hold of a dual woodcrest project for now due to the price/ppd point doesn't favor a dual woodcrest over a high clocked conroe....

just my 0.02 for a ultimate folding box.... :cool:
 
I can say from experience that the NCCH-DL lacks the memory bandwidth required to get the most out of the newer chips (I didn't know it supported them). At about 4300 MB/sec (Sandra on sig rig #2 @ 2-3-2-7), it will probably fold 4 of the current WUs quite well. If QMDs return, it will only be able to fold one instance of QMD and 3 non QMD. If a project like p1481 returns, two instances will use all the ram bandwidth. Low ram bandwidth per cpu may prove to be the limiting folding factor with all the current Intel DC duallies.
 
Just so you know, Dempsey is still netburst, even though it is dual core. If I were you, I would wait for Woodcrest, which is is the "conroe" xeon. It has been released, but as yet is still unavailable to buy. Even if you choose to go with dempsey, I would wait for woodcrest to drive prices down, although the dempsey is fairly cheap on newegg. One thing to consider though is that 771 mb's are still high, which might make it more cost effective to get a couple of low end conroe systems.
 
I have thought about a dual Woodcrest machine for my next build, but the points that Landshark and ChasR have brought up are good ones, as well as the price point on Woodcrest motherboards and the extra expense of FB-Dimms. So I will most probably go with a Conroe system instead and overclock the hell out of it.

If you do want to go dual proc, dual core, you might also consider an Opteron based machine. I have a feeling that the prices on even the Opteron procs will drop quite a bit once Woodcrest parts get into the channel and 4 cores of Opteron processing power is nothing to sneeze at for a folding machine either.
 
I've looked at this myself but the 2 grand blew my project out of the water. I would prefer the Dual Opteron on a Tyan Thunder with a pair of dual 275s or 280s. These processors have the best power to heat ration of all server platforms. The other option may ba a pair of conros but what fun is that and it means 2 setups.
 
fewer boxen to monitor sounds good, but not sure if it will be any cheaper to build/run than 2 conroes, and not likely to outproduce them, especially if OC's considered.
Once some decent oc'ing value mobo's arrive, 2 conroe mobo's will cost less than the tyan. Tyan prolly needs a y beefy psu vs 2 lighter weight ones. Unless diskless, 2 conroes will cost more hdd but 2 cheap sata/pata's will do. An extra $5 pci video card don't affect things. Mem prolly cheaper for 2 gb of ddr2 vs 2 gb of that tyan's mem.

And of course when it goes down, it takes a bigger bite out of production.

And of course to AC's comment ... 2 conroes = twice as much fun :D
 
All really great suggestions and comments; I appreciate it guys! Numerous considerations that hadn't occurred to me. I am in no hurry, so I can wait and take advantage of the coming cores and price drops. I do want to upgrade my farm before Fall tho'. I've already started to make room for new builds, have liquidated 2 single core machines, with 3 more to go. I could build up 2 conroe rigs(or 2 optys) as I already have empty cases and idle components sitting around and waiting for something to FOLD. And, I still have my eye on a core duo mini mac! :D
 
ChasR said:
I can say from experience that the NCCH-DL lacks the memory bandwidth required to get the most out of the newer chips (I didn't know it supported them). At about 4300 MB/sec (Sandra on sig rig #2 @ 2-3-2-7), it will probably fold 4 of the current WUs quite well. If QMDs return, it will only be able to fold one instance of QMD and 3 non QMD. If a project like p1481 returns, two instances will use all the ram bandwidth. Low ram bandwidth per cpu may prove to be the limiting folding factor with all the current Intel DC duallies.

So the NCCH-DL does support the new ones? Cause I could find any mention of them on Asus site for the board. Since I noticed a month ago the sockets match I looked into upgrading with no such luck.. Can anyone confirm this?
 
Just to follow up...I finally bought an Asus K8N-DL; also got 2gb pc3200 ecc/reg DIMMs.
Just a couple hours ago, I picked up a couple Opteron 265's; they should be here by next Wednesday... then the fun begins! :D
 
I'm building the same thing (2x 265s + K8N-DL). And just like you, I looked at the Dempsey options, and was not impressed.

I viewed a few reviews that put the Dempsey actually behind the 265s (while woodcrests were better)...plus I didn't want to pay $500+ for a motherboard
 
telexen said:
I'm building the same thing (2x 265s + K8N-DL). And just like you, I looked at the Dempsey options, and was not impressed.

I viewed a few reviews that put the Dempsey actually behind the 265s (while woodcrests were better)...plus I didn't want to pay $500+ for a motherboard

Not to mention $1000 for the Woodcrest 5160's each! :eek:
 
telexen said:
I'm building the same thing (2x 265s + K8N-DL). And just like you, I looked at the Dempsey options, and was not impressed.

I viewed a few reviews that put the Dempsey actually behind the 265s (while woodcrests were better)...plus I didn't want to pay $500+ for a motherboard

ihrsetrdr said:
Not to mention $1000 for the Woodcrest 5160's each! :eek:
yeah, I really wish someone will make a o/c'able dual woodcrest board for <$400, I'm sure I'll be all over it.... :(

p.s. TC @ SETI Team built a dual 3.0ghz woodcrest rig. I've heard it really kick a$$ in seti/bonic!!
 
I haven't done any OC yet; waiting on better hsf's. I guess it's typical of these dual socket Opty's that OC by BIOS is weak; have to use ClockGen and/or other apps such as nTune and CrystalCPUID. There's a couple threads regarding the K8N-DL that I'm using as a guide...

2CPU.com

Anandtech
 
Just to update...I'm running this board steady @2.4ghz mem cl3/1:1 and folding 4 fAh clients. I can hit 2.5ghz but not stable enough for folding multiple clients...:-/
 
Back