Dual CPU options

[hanzee]

This was a most interesting thread, I am investigating the options for going DUAL myself; I have read many opinions and looked up the various products in reviews.
I seems that the P3 would be the most viable option right now, as they are the"tried and true" solution for a quick and painless set-up for a dual system, and the costs are much easier to keep under control.
Of course one thing to look out for is compatibility for future equipment, e.g. Tualatin. Investment protection ...
I looked at various boards, and right now I think the most cost effective would be a solution with a VIA chipset. There is also the possibility of a i815EP"D" mainboard, which can be considered just for fun. The i815 can be "hacked" by board makers to work with DUAL P3 or PPGA Celerons.

Abit VP6 (VIA 694X, 686B)
Elitegroup D6VAA (raid, non raid version) VIA 694X, 686B)
MSI 694D Pro2 (Raid) VIA 694X, 686B southbridge

I am not sure which of these boards will support the 0.13 micron Tualatin, but it is likely that the manufacturers wil produce new revisions that will make them work.

I looked for dual boards with the "hacked" i185EP chipset, and I find them somewhat interesting for the fact that they have an Intel chipset that doesnt require Rambus RDRAM. So far, I found only one.
Acorp 6A815EPD (Raid) i815EP dual CPU

 

[Kingslayer]

Get the VP-6.

The MSI board is garbage. The other board you mentioned I have never heard of.

My VP-6 is great. I'm on my third one, I killed the other ones being stupid. But it is rock solid. It performs well. The on board RAID is great. So is the options of having 8 IDE devices. The board will fit just about any heatsink you want without worry. It works flawlessly with all <B>4</B> memory slots filled. The only bad thing is the heatsink on the chipset. But it is easily removed and replaced with a Blord or the Global-Win chipset cooler.

The only other option that you have is a dual AMD board. But I just looked at a review of one and I was totally unimpressed. He had those CPU's OC'd to 1080 and my system at 1002 was consistantly higher in CPU benchmarks. Considerable higher also.

You'll be happy with the VP-6 and twin 1Gig's. More machine than most people could ever need. The VP-6 bios is extremely customizable. And make sure you get a good set of VIA 4-in-1's and run Win2k service pack2 if you run ATA-100 drives.

 

[William]

theres only one dual amd board right now, and thats the Tyan. Its meant for the server market and is not priced for "us". Its around $500. Supposed to be a great board though.

 

[Stealth]

I agree with getting the Abit VP-6 I have not had tried one myself, but have heard alot about them. Also one of the issues you had was future support for the Tualatin, I have read thet no P3 MoBo will work with this chip. Some compatibility issues I can't remember off hand right now. I am sure someone else will tell you more about this.

 

[Stealth]

I agree with getting the Abit VP-6 I have not had tried one myself, but have heard alot about them. Also one of the issues you had was future support for the Tualatin, I have read thet no P3 MoBo will work with this chip. Some compatibility issues I can't remember off hand right now. I am sure someone else will tell you more about this.

 

[Kingslayer]

Abit does have PIII boards that will support the Tualatin, with a bios flash. However, the VP-6 has yet to make that list.

 

[Light~Being]

kehkem....THE VP6 ROCKS!!!
this board is great for dual and is as stable as can be, and great soft menu III bios and dang i just love this board! i have 2 cd-rom drives and 2 hard drives all on different IDE buses ;-)
and you can get cpu's really fast and stable on this mobo, so if ya want a dual PIII coppermine mobo, VP6 definately!!!
and kingslayer....why do i always see you replying on the VP6 questions? LOL

 

[Kingslayer]

Because my opinions are totaly unbiased???
Either that or I am the VP-6 MASTER!!!!
[1]Well, I can kill them really easy ....[/1]

 

[SP]

If you want a board that supports Tualatin you'll need one with a newer revision of the chipset. A bios update alone will not make Tualatin work in an older board. The input/output signal levels on the bus have changed. That means any current VP6 will not likely support Tualatin. The newer VIA chipsets that will support Tualatin will have a T affixed to the end of the part number. There is suppose to be a new Iwill board called the DVD266u-r which uses the Pro266T chipset and will support Tualatin. It's a DDR board and looks kinda interesting. I also beleive Supermicro has a couple of dual Tualatin boards but I believe they are serverworks boards and that might not be what your looking for here. Right off hand those are the only definite dual Tualatin supporting boards I know of, but if your gonna buy a dual PIII board right now it might be worth taking a look at Tualatin compatable motherboards even if you had to wait a few weeks. Otherwise you'll probably get a board that will not support Tualatin and there may be no option for future CPU upgrades.

 

[Stealth]

Thanks for the info SP, could not remember the details.