Help with friends dually

[Softgod]

Hello, I have a Tyan Tiger MP mobo and I love it. It has dual 1600's on it and a heck of a scsi setup. My friend is upgrading from a KT7A Raid with a 1400 mhz processor. He is older (60's) and on a fixed income now. He plays games and checks his email and that is all that he does on it. The game that he is current playing 10 hours a day is WWII Online. He want stability AND speed. I am the one that hooked him on the dually thing so I do not want to let him down. He is looking for something that can be overclocked mildly with his matching Swiftec heatsinks.

I would suggest a Tiger MO but they cannot take the 2800's, they stop at I think 2400's. When Barton comes out he wants to upgrade to them so the mobo will have to be able to handle it. Also, he is buying dual 2200+'s inthe MP variety for now. He also has a Geforce 4 4600 that he is puttingin the thing and a Creative Live sound card. The first one with a 5 1/4" thing that goes in where a CD ROM fits.

I am thinking the MSI KD7 Master dual board but I am looking for some feedback on how stable it is. I had the Asus dually and I did not like it. I had that thing crashing all the time.

If you have one of these and you find it VERY hard to crash let me know. If you crash yours let me know.

 

[lonewolf1983]

the MSI k7d-L is probably your best bet, but as for running anything 2600+ or better on a dual MPX board you wont be able to.
The boards only support a 133mhz fsb and the 2600+ and higher use a 166mhz bus, so for those cpu's you will have to wait and see if AMD releases an updated chipset

 

[cmcquistion]

I suggest the MSI K7D. No one knows if there will be another dual chipset to support the 166 FSB Athlons, so don't bet the farm on it. I have a feeling that AMD will say, "Hey, if you want a dual, get a Hammer!"

Keep in mind, though, that he will not get high framerates on a dual setup. In fact, he will get lower framerates than a single speed setup on a VIA KT333 chipset running 166 FSB synchronous.

The thing that duals are good for is multitasking and running multithreaded applications. 99% of games are not multithreaded and will run slower on a dual than a single CPU system.

 

[Softgod]

Yea, I am aware of the frame rate dip for duallys but the general "feel" of a dually with a 15K scsi drive is alot better than a single processor with any drive. He is alot like me, he does not want to wait for stuff to pop up and such. Instant access has many pluses.

When (IF) Barton comes out do you think that it will be 166 only thing? If so then it will just be an issue of unlocking the chips so they can run at 133 or what ever the overclock is on the FSB.

Does the MSI board have the voltage adjustments and also the Multiplier adjustments?

 

[cmcquistion]

The MSI board is the ONLY one with Multiplier, FSB, and Vcore adjustments as a matter of fact.

You're right when you say that a dually "feels' faster. It really is. I have three duallies based on the MSI K7D Master. All of them have worked flawlessly since day one and are extremely fast.

I assume, that IF Bartons only come with a 166 FSB and IF we can unlock them (very likely), then there is no reason you couldn't unlock it, bump the FSB to 150 and up the multiplier.

But, you may have some problems. We won't know the real answer until they get here.

One thing I would be concerned about is the 12.5 multiplier issue. As you may know, any CPU with a default multiplier below 12.5 may only run up to 12.5, when unlocked. CPU's above 12.5 are another matter that I have no experience with.
Let's say you get a Barton with an FSB of 166 and a multiplier of 12. You unlock it and you can only run 12.5x150 on that board. This would be underclocking.

Something to keep in mind.

If I were you, or your friend, I would buy a K7D Master and a pair of XP1600's. You can unlock them and get 1667-1800 MHz, easy. Save a little money for a while. Once Hammers come out and Bartons come out, you'll have some money to spend.

 

[Jon]

If he's only gaming and emailing why a dually? I'd spend the extra on a kickass single system and enjoy the extra performance he'll get if that's all he does with it.

 

[lonewolf1983]

indeed, probably better with a high speed p4/XP, and a fair whack of high speed ram, and invest the savings into a vid card *cough* 9700 pro *cough*

 

[64026402]

If he's only gaming and emailing why a dually? I'd spend the extra on a kickass single system and enjoy the extra performance he'll get if that's all he does with it.

IMHO there is no such thing as a kick *** single system anymore.
It's like saving money on a Camaro by getting a kick *** 6 cylinder.

If the guy wants a dually (smart) then help him out.
On a fixed income I suggest the GA-7DPXDW Gigabyte board for $109 shipped at newegg. Mine is stable fast and was easier to setup than my Tyans. It does fsb overclock. It has RAID,LAN, and sound. If you hurry they still have some left.
(I figure if you could handle a Tiger MP you can deal with a refurb Gigabyte.)

I have a P4 at 2.8 ghz but I game with my Dual1700s OC to 1600mhz. The frame rates are great and it doesn't feel like a slug when you make it chew bubble gum and walk.
The P4 is relegated to testing right now. I hate single proccers.

 

[Softgod]

64026402,

You are right. I had a P4 2.0 that I was running with a 150 FSB on an Abit TH7II board at 3.0 GHZ and it felt like a dog compaired to my Tiger MP with 1600+'s.

Also when I say fixed income I guess I do not mean it like he will never have any money, he just holds on to it. His wife was a semi famous writer and it is not like they were dirt poor.

I think that I am going to sell him on the MSI board.

Thanks guys, you have been a big help.

 

[64026402]

The MSI board should be very nice.