Everyone says once you go dual you don't ever want to go back, but...

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97_max_se

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Is an SMP rig really all that beneficial to a moderate multitasker for use as a daily rig? I know enough about SMP that I know that multithreaded apps will be the only things that actually utilize both CPU's. But I also know having duals allow you to do a number of things at once while bogging down the computer less then in a single CPU rig. I am a moderate to heavy multitasker, and am wondering if I could really benefit from dual CPU's. I don't want to spend all the money on it only to realize no differance.

SO is it worth it? What do you all do with your dually rig that you notice a differance between it and a single CPU rig?
 
There is deffinatly a big difference, even as an every-day user. While not as beneficial if you are a gamer, it really helps with multi tasking.
Once you get a feel for your system you'll be wondering whether your taskbar has enough room to fit all the windows you need, rather than if your CPU can handle them :D .
I like the fact that I can open up a few webpages, have an AIM/MSN conversation and look through my folders without having to close one window or another because its lagging my CPU. It also helps when I'm playing a game and I suddenly remember I have to check/do something, instead of closing the game I just alt+tab and do it.
Having a dual CPU rig makes things so much easier and you tend to get things done faster, it also has a powerfull "feel" to it :) . When I go back to using my single CPU rig it feels so sluggish, taking time to open a webpage while gaming, having to close this window or that one because its lagging my CPU. If you tend to use/do lots of programs/things at once, its deffinatly worth it.

Anyways, thats my $0.02
 
Honestly, going dual you won't really notice the difference until to switch back to a single somewhere. Then it will just feel "off." Dual systems are just more responsive under heavy load. They can take alot thrown at them before they bog down.
 
there is a difference, but there is a difference in price as well. i wouldn't get a dually just so i could multitask better. if you do not do use an application that will really benefit from it then i'd prolly spend the money elsewhere. for instance, i am a moderate to heavy multitasker. i have a little miniDV cam and do some video editing. i also record, cut-edit, re-encode and burn to DVD a fair amount of tv. and i will soon be storing about 300 CDs on disk requiring all that encoding.

so having a dually can mean staring at a clock that says 45 minutes of encoding time left v. one that says 2 hours.
 
Yeah I do do more then multitasking. I also rip, rencode, and burn stuff to DVD's. And I know I will see the benefits there and in some othe rplaces like photo editing which I may start doing when I get my digital camera as well as if I ever start editing my digital homemovies.. And while to some those things alone would make the speed of a dually worth it, for me I would also have to notice a differance in the daily stuff. Since while I may do some of that heavyer load stuff, the majority of my time would be spent multitasking with a lot of light load programs. I definately want to look into this a lot more, but just wanted to see some user opinions. Now obviously if everyone came in here and said there is no differance in the day to day multitasking, then I would likely stop considering it right there.


I just know I wnat to get a second rig up and running so I can start playing with a small network. My current rig is an ECS K7S5A, Tbred 2100+, 2x256MB Crucial PC2100, Radeon 8500DV, thats the main stuff, I also have a bunch of hard drives, CD burner, DVD drive and all the other stuff you would expect to find. I want one of the rigs to be capable of moderate gaimg. I don't game much on the computer, mainly RTS's and some RPG's. So I don't require a top of th eline system, but I want somethign that will last for a while without much of an upgrade.

Basically I have 3 systems in mind right now that I may choose, pretty much totally differant systems. One would be the dual CPU rig, I had already started down this path with an Opteron and motherboard, but realized I would really like to know for sure if I will see a benefit before spending more money I really don;t even have right now. Plus the more I think about it, I don't think I would need as much power as I was buying(Opteron 246)For what I do I think maybe I would be better off with overclocked dual mobiles, or overclocked Xeons at a somewhat cheaper price then the opterons. But thats one thing I need help figuring out. I know the whole DVD ripping, encoding and all that tends to prefer raw Ghz as opposed to memory bandwidth, so there I would think higher clocked Xeons or mobiles would beat the opterons. And for the day to day stuff I do, I would think that since I perform well enough now on a 2100+, that I should do just fine with 2 at that speed or faster. SO tell me what you think.

Second system would be a cheap overclocking rig, designed to hopoefully fulfil my needs without major upgrade for at least a couple to mayeb a few years. I was thinking along the lines of DFI Lanparty UT 250Gb, A643200+, some good overclocking memory, a Geforce 6600GT, and whatever else I need to go along with it.

Third system I just recently started thinking about is a laptop. I spend a lot of time on my computer, and it would be much nicer to spend that time in a big comforetable recliner then at a crappy computer desk. Plus with it being mobile thats a plus. But obviously a notebook is gonna be more expensive then a comparable desktop, and I was kinda worried about lacking upgradability. I know though that now a days you can upgrade most parts to a laptop though, so hopefully that won't be too big a deal.
 
97_max_se said:
Third system I just recently started thinking about is a laptop. I spend a lot of time on my computer, and it would be much nicer to spend that time in a big comforetable recliner then at a crappy computer desk.
Click to expand...

Logitech MX Duo w/ Bluetooth + big screen HDTV (or HD projector) = the win in a comfy recliner! As an added bonus, your computer can serve up songs, DVD's, HDTV TiVo (using a $20 TV card), etc...

-SEAL
 
Yeah I really would like to do that as well, it would just be wasier to convince the girlfriend to let me buy a laptop then another TV, since we already have 2. BUt I do need to keep that in mind. If I wa sin my own house rather then an apartment, I would definately like to get a front projection system setup, for movies and gaming and internet and everything.
 
97_max_se said:
Is an SMP rig really all that beneficial to a moderate multitasker for use as a daily rig? I know enough about SMP that I know that multithreaded apps will be the only things that actually utilize both CPU's. But I also know having duals allow you to do a number of things at once while bogging down the computer less then in a single CPU rig. I am a moderate to heavy multitasker, and am wondering if I could really benefit from dual CPU's. I don't want to spend all the money on it only to realize no differance.

SO is it worth it? What do you all do with your dually rig that you notice a differance between it and a single CPU rig?
Click to expand...

It depends. If the programs you use are enough to make the single a little sluggish, a dually will probalby help. At work, I have a dually because I will often be doing several intensive things at once - scanning network shares for virusses, large file i/o, compiling, etc.. When I had a single-proc machine, just doing the virus scan was enough to make my machine so sluggish it was unusable. With the duallies, it takes a *ton* to make it sluggish.

steve
 
Zxcs said:
I like the fact that I can open up a few webpages, have an AIM/MSN conversation and look through my folders without having to close one window or another because its lagging my CPU. It also helps when I'm playing a game and I suddenly remember I have to check/do something, instead of closing the game I just alt+tab and do it.
Having a dual CPU rig makes things so much easier and you tend to get things done faster, it also has a powerfull "feel" to it :) . When I go back to using my single CPU rig it feels so sluggish, taking time to open a webpage while gaming, having to close this window or that one because its lagging my CPU. If you tend to use/do lots of programs/things at once, its deffinatly worth it.
Click to expand...

Kinda funny, cause I can do that now on my P4 2.4C, no overclock.

Playing Need for Speed Underground 2, I can seamlessly alt+tab, open up a web browser, talk on AIM... all of it. I'm running a eVGA 5900SE doing nVidia DualView, so my desktop is split between two screens. NFS:U2 loads on the one in front with my desktop of AIM and winamp still being drawn on the 2ndary monitor.

Seamlessly switching...
 
i don't consider AIM and IE much of an issue. i would say that it is very nice to be able to encode a movie or trasncode a DVD while still being able to burn a CD and web browse though. hell, you could even play NFS while doing those things.
 
I know a guy selling a dual 2.0 Xeon rig(and while I mention it, how the heck do you pronounce Xeon?)he has them both clocked at 3.33Ghz. I also still see some of the 1.6Xeons, from the hot deal a while back, floating around for like 120.00 per pair.

I had originally been considering XP mobiles, but the dual MP baords are pretty old school and have older tech stuff on them.

I had consideirng just blowing up my credit card and finishing my dual opteron rig inside that Iwill SFF rig, but I here that may be close to 700.00. I was hoping for 400-500. I already sold my dual opteron board for 180.00. If I can get rid of my 246 for 320.00 or so and my 512MB PC3200 gigaram for maybe 75.00. That would give me almost 600.00 bucks. Which could probablly put together a nice dual Xeon rig, or XP mobiles. But it would also pay for most of the DFI rig or part of a laptop.

Duallys just seem so cool to me, I don't know.
 
i beleive its "z-on" from the new IBM blade commericials...i want a blade :(
 
opteron is what gets me. I think it is a mix of iceland bears and new yorker's language.
 
Well I just picked up a couple of 1.6LV Xeons SL6XK chips off ebay for 110.00 shipped. I have heard of people hitting over 3GHz with these chips. I would be happy with 2.5 and above really. Thinking of pairing these with the Asus PC-DL, maybe the NCCH-DL.
 
I used to have alot of Dual systems. I miss them. Back when it was new, I had Dual Pentium Pro 200's on an Intel Providence PR440FX motherboard. With 192MB's of EDO DIMMS.

That thing was badass. I even had a Monster 3D in it so I could game on it. That' s what I played Quake I on. It was sweet. I've had others since then, but as the bills have mounted and I got into my car hobby, I haven't had near the cash to spend on such things that I used to. I was going to go dual Xeon this year, I just couldn't get that much cash together. I really wish I could do it again. For no other reason than it performs badass. But truthfully, for the amount of money I'd have to spend I wouldn't get very much over my current setup, and it could cost a ton.

I miss the days of using Dual Pentium's and Pentium II's. You didn't have SMP as a server CPU only option.
 
Duals are nice, I miss my Dual Celly (YES I SAID CELLY!!!) system.

Under heavy multi-tasking it makes a difference and keeps the overall load balanced and more responsive. HT helped soften the transition.

It's all really in what you want to spend. If you have the cash, you can't really go wrong with a dual setup.
 
I really miss my Dual P3 866 (see sig). I had that rig about time time the 1.6GHz processors were hitting the shelves, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. Sure, the "ceiling" of my power was still low, but it was a lot "wider." I was really into webdev and media creation and it was nice to batch a few dozen images and still have windows pop up without hesitation.

I've been out of the SMP field for about a year now, and I'm beginning to think about jumping back in. All in good time.

If you want to try it, I say go for it. If you can't justify the caost, then just sell it!
 
EDIT: wrong thread.

I find SMP systems very interesting, but it seems they do not benefit gaming/internet/office productivity that much, so I don't think I can justify the cost.

While I'm here, were there any Socket 370 Tualatin Celeron compatible SMP boards (that supported SDRAM) or any Socket 462 baords which had SDRAM?
 
Jawadali said:
EDIT: wrong thread.

I find SMP systems very interesting, but it seems they do not benefit gaming/internet/office productivity that much, so I don't think I can justify the cost.

While I'm here, were there any Socket 370 Tualatin Celeron compatible SMP boards (that supported SDRAM) or any Socket 462 baords which had SDRAM?
Click to expand...
SMP S370-T w/ SDRAM - Definitly
SMP Socket A w/ SDRAM - Nope
non-SMP Socket A w/ SDRAM - Yep
 
Jawadali said:
EDIT: wrong thread.

I find SMP systems very interesting, but it seems they do not benefit gaming/internet/office productivity that much, so I don't think I can justify the cost.

While I'm here, were there any Socket 370 Tualatin Celeron compatible SMP boards (that supported SDRAM) or any Socket 462 baords which had SDRAM?
Click to expand...
the only tualatin core chips there were SMP capable were the ones with 512 cache, the pIII-s chips. they can be rather expensive, and ebayers are constantly paying 200-250+ for just one 1.4 ghz chip. the older pIII's with the coppermine cores however, are all SMP capable.

me? i picked up a pair for 130$ on the forums, and now i need to find a board :(

edit: wow i didnt realize how old this thread was
 
i thought everyone says "once you go black you never go back" at least thats what white girls say.
 
First things first, you can run two F@H clients at once :D

I also like the idea of being able to play a game on one monitor, and burn a DVD on the other monitor... or heck, play a game on one monitor while TV or a movie is being played on the other... the possibilities are open.

If you mostly play games, and have the occasional internet browser open with the e-mail... a firewall and AIM... i would'nt expect a big diffrence.

Its not "how many" programs you have open that decide performance, its "how many" programs you have open that are using CPU clock cycles. You could have 100 Google pages open in IE... and it won't do much besides eat up ram. But if you have an audio encoding program open while watching a movie and burning a DVD, then it will help.

As for price, it no longer cost a lot to do dual processors anymore. The main killer is the motherboard usually, but you can get a TYAN K8W (with dual opteron support) for about 230$us.

if you were to spend ~600$us on a processor... you may get a AMD64 3800+.
If you were to spend the same amount on dual processors, you may get 2 x Opteron 244's.
So its not much of a diffrence in price vs performance. The only big diffrence would be with games, where one "slightly better" processor and dual channel ram would perform better.

Now you have to decide what your needs are.

~Hope this helps

 
SEALTeamSix said:
HDTV TiVo (using a $20 TV card), etc...

-SEAL
Click to expand...

WHere have you found an HDTV compatible tv card for $20?

and by compatible, I mean it actually can receive hdtv programming, not that it can take an analog signal and upscale it to 1080 lines.
 
Zxcs said:
There is deffinatly a big difference, even as an every-day user. While not as beneficial if you are a gamer, it really helps with multi tasking.
Once you get a feel for your system you'll be wondering whether your taskbar has enough room to fit all the windows you need, rather than if your CPU can handle them :D .
I like the fact that I can open up a few webpages, have an AIM/MSN conversation and look through my folders without having to close one window or another because its lagging my CPU. It also helps when I'm playing a game and I suddenly remember I have to check/do something, instead of closing the game I just alt+tab and do it.
Having a dual CPU rig makes things so much easier and you tend to get things done faster, it also has a powerfull "feel" to it :) . When I go back to using my single CPU rig it feels so sluggish, taking time to open a webpage while gaming, having to close this window or that one because its lagging my CPU. If you tend to use/do lots of programs/things at once, its deffinatly worth it.

Anyways, thats my $0.02
Click to expand...
hey, to be honest, i can open up a few web pages, have an AIM/MSN conversation and look through my folders while running photoshop and listening to music with Itunes and running the sims 2 body shop without lag...and thats with a celeron D 2.8ghz processor...maybe its just my RAM that allows this, i dunno..
 
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