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Dual 242's
- Thread starter SLiLOVER
- Start date
1.8ghz.
or are you referring to a more "relative" answer?
I'd -guess- comparable to a 3000+ Athlon64 on a per-CPU basis. my 246's give me about the same performance as my 3500+ did in benchmarks...although the system runs much more smoothly than it did w/ the single 3500+
or are you referring to a more "relative" answer?
I'd -guess- comparable to a 3000+ Athlon64 on a per-CPU basis. my 246's give me about the same performance as my 3500+ did in benchmarks...although the system runs much more smoothly than it did w/ the single 3500+
What board do you plan on using? That'll be your determining factor.
MOST Opteron boards don't support overclocking. Somehow eaking out that extra 5% performance isn't high on most Opteron users' priority list...something about "stability" and "robustness" or some other gibberish
at K8WE.com, other people using my board have said they'd get about a 10% OC...but it was through software like nTune. There is nothing in the BIOS that allows a hardware OC on the K8WE.
MOST Opteron boards don't support overclocking. Somehow eaking out that extra 5% performance isn't high on most Opteron users' priority list...something about "stability" and "robustness" or some other gibberish
at K8WE.com, other people using my board have said they'd get about a 10% OC...but it was through software like nTune. There is nothing in the BIOS that allows a hardware OC on the K8WE.
I plan on using a MSI boardMarduk said:What board do you plan on using? That'll be your determining factor.
MOST Opteron boards don't support overclocking. Somehow eaking out that extra 5% performance isn't high on most Opteron users' priority list...something about "stability" and "robustness" or some other gibberish
at K8WE.com, other people using my board have said they'd get about a 10% OC...but it was through software like nTune. There is nothing in the BIOS that allows a hardware OC on the K8WE.
PS: I'm Limp Gawd now!
What's the model number?
it's not this, is it? I think I'd hold off for an nForce4 based one...VIA gives me that icky feeling that can only be gotten rid of with a long hot shower. (which is bad...because at work, that's what most of the systems I have to work on are using....I long for the relatively rare intel based mobo)...
Regardless of what model you use, if it lets you OC at all, don't expect too much more than 2ghz...
it's not this, is it? I think I'd hold off for an nForce4 based one...VIA gives me that icky feeling that can only be gotten rid of with a long hot shower. (which is bad...because at work, that's what most of the systems I have to work on are using....I long for the relatively rare intel based mobo)...
Regardless of what model you use, if it lets you OC at all, don't expect too much more than 2ghz...
I'd personally take a dual Opteron over a dual Xeon. They're just insanely powerful.
the 1.6LV Xeons, regardless of how high everyone else says they go, are usually a gamble. Sometimes you get 3.2ghz, sometimes you don't. a Dual 3.2 will likely be much faster than dual 242s...but it really depends on what you're looking at.
What are you looking at doing with the system? That's the first question.
Do you want 64 bit capability?
Do you want to upgrade in the future (if you get a good Opteron board, it'll support a jump to dual core CPUs in the future...those LV Xeons won't.)?
the 1.6LV Xeons, regardless of how high everyone else says they go, are usually a gamble. Sometimes you get 3.2ghz, sometimes you don't. a Dual 3.2 will likely be much faster than dual 242s...but it really depends on what you're looking at.
What are you looking at doing with the system? That's the first question.
Do you want 64 bit capability?
Do you want to upgrade in the future (if you get a good Opteron board, it'll support a jump to dual core CPUs in the future...those LV Xeons won't.)?
I think I paid about $430 for the non-SCSI model. Newegg should have it...
if you're not worried about SLI...but with your name I doubt that....Asus and supposively MSI were supposed to have dual Opterons based off the NF4 2200.
the K8WE has the 2200 and 2050 chipsets, which allows 2 16x PCI-e lanes, 2 Gigabit, etc.
Out of curiosity, why aren't you looking at an Athlon 64 X2?
Opterons and Xeons have the additional cost of ECC/Registered RAM...whereas the Athlon X2 can use standard DDR.
I never intended to go dual Opteron; I always planned on an X2...until the AMD Tech Tour's Server bundle changed that plan..
if you're not worried about SLI...but with your name I doubt that....Asus and supposively MSI were supposed to have dual Opterons based off the NF4 2200.
the K8WE has the 2200 and 2050 chipsets, which allows 2 16x PCI-e lanes, 2 Gigabit, etc.
Out of curiosity, why aren't you looking at an Athlon 64 X2?
Opterons and Xeons have the additional cost of ECC/Registered RAM...whereas the Athlon X2 can use standard DDR.
I never intended to go dual Opteron; I always planned on an X2...until the AMD Tech Tour's Server bundle changed that plan..
I do, I do.
I just wish I'd planned for dual Opterons rather than a dual core Athlon 64. I'd have made a few changes to it. 850W SSI PSU, smaller heatsinks(or at least ones that had a different airflow path).
I'll go dual core in the future...probably a year or 2 from now...
I just wish I'd planned for dual Opterons rather than a dual core Athlon 64. I'd have made a few changes to it. 850W SSI PSU, smaller heatsinks(or at least ones that had a different airflow path).
I'll go dual core in the future...probably a year or 2 from now...
I basically need to figure out what's going on with my life and my girlfriend before I go dual core.
If she goes into Graphic Arts and needs a rendering box...that means I need to keep the dual Opterons and build her a rendering system.
If she doesn't...then I could get rid of them to foot some of the bill on the dualcores.
when I do go dual core, though, I'll likely be buying an additional 4gb of RAM to fill my slots. And I really should look into a custon 850W PC Power & Cooling. Now that I'm looking at almost $3k for the upgrade...I think I might be better off holding off until...oh who'm I kidding? Christmas-ish most likely
*edit*
Actually....I really do need to start saving for her engagement ring....I guess I'll be "stuck" on 246's for a while longer...
If she goes into Graphic Arts and needs a rendering box...that means I need to keep the dual Opterons and build her a rendering system.
If she doesn't...then I could get rid of them to foot some of the bill on the dualcores.
when I do go dual core, though, I'll likely be buying an additional 4gb of RAM to fill my slots. And I really should look into a custon 850W PC Power & Cooling. Now that I'm looking at almost $3k for the upgrade...I think I might be better off holding off until...oh who'm I kidding? Christmas-ish most likely
*edit*
Actually....I really do need to start saving for her engagement ring....I guess I'll be "stuck" on 246's for a while longer...
the more I think about it, the more likely I am to wait as well...not so much because I want the best...but just because I'm not sure that the $2000 or so I'd spend on CPUs would be worth it quite yet. Right now, the best purchase for my use of the system would likely be 252s, not 265/270/etc....as I'm gaming. a 265 is a 200mhz drop in CPU speed, regardless of the amount of cores. I don't know how losing those 200mhz would be offset by 2 additional cores in games.
That, and I'm happy with my 246's for now. Until more cores or more speed will help me out, I'll stick with what I've got.
That, and I'm happy with my 246's for now. Until more cores or more speed will help me out, I'll stick with what I've got.
Marduk said:I basically need to figure out what's going on with my life and my girlfriend before I go dual core.
If she goes into Graphic Arts and needs a rendering box...that means I need to keep the dual Opterons and build her a rendering system.
If she doesn't...then I could get rid of them to foot some of the bill on the dualcores.
when I do go dual core, though, I'll likely be buying an additional 4gb of RAM to fill my slots. And I really should look into a custon 850W PC Power & Cooling. Now that I'm looking at almost $3k for the upgrade...I think I might be better off holding off until...oh who'm I kidding? Christmas-ish most likely
*edit*
Actually....I really do need to start saving for her engagement ring....I guess I'll be "stuck" on 246's for a while longer...
But if you get married then you won't be able to buy computer parts anymore. Your money will become her money.
Marduk said:
I have to disagree with some of this....
The Opterons are great chips and the boards are really good , but I've got just as good an upgrade path as you, except for the dual core thing. Unless Intel releases a 533FSB socket 603/604 Dual Core Xeon and ASUS does a BIOS update to support it.
1. My ASUS PC-DL supports regular DDR memory - doesn't require registered ECC - cheaper to build.
2. It supports ALL of the 400/533FSB socket 603/604 Xeon cpu's up to 3.06GHz - some even have EM64T - so I can get 64bit if I want it.
3. It only cost $150.00 + s/h
4. I can OC any chip it will take - in hardware and BIOS.
5. The D1 stepping 1.6LV's always do 3.2GHz in this motherboard, the C1's will do 2.8GHz. The 2.4LV's clock to 3.6GHz with no problem. The only mod required to get the OC is the wire voltage mod. D1's go for ~$150.00 a pair on ebay - I got a set of C1's for $75.00 shipped. (my first set - before I knew what stepping to look for - they are in my home/game server now)
6. If I decide to switch motherboards then I could get PCIe instead of AGP and still do the OC. The Iwill even supports the 800FSB chips and will probably support the 603/604 dual core Xeons.
7. My total current cost for 2GB RAM, 2 x 1.6LV's @ 3.2GHz & ASUS PC-DL is less than $500.00 - unless you got the AMD Tech Tour Bundle - you couldn't buy the pair of Opteron cpu's for that.
8. I pwn Opteron 242/244's at my present OC - the 180's aren't even in the race - I even bench a little better than a pair of 3.2GHz Xeons running at stock.
I wish I could afford Opterons.....but I'm a cheap bastard.
Just my $0.02
Oh, for rendering.... it's cheaper and your scenes will complete faster if you build a "farm" of cheap nekkid intergrated mobo's with mediocre chips (AMD or Intel or mix and match - doesn't matter) and set them up as a cluster in Lunix. Than building/buying a high end system dedicated just for rendering. You can even get them to netboot, like the foldserver does.
The idea is to do the scene layouts on a good computer then push the scene onto the cluster for rendering without tying up the good computer forever. Most of the good 3d software that comes in Linux versions (www.blender.org) will support cluster operations and import scenes from the comercial softwares like Maya or 3D Studio MAX. If you need more rendering power then just add more nodes to the cluster.
That massively parallel thing.
Actually I'm thinking about playing around with it some with the farm I'm building for folding.
Multi-purpose & Multi-tasking
I know cluster's are better...I was talking about a per-machine basis.
I even said that if you did indeed get the 3.2ghz, you'd be faster than 242s. As far as upgrade paths go...the upgrade path for the AMDs is certain. The intels are not certain, as the chips are not out yet. If there's one thing that intel has proven, it's that new chips typically aren't "compatible" with the current chipsets. 2.4c P4s needed the 865 and 875 to shine. (I'm ignoring 848...) I'm not sure if they do the same thing in the Xeon market...
and Asus' motherboards are the exception to the rule...
regarding the PC-DL...I did at one time come very close to buying one. The only thing that held me back was the need for a new PSU...
does it support dual Xeons? yes.
can it run without ECC/registered? yes.
can it OC? yes.
Is it on par with the tyan Thunders? Oh hell no!
the same goes for Asus' dual Opteron board.
They are aimed at the low end duallie market, or the mid-high end of the enthusiast market. They're not aimed at the high end workstation/server market like a Tyan Thunder or a Supermicro (or certain IWills) would be.
and I did get the AMD Tech Tour bundle...otherwise I'd be running an X2, not dual Opteorns.
I even said that if you did indeed get the 3.2ghz, you'd be faster than 242s. As far as upgrade paths go...the upgrade path for the AMDs is certain. The intels are not certain, as the chips are not out yet. If there's one thing that intel has proven, it's that new chips typically aren't "compatible" with the current chipsets. 2.4c P4s needed the 865 and 875 to shine. (I'm ignoring 848...) I'm not sure if they do the same thing in the Xeon market...
and Asus' motherboards are the exception to the rule...
regarding the PC-DL...I did at one time come very close to buying one. The only thing that held me back was the need for a new PSU...
does it support dual Xeons? yes.
can it run without ECC/registered? yes.
can it OC? yes.
Is it on par with the tyan Thunders? Oh hell no!
the same goes for Asus' dual Opteron board.
They are aimed at the low end duallie market, or the mid-high end of the enthusiast market. They're not aimed at the high end workstation/server market like a Tyan Thunder or a Supermicro (or certain IWills) would be.
and I did get the AMD Tech Tour bundle...otherwise I'd be running an X2, not dual Opteorns.
an x2 could technically be considered a 'dualie' (I know I know, this is the SMP forum, blah blah, but let me state my point below...I love true SMP as much as the rest of you in this forum)SLiLOVER said:
If you arent going to use an SMP OS, and run applications that run with SMP support and work with multiple threads, IMO you are pissing away your money on a dual opteron or xeon setup. If you want to game on it,
Get yourself a nice X2, with 2 gig of DDR, a couple 500 Gig hard drives, two 7800GTX's and ta da you have your nice gaming rig, for alot less than its going to cost you with dual opteron / xeon anything.
If you want a server, I have plenty of dual 500Mhz computers laying in my house, they work fine as servers with plenty of ram and a good HDD. Or you could even use a gaming rig like the one above, but that would be stupid
draconius said:
As seigejet said......valid argument....
But with the X2's and the Pentium D's becoming mainstream more and more apps and games will become SMP / multithreaded. They'll have to - to keep with the competition.
And as far as the OS is concerned.....X2's are Dual CPU just like HT P4's are. My 1.6LV's show as 4 CPU's in XP Pro, they are hyperthreaded.
So the OSes, Linux as well as XP, are already working for us - and that makes single threaded apps run much smoother. And we can run more of them concurrently without the CPU bogging down like a single cpu would.
draconius said:
Also my dually 1.6LV's are waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy cheaper ($150.00 CPUs + $150.00 Mobo + $160.00 2GB Value Ram= $460.00 ~ 1 of those 7800's would cost that) than the system you just discribed for gaming (which would cost about $3500.00) - with just as good preformance, if not better. Except for the video card - wish I could afford a pair of 7800's.
Plus, as you stated, an X2 is a dually / SMP system, so are you recommending "pissing" money away on a system that needs multithreaded OS and apps instead of games, just like a pair of xeons or opterons would???
You are getting me confused????
In the same statement you tell me I'm pissing my money away and then recommend spending a lot more money on a system which you even said was an equalivent SMP / multithreaded CPU - the X2.
Oh well....each to his own. I'll keep my 1.6LV's and when the X2's become as cheap and capable as my 1.6er's I might concider buying 1 - or maybe not.
since the OP really just wants to have the awesomeness that is true dual processor, he never stated what he really wanted to do with the machine did he? If its just a general workstation, I find that older dual PIII systems are very nice. The one in my sig (dualie 1ghz) works great with FreeBSD, Fedora, and Windows 2000, and the hardware and parts arent that expensive....its not the BEST gaming machine, howerver :/
ZOMGWTFBBQ
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2005
- Messages
- 284
SLiLOVER said:
Could you explain this a tad more? assuming that you want SLI for games then an X2 is right up your alley, and they overclock well aswell. Most cheaper Opteron boards have a shared memory controller which makes the two CPUs more or less the same as an X2 as its got a shared controller aswell.
If your using the puter for heavy, dual threaded, memory hammering applications(rendering) then the Opterons may be more your thing. But from what i can tell from your posts your only want a dually to be able to say 'i have a dually'. The X2s are alot more your thing, cost alot less overall (specially for ram), overclock better and have a wider range of cheaper motherboards.