New Possible Multi-Proccessing Main Rig (Need Help)

Zxcs

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Sep 11, 2004
Messages
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Since I ventured away from a HTPC I have been considering a multi-processing system.
The main question is will dual/quad 3ghz-ish Xeon (2mb L3 cache) processors perform "as good as/worse/better" than a 3.4ghz northwood extreme processor on its own (gaming-wise)?

My budget is $4000 and a multi-processing system really catches my eye. I am looking for something for video editing and gaming (I do a lot of both).
Thanks
 
the 3.0ghz will suffer a little bit in gaming vs the 3.4ghz ee chip, simply because most games are not SMP aware at all. but more of them are geting multi threaded things to HT from intel, and that will help midigate this effect. but the 3.0ghz will clean the 3.4ee clock on almost everything eles, you talked about video work, if you do encoding and use a good encoder (read one that is smp aware) it will use all 4 cpus (with ht enabled or 2 without) and you will get alot better FPS then the 3.4ee aslong as there is not another bottle neck in your setup (like say a 5400 rpm drive or something stupid like that).

from the people i talk to that to video editing /mixing they normaly have 5-15 programs open at the same time, and all of the use smp setups, one that i know of got rid of his AMD XP 2800+ and replaced it with a dual AMP MP 2200+ and he tells me that the MP is smother and encodes a little quicker, even with the massive speed loss from the 2800+ to the 2200+. as an example.

hope this helps
 
I was looking around and a few people suggested I should use something like 2x 246 Opteron. Then I went to look at a few benchmarks and on the heavy loads the Xeon 3ghz 2mb cache beat even the 848 opteron. Any ideas with what to go with?
 
most test show the 533 fsb xeons keeping up and or passing the X48-50 optis (note i put an x in front because it does not relate to performance or anything, just the level of smp support (read 1way =1xx, 2way =2xx, 8way=8xx), and the 800fsb xeons are performing faster then the 533 at the same speed, plus they have a better chipset (read native sata, gigabite networking, better power support, and other stuff) i would go with a xeons, simply because they are faster then the opterons and feel smoother, and yes i own both, grated mine are 400fsb xeons. also the 64 bit is a non issues, since the new xeons (800fsb) have a great version of 64bit built in to them, and they dont have any 32 issues like the itaniums did.
 
Whatever you go with I'd recommend staying away from quad-procs for reasons of cost, power consumption, size, and lack of slots.

The high-end Opterons still best high-end Xeons in server and media encoding performance (slightly), but lack a chipset that supports PCI-E. All the other stuff (native sata, gigabit ethernet, etc.) are supported by the nvidia-based Iwill DK8N.

Right now the Opterons are faster at what you want to do, but the Xeons might have a better upgrade path (which itself is questionable since Opterons have memory bandwidth in spades and according to AMD dual-core procs are compatible with current workstation boards).

The main factor that will determine your buying is whether or not you want PCI-E/DDR-II or not.
 
i think 8xx opterons are only 4way(not 100% sure). Anyways, I'd get the Xeons over the opterons, cause I think the Xeons are less expensive and I believe they don't require registered RAM like the opteron platform(reg RAM isn't necesary unless your running shitloads of memory)
 
8xx opterons are 8 way capable as well as 4/2/1
1xx one way
2xx two way.
 
Well, I had a look around and found:
Dual Opteron 250 Processors
ANTEC Black SOHO File Server Tower ATX Case with 400W Power Supply, Model "SX1040BII"
MSI "K8T Master2-FAR" VIA K8T800 Chipset Motherboard for Dual/Single AMD Socket 940 CPU
2 X AMD Opteron Model 250, 1MB L2 Cache 64-bit Processor
4GB (4 X 1024) 184 Pin ECC Registered DDR PC-2700 Ram
2 X 120GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drives
Lite-On Black 8X DVD+/-RW Drive, Model SOHW-812S
Lite-On Black 52X32X52X16 Combo CDRW/DVD Drive
Black 1.44MB 3.5inch Floppy Disk Drive
nVidia 6800 ultra 256mb

For $4350 (pre-made)
That overpriced or about right? Any comments?
Thanks for the feedback
 
"Dual Opteron 250 Processors"
and
"2 X AMD Opteron Model 250, 1MB L2 Cache 64-bit Processor "

???
 
He probably just double typed something without noticing it, jeeze, use a little common sense.
 
actually, I was commenting on the fact that it was stated twice... apparently, I'm speaking to the wrong crowd here, heh :p

"I'll be here all week, folks!"
 
insanarchist said:
actually, I was commenting on the fact that it was stated twice... apparently, I'm speaking to the wrong crowd here, heh :p

"I'll be here all week, folks!"
Be sure to tip your waitresses
 
Yea, sorry for the double-type, was copying and pasting from the invoice and didn't see it. :D
 
insanarchist said:
actually, I was commenting on the fact that it was stated twice... apparently, I'm speaking to the wrong crowd here, heh :p

"I'll be here all week, folks!"
problem being the funny was missing

most invoices are like that, the model is listed by the processor type, then later they give you the specifics. but you seem to know that already :rolleyes:
 
wasn't claiming to be funny; I was just questioning the post in order to establish the validity of one of two possible intentions of posting the same thing twice. Either...

A: It was a misprint, and therefore, very mildly humerous due to the concept that one would "accidentally" purchase four expensive processors, or

B: It was intentional, and therefore the rational response to noticing the fact that purchasing four processors didn't make much sense would be to point it out: also very mildly humerous.

As a whole, this post basically got beat down like a white supremacist at the apollo and, therefore, ended up being downgraded to 'stupid'.

hahaha :D
 
that's about right for a prebuild. you could probably go a lot cheaper if you build it with the same parts, but you'll have no warranty (except from the manufacturer) on the parts.

if you do build it yourself, treat yourself to more disk. 2x120 is nothing these days. you don't need to build it rackmount, so you'll have plenty of room for that 1tb array you know you want. or get scsi for a boot drive and wait for the 400gb seagates to come out. mmm 400gb.
 
unhappy_mage said:
or get scsi for a boot drive and wait for the 400gb seagates to come out. mmm 400gb.

I wouldn't be comfortable with 400+GB of information on one drive.
 
I have a dual Opty Rig and kicks the sheit out of my xeon one, especially when I am creating DB reports as far as xeon being cheaper then Opteron Thats BS. As for Quad xeon system your dreaming. I haven't seen a quad xeon (Just case mobo combo) board as of yet unfortunatly. I have both Xeon and AMD (S2885 and MSI K8T Far 2 system) I don't like the xeon at all it feels like a slouch, when encoding DIVX the opteron's kill the xeon system.

Quad Opty Board.
Tyan Thunder K8QS Pro S4882UG2NR - Mainboard - SSI MEB - AMD-8111 / AMD-8131 - Socket 940 - LAN EN, Fast EN, Gigabit EN - RAID For only $2,062.85

Cheapest Combo for Xeon 4 way I found 603 Socket is
Intel Server Platform SRSH4 - Rack - 0 - RAM 0 MB - HD: none - CD - LAN EN, Fast EN, Gigabit EN - Monitor : none - 4 U $4,229.94
There is no 800 mhz fsb Xeon MP's

Here is prices from my wholesaler which is the largest in Canada. Thie reseller is the largest in Canada.

MSI K8T MASTER2-FAR, DUAL CPU, S940,AGP8X-PRO,4DDR, 4PCI, $288.00

I just bought 4 X 1 Gigs of PC 3200 ECC Reg Ram for $276 Dollars Per ram stick . (Good deal)

INTEL XEON 3.06 533MZ BOX $466.00
INTEL XEON 3.06 1M 533 BOX $668.00
INTEL XEON 3.2 1MB 533 BOX $986.00
INTEL XEON 3.2 2MB 533 BOX $1,476.00

AMD OPTERON DP SERVER 244 BOX $435.00
AMD OPTERON DP SERVER 246 BOX $613.00
AMD OPTERON DP SERVER 248 BOX $914.00
AMD OPTERON DP SERVER 250 BOX $1,120.00
$2,103.12 Opteron 850 2.4GHz 1MB
$1,531.93 Opteron 848 2.2GHz 1MB
$1,148.52 Opteron 846 2GHz 1MB
$918.22 Opteron 844 1.8GHz 1MB

The Following prices are from IBM direct the only people to carry xeoon 800 fsb CPU's that we can buy, they are about 5 Percent markup or so from our main supplier.

3.2GHZ/533MHZ-1MB L3, CACHE ZEON PROCESSOR $2,149.00
3.2GHZ/800MHZ-1MB L2, CACHE ZEON PROCESSOR EM64T $2,126.00
3.6GHZ/800MHZ-1MB L2, CACHE ZEON PROCESSOR EM64T $2,829.00
2.8GHZ 800MHZ 1MB L2 CACHE, XEON PROCESSOR W/INTEL EM64T $1,199.00
3.0GHZ 800MHZ 1MB L2 CACHE, XEON PROCESSOR W/INTEL EM64T $1,835.00
3.2GHZ 800MHZ 1MB L2 CACHE, XEON PROCESSOR W/INTEL EM64T $2,077.00
2.8GHZ 800MHZ 1MB L2 CACHE, XEON PROCESSOR X236 8841XX $1,191.00
3.2GHZ 800MHZ 1MB L2 CACHE, XEON PROCESSOR X236 8841XX $2,270.00
3.0GHZ 800MHZ 1MB L2 CACHE, XEON PROCESSOR X236 8841XX $1,688.00

Xeon MP
Not From IBM $2,621.34 Xeon MP 1.9GHz 1MB
Not From IBM $1,559.81 Xeon MP 1.5GHz 1MB
2.0GHZ L2 1MB L3 CACHE, INTEL XEON MP $2,467.00
2.5BGHZ L2 1MB L3 CACHE, INTEL XEON MP $4,074.00
2.8BGHZ L2 2MB L3 CACHE, INTEL XEON MP $7,607.00

So your looking at about 32k for quad xeon easily. CDN Funds. Xeons are definetly not worth it in my opinion I would definetly go for an Opteron system. At least a quad Opteron system is remotly possible but xeon it like buying a friggen house. Hehe I find it very Ironic that a Single XEON server can almost buy you almost 4 Opteron Servers.

I recently had luck of geting a sweet Promo deal, buy two AMD Opteron 246 and Get a Celestica 1 U Dual Opteron Server for free. :D I bough 1300 Dollars worth of CPU and got a 1200 Dollar 1u server for free :D

As for Bang for buck server wise AMD wins.
 
Just a note, on the opteron side of things, if you go dual procs just make sure to get the msi or the iwill that has a good agp chipset. The amd agp chipset 8xxx series (i think its 8xxx's??) dosen't perform as good as some of the other chipsets which get more attention in the gaming area.

I currently have a tyan k8w and I really hate the amd agp chipset thats on it. Don't get me wrong its good, just not as good as some others, especially since you wanna do some gaming.
 
lol just realised that now.... anyways computer comes in a week. Just hope that I don't have to post "FS: 2 Opteron 250s" :D
 
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