Need CPU advice!

How about you do some googling and learn a thing or two about processors before you drop a bunch of money on one (or two).

The opterons are only advantageous if you have a 64 bit OS and well, yur standard Windows distro isn''t.

And no, a dual 1.8 does NOT act as a 3.6.

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Original post by zer0wolf
The opterons are only advantageous if you have a 64 bit OS and well, yur standard Windows distro isn''t.

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XP comes in a 64 bit flavor.

You won''t see much improvement with a dual cpu unless your running applications that are designed for it.

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Original post by DukeAtreides076

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Original post by zer0wolf
The opterons are only advantageous if you have a 64 bit OS and well, yur standard Windows distro isn''t.

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XP comes in a 64 bit flavor.

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dude, buy me one....maybe the kazaa store has it on a five finger discount!

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Original post by DukeAtreides076

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Original post by zer0wolf
The opterons are only advantageous if you have a 64 bit OS and well, yur standard Windows distro isn''t.

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XP comes in a 64 bit flavor.

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Did you miss the word "standard" in my post?


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laziness is the foundation of efficiency
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zer0PopPeTuS i g000gl4r3d but guess what!

first 1k pages are just pricelists and the next pages simply dont give much info!

thx btw , i see i shouldn''t buy one.

What CPU would you suggest? it can go as close as 500$

I would go with a P4 3.2 GHz with the 800 MHz front side bus. These also come with Hyper-Threading technology so that one physical processor can act logically like two. This is useful if you ever want to play a computer game while rendering a 3d model (or something equally foolish). You could probably find one of theses for about $400.

P4 3.2Ghz 800FSB + HT (unless you can drop about $1000 on the Extreme Edition)

Windows does not support x86-64 (Opteron) yet. It does support Itanium (ia64).

Dual CPU's do not function as one big cpu but they do excel at multitasking. Annecdotal evidence also suggests that dual processor systems have a longer useful lifetime.

I currently have dual AthlonMP 1.4GHz's. I bought the system when the MP's first arrived. So far, I'm very pleased with it. The system never skips or jumps when under load when you might see the mouse on single processor system's become uncontrollable. For this benefit alone, I'm sold on dual processor systems and SMP in general.

Dual cpu's are good choices for: servers, workstations, and bragging rights. Avoid for: games, web/email desktop.

Another consideration is hyperthreaded systems. While not as efficient as a true dual processor system, it provides the same smooth feel as an ordinary SMP setup at the cost of cutting your CPU's resources in half (bad). However, hyperthreading fits neatly into the P4's grossly oversized pipeline.

EDIT: On the Opteron, I say go for it only if you use Linux. Microsoft seems committed to helping out Intel by choking AMD with not providing a 64bit OS.

[edited by - Kadesh on January 17, 2004 12:54:43 AM]

Get a huge diamond and then shoot lasers through it. If movies have taught me anything, it''s that diamonds and lasers make the most powerful computers/superweapons in existence.

"Baby-killer is a bad word though. Notice how as soon as you say it, you think negative things." - Peon

On the subject of CPUs, does Hyper Threading make a difference? What *exactly* does it do?

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From Intel

This groundbreaking technology from Intel enables the processor to execute two threads (a part of a program) in parallel—so your software can run more efficiently and you can multitask more effectively than ever before.

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[edited by - dominicds on January 18, 2004 5:02:26 AM]

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Original post by Dungeon Master
On the subject of CPUs, does Hyper Threading make a difference? What *exactly* does it do?

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Yeah. I run a HTed 2.4c Pentium4 (overclocked to 2.5) and it is like dual-proccesor. Not only the Northwood "c" model comes with a 800Mhz FSB (nothing to do with HT but it improves memory bandwidth and performance) but also Windows XP recognizes it as dual-proccessor CPU:

You can see that the CPU load is different on each proccessor. When there is a really high CPU usage (100%) on a non-HT CPU, everything gets very slow and even the mouse lags. On a HT CPU everything works normal no matter how high is the CPU load on any of the logical CPUs. Sometimes in the task manager one of the CPU's performance charts freezes because of high CPU load, but the other CPU continues running and everything is smooth.

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"C lets you shoot yourself in the foot rather easily. C++ allows you to reuse the bullet!"


[edited by - CPPMaster Poppet on January 18, 2004 5:14:30 AM]

i think i''ll get a 3.2 HT one as u recommended
thx

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Original post by MrNeedHelp
i think i''ll get a 3.2 HT one as u recommended
thx

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Just as a sidenote, you can get a P4 2.6C, which is probably about half the price (175$ on newegg), and all of the reviews say that it easily overclocks to 3.2ghz. It is an 800mhz fsb, as well as it having hyperthreading... so price/performance, that chip seems like one of the better options. The 3.2 just isn''t that much faster for the extra cash.


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[edited by - YodaTheCoda on December 10, 2003 1:57:54 PM]

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Original post by ktuluorion
Just as a sidenote, you can get a P4 2.6C, which is probably about half the price (175$ on newegg), and all of the reviews say that it easily overclocks to 3.2ghz. It is an 800mhz fsb, as well as it having hyperthreading... so price/performance, that chip seems like one of the better options. The 3.2 just isn''t that much faster for the extra cash.


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[edited by - YodaTheCoda on December 10, 2003 1:57:54 PM]

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But you will need a motherboard and RAM capable of 500Mhz DDR and 990Mhz (app.) FSB. For a motherboard I think the Asus P4P800 deluxe is the best option, as for RAM get any DDR500 dual kit, with good timings if possible. Also you will need a better cooler if you want to reach 3.2Ghz. However this system with 1Ghz FSB and DDR500 will have a HUGE memory bandwidth of 7.8GB/sec !!!!! It will be much faster than non-overclocked 3.2Ghz CPU.

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"C lets you shoot yourself in the foot rather easily. C++ allows you to reuse the bullet!"

The downside to hyperthreading is it splits CPU resources in half. Half the cache, half the registers in the pipeline, half the available bus bandwidth. This disadvantage is offset because the P4''s pipeline tends to waste these resources anyway (one branch or jmp and bye bye). So in one way, HT is efficient in P4''s but in comparison to modern CPU design, it''s wasteful. You would not see the same benefit in an AMD processor because the AMD''s don''t waste resources.

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Original post by Kadesh
The downside to hyperthreading is it splits CPU resources in half. Half the cache, half the registers in the pipeline, half the available bus bandwidth. This disadvantage is offset because the P4''s pipeline tends to waste these resources anyway (one branch or jmp and bye bye). So in one way, HT is efficient in P4''s but in comparison to modern CPU design, it''s wasteful. You would not see the same benefit in an AMD processor because the AMD''s don''t waste resources.

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But it also splits all the proccess running into two halves. Each half gets its own logical CPU.

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"C lets you shoot yourself in the foot rather easily. C++ allows you to reuse the bullet!"

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Original post by CPPMaster Poppet But it also splits all the proccess running into two halves. Each half gets its own logical CPU.

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Yes, the end result is you get two "cpus" but the downside is the extra resources consumed. Cache and such is important. Look how the P4EE beat the Opteron just by loading on an insane amount of cache. Granted, the P4EE costs $1k but it shows that cache can make a big difference.