Hi all,

I'm considering buying a AMD dual system since the increased performance and the possibility to 'grow' appeals me.

But, there's some issues I need to take care of:

1. Will it run with only one CPU? At first, perhaps I'll only buy one.

2. Does the CPU's have to be running the same clock frequenzy?

3. What effect whould the PSU have? Is it enough with 300W for a two CPU's a harddrive, cd-burner and cd-rom? (quite normal computer except being dual)

4. Why should I buy Intel/AMD?

5. Any mobo manufacter you recommend, any product I should stay away from etc..?


Is there something else I should think of when buying mobo/CPU at these days(what cpu family ex.); What frequenxy on the memory bus should I choose?

Any suggestion; ideas are highly appreciated.

cheers,
Cyth

random SMP info in no particular order...

Many motherboards have a capacitor pack called a VRM that you need to install along with processor number two, some have it already onboard.

Any dual proc mobo will run with only one CPU installed.

The procs have to be the same speed and in some cases the same "stepping" which means if you don't buy the CPUs at the same time it is possible they won't work together.

Intel = experience in SMP, AMD = better price, that's as simple as I can put it without starting a CPU war in this thread.

Power isn't that much of a concern over a single CPU board as these days the biggest draw is from components (hdd, cd/dvd, etc) but still the bigger the better and you will probably need a new PSU for a modern board since older ones don't have the "p4" plug so if you buy a new one I'd say minimum 400w for even single proc.

Couldn't tell you brands, the only SMP boards I have experience with are Intel server boards and they rock.

two 1GHz CPUs < one 2GHz CPU.

I was reading somewhere that at the current processor speeds it's usually other components like mobo, bus speeds, PCI bus, IDE bus etc that are the limiting speed factors. If this is even partially true then dual CPUs won't be as satisfying as you expect.

Your OS has to be good at SMP and preferrably so to with the applications you run. Linux has that down fairly well and actually scales better than winblowz in SMP functionality but still not as good as commercial unices like Solaris (must be nice when the CPU company makes the OS too.)

Hi all,

Can I use AMD's XP processors in a dual mobo? What is the effects? If it's possible, what should I notice?

Does it place a bigger load on the memory?

cheers,
Cyth

I merged your existing thread with your new one, to prevent confusion and no need to start a new thread for same subject.

Ups, I hope you excuse my silly mistake..

cheers,
Cyth

the XPs offer the same performance and are almost identical to as MPs, but the MPs are much more thoroughly tested in an multiprocessing environment. If you use XPs in a dual MP mobo, they'll probably run just as fine as MPs, but no guarantees there.

Memory consumption should stay the same.