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Dual Motherboards

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  • 09-05-2002 7:07pm
    #1
    Dempsey
    Registered Users Posts: 20,553 ✭✭✭✭


    I hate asking stupid questions but........
    What are the main advantages of a dual processor motherboard in simple terms? Are they worth the money. And are there any dual motherboards that can take two Xeon's ??!!


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    #2
    Inspector Gadget
    Registered Users Posts: 1,393 ✭✭✭Inspector Gadget


    Dual motherboards:

    Good because single-threaded CPU-intensive applications can be "farmed off" onto one CPU while the system (and the other apps) can use the other CPU, giving the CPU-thirsty application practically 100% of the CPU's attention.

    Good because multi-threaded applications (such as 3D renderers, some Photoshop filters) can run significantly (<=40%) faster on dual CPU systems.

    Good for servers because latency is reduced - requests get handled more efficiently.

    Bad because they produce a lot of heat (esp. AMD dual CPU platforms).

    Bad because for most people single-CPU systems give much more bang-per-buck.

    Bad because (in some cases) the CPUs can't read each others cache(s) and unnecessarily duplicate memory requests, causing a small performance drop.

    On top of all this, is the question you've asked about the Xeons. First thing you have to ask is, P3 or P4 Xeon? The reason for this is that the P4 Xeon has this so-called "hyperthreading" - a way to make a single CPU look like two so that spare CPU cycles are used up as much as possible - so that your dual Xeon thinks it's got 4 CPUs! It's interesting as an idea, but it's only good when the code for the applications you run isn't optimised to make use of your processor.

    Hope this helps,
    Gadget


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