using different speed p4's in a dual mb

quozl

Any problems with running a p4 1.4ghz and a p4 1.6ghz together in a dual p4 motherboard? Assuming I run them both at 1.4ghz. Are there any problems in forcing a 1.6ghz to act as a 1.4ghz (issues with multiplier locking? etc?)

And any suggestions on a reasonable motherboard to use? I don't want anything too expensive, it'll be for a game server.

Greg

quozl

****ing intel. P4's dont support SMP, to force you to use Xeons. ****, **** **** **** ****!

BabyEater

You could trick two Athlon XP's into thinking that they are MP's

BigEejit

i am pretty sure that nearly every dual proc mobo out there only supports identical chips .. (there may be exceptions, but i have never seen a server with different speed procesors or different sized on chip cache)

quozl

you could definately run a p166 and p200 together. I've done that, and I think you could do it with p2's as well. But turns out p4's are SMP enabled. Which is annoying.
Greg

astrofool

they need to run at the same speed, which isn't possible with p4's because their multiplier is fixed

Matt Simis

Tut tut, most of you saying the sensible thing, which is wrong in this case: According to Intel (according to 2CPU.com )

http://2cpu.com/FAQ/2cpusmpfaq.html



"What about stepping and cache sizes?

There is a myth that in order to run multiple CPU's, they need to be the same stepping and cache size. This is not true. According to Intel, you must have the same family of processor, and that's it. In fact, according to Intel, you can even mix MHz! ..... "



matt

quozl

heh, like I said, i've mixed mhz before. But the intel p4 faq on their own website says that p4's can't be used in SMP. And I havent found a single P4 smp motherboard anywhere.

Greg

astrofool

or u could read it again and try and come across as not being a smart arse

from the same faq, same part:

They say that if you clock the processors to the clock speed of the slower CPU, you'll be fine.

meaning that the cpu's can be different, but u have to run them at the same clock (esp. on an intel where the processors share the same bus u can't have multiplier differences, the new AMD p2p system may support diff clock speeds, but I doubt AMD will have implemented that). And seeing as the intel chips are multiplier locked, u can't clock them the same.

Gerry

I have heard of people running different speed p3's in the same board. I was wondering when I saw this topic where the hell you had managed to find a dual p4 ( non xeon ) board greg I haven't seen one anywhere either, and even stranger there doesn't seem to be much talk anywhere on the net about dual p4 machines. Its like everyone just accepts that you have to have dual xeons.

Matt Simis

Originally posted by astrofool
or u could read it again and try and come across as not being a smart arse

from the same faq, same part:



meaning that the cpu's can be different, but u have to run them at the same clock (esp. on an intel where the processors share the same bus u can't have multiplier differences, the new AMD p2p system may support diff clock speeds, but I doubt AMD will have implemented that). And seeing as the intel chips are multiplier locked, u can't clock them the same.

Hey, we're all friends here!

Id say it would work, but could be very unstable. Most users of SMP would require stability, so few people ever tried it out, so whos to say?



Matt