dual p3 vs athlon t-bird

[estesflyer]

say you have a dual p3 (two 500 mhz chips, each @ 133 FSB) running against an athlon t-bird 1ghz (running @ 266 FSB)

Both systems running 256 megs ddr

Both systems running same speeds for, everything else.

Now, which system would win?

I heard that a dual p2/p3 system can handle a LOT of stress, like printing to two printers simultaneously, as well running a file server, and playing music without ONE jitter!

I've never been able to see an athlon system do that, before... =)

Also, I've noticed that p4's are basically cheaper than p3's when the same speeds are set side by side...

the p4 would be better, right?

1.2 ghz p4 is only 100 bucks, the p3 is WAY more expensive, and does it even have a 1.2 ghz chip?

One more thing, what about stability? I know that linux and NT should be able to tame two beasts, but what about windows 2k/winxp? Or even win98?

What ARE the advantages to having more than one processor? And Why aren't there any athlon motherboards thatsupport two t-birds or even classic athlon chips instead of the mp?

I am willing to pay a fair amount, as the system would be put under considerable stress quite a bit of the time!

(small FTP server, small web server, as well as gaming and DVD movies.)

After a year or two, though, it would become the web server that 7thwatch designs will use (multiple t-1 connections, many clients, plus ftp & quake server.)

That is why I am so willing to pay out for dual processing, but I decided that I better ask someone who would know, before I plunge into something that i've never used before.

Oh yeh, what about these boards?

CUV266-DLS
CUV266-D

I saw them on the asus.com website, but i was never able to find a seller ANYWHERE on the net! Check out the boards if your interested, they are NIIIICE dual p3 boards - donno bout price tho.

Well, I guess those are all my questions, thank you for your time!!

TIA

- Rusty - Rusty

 

[dakota81]

I'd say the Atlhon wins hands-down. Just because you can double the processors does not mean that you double the speed. The system is still bottlenecked by slow memory accessing. Plus, most software cannot take advantage of a second processor, so there's no performance gain in those situations either.

The reason you don't see dual amd boards is because amd is targetted for the general consumer, and the general consumer does not benifit from a dual processor system. Dual cpu systems are mainly for high end file servers, and the corporations who need that kind of setup are not worried about price/performance ratios, they stick with intel, and it seriously would have been foolish if Amd pushed for the Athlon as a high-end server processer upon initial release, they would not have sold.

I've never put together a dual processor system myself, but if I were I'd go with the Athlon MP processors, you just can't beat the price. Tyan makes the only dual MP board I know of, and it can be found at

http://www.newegg.com

For a stable OS, it depends on whether or not you are a gamer. If so, go with XP. If not, stick with 2000. Don't even consider Win98 because it doesn't even recognize a second processor, plus it's not an OS you can trust for anything serious like being a server.

 

[estesflyer]

ok, thanks.

So, what is so special about this amd MP processor?
- Rusty

 

[dakota81]

What's so special about the P4? Same question applies here. I stick with AMD becuase I am price consience, the Athlon chips provide as good of performance as the top 2GHz P4 processor, while costing much less in price. And now that the chipsets have matured, these systems are extremely reliable.

So what's so special about the MP? Nothing really, you just don't have to pay intel's prices.

 

[stuartd]

MP chip has extra (SSE2?) instruction set, and uses 20% less power than previous Athlon (therefore will run cooler - see the number of probs with Athlon heat within these pages)

 

[paparazi]

Would you put crossply tyres on a Ferrari? no of course not! you would put V rated tyres on it! the same goes for the big Athlons, you should know they create heat because of their performance so you fit the correct rated heatsink fan and case cooling.
Problem? what Problem? Martin

 

[Maruis]

On the front end of a Dual machine you will not see a difference in speed.
However if you need a system for raw processing power, go for dual.
Applications that uses a lot of processing power will use the dual. You will see a speed difference in the back end.
Also remember that your system will only be as fast as the slowest component. Remember that each processor can only handle one thread at a time. With dual you double up on the threads.
If you want to spend the money I would suggest to add high end SCSI drives as well, the preformance increase is tremendous.
I have build and are working on dual and quad systems.
The ASUS MB's are good.

Hope this helps you

 

[stuartd]

I agree completely. My Athlon runs at 48C loaded - I spent the £25 on a nice heatsink.
Others obviously don't though . . .