Hardware Question: Dual Processors vs Single

[Scarlek]

Ok, I'm looking at some old technology that I've managed to grab a hold of. What I'll do with it I don't know yet. Here's what it is...I'm looking for advice on what would give better performance.

Dual Processor motherboard: Supports up to P2 400Mhz x2.

Single Processor motherboard: Supports up to Intel 1ghz

Two 350Mhz Processors

1 Intel Celeron 600Mhz

Enough spare bits and bobs for one machine.

So, which is it? Dual processors or Single in this case? Which would most likely be the highest performance?

Thanks for your time folks.

[Emmett.hendrick]

You didn't mention what the 2 350MHZ CPU's are but if they are NOT Celeron I'd say go for it.

Basic understanding of the Celeron only here (someone else can fill in the grey areas) but the Celeron is Intel's budget chip and is a cut down version of the same things

So if you have two PII/PIII 350's or the 600 Celeron I'd say go with the 2 350's.

[Scarlek]

Thank you very much indeed, the 350's are PII processors so I'll give them a bash and see how it goes.

I would have tried both and ran some kind of benchmark on it but setting up one machine, installing it, then running tests and finally rebuilding it/reinstalling to test the other board/chip was just too daunting for me to even bother. Talk about a time waster...specially if I discovered test 1 was better than test 2, I would have had to rebuild the test1 machine again.

[Scarlek]

I couldn't find an edit button so...*gulp*

I guess my first post has just been made irrelevant through research. The dual motherboard I aqquired can support upto a P3 800Mhz processor with a Bios update which means I'm now a happy boy. (Given I have a few P3 750mhz Processors lying about).

Next question in that case: Will that kind of power with the following spec make a good enough dedicated BCG server or even a UC server?

Dual P3 750Mhz

512MB PC133 RAM

56GB SCSI Hard disk drive (Ultra Wide)

512K DSL (with a 256k upload rate)

Geforce 2 MX (I'm hoping that if UC is shipped with a server interface as opposed to a graphical one, this won't be an issue. I couldn't find a concrete yay or nay on that point via the forums or website.)

I'm happy to try running either type of server as long as it'll be good enough for others to play on.

[Pugwash]

What motherboard?

I have a dual P3 800Mhz (133 FSB) based on the Intel OR840 motherboard

512MB of PC800 RAMBUS RIMM

Adaptec 39160 SCSI card

2 x IBM 309170 + 2 x Segate ST39140 SCSI Hard Drives

2 x 3.5" Swap able Hard drive + various Hard drives in caddies 200GB, 75GB Maxtor s, 123.5GB, 2 x 30.7GB and 2 x 25GB Deskstar s.

Ultraplex40 Max SCSI CD-rom

PlexWriter 48/24/48A IDE CD-writer.

Panasonic 2x DVD-R/-RW/RAM & CD/RW IDE Burner

PCI CMD Ultra IDE Controller

SB Live Platinum

Primary display AGP GF2 GTS 64MB

Secondary display PCI nVidia RIVA TNT2 32MB

PCI Compaq NC3120 Fast Ethernet NIC

I use the follow case

Supermicro SC762 case 420W Power supply

+ Additional Xeon/PIII cooling kit

All 6 external 5.25" drive bays are used 3 x cd/dvd, 2 x IDE swap and SBlive drive

1 x 3.5" external drive bays Floppy top front

2 x 3.5" internal drive bays top rear above exhaust fan (Segate drives SCSI Channel A)

2 x 3.5" internal drive lower front (IBM drives SCSI channel

The tower actually comes with 3 x 3.5" internal drive bays 2 of which are in a removable cage that can be fitted in the top rear position as in the photo in the link or in the lower position on the same rail that holds the CPU fan/s (not shown on the 762 photo) but its a tight fit if you add the extra cooling kit with the 2 CPU fans.

The 3rd drive bay can partly be seen above the removable cage in the photo.

I have the cage in the lower position and use Meccano (perforated metal strips) fastened to the top drive bay protruding downwards to hold the 2 Segate drives in the position the drive cage is shown in the photo.

Those SCSI drives give off allot of heat and the machine can give out unbearable amount on those hot summer days,(yep all 2 of them in England)

count the fans 3 x 8cm intake fans lower front case, 2 x 9cm over CPUs, CPUs are slot 1 with fans, 4cm exhaust fan rear case between CPUs, 8cm Exhaust fan top rear above PSU, 2 x 8cm fans on side of drive bays, all the HD caddies have 4cm intake fans.

Before I got this case I had another tower it had a 300W PSU and experienced power problems on boot as all the drives spun up. I solved that problem by adding an additional 250W PSU

The main reason for all those fans is because of all the cabling restricting the airflow

4 IDE cables

3 SCSI (1 LVD HD, 1 68 pin Ultra wide HD, 1 50 pin CD-rom )

SB live drive

power and audio cables.

Keep saying I'll fit the 2GB memory limit in it but at the price of the memory have always spent the money on other things .

You can never have enough HD space trouble is the more you have the more you need.

If you go for the Dual processor setup I think its worth getting a proper Dual processor case.

2 x 750Mhz is certainly more processing power than your other option and if they are 133 FSB even better, but you will need XP or Win2K.

This give a PC with performance close to the recommended spec for UC although grafix is short, does the MX have the required vertex shader 1.1 can't remember but the is a post on the forum about it you'll just have to do a search yourself (its getting late 1:14 and I can't be bother to do a search now).

Clean install with both processors fitted I've had weird effects when adding and removing 1 of the processors and booting the PC.

So what you want to know is how does it run a BCMG server no problems although the maximum number of players connected at any time was only 3!!

BCMG server idles at around 40 - 45 % of system on CPU 0 at startup. (37 processes running I don't shut down all the rubbish running in the background) on Win2K, Swap file on D: Boot drive and BCMG installed on C:

Information that you might find relevant.

quote:

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Posted By Supreme Commander in other topics

oh, did I mention that since BCG makes use of dual-proc, so now does BCM Gold? If you have a dual proc machine (or even more), several threads (e.g. AI, networking, dynamics etc) are run on separate processors. This makes running a server on a dual-proc machine the best possible server config.

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quote:

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BCM supports parallel processing when running under WIN2K. BCM is not supported under NT, for obvious reasons.

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[Scarlek]

That's some good reading right there. The motherboard I have is a Super P6DBS which originally only went to P2 400Mhz but after some reading it appears a Bios update will allow for higher speeds upto P3 800Mhz.

Power wise, could be one of the problems I stumbled on a few days ago. I've only got a 300w PSU in there and with all the crap I stuck into it, I wonder if that may be the cause of my USB modem not sucking enough juice to run.

How did you manage to add a second PSU? what's that entail? (I assume you did something wierd or that your board supports two PSU's. Either that or I'm not wise enough to see through the process properly.

I've got Win2k so that's good news about BC supporting multi-processors under that OS.

Heat wise and case wise, I'm all set. It's the original case that the dual processor motherboard was shipped in by the manufacturer. (It's a shame the machine was looted of most parts before I got my hands on it but either way, it's all good for free.)

Any thoughts/comments on power supply issues, let me know. (This forums better than any other tech forum I've seen! )

[Pugwash]

The case I added the second PSU to was similar to the Supermicro one,

at the time I could not find a supplier for 400+ watt PSU at a reasonable price.

With the introduction of the Athlon and P4 even 550W PSU are easily available at reasonable prices.

Just read the reviews on that one like everything else you get what you pay for so I'd be a bit wary about buying a £14 PSU

I fitted the extra ATX PSU in the top rear of the case where the auxiliary 8cm exhaust fan was

just had to cut out holes for the power cable inlet, the retaining screws and remove the fan cover from the PSU.

I then wired the soft startup to the Turbo switch / button which was not needed, and was able to disable the latching mechanism of the Turbo switch so it behaved as a momentary switch and not an on / off toggle.

I didn't want to risk running it from the motherboard or standard startup button.

The main plug to the motherboard was not used ( except for the 2 wires going to the turbo button) and insulated against accidental short circuits on the metal case, all the power cables were used in the normal way to power the Floppy, CD /DVD and hard drives, the boot drive remained on the original PSU.

I had been told that this setup would cause problems but ran it like that for 12 months without a single problem except for the few time I forgot to start the second PSU before booting.

If you check all your hardware components they usually have there current ratings on them, well hard drives and CD / DVD drives do motherboards and add in card you'll probably have to read the techy specs from the manufacturers.

If you add up all the +5v and +12v current ratings of the hardware you are going to install

don't forget the fans mine rate from 0.2amp to 0.8amp ouch! (again you get what you pay for cheap fans = noise, power hungry, short life span and large current drain on spin up)

your PSU should have a rating table on it

the only spare I have at hand to check is a 205W with a rating of 20A for +5V and 8A at +12V

Remember you will need overcapacity at start up when all those hardware devices initialize, the drive motors can be particularly power hungry on spin up but at least with SCSI you can stager these devices.

Far easier to put a bigger PSU in but as you not powering 6 hard drives 3 CD / DVD drives etc you should be ok

Is the modem USB 1 compliant it should be but it may be worth checking.

Can you go LAN modem wise, or power it externally?

If not you could try a powered external USB hub but be careful to get one that will supply enough power most only alow 500ma.

Final option would be to use an add in PCI USB card

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Originally posted by Scarlek:

(This forums better than any other tech forum I've seen! )

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It's all a matter of how you ask for support.

You reap what you sow on this board.

Treat board members the way you would like to be treated and you'll receive the same treatment in return.

That won't work if you like to be abused as you'll just get banned

Most of the community are not 14 year old CS kiddies.