DescentBB

I'm just wondering which would be faster. A Dual 3.06ghz Xeon or a Single P4 3.6ghz. I want a system that is very good in both games and rendering(max/maya). I read somewhere saying that dual cpu systems are slower at games then just a single cpu is. The dual xeons also have a slower bus speed and use slower ram.

I was looking at this cpu and motherboard
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... =80924-533

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductLi ... ode=011423


So what are the pros and cons between the two?

thanks

dual xeons would be faster than the single p4. At those speeds you won't notice a difference on single-cpu apps, but in rendering the dual cpu is always going to be better than single.

If you want dual cpu on a budget - go with opterons. You'll spend alot less than on xeons, and it'll probably outperform them too. I believe it was the 1.4ghz Opterons (240) keep up with the 3.06 Xeon and even beat them in some apps.

Hey, guys, why is a single P4 better than dual Xeons? Don't Xeons have Hyper-Threading? So, wouldn't that be like having four CPUs in certain situations? What about dual Xeons with the 800 MHz FSB and the 90-nm manufacturing process? Would two of the fastest new Xeons be better than one 3.6-GHz P4 for games?

Hmm so there are NO disadvantages getting a 3.6ghz xeon over a 3.6ghz p4 for gaming and the like?

Also if I do decide to get a dual cpu system can I just buy one cpu right now and install it into the motherboard and have a working computer or do I HAVE to buy both cpus and install them to work?

Capm money isn't that much of an issue for me. Do you have any benchmarks comparing both systems?

THIS was the original article pitting Dual 1.8ghz Opterons vs Dual 3.06Ghz Xeons

Cyclone wrote:Hmm so there are NO disadvantages getting a 3.6ghz xeon over a 3.6ghz p4 for gaming and the like?

Well, there kinda is...a 3.6 GHz Xeon is very expensive.

Dual Opterons are not cheaper then Xeons, but they scale better. Quad Opterons improve on that even better. Because dual/quad Xeons all have to share the same 800 MHz FSB/memory, the Opterons all have their own local memory.

Thanks for the link Capm.


I have a few simple questions.

1. Can I just have one processor in a dual cpu motherboard or do I need both cpu sockets
filled. Cuzz I was thinking I could just buy one cpu for now and get the second one when
I have more money.

2. Lets say I get a motherboard that only supports 533Mhz FSB. Could I still get for example
a 3.2Ghz cpu with 800Mhz FSB. The reason I'm asking is because Xeon motherboards with a
800Mhz bus are pretty expensive $300 USD and up and the motherboard I'm looking at only has
a 533mhz bus. I thought maybe the bus speed of the 3.2ghz cpu would just be clocked down to
533mhz to run with the speed on the motherboard.

3. Same as #2. Can this work with ram as well? The specs on the motherboard say it supports
"Dual-DDR333" ram but in the review they did some overclocking and used "DDR-400 (PC-3200)"
instead.

1. Usually, yes. You'd have to put the single proc in socket 1.

2. Depends. Which board are you looking at? The Asus PC-DL for example has unofficial support for 800fsb chips. But if your dropping over $400 per processor, you might as well get a good 800fsb board to go with em.

3. DDR400 is required for the 800fsb chips, but will work fine with slower chips (and allow for some decent overclocking).