Athlon XP or MP?

Rednroll wrote on 4/28/2002, 1:21 PM

Looking to upgrade my DAW once again to a faster CPU. I was very happy with my AMD Athlon 700Mhz thus far, and will continue to use AMD processors for this upgrade. Just wondering if anyone has a recommendation as to which, to pick for a DAW system. Should I choose the Athlon XP, or the Athlon MP. The MP seems to support multi-processor support, but seems to be geared toward servers. Will Vegas support dual MP's and will I benefit from this any? or would I be better off going the direction of an Athlon XP and save myself from having to purchase dual CPU's and a more expensive motherboard? I plan on installing Windows XP on this system. Any help of the Pro's and Con's of each would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Red

Comments

ramallo wrote on 4/28/2002, 2:32 PM

Hello,

I had a 2 x P3 1000 Mhz machine, and now (by space problems) have a P4 1600 (512 K L2) laptop (Dell 8200). The diference between the machines are big, a big old projects made with the dual processor (> 40 tracks, almost 8 trueverbs), I can't open in my new machine (same firewire HD).

I see very big advantages with the dual machine, more plugins (Almost the same as a single processor machine of same speed, but you have another processor for the rest of tasks) and more tracks. Sometimes is like a have two computers working together.

The MP and XP are the same in a single processor machine.

Regards

drbam wrote on 4/28/2002, 4:05 PM

I recently upgraded to an AMD T-Bird 1.33 & Asus A7V266 MB (w/98SE). Fast and stable so far. I've been told (and have read in several forums and elsewhere) that AMD is by far the most your $.

drbam

Rednroll wrote on 4/28/2002, 6:52 PM

Yes, I heard there are many problems with the P4 processors. P3's of the same speed, are proven to be faster. The Athlons although don't have as fast as clock speeds as the P4's, are suppose to be still out perform even the fastest P4's. So, I'm definitely going to be going the AMD way over Intel. So would it be best to buy an Athlon MP, with a dual processor supported motherboard and buy the second processor at a later date when the price drops down?

ibliss wrote on 4/28/2002, 6:55 PM

As I understand it, the XP and MP are basically the same CPU, except the MP is 'certified' by AMD for use in dual processor systems. They also cost a little more. You can a run a single XP CPU, a single MP CPU or two MP CPUs on a dualCPU board. So you could buy a second MP at a later date if you wanted to spread the cost of the upgrade out a bit (I DON'T THINK you have to buy matched pairs, but check up on this 'cause I might be wrong!)

Don't expect double the performance - you will have a lot more power availabe, but it won't be used all the time. Only you can decide if your computing activities will justify the expense.

Also, I'm sure you're aware that you have to own Win XP Pro to make use of a multi-cpu system: Win XP Home edition only supports single CPU systems.

Mike K

Rednroll wrote on 4/29/2002, 12:45 AM

Thanks for all the advice. I did a little price comparing on the 2 systems, this is what it breaks down too. MP Processor add $60 over XP. MP dual motherboard add $90 over comparible MB, or add an additional $300 if you want the top of the line. Add $60 for 500W power supply to power dual MP processors. So it's approximately an additional $210 to go the MP route. I think I will most likely wait this time around and build an XP system, and wait until the future when other manufactures besides Tyan start making dual CPU boards for AMD and then build a dual processor video editing machine using the MP processors.

Thanks for the help,
red

vanblah wrote on 4/29/2002, 8:31 AM

For what it's worth: ASUS makes a dual Athlon MB. It's about $250, though ... I use ASUS boards in all of my machines because I have found them to be very reliable. Let the forum know what you finally put together, I'm curious because I am putting together an XP1800 machine.

MyST wrote on 4/29/2002, 9:08 AM

Another thing to consider is keeping your CPU cool. I need three fans to keep my 850 T-Bird in check. You might have to run yours out of the refrigerator. ;)

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