What did I miss in reading this?

Nearly 100% of the tests showed one dualcore beating two single core CPUs, then the conclusion was that two single cores were better?

Not sure this was really a fair comparison, as the top of the line processors are ALWAYS way overpriced than the 2nd or 3rd tier of processors...

I have just upgraded an old P4 system. I swapped out the motherboard for $89 and added an AMD X2 4400+ for $440, and then overclocked it to the same speed as 4800+.

Less than $600 for the whole upgrade (still using my same drives and such). The thing flies now compared with the old one. I don't think I could have done the same for cheaper going with a dual-proc board and 2 processors...

Regards,

Ben

It was a price/performance ratio and they decided that the dual cores weren't worth it right now because of the expense.

Maybe when you factor in an increase in income or free time then they become worth it again ;-)

Rob Mack

One other thing in favor of going the x2 route--less heat. I'm assuming that the second processor is eating, say, 80w extra. Louder fans, bigger power supply too. I'll bet these systems run hot.

Next thing you know some case manufacturer will be featuring a little "toaster oven" slot, where you can reheat your burrito when it's too far to walk to the kitchen late at night.

I think the idea was that with a dual single-core processor system, you could upgrade to dual-cores at some point in the future and get a quad-core.

Next thing you know some case manufacturer will be featuring a little "toaster oven" slot, where you can reheat your burrito when it's too far to walk to the kitchen late at night.

To thaw frozen burritos (Trader Joe's ditto are better than what's served in many restaurants), you need a Dual Xeon machine with Intel's new dual core CPUs. The motherboard alone uses 400 watts. With a 500 watt graphics card and few 10K drives in the box, you'll be just enough above 1 kilowatt where you can just put 2 burritos side-by-side in an open 5 1/4" slot and they will thaw faster than in a microwave.

Of course microwaves stop when the burritos are ready. This puppy will continue to heat your house and drain your electrical bill even after you finish eating the burritos... :O)

Now imagine a LAN party with 300 of these machines. First you have to find a 110 V 3000 A outlet... :O) Then turn on the 400 kW air conditioner (hoping for 75% efficiency), or more likely open all windows and contribute to global warming...

Power and heat are becoming important factors in PC design for sure.

Keeping this Dual Xeon going around the clock would consume 1.05 kW x 24 h x 30 days = about 750 kWh/month which in Los Angeles would cost as much as a car payment ... For the electricity.

Workstation versions of Windows (XP, 2K, NT) do not support more than 2 CPUs. Only the higher end server versions of windows do, and those are the big bucks.

So, a dual CPU machine is not upgradeable with dual core cpus as that looks like 4 CPUs to windows.

Hello bastinado

Windows XP will take advantage of two dual core cpus. I saw this some were on the microsoft sight. In the device manager it will only
show two cpus, but it will use all four cores.


ZION