Xeon vs. Athlon MP dual CPUs, any difference?

John_Beech wrote on 8/15/2002, 3:40 PM

Xeon vs. Athlon MP dual CPUs . . . is there any significant difference if putative CPU performance is kept consistent, i.e. a pair of Athlon 2200+ vs. a pair of Xeon 2.2 CPUs?

How much difference can I reasonably expect between a dual solution and a single faster CPU, i.e. the 2.53 presently available? I am just seeking ballpark answers here folks, nothing to hold your feet to the fire on. I presume (dangerous I know), that somebody has experience they can share.

For what it's worth, I'm not asking without having bothered to look around first. I've seen in the knowledgebase whereby dual CPUs will help, but no mention of Intel vs. AMD (much less Xeon CPUs vs. regular P4 processors).

Also, an answer to an earlier post vis-a-vis Open GL cards discloses VV3 doesn't care about OpenGL cards, hence I am left clueless with regard to video card and CPU selection.

FWIW, I've poked around a bit at the Sonicfoundry site but haven't come across recommended hardware lists (other than no recommendation whatsoever on sound cards) with a suggestion to seek help at the reseller. Interestingly enough (or not as the case may be), those resellers listed within 100 miles of me are music stores and the two I called hadn't a clue . . . so if somebody would like to point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it.

I'm about to spend some sheckels on a computer dedicated to VV3 and misteps are not something I look forward to. Advice anybody?

John Beech - GM (and janitor)
http://www.modelsport.com

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Cheesehole wrote on 8/23/2002, 8:41 PM

try www.annoyances.org they have a bunch of good stuff to get you started taming XP. you can turn off messenger by renaming the executable (look in task manager... msmsgs.exe I think) or you could prevent it from loading with group policies (run gpedit.msc and enable appropriate option). you can't just take it out of the Run section of the registry because windows puts it back when you run certain things.

you can also turn off the annoying image previewer that XP automatically runs when you double-click an image.

sorry i don't make special emails.

John_Beech wrote on 8/26/2002, 8:01 AM

Sorry for the delay in responding, just flew in from a filming a job in North Dakota . . . what a beautiful place - and great people too! I believe I fell in love with the place (then again it's not January).

Ben, sure it's pretty quick by todays standards, but as has been pointed out, it's obsolete already. Which monitors? I haven't decided yet.

As for 533 FSB Xeons, sure, something new is always on the horizon, it's an ongoing process. Way I figure it, as soon as I do, somebody will point out the soon to be release 1 Ghz FSB :>)

Looking at what I have spent, only 1000 bucks is the MoBo, CPUs, and memory, so in a a year or two I buy another - no big deal. The only reason I didn't stick the new MoBo in an existing Supermicro full-size tower case is the new MoBo is 12x13 and hence significantly larger than most ATX MoBos at 12x9 or 12x10.

Meanwhile, the SCSI system and video drives remain servicable for my purposes (as well as the DVD recorder), so I am well satisfied.

Finally, why not wait for 533 FSB? Pretty simple. I have four DVDs to release between now and mid-October (in order to deliver to my dealer base in time for Christmas sales). They mean about $200k for me, so this purchase is pretty small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. Hence, the short answer is I couldn't wait any longer and still get the job done.

vicmilt wrote on 8/31/2002, 10:16 PM

I'm using the 18" Sony LCD display and love it. Highly recommended.
Color is beautiful and it's sharp. Sony Good.

John_Beech wrote on 9/1/2002, 2:23 PM

Bought the Sony 18" LCD from Circuit City (they only had one at the time) and ended up returning it yesterday. No problem with it except I didn't see enough benefit over conventional CRT monitors so I picked up a couple of inexpensive 19" flat-screen CRTs and a Radeon 8500 . . . which is giving me grief. one monitor has a ripple in it (looks like 60Hz noise). It's the monitor connected to the DVI-VGA converter and switching the cables proves it's not the monitor but is indeed the card as the problem follows whichever monitor is plugged into the little thingy while the other monitor (plugged into the conventional VGA connector) is fine. I am very disaointed in this and decided to take it back and exchange it for another 8500 Radeon video card. Guess what? Same problem. Hmmm, now I'm unsure what to do.

The computer is up and running albeit with a copy of Windows 2000 Professional instead of XP Pro as the XP Pro I ordered was backordered. When I called, they said it was already shipped and I would have it that same day (Friday). Well, the package arrived, but they screwed up and sent me XP Home instead! What a bummer and it's a long weekend too! Hence, I bit the bullet and installed my existing W2k Pro. I just installed Service Pack 3 and have got most things updated, i.e. drivers, etc. One additonal complication is the onboard AC97 sound is apparently kaput. No sound - though Windows reports all is fine, but if I cannot get it working, my options are getting them to ship me another motherboard, or add in a sound card . . . nothing wrong with this, but it irritates me for the motherboard to have a problem so soon. Hmmm, more as it develops.

John Beech

wcoxe1 wrote on 9/1/2002, 10:31 PM

At www.tvone.com they list two monitors (DVM-150X and DVMR-150X) which have actual IEEE-1394 Inputs, along with S-Video, etc.

Has anyone looked into those, yet?

After using my Sony 1354 Pro monitor, ordinary LCD Panels just turn me off. Their color is vivid, but not accurate. I have had no problems with multiple CRTs UNLESS they are two close to the Sony 1354. Then there is a little ripple on the CRT that touches the 1354, but no problems with the metal cased 1354.

Opinions on the DVM-150X?