I'm buildin a new computer soon, and my original plan was to get an Asus A7M266 Motherboard and an Athlon XP 1800+ . I then heard about the dual version of this motherboard, the A7M266-D I've heard good things about this motherboard and I was considering buying it. Small problem...I cant afford two processors at the moment. Does anyone know, if I was to buy this motherboard, would it work ok with a single athlon mp? as my plan would be to add the second cpu at a later stage. oh yeh, another question: will a dual MP system be any good in terms of performance? ive been hearing off one or two of my friends that its just a waste of money. They say that one cpu will just sit there redundant while the other does all the work. -=sid=-
it depends (afaik). i think that programs have to be written to use two CPUs to use them both, else just the one will do all the work. however i may be wrong! also i think that you'll need two CPUs to get it to boot. if im wrong then someone shout at me and put me straight
Sid you need an OS that can deal with dual cpu's for example NT/2k/XPpro (Im not sure but i think home XP doesn't support dual cpus, pls correct me if Im wrong), unix and linux. Win 9x/Me doesnt use dual cpus you can boot but the other processor will sit there doing nothing. If you use it for games, then you will be better off with a better gfx card, as performance is only slightly better and in some cases worse. But If you do number crunching or graphics work ie cad rendering then dual cpus will help. But you have to understand that the programmes have to be written to multi-thread on dual cpus. Soz cant help you on the mobo question.
thats not a problem cos ive already got win 2k pro and xp pro, one of which id be using woohoo! ive just been doing sum reading at the asus website i hav found out that u can run it with a single cpu http://www.asus.com/mb/socketa/a7m266-d/overview.htm i think im just gonna buy that motherboard then, and ill stick a single athlon mp in for just now, then once MPs go cheap, ill buy another. hehe. i cant wait! i just need to save back some of the money that i spent out of my "computer fund" cheers for the help guys
/me is always right hehe i just found out a terrible nasty horrible thing about the board tho: there is a compatibility problem between the board and usb 1.1 therefore there are no usb ports on the board or no usb connectors, which means the usb ports on my case are usless asus have supplied a 4-port 2.0 usb pci card with the board which is pretty good, but still, i want my damn case usb working. and the pci card will use up a precious pci slot. dear oh dear. what am i gonna do? does anyone know any other decent dual athlon motherboards?
i dont know if it will help, but i remember reading that XP CPU's will work in a dulie setup as MP's do, imnot sure if there is a price point, so you should check into it
i dont think xp's do work on dulie sytems, as in multiprocessing goes! thats why the mps are so expensive, cuz they have to have different instruction sets and registers and crap
the xp's do work in dual and yes, they are cheaper than mp's. but mp's are designed to work in dual so the performance will be better than dual xp. pitty about the extra $$$ tho! athlon mp 1800+ £191.66 (Komplett.co.uk) athlon xp 1800+ £113.47 (Komplett.co.uk) dear oh dear. does anyone know any good money making schemes? (apart from flogging copied versions of windows xp to school kids or selling coke) come on, i need the money, life's so hard for us poor 15 year olds!
sid, dually setup have often been tested benchmarked and watnot....now of the top of my head only photoshop and some 3d rendering programs are written to use dual setups, so unless ure definatly gonna be doing that dont buy a dually setup.....secondly if u look at benchmarks if you were to get a nice kt333 setup that should kick a$$ of the dually setup.....just think about it, unless ur doing hardcore graphics u dont actually need it..... just saved u loads of money.... this coming from me who has the dual 500 server setup
its a bit like the dual Pentium Pro systems from a few years back, sound great but a complete waste of cash unless u r running a server
hehe, i always had my suspisions about it being a complete waste of money, but i kinda just liked the sound of it i think ill just invest in gettin me a 15000rpm seagate scsi hdd. cheers for the help guys
From what I have heard the ASUS Dual will cope with XP rather than MP's. Aparenty there is no difference between the MP's and XP's just that the MP's are tested in a dual processor system to make sure that they work. Aparently you can modify a XP to register as an MP aswell but all romours I have heard. With regards to Quake, I heard that there are a few games coming out that are built on the quake engine, and hence have support for the Dual Processors! So might be worth it!!!! :+)
The Epox M762A is touted as being able to handle dual XP's ... defo gonna be my next mobo Cheers, JtF
OK, lets clear this up. The only difference between XPs and MPs is that AMD say they're different, cos they test MPs in dual configs b4 shipment. This apparently justifies the extra cost. XPs will work in dual config, on almost any MP/X board (the Tyan Thunder is the only board I haven't heard specific success stories about) with no performance loss. Just dont expect after sales support. Using dual boards with a single chip will work, although you may need a 'dummy' chip for some. Which should come with the board anyway. There's no point buying a dual setup unless you're doing serious number crunching, graphics etc.
