Dual system or not

[old.Mikey]

I'm still thinking of getting a dual processor system. I'm running Windows NT 4 etc. with :

Office 97
IE 5
Photoshop
and other stuff

Current rig is

C300A @ 450
64MB RAM


suggestions...


Mikey out!!

------------------
Music is the answer!!
Danny Howells in Southampton on 4th March!!

C ya there!!

See ya on the dance floor!

Roll on Homelands!!

 

[old.TheGuyver]

Suggestions?? lol.

well what are u intending on running on this?

I have a Dual P2400 Xeon (1mb cache on each chip) a Quad board with 384mb ECC Dimms 4 x 9GB LVD 10,000 RPM drives FDD and CD Rom.

But then again i prefer linux, cause i do development on it.

Anyways dunno if u interested but that server IS for sale! only asking 2k for it.

 

[DApea!]

Mikey, get another 64mb first.

Then u need to get a dual board if u aint got 1.

But after all that to get both CPU's working in NT u gotta re-install it.

And thats if you have the Multiprocessor version.

There is a thing called UPTOMP.exe (Up to Multiprocessor) to convert the nt Kernel whilst still installed, but if fucked my machine up royaly, and iv yet to see somone do it successfully either, hey TUG u got it to work b4?

SO, get another 64mb, and maybe just think abt getting another CPU unless u have the dual board of course..
But trust me NT aint that great with 2CPU's, only Linux works better enuff to think abt getting a 2nd.

 

[Guest]

I'd go for more memory (256M), and a faster processor. That will *really* make a difference.

I'll second the opinion about UTOMP, I've never seen it work, and I've tried quite a few times!

 

[DApea!]

Yeh we could all say get this get that etc, but ppl dont have the money, or at least i dont.

What i meant is 128 is super, its all i have for my server and my main machine, virtual memory does the rest, and in NT it does it bloody well too.

256 is great yeah, but u dont really need it for the money.

 

[Guest]

I see your point, but you weren't the one asking!

If there's money there for dual processors and a new motherboard, there's enough for extra memory and a CPU upgrade.

128mb is fine, but 256mb is better, especially as a serious application like Photoshop is being used (God that must be awful with 64mb!).

 

[DApea!]

Theres no need.

Unless your running MS's newest Hell Spawn.


Did you ever have 640k of RAM on a PC btw ?

I can remember it well.

 

[old.Stuart_Granger]

To the original poster Mikey ... there really isn't any point of a Dual Processor system unless you are going to be putting serious data through it ... for example ... running a web-server on a 256+Kbps line. Going to run multiple programs at the same time ... i.e. MS SoftImage 3D, Visual Basic, C++ and all the other programs used in software and "cartoon" development

Why don't you use the £700 for the board and two processors, to buy a good Athlon and board at the end of the month when the prices come down. Plus get a nice 64Mb ATI Rage MAXX Graphics Card and 1 stick of 64Mb and 1 stick of 128Mb RAM? It'll run those programs you mentioned and some more ... plus game playing (if you get Home Highway or ADSL when it comes out) will be as smooth a silk. The above hardware is what I have and I run a design & hosting company

Speak to you soon.

With thanks

Stuart_Granger

 

[old.Stuart_Granger]

DAPea! Back in the days of the first personal computer ... the ZX81 was the first computer I used ... someone sold it to me for £150 ... a lot of money in them days. Then I upgraded to a Commodore Vic 20 - 20kb memory, then Commodore 64 - 64kb memory.

Then the Atari ST came out, bought one of the first 512kb memory. Then upgraded to the Atari STE and then Atari Falcon. Then bought my first PC a 486 SX 25 with 4Mb RAM, then I upgraded it to P133 with 32Mb RAM.

Sold that to my father for £300 and built a 300Mhz system with 128Mb RAM.

Now I have a nice Athlon 600Mhz, 256Mb RAM.

Speak to you soon.

With thanks

Stuart_Granger

 

[old.TUG]

Yea, cheap dual system ->

2xC366@550-580 = 138
1xAbit BP6 = 100
2xGlobalwin CPM32 coolers = 30

hows dat?

Dont use NT meself... never needed it

 

[DApea!]

I tried to aviod somone saying what you said (Stuart) by saying:

Did you ever have 640k of RAM on a PC btw ?

PC.. see, and you obviously didnt, you had 4mb.

What i meant is WTF happened why do we need bloody 128mb of RAM!!! OMG.

When i did have 4mb my mate spent 300 quid getting 12mb and i thought that was absolutley ridiculous at the time, 12 meg, what the F£($ would need that much ?

Well there u go, silly MS and stuff.

 

[old.Stuart_Granger]

Whatever ... its rather getting off topic now.

With thanks

Stuart_Granger

 

[old.conform]

i'm a software developer in RL (and a q3 mod developer in... ah... not-so-RL) and i have to tell you that a dual processor system is heavenly. it's not going to make much difference for gaming (unless you're running q3 at 640x480, but everyday operations become much more responsive. it becomes much easier to run a lot of programs without bogging things down.

two other things: first off, nt/2000 is so much better than 98 that it's not even funny, and those of you who spend any amount of time at all on your computer owe it to yourself to try a real, stable operating system (linux is fine, too, if you've got the patience to wade through a huge learning curve). i really really like win2000. of course it's easier for me because we have a MSDN subscription here at work and get all MS business software as soon as it comes out. but it's worth trying if you can find it.

second, another thing which must be seen to be appreciated is the effect of a faster hard drive. now most of us can't afford a 10,000 RPM scsi-2 UW drive, but a 7200 RPM ata-66 drive is noticeably faster than any 5400 RPM drive out there. hard drives are IMHO a good cost effective upgrade for most any computer -- here in the states you're talking maybe $10/GB in the 15-20 GB size range. the benefits manifest themselves in more responsive application load times, faster level load times in FPS games (i'm nearly always the first playing into a q3 level, usually by 5-10 seconds, which is a pretty nice advantage, etc.

sorry for the rant...

-- conform

 

[DApea!]

Nice to see a normal American here for a change

We only get the weirdos usually

 

[old.Mikey]

I'll get some RAM first as it's cheap again

192MB


Then I'll re-evaluate this again.


Mikey out!!

------------------
Music is the answer!!
Danny Howells in Southampton on 4th March!!

C ya there!!

See ya on the dance floor!

Roll on Homelands!!