RE: Dual or Single CPU?

["Colin J. Raven" <cjraven ddf-lab com>]

OK, let me take a moment to clarify the "why" here, just so that you folks
know; "where I'm coming from" on this project. It's not a hobbyist's dream
(well, I guess it is in a way) but has more serious overtones.......

This is a "proof of concept" exercise that I have undertaken on behalf of my
company. I gave up smoking, so I decided to buy myself a present using the
equivalent amount 'o cash that I would have seen go up in smoke and do the
project as a personal learning exercise.

I too wondered about the single/dual cpu question. In truth I always wanted
to see what a dual cpu  fire breathing monster would feel like...(yeah, I
know...F.A.S.T) so in ths case it was a real dilemma believe me. It was
exactly as you wrote...one top 'o the line cpu...or two? I punked out when
the dollars climbed, and although I *could* have squeezed just a little more
into this project, I was shellshocked enough to call it quits. Essentially I
figured that I probably needed more memory as opposed to CPU cycles, since
this machine will probably never see a graphics program, and I am unlikely
to be cruching 1 million record database queries.

So, I'm interested in this thread too. It's not too late to change to a dual
cpu config if there is a consensus that *that* setup would deliver a
"better" result. (The VMWare/Win side will be doing significant Access small
database work, so maybe there really is a clock cycle issue here, but I
thought that a Xeon chip would have the architecture [stamina? "Right
Stuff"?] to do the job. The darned machine will take up to 2GB of RAM as
well as a second CPU, so my options going forward are fairly wide open I
think.

This was just for clarification, that's all.

Regards to all, and thanks for the many suggestions that have flowed this
way so far...and my guess is that we're far from finished yet.

-Colin
--
Colin J. Raven

>-----Original Message-----
>From: redhat-install-list-admin redhat com
>[mailto:redhat-install-list-admin redhat com]On Behalf Of Rob Toner
>Sent: Friday, October 27, 2000 11:14 AM
>To: redhat-install-list redhat com
>Subject: Re: Dual or Single CPU?
>
>
>"C. Bryan Young" wrote:
>
>> This is sort of related to Colin's earlier post -- regarding the
>specs for
>> his new workstation.  I'm just curious whether -- for the same
>price -- it
>> is better to get 1 top-of-the-line cpu (in his case a 933MHz Xeon) or 2
>> lesser cpus (say, PIII 800 MHz).
>>
>> I know this depends on intended application.  Let's say one wanted to run
>> dual OS's using VMWare.  I would tend to think that dual cpu's would be
>> better, but don't know enough about smp -- especially in Linux -- to know
>> for sure.
>>
>> Any thoughts?  I'm just curious -- want to learn more about smp in Linux.
>>
>> --Bryan
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Jeff Lane [mailto:jlane redhat com]
>> Sent: Friday, October 27, 2000 9:23 AM
>> To: redhat-install-list redhat com
>> Subject: RE: RedHat 7.0 and Matrox G400 compatibility
>>
>> On Fri, 27 Oct 2000, Colin J. Raven wrote:
>>
>> > Anyone from RedHat care to comment on this one?
>> > There's a $5500 workstation on hold until we can successfully
>resolve this
>> > issue.
>> > Regards,
>> > -Colin
>>
>> Hey... read my other posts... <grin>
>>
>> I have the Precision 420 here wiht the 32 MEg G400.  the original mga
>> driver didnt work too well with the card.  I was forced to use X
>> 3.3.6.  there is a new driver
>> http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/drivers/files/linux_03.cfm here!!
>>
>> I found it!!!
>>
>> from the matrox site:
>> This driver is based on the open source development being done within the
>> XFree86 Project. The driver remains unmodified, with the exception of the
>> display adapter initialization, which has been replaced with a closed
>> source Matrox library. This special library enables features such as
>> DualHead, TV out, and support for digital flat panel monitors.
>>
>> The readme included instructions for gettiung DRI and multihead
>working as
>> well.
>>
>> I feel much better now that i have found htat driver again.
>>
>> cheers
>>
>>  --
>> (-0-)  (-0-)  (-0-)  <-0->  (-0-)  (-0-)  (-0-)
>> Jeffrey D Lane
>> Geek, Star Wars Fanatic, and collector of
>> obselete technologies.
>>
>> 2600 Meridian Parkway   (919) 547-0012x168
>> Durham, NC 27713        (888) REDHAT1x168
>>
>> "I propose that every city have a telephone
>> number 119 -- for dyslexics> who have an
>> emergency." -George W. Bush
>> (-0-)  (-0-)  (-0-)  <-0->  (-0-)  (-0-)  (-0-)
>>
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>
>If you go with dual, lets say two 500 you get almost the same as
>one 1gig.  Of
>course the price is a little cheaper.  The main thing is you get
>smp.  VMWare
>you take a large hit on performance, but if you must, then go for it.  It
>really depends on the app that your running.  RH supports SMP but
>if the app
>doesn't then there isn't any gain (for that app).
>
>
>
>
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