Hi
I would like to build a multi-processor PC, but have never done anything
more fancy than installing a new DVD drive on my 3 yr old PC or replacing
its monitor.
Does anyone know where I can get info on building one or on comparing
performance with single processor units?
Well, you could check out
www.2cpu.com, they have a number of articles
up about dual-processor systems. A few basics to start off with:
You currently have the choice of three processors (as far as x86 goes
at least):
Intel Xeon (DP)
AMD AthlonMP
AMD Opteron
The Xeon is probably the most common, but fairly pricey at the
high-end. It's available at roughly 2.4GHz up to 3.2GHz. Cost about
$225 up to about $900 per processor, while motherboards costing about
$250 - $300 for most current workstation style boards.
The AthlonMP is a slightly outdated design, but it's definitely the
cheapest solution. They are available at model 2400+ up to 2800+,
costing about $125 - $200 per processor and motherboards being about
$200-$250.
The Opteron is the highest performance solution of the three for most
applications (though the Xeon will be faster in some), but they're
also kind of pricey. The chips will run you about $200 to $700 with
motherboards costing you $300 - $500 for a decent workstation board.
To go along with those dual processors you will also need a
dual-processor capable operating system. Win9x is, not surprisingly,
just not going to cut it. WinXP Home Edition also won't work. WinNT
4.0, Win2K, WinXP Pro or Win2003 Server are your only options in
Microsoft land. Outside of Microsoft world almost everything works.
Most distributions of Linux will work with multiple processor support
almost out of the box, and all can be made to work. Same goes for the
*BSDs any commercial Unix systems.
Is a simple network of old single processor PCs the equivalent of a new
multi-processor PC?
Definitely not, at least not for the vast majority of tasks.
Applications need to be specially designed to be split among multiple
systems across a network to see any benefit at all here. A VERY small
percentage of applications have been designed like that, but they are
most definitely the exception rather than the rule. Even for
multi-processor PCs you often need the application to be specially
designed to really see a large benefit, but a lot of applications are
setup like this.
Of course, the real benefit to using a multi-processor workstation is
that you have a second free processor to use while one chip is doing
it's thing. This tends to make the system much more responsive and
snappier. Where a single-processor might finish a single task just as
quickly as a dual-processor system, the computer could easily be very
sluggish while it's doing that task. With a dual-processor system,
even if a single task isn't any faster (some will be, some won't), the
computer is still very usable.
