Dual PIII Xeon machine. Worthwhile?

[cloasters]

If you have a limited budget, is something like dual 600 Mhz PIII Xeon's on a ~$300 Intel C440GX "Cypress" Server board worth the effort? It's my understanding that a Server rig is of little use as a hotrod gaming machine. Is this correct?

[flytek]

amd 760mpx is much faster but still has a slow agp bus and low memory bandwidth. methinks EPoX and Iwill make 166fsb versions and batons can probably be shoehorned on.

[CCW]

Few games are written to make use of a second processor even though that the ones that dont wioll use it but not much, you may want to stick with a single fast processor

[Royal Oaks]

You are correct. A dual processor system will not just double gaming performance, let alome even increase performance. The games are not coded for that sorta thing, and IIRC only one awesome game, BF1942, would actually improve with 2CPUs. Server stuff and apps like Photoshop would benefit greatly, especially if you pick up Xeon's with like 1MB L2 Cache

[SiGmA_X]

Royal Oaks - BF1942 doesn't touch the 2nd proc. I have dual monitors, and was running task manager in my 2nd and was watching it.. BF1942 was @ 50% the whole time. It does like my having a GB of RAM tho It used 300MB of vRAM and 300MB of real!

Photoshop has increased greatly for me, because now I can do all my stuff in PS7, and run a bunch of other apps at the same time, AND have 2 instances of F@H running with NO lag.

[CCW]

Quake 3 will make use of a SMP system, as will Unreal but only in server mode

[Royal Oaks]

Originally posted by SiGmA_X
Royal Oaks - BF1942 doesn't touch the 2nd proc. I have dual monitors, and was running task manager in my 2nd and was watching it.. BF1942 was @ 50% the whole time. It does like my having a GB of RAM tho It used 300MB of vRAM and 300MB of real!

Photoshop has increased greatly for me, because now I can do all my stuff in PS7, and run a bunch of other apps at the same time, AND have 2 instances of F@H running with NO lag.

Hmm, I coulda swore BF had support for it. I know it loves it some RAM though, believe me. You try and run BF with 256 and you will die :nervous:. In any case that last paragraph is pretty sweet. This is one of the main reasons I have been looking at a dually for my next rig. However, I don't think I am ready yet for that kind of thing, but maybe someday down the line. I just really wanna run F@H and be able to use my computer to its fullest capabilities with no slowdown. It's not like it sucks now when it's running, but I could definitely use the 2nd proc. Like I said maybe one day, those duallies look mighty tempting.

[SiGmA_X]

BF1942 Dedicated Server has SMP support, I think. But not the play-while-host version (Trust me on this )

Yeah, I love the PhotoShop ability. I run one instance of F@H and PhotoShop and a ****load of other stuff (Fireworks, EditPlus, Dreamweaver, Trillian, Kazaa Lite, MBM5, drivers, etc etc etc), and it runs flawlessly.. And PS7 runs smoothly and fast because it has a whole proc!

I wasn't really going to go dual until I decited to get a new mobo (KT266A was getting old ).. So I got a FIC AU11 (nForce2) until the Asus nForce2 got in stock locally. But that was $160, and the Duallie board (K7D) was only $182+SH so I said, screw it I'll pay $30 more for a duallie, and then I spent $45 on another XP1800+ and so for $75 (More then I was planning on because of the board change) I have a majorly upgraded comp Now I just need a nice PCI 66MHz/64Bit RAID 0 card.. Then I can hook up my 2x60GB's in a RAID 0, and then buy two Maxtor 120GB/8MB's and RAID 0 them as well! Talk about ubber fast..

[CCW]

Originally posted by SiGmA_X
Now I just need a nice PCI 66MHz/64Bit RAID 0 card.. Then I can hook up my 2x60GB's in a RAID 0, and then buy two Maxtor 120GB/8MB's and RAID 0 them as well! Talk about ubber fast..

For the money its gonna cost to do that, id go SCSI over IDE RAID.

Craig

[SiGmA_X]

How much will it cost for a simple RAID card? And the two drives can be had for $40 each (Gotta watch the rebates!)

I really need the space, and don't have thousands of dollars that I am willing to sink in to a SCSI RAID..

[CCW]

I didnt say SCSI RAID, i meant a single drive. Sorry if I implied SCSI RAID

Craig

[cloasters]

Originally posted by CCW
I didnt say SCSI RAID, i meant a single drive. Sorry if I implied SCSI RAID

Craig

It's said that SCSI is of little use if only one user is accessing the HDD. Once multiple user's enter the picture, SCSI is said to rule.

[CCW]

That is true but on the whole, the quick seek times make a difference.

Craig

[SiGmA_X]

Well, I am not really using it that much.. I just want the massive space.. I really need the 120GB's, and 240GB's would be used in full by this time next year.. So I am still thinking about the dual 120GB's in RAID.

Also, what would be best for a dedicated web server? 2x40GB (8MB cache) in RAID-0 and a 80GB/8MB for backup?

[CCW]

id go RAID 5 for a server. 3 x 20GBs would do the job well although its not much more for a 60GB

[flytek]

try two raptors in s-ata raid1. that way instead of having two dodgy 7200rpm drives waiting to take out your web page you will have the ability to hot swop a failed drive all the while your site will cruise happily in the background.

[cloasters]

The Raptors ain't cheap. Someone on the board showed their ATTO scores with RAID-ed Raptors. If I remember right, that is. O M G!