Dual Processor ?

[Robur]

Hi folks,

It's coming time for a new workstation.... I'm running on AMD X2 with 2Gb of ram and XP Pro..... so I have no experience of Dual Processors or 64 bit..... what's the experience out there.... ?

XP Pro32 bit or 64bit?
1 Quad core or 2 lesser CPU's ?
AMD or Intel?
Presumably stay away from Vista?
Which MoBo for dual CPU's?
Open GL graphics card worth it?

Aiming for supper quiet.
I don't play games so only concerned with AutoCad, MAX, Vray, PS etc

Thanks in advance.

[aphex79]

My new machine is a Intel Core 2 Extreme (QX6700), 4gig RAM, and 8800GTX videocard. running xp64.. Very happy and satisfied with that setup

[Robur]

Thanks aphex,

Which motherboard is it on..... & how much money did it take

[aphex79]

msi p965 platinum.. i don't remember the exact price, but as i am in Norway, the price is bit higher than other countries..

[ene.xis]

i ve just purchased an intel Q6600 4g of ram and an Ati 1950pro on an 975bx2 intel board and i luve it!

[DaForce]

Im looking at going quad soon. I hear they get awefully hot tho.
I.e. Even with after market coolers, and a modest overclock they reach 70c under load.

I would however recommend the Asus P5B-E if you plan on overclocking, great little performance board right there

[ene.xis]

yeahh...as i m not having the time to overclock it...i ve decided to go stable...and i ve also learned to hate asus...

[teabag]

got ASUS Commando and i love to bits.....great for overclocking....running Core 2 Duo E6400@ 3.2Ghz per core ...with some coolers on the memory as well......processor heats up to 55 celsius the most...hev to play some top notch game to reach that temperature though....and the room is not airconditioned so i guess in normal conditions it would not exceed 50 C.

[jujubee]

It will be very interesting to see if AMD recaptures their market with the Phenom (formerly Barcelona) "true" quads to be released in late June or July. The other thing will be that the price for either the Intels or the AMDs will drop significantly.

If you have a month or two to wait - I would do it. I'm going to.

[Robur]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the input.... looks like everyone is going for single (multicore) CPU's ... I havn't quite decided what to do yet, apart from wait for the price drop . In the meantime I had to build a new box for a friend in a hurry.... E6600, Asus P5B deluxe, 2 Gb DDR2, 3 x WD Raptors (1 system and 2 mirror raid for data), nice ali box, Antec Phantom 500 PSU, ATI FireGL V3300, Vista Ultimate, 2 x DVD, 1 X Floppy , Mouse, KB, CPU & VGA coolers..... not bad for £1060 (ex VAT).... time will tell how well it kicks.... my only disapointment so far is the Western Digital SATA 160Gb Raptor Hard Drive is very loud !!!!

Cheers.

[DaForce]

Looks like a nice machine, althought I wouldnt have bothered with the firegl, a gaming card would have been better probably.. anyway..
Yeah raptors are abit noisy when they get to work
And 3 of them.. eek.

[teabag]

Robur:

forget about vista ultimate....i had a copy of it on my new machine but could not make the vray install AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
not to mention that it will take u ages to make some app simply run normally.

...also....did u know that the newer versions of E6400-6600 are somewhat locked to overclocking? i think that intel finally realized theyre loosing huge profits by selling cpus that can be overclocked as much to beat the extreme version ......not sure which version of cpzu u have though

[DaForce]

Most of the non extreme intel cpu range have locked multiplyers. So you just overclock via FSB.

My mate has a E6420, overclocked to 3.6ghz stable. So nyah nyah stick that intel

[teabag]

hello daforce.....your eright about the non extreme intels, but the most recent version of non extreme intels is locked!!! just found that out with a friend of mine....u can only overclock it by 10 percent as it used to be with athlons

[DaForce]

really

surely not... hopefully not.
Just bought a E6420 for the purpose of overclocking!!

I would be veeeeeeeeeeeeeery suprised if it were true. VERY