uni or dual processor

Hi all

I thougt I might skip the dualie this time and go for a uni AMD shuttle- system. do someone have any opinions on one vs two proc? I´m just so tired of the big case. and the small ones look so cute. The one thing I realy wondering; is the heatpipe reliable?

pleace help me out whith the pros and cons

/Daniel

For modeling 1 proc is probably enough if you have a decent video card, for rendering though a dualie pulls way ahead, As far as the heat pipe from what I have read the heat pipes are pretty efficient. In the end I would go for raw power over cuteness but that is just me :smile:

Well, when you’re tired of waiting those renderings to be completed late night, the small shuttle is easier to throw away trough the window…
I would definetly go for a dual, mainly if I’m using more than one program at a time.
You can also let it rendering at one processor and use the other to watch a dvd :wink: :wink:
It’s better than just waiting…
My two Cents,
Joao.

if you have the budget go for the Dual AMD

really kicks butt. :x

I have a DUAL AMD 2000+
never regreted the purchace

cheers,
markie

Dual procs make sense for anything that is multithreated. Not all multi-threaded apps are the same. For example, 3d studio is only multi-threated with rendering. A lot of rendering prep stuff, such as shadow calcs are not multi threated…

BUT, Vray is EXTREEMLY multithreated. So is Mental Ray…

Bascially, when rendering you get about a 60% speed advantage in max, and about a 95% advantage in Vray… this is based on my experience…

Think about what your computer will be doing… if you are rendering in Vray, I would get dual… P4’s with hyperthreading will give you an even bigger advantage in Vray.

Not in all points true. OpenGL supports Multi Processor support. Even Max supports two prozessors in some tasks (well not much). So the viewport will become a little faster. Anyhow because Max use a lot of memory it is more importend to go far a machine which use a fast Ram.

Hyper Threasing (currently only with XEONs) brings about 7% more speed with Vray. But it really improves working with multible application.

Workstation: Go for P4 or Xeon. Get a good OpenGL card (no DirectX card) and look for fast memory.

Renderstation: Go for AMD (cheap)

regards,

robert

Hyper Threasing (currently only with XEONs) brings about 7% more speed with Vray. But it really improves working with multible application.

HyperThreading is NOT ONLY on XEONs.
I have a P4 3.06Ghz (running at 3.4Ghz) HyperThread and this is NOT a XEON.

Some other P4 are also HT processors, but Intel doesnt sell those processors as HT procs.

The only way to know if a P4 supports HyperThreading is to know what core rev it is : if it is a revision C1 then it is a P4 HT.

Well in the future all P4 will be HT. But currently there are only some. I think the centrion technology is far more interesting. I have 1.3 Ghz Centrion notebook, that is fast like a 1.8 Ghz AMD.

robert

ok thank you.

I will consider your thoughts.

/Daniel

If you realy want the smaller form factor get the P4 shuttle with HT that would end up preforming better than the AMD. I just finished building one for a relative and it rocks with a P4.

just another thought to drive you mad :lol:

-dave

Centrion? Whats that 3dform? Can you provide a link with more info on that? You made me curious :slight_smile:

I think 3dform was talking about the new mobile processor from Intel : CENTRINO :lol:

how do I know if it is a revision C1

download CPU-Z : http://www.cpuid.com/

launch it, then you will have a lot of infos on your system and of course what revision is your CPU.

N6, do you know how to enable HT on <3.06? as far as I know it has only happened by chance a few times.

1) make sure your CPU is a rev C1.

2) make sure your motherboard supports HT (maybe it would requires a bios update), then enable HT in your bios.

3) If you are running Windows 2000 you MUST REINSTALL because multi cpu or HyperThread are detected during its install.
(there is an other solution but it is much more complex and not very safe)

If you are running Windows XP then simply start a new install process, XP will try to find for existing install and will ask you if you want to REPAIR it.
That is the option you must choose.

4) to check that everything is OK (and hyperthreded :lol: ) launch the task manager (ctrl+alt+dell) and you should see 2 differents graph for each logical CPU.

I must add that OK, HT or muti thread are very cool BUT overclocking is also very interesting.

I run 3 PCs and they are all oveclocked and still rock stable :

PC1 = P4 A 2 @ 2.7Ghz (Intel fan)

PC2 =P4 A 1.6 @ 2.9Ghz (water cooled)

PC3 = P4 HT 3.06 @ 3.35 (Intel fan) but this ones should run up to 3.8Ghz with a better power supplie.

If I don’t overclock my PCs then I would get 2+1.6+3.06=6.66Ghz
Since I overclock all of my PCs : 2.7+2.9+3.8=9.4Ghz 8) much better :mrgreen:

OK. I desided to go for a litle shuttle. I know that it´s half of what I can get, but I´m more in to modeling and animate, or at least that´s what I´m going to do for a time now. Allso I´m realy gettin pissed by the design of the towers and I´m forced to keep the pc at home as I had an inbrake in my studio and all the junkies know were to get the goods.

So, thankyou for the advise, and keep up the hardwareknoledge.

/Daniel

ps: I allso have a 2.2ghz inspiron to plugg in and a renderfarm of about 30 good workstations 15 minutes away