Re: [PLUG] Hardware question

[Paul <paul@dpagin.net>]

Forge wrote:

> > Doesn't a dual CPU system require twice the amount of RAM?
>
> No, not at all.


Really?  So two CPUs share the same RAM?  If both are working under the 
same load, will they split their memory use in half?  In other words, if 
you have 512MB of RAM, will each CPU only have 256MB to work with?  (Not 
that that isn't a good amount of RAM.)

> > The single 2GHz system would have better hardware features such as 
> > AGP 4 or 8x, higher memory speed and capacity, USB 2.0, the ability 
> > to go beyond 2GHz, etc..
>
> AGP 4X/8X = does nothing. His dual P3 would most likely have AGP4X, 
> and especially in Linux, AGP8X is more of a PITA than anything else, 
> at the moment. 


The PC in question is a PII, not a PIII.  There should be a noticable 
difference between a PII and the P4 or Athlon in question.

> Greater memory speeds and higher max memory would probably help more 
> than anything else, for sound editing, that's true, but USB2 again 
> falls into the 'does nothing' category, as USB2 peripherals are very 
> few and far between, and USB devices have typically lagged a bit on 
> Linux support. USB2 isn't exactly useless, but it's not really 
> anything I see anyone making hardware picks around, either, especially 
> when USB2 PCI cards can be had for ~20$.
>
> > Now, if you could get a dual 2GHz system, that would kick butt!  How 
> > about a dual AMD 64-bit Opteron setup?!
>
>
> Yes, and it'd certainly cost more than the dual 1GHz he's looking at.
>
> Kinda defeats the purpose. 


That's one of my implied points.  Unless you want to spend a lot of 
cash, the single CPU system is the way to go.  Plus you don't need to 
think about SMP software issues.

> Sorry to jump all over what you said, but I'm a big time hardware 
> guru, and I just couldn't let it slide.


That's fine.  Consider this hardware feature: Built-in ATA133 drive 
contollers, maybe with RAID.  Drive speed always being a bottleneck, the 
faster drives and striping could make the system more responsive. 
Again, you could add a card for that, but that increases complexity and 
reduces slot availability.


_________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group        --       http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.netisland.net/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.netisland.net/mailman/listinfo/plug