Announcement

**Darthtanion** · 01-26-2002, 08:51 PM

The only real difference between the MP processors and the XP ones are that AMD has officially tested all SMP processes and guarantees that they are fully compatible in a multi-processor environment. The newer MP processors even use the same manufacturing process as the AthlonXP.

Though not a guarantee, it is more than likely that you can run XP processors in a dual processor motherboard without any issues at all. Hell, you can even run Durons in there if the board will support the lower FSB speeds.

As to which board to get, that's up to you. There are very few choices at the current time, but I have heard of a couple of new chipsets getting ready to blossom that will support dual processors.

Something else to consider is whether or not there will even be any programs that actually use the SMP functions. While dual processors may give you some bragging rights (or your customers), they are useless unless you have programs that actually make use of it.

**Wiggo** · 01-26-2002, 08:59 PM

MSI and Abit are sellin' MPX motherboards now, but to their availability I can't say, and a couple of places have said that about 1 in 10 Athlons and Durons (all types except MP's) may have issues in a dually setup varying from slight errata probs to just not workin', so there's only about a 10% chance that you'll pick up a pair that won't work together. :smokin:
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**aznx** · 01-26-2002, 10:24 PM

umm, in around 2 months, a mp 2200+ will probably be out and the g4 out. so if you get those 2 plus a good mpx motherboard, you should be set. keep in mind that you can still o/c those to around 2ghz, if you really wanted the speed. 3dmax and plenty of programs support multi-processor rendering

**JediAgent** · 01-27-2002, 12:59 AM

I did some more research and found Asus now has the A7M266-D out. The A7M266 was a good 760 board, right? I was thinking about that, but as of yet i haven't consulted pricewatch. I will look into MSI offerings, as for Abit, they have no info on their site, and even thou i saw a prototype at COMDEX myself - I dont think it will be out for a while. And even thou i love Abit myself - i don't want to pay the premium for o/cing stability. In this situation, not every ounce of performance needs to be sucked out of the system in order for it to be what it needs to be.

There will probably b no o/cing here - even thou i WANT TO! This client is more likely use the AMD numbers.

He's already got MP rendering progs. So...

... my only question left is price.

**Wiggo** · 01-27-2002, 03:46 AM

I forgot about the Asus board, but Epox is also supose to release their version soon too. I'll see if I can find that stuff on the Abit found again (I do remember that it was one of the Japanese sites so that will help). ;)
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**Orestis** · 02-09-2002, 05:04 AM

Well, MSI,ASUS and TYAN have officially released their products, I've yet to see something in ABIT's site. The MPX chipset is supposed to be a bit better than the MP. There are two issues, though:

1) XP processors will probably not work on the MPX...This isn't 100% sure, but the rumors say so.
2) There is an issue with the USB controller of the MPX...The mobo manufacturers have bypassed this by releasing the boards along with a PCI USB2.0 card. If you don't like that, perhaps you should wait for the issue to be resolved.
3) Availability? In Greece, at least, the motherboards have not yet showed up...Nor have the MP processors, as far as I know.
4) SMP: Well, major rendering programs should have support for SMP....You should verify that before getting an SMP box. However, there are other things in which an SMP can help (e.g. running a process on one processor, while the other does something else).

**Wiggo** · 02-09-2002, 07:23 AM

Actually there are a few reviews up on the web where all flavours of Athlon & Duron CPU's have been sucessfully used on the Asus and MSI boards. :smokin:
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**MySTiCuSS** · 02-09-2002, 11:32 AM

Just give it a try that's all i have to say!

**JediAgent** · 02-09-2002, 05:43 PM

Well if i do try it, you know the numbers will be posted here the next day. Im hoping for 11K in 3dmark with two XP2000+

Thats if the XP's will work in the MPX board. I know its not an AMD encouraged thing, but...

**Wiggo** · 02-09-2002, 06:50 PM

Don't expect to see any rise in benchmarks as you will be disappointed the main reason for a dually setup is to be able to run more programs at the one time to take the load of a single processor and the memory timings are less agressive with dually boards so that stability is the main factor. If you want a fast system running only a few programs stick with a single setup. :smokin:
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**Orestis** · 02-10-2002, 04:29 AM

I guess you know that you have to use an SMP aware OS, in order to use both CPUs, such as windows 2000, XP professional or Linux/BSD...

If you want to see high scores due to SMP. the benchmarks must be SMP aware, or they'll just run on one CPU.... If you're planning on using multithreaded apps, then SMP is the answer.

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