anyone use dual processors?

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spacedye

spacedye

Vest
hello everyone,
2 questions here-
1- does anyone use dual processors. if so, which ones and on what motherboard?
2-does anyone have nice words to say about the delta 1010?

i want to start recording using midi and dont have midi inputs. i am using a delta 66 /omnistudio and sonar xl on WinMe,
40Gb (7200), 256 ram, and a 700 mhz. its working , but i am getting dropouts sometimes .
i find it annoying to have to quit programs to avoid dropouts. thats why i am considering the dual processors.
opinions please?

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/spacedye_music.htm
 
Do you currently have a dual processor motherboard? or are you looking at purchasing it and the 2 processors? If you are looking to purchase it, I would probably just spend the money on a better MB and 1 high end processor (probably athlon XP or pentium 4). I dont think most programs can utilize dual processors. I dont know about sonar.

ME is a testy OS, you might be having problems as a result of you OS.
 
Very few programs take advantage of dual processors. the gain is usually less then you would get with a single faster processor.

One P4 1.2 GHZ would be as good or better than two 1 ghz.
 
I currently have a dual AMD 1600+ system running on the Tyan Tiger MP motherboard with a delta 1010. The system is pretty damn fast.

I use Nuendo which I believe is one of the few Audio apps that can take advantage of dual cpus.

I bought the dual CPUs primarily for film/video editing though so YMMV.
 
Yep, running 2 dual pc's over here. One is an aging dual PII/300 on a P2L97-DS (look at antique shop), the new one a dual AMD on Tyan S2460. The main difference of a dual is that it can be difficult to set up, but once running it is very "smooth", certainly if you got loads of ram. You are also limited to using NT, W2K pro or XP pro or Linux, think about that if you are looking for hardware/drivers/applications.

Not all programs make use of both cpu's, but more and more do. Sonar, nuendo and cubase (check that one, not sure) do. The thing is, even if you do not use both, other applications can make use of it. I have run Sonar demo on this one and it is very good but as always YMMV.

Now, the dual amd has a lot of issues like some hardware and software don't like it. Also pci bandwith is lower than intel. Intel is more expensive. Also you cannot use PIV in dual. You are limited to PIII or have to go with Xeon (if you can afford it, super!).
 
All DX plugins run in seperate threads and will be divied up between multiple processors by NT. Software can be optimized for multiple processors, but software doesn't have to be written with multiple processors in mind to take advantage of multiple processors. The only time having multiple processors would not improve performance (in theory) is if you ran only one application at any given time, and that application ran as a single thread. That's not very common.

There haven't been enough clear cut experiments with multiple processors in the audio realm. My gut tells me that you could notice a dramatic improvement in the number of simultaneous DX effects that could be processed, but whether the performance would be more cost effective than a single fast processor is hard to say...and my gut tells me 'no way'. My gut also tells me that it could be a considerable headache getting a multi-processor system running & stable for audio. My gut also tells me "no more mountain dew."

Slackmaster 2000
 
thanks for the replys. very informative.
i think i am turned off by the dual processor idea now. actually, i figure im going to have to buy both a motherboard and processor, so i'll just look into getting a nice jumperless motherboard that supports my ATX case and my pc100 ram so i dont have to buy new things like that.
i may go with a tyan trinity i845 motherboard and a 1.7ghz.
anybody using this?
 
You're going to need PC133 for that. Also, since you're talking about a P4 you might have to get a P4-approved 300W+ power supply to get the sucker running with optimal stability. ($20-40)

Almost all motherboards will be ATX these days, and most will be jumperless.

Good luck to ya!

Slackmaster 2000
 
spacedye said:
i'll just look into getting a nice jumperless motherboard that supports my ATX case and my pc100 ram so i dont have to buy new things like that.
Click to expand...

I think you'd be doing yourself a favor and laying down the money for something with ddr sdram. If you don't, you'll be limited to P3 processors. Plus, DDR offers almost double the memory bandwidth. I'm in the same boat you are, with an aging Abit BP6 mobo with two 550mhz Celerons and 384MB of pc100 ram. When you do your upgrades, go as big as you can afford, because it's gonna be obsolete soon.

I'm looking at the Gigabyte GA-7DXR+ mobo (uses AMD North Bridge chipset) and an Athlon XP 1800.
 
You are not limited to the P3 if you don't go DDR. DDR is not to my knowledge being developed by Intel, who is focusing on RDRAM.

The i845 Intel chipset is designed for a Pentium 4 on a 133Mhz FSB (SDR).

DDR can provide a 5-10% performance increase, but on an Intel platform it would be best to purchase an Intel chipset (either SDRAM or RDRAM) over DDR or SDR on VIA. If you go the AMD route, then DDR becomes a worthwhile option.

Slackmaster 2000
 
Slack,
im going shopping this weekend. what do you reccommend i buy.
i currently am using ASUS P3BF motherboard, 700mhz pentiumIII processor (thats the maximum it can accept...),
pc100 256mb kingston ram (2-128's), 40Gb 7200 rpm western digital hard drive, delta66 soundcard (w/omnistudio), Nvidia GForce2 video card, macronix ethernet card, and an SBLive value card.
I plan on getting the delta 1010 and selling the omnistudio/delta 66 package and removing the SBLive.
i want to, if i can, keep the kingston memory, 40 Gb hard drive, GForce2 and the ethernet card.
a few suggetions for a motherboard/processor would be greatly appreciated.
thank you!!
 
also, i have no idea what you were talking about in your last post as far as DDR,
what is DDR?
 
DDR = Double Data Rate
SDR = Single Data Rate

...or something to that effect. In a DDR system, memory takes advantage of both sides of a clock tick to effectively offer twice the bandwidth. DDR is sort of new in the system memory realm, but has been used on high end gaming video cards for some time. It's faster, and that's all you need to know. The benchmarks I've seen seem to show about 5-10% performance increase over a wide range of application.

I can't really tell you what motherboard to get because there are too many variables.

Just last night I put together a new system for my daughter using an Asus TUSL-C and a 900Mhz Celeron processor. It was by and far one of the most uneventful and simple builds I've ever done, which is a *good* thing :) The TUSL-C is an i815 based PIII board that will take a PIII to 1.2Ghz+. Why did I buy such old technology? Well, the Celeron only cost me $50 and I wanted to put it on a board that would just *work right*. Now since you've already got a PIII 700 and have outgrown it, you're going be looking at an Athlon/Duron or P4 system...and good luck to you. A couple boards to avoid: *any* Intel-made motherboard sucks, especially the i845 boards, and the Asus A7V133 is one of the worst Athlon/Duron boards I've ever used. Other than that, you're kind of on your own :( BTW, whey I say Intel-made board, I mean Intel brand motherboards, not motherboards based on Intel chipsets.

Since you're getting the Delta1010, you should get a list of compatible motherboards from Midiman. I know somebody here posted something like that just recently here...

Slackmaster 2000
 
BTW, you mentioned having a P3B-F board. That was a sweet board...I bet you can get $80+ for it on ebay (ebay buyers are so dumb).

I was actually looking for a P3B-F to put into my daughter's machine, but then went with the TUSL-2 as the more logical successor at about the same price (the P3B-F is hard to find anymore).


Slackmaster 2000
 
thanks for the info slack.
im going to have to look into it a bit more i guess. but thanks for the start.
 
To take up where Slack left off, the new Intel 845D chipsets extend the P4's memory to DDR memory. So you could pick up a board by Asus or someone with an Intel chipset, and DDR Ram support. I personally wouldn't touch an Intel CPU/chipset/mobo with a bargepole, but then...

Sang
 
Thanks for the heads up, I didn't know that the 845 supported DDR.

For what it's worth, I wouldn't touch an AMD/VIA/SiS CPU/chipset with a 10 foot pole when it comes to my DAW.... :)

Slackmaster 2000
 
ok, since i currently have an ASUS P3BF and have had a good experience with it. i want to use ASUS again.
which ASUS board would be the best one for my use?
better yet, how about this board-
Asus P4B266-C P4 Socket 478
or
ASUS P4S333 478 DDR-333 P4
or do i just not know what the "F" i'm talking about and should shut-up and stick to playing atari games on my 2600?

am i driving everyone crazy yet?
 
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