Author: Robert Hyatt
Date: 19:38:23 06/07/03
Go up one level in this thread
On June 07, 2003 at 22:05:14, Russell Reagan wrote: >I'm am going to build a new machine for the purpose of (mainly) running computer >chess programs. What specs are important to computer chess programs? > >Areas I'm pretty sure about (correct me if I'm wrong): > >Processor speed - I think everyone agrees this is the major factor >RAM - I've heard people say that SDRAM is better, then DDR, the RDRAM, because >latency is more important than throughput. > >Areas I'm not sure about: > >Frontside bus speed - My first thought is that this isn't a major issue, because >it sounds like it only helps the throughput. Just measure latency and go with whatever is the quickest... Ignore the bus speed reference and benchmark to see which goes the fastest. >Cache - Is it better to spend the extra money to get the processors with larger >caches? Go for the 512/128KB, or is 256KB ok? Tough call. I have some 512KB xeons and some 1024KB xeons (L2 cache). 1024 definitely is a boost, but it is _not_ a huge boost. But that is for Crafty only. I can't answer for other programs. Benchmarking is the way to go. >Hard drives - Does this matter outside of EGTBs? > Nope. But it can matter there hugely. 15K SCSI drives (U320) are the way to go for fast table access. Avoide IDE. >The prices of Athlons seem to depend a lot on FSB and cache sizes, so if a >certain spec isn't very important to chess programs (ex. memory throughput), I >can save some money :) > >Thanks for your help, >Russell
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