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Subject: Re: Opinion on PC configuration?

Author: Tom Kerrigan

Date: 10:24:19 06/07/00

Go up one level in this thread


On June 07, 2000 at 08:42:20, Laurence Chen wrote:

>On June 07, 2000 at 05:16:33, Ricardo Gibert wrote:
>
>>On June 07, 2000 at 01:36:16, O. Veli wrote:
>>
>>>  I am planning on building a powerful yet cheap PC for chess. AFAIK there is no
>>>difference between Pentium III and Celeron chips on chess performance. A dual
>>>processor version is better than a single one so a dual Celeron + Deep Junior (
>>>and of course Crafty) will have a strong Elo/$ value (Dual or quad Pentium III
>>>is out of my reach). How much Elo would dual Celeron + Deep Junior gain compared
>>>to single Celeron + Junior? What other things should I keep in mind on this
>>>machine? Thanks.
>>
>>Your choice is not so simple. Consider:
>>
>>ABIT BP6 + 2 533 Celerons $350
>>
>>ASUS K7V + 1 700 Athlon   $350
>>
>>Its estimated that a doubling of speed is worth about a 50 rating point gain, so
>>we can use the following equation:
>>
>>73*ln(s1/s2) = Delta R
>>
>>73*ln(1066/700) = 31 rating points
>>
>>Now look at the SSDF ratings here:
>>
>>http://home3.swipnet.se/~w-36794/ssdf/nr000.htm
>>
>>Fritz 6  is rated 2721
>>
>>Junior 6 is rated 2689 (I'm assuming Deep Junior is the same on 1 cpu)
>>
>>2721 - 2689 = 32 rating points
>>
>>So someone with the Athlon will do just as well using Fritz 6 as you will using
>>the dual Celerons using Deep Junior. Of course, these are _very_ rough
>>calculations.
>>
>>We have assumed that the _relative_ ratings are accurate, that the 50 rating
>>point estimate is accurate, that Deep Junior is just as strong as Junior 6 on
>>one cpu, that Deep Junior scales up going to 2 cpus with 100% efficiency, etc.
>>Clearly, many of these assumptions aren't very reasonable.
>>
>>The dual cpu system is not everything it is cracked up to be as far as chess
>>goes. The quality of the program is just as important as the speed of the
>>hardware. But even if Deep Junior is just as good as Fritz 6, you do not gain
>>much.
>>
>>When you get a dual system, your choice of hardware is more limited and your
>>choice of software for it that takes advantage of it is more limited. You make
>>compromises. I prefer the ASUS motherboard to the ABIT motherboard. The ASUS
>>motherboard is the best one for the Athlon. The ABIT motherboard is not the best
>>for the Celeron. It's the one you get when you want to run a dual system.
>>
>>Naturally, there are other reasons for getting a dual system. I hope this helps
>>you make your decision.
>You forgot to mention about the OS, a dual processor will require Windows NT, or
>Windows 2000, since Microsoft no longer sells Windows NT 4, then you have no
>choice but buy Windows 2000, the OEM is about U.S. $350.00.
>IMHO I don't think that Celerons are suitable as Dual Processors for high end
>processing.  Celerons are great for Games, or some office suite programs such as
>Word Processing, and spreadsheets.
>Laurence

Celerons are all but identical to Pentiums. I don't know why either chip would
be better at something, unless you're talking about some esoteric cache issue.

-Tom



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