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Subject: Re: Some thoughts for those who are considering to buy a Dual processor PC

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 11:05:22 03/28/01

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On March 28, 2001 at 13:48:06, Joshua Lee wrote:

>I think that some of the data is wrong if you use the 1.7X for a dual a Dual
>1Ghz would be 1.7Ghz and obviously this is a bigger difference than 1Ghz as you
>have nearly 2xthan the 1Ghz machine. All the calculations sound like they make
>sense but when somebody says that it would only net 25-35elo i have to begin to
>wonder.All the stats ive heard before but the numbers seem to change to people's
>liking  is it 30 or 60 for doubling? or is it 70?, SSDF says it's 79 but hey
>that can't make sense if you triple it's 90 which is too close to 79.
>Clearly when you look at various Computerchess events and the results you will
>see for example most of the hardware is either a quad or an 8-way which means
>with our single processor they get 3.1 to 5.9 nearly 6 times as much.
>Even though these servers don't search the tree in the same way i have found
>that you can still come up with the same stuff they do but just with waiting
>longer. I would put my money on the stronger side even with 400games wouldn't
>you?

It is a case of apples and oranges.  You can look at this in two ways:

1.  You buy a 1ghz machine.  I buy a 2 X 1ghz machine.  I would claim that the
2X machine will have a significant advantage in match play.  But it would also
be more expensive.  How much more?  At 1ghz, a PIII processor costs just over
200 bucks.  You will probably pay about $1,000 for a machine with disk, CD,
floppy, single 1ghz cpu, 512mb RAM, cabinet and power supply.  Add about 30
bucks for the difference in MB cost, plus another 200 bucks for the second CPU,
and you have a dual 1ghz machine for about 250 bucks more than the single 1ghz
box.  For people doing heavy-duty computation, the dual will be 2x faster when
you can compile two modules at a time, etc.  For chess engines, it will be 1.7X
faster for a single engine that uses parallel search.  For matches, it will be
2x faster since two engines will let one run on each cpu.

Overall it is not a bad deal...

(PS the prices came from www.pricewatch.com).



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