Author: Mike Byrne
Date: 20:00:52 02/20/03
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On February 20, 2003 at 20:06:01, Robert Pawlak wrote: >Hi Everyone, > >I am on the verge of buying a new computer at work. However, I do quite a bit of >heavy computation, and have a need to run modeling jobs that take days to >complete. My current system gets a bit sluggish when I do this, and so I have >been thinking about one of the following: > >Dual Xeon >Dual Athlon MP >3 GHz P4 with HT >OS: WinXP > >The software I run in the background is very integer intensive. The are times >also when I run floating point intensive stuff as well. And of course, the >models consume gobs of memory. So you see the similarities to your typical chess >engine with large hash (at least for integer stuff). > >The application I am using will only run in a single thread. My concern is not >so much about MIPS, but about whether the machine is still usable while my jobs >are running in the background. > >Base on my limited understanding of hyperthreading, it looks like it might be an >ok alternative. But I have no idea how well it will perform for my needs. I >included it because it has the potential to be the best performer. The dual Xeon >seems interesting to me as well, since it would give me four logical processors >:-). I also think Intel might be my better choice because of the larger memory >bandwidth. > >Does anyone have any practical experience they'd like to share on this topic? > >Thanks, >Bob Hi Bob, I have a dual 1.8 P4 Ghz (Dell) and I am very pleased with it running win2K. The previous post about the dual and I/O is very accurate and I echo the sentiments. Dual is a must IMO. My first dual was P333 and that worked so well that I bought another one when the time was right. Dell also is a very reliable company - the machines are well tested ,run great out the box and are extremely reliable IMO. All units now have a "hidden" mirror copy of the factory image in case you do have a problem, restoring to factory condition is very easy. I have easily steered at least 10 people and either purchased of help purchase 20 units over the years. Only one ever had a problem, and they had a new drive shipped to them as a replacement, the tech arrived arrived and installed it. Highly recommended. Michael Byrne Mike
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