How Many CPUs do you have in one computer?

Robpol86 · Post by **Robpol86** » Thu Jan 09, 2003 8:23 pm

Well im bored right now and I always wonder if Im the only one here with SMP?

jester22c · Post by **jester22c** » Thu Jan 09, 2003 8:48 pm

Well I have an old computer not in use at the moment with a few spare parts in the case including another cpu... so technically there are 2 cpus in that computer. But really though, I just have 1 cpu per machine for the time being. SMP is just too expensive for me right now. I would love to have a dual 3gHz P4 (3gHz is a hyperthreaded chip) machine for my graphics work... but unless someone has $1K to give me lol... I don't see that happening. That is a nice motherboard btw. I have used quite a few SMP machines with that board in them.

Master Jedi · Post by **Master Jedi** » Thu Jan 09, 2003 8:55 pm

I have a Compaq Proliant 5500R server with 4 processors, but that's not what I'm using online obviously.

harra · Post by **harra** » Thu Jan 09, 2003 9:22 pm

A rack-mounted Proliant Server! Cool! I've been wanting to get one through the Factory Outlet store but haven't had the money to fork out for the SCSI drives and server-grade processors. I had one of those as my desktop unit when I worked at Compaq. I loved having a server as a desktop unit.

Dice599 · Post by **Dice599** » Thu Jan 09, 2003 9:26 pm

Some new Pentium 4's have hyperthreading which is supposed to be the same as having two processors but some computer magazine (i forget which one) didnt review them that well and said it's hard to notice the difference, even in the applications its supposed to really help.

jester22c · Post by **jester22c** » Thu Jan 09, 2003 9:42 pm

The first hyperthreaded P4 was the 3.06 GHz. They will be releasing hyperthreaded versions in other speeds soon.

I have read multiple reviews, most of which found significant performance increases. The chip itself is recognized as 2 chips. SMP threaded applications will boast the most benefit but most all programs on a SMP capable OS will gain performance as well due to logical thread partitioning within the OS. Multitasking is one area in which the performance gain really shined, as well as compiling and rendering.

mafiafromrussia · Post by **mafiafromrussia** » Thu Jan 09, 2003 9:45 pm

i got just one.
does having 2 or more improve anything much?

jester22c · Post by **jester22c** » Thu Jan 09, 2003 9:52 pm

mafiafromrussia wrote:does having 2 or more improve anything much?

That is very dependent on what you use your computer for. If you just surf the internet, word process, email, and play games... you probably won't notice hardly any difference at all. Large compiles (programming), video editing, rendering, etc all heavily benefit from multiple cpus. For a program to truly benefit it needs to be programmed to support and use SMP (Symmetric MultiProcessing) although threads (program tasks) can be logically split up through the OS, it is not as helpful because non-SMP programs will only have one thread as SMP enabled programs will purposely split the program tasks into multiple threads.

mafiafromrussia · Post by **mafiafromrussia** » Thu Jan 09, 2003 9:54 pm

allright thanks for info.
i only do video encoding on rare occasions.

Master Jedi · Post by **Master Jedi** » Thu Jan 09, 2003 10:38 pm

harra wrote:A rack-mounted Proliant Server! Cool! I've been wanting to get one through the Factory Outlet store but haven't had the money to fork out for the SCSI drives and server-grade processors. I had one of those as my desktop unit when I worked at Compaq. I loved having a server as a desktop unit.

It's totally awesome! Though it's true that the Hot-Swap SCSI drives, hot-swap redundant power supplies/UPSs, and the processors cost a small fortune, it's great for educational purposes.

Robpol86 · Post by **Robpol86** » Thu Jan 09, 2003 11:13 pm

wow 9 posts already, so far, i dont think p4 3.06 GHz ht will work in an SMP system. I dought theres ne consumer mobos out there that supports dual 3 GHz. I heard that (accordin 2 intel) P4s can support the SMP spec, but there not releasin the spec (or chipset support or sumthin) out yet. But that was a long time ago.
Actually, when i got my 2nd proc for the first time, WinXP loaded alot faster, even faster than my friends 1 GHz p3. But in everything else, i didnt notice much. And there were so many problems getting my computer to be stable. Games kept crashing every 30 mins giving me a xp BSOD until i learned how 2 set the affinity. Then my xp raid drivers and sound blaster card kept screwing up with each other making my sound card stop working after like 45 mins during game play (but no bsod) (i heard sumwhere that xp highpoint raid drivers and sound blaster cards cause probs). And installing latest drivers was a prob cuz Abit stopped updating my bios so i had to get a hacked bios to get my raid bios to work with my raid drivers (in my mobo, my integrated raid bios is integrated with my sys bios). So far i seemed to fix all my probs to it took a while.

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