Dual Opterons or Core 2 QUAD??? Server motherboard

[tasi55]

Hey guys,

 

Well, once again...confused. Wanting to upgrade, I have got some components together but I am having second thoughts. Recently got given (yes given!!) a new SERVER motherboard, it supports dual opterons and so forth, 6 RAM slots

 

Model: MSI K8N Master2-FAR (Socket 940)

 

I basically wanting to know whether it is true if these will stand out to the quad core q6600. I am really wanting to go intel but because I have already got AMD components I just wanna know if I should just stay. I have heard that splitting into two separate processors is more better than a single quad core due to bottlenecks with the memory and so forth? Is this true or is this just an AMD head taking sides.

 

Also, does the type of DDR2 RAM really make a difference eg. BRAND, 1gb or 2gb, MHz (this motherboard only supports up to 400Mhz ?

 

Argggghhh, please help!!

 

PS. Thanks to all of those who helped with with choosing a Graphics card, decided to dump the quadros and went with the Geforce 8800 GTS XXX edition!

[tecton3d]

for a time a dual 940 setup was the berries as a 3d workstation and would still make for a more than adequate rig but, and as you already know, Intel's "Core" architecture changed all that. As the current owner of a dual 940 setup whose looking to upgrade i already know that you'd need dual 290 AMD Opterons (@$525each) to even approach the performance of a 3.0ghz intel quadcore. I'd say forget about the dual 940 setup and get a Q6600, decent ram and mobo, an aftermarket hsf and OC it

[tasi55]

for a time a dual 940 setup was the berries as a 3d workstation and would still make for a more than adequate rig but, and as you already know, Intel's "Core" architecture changed all that. As the current owner of a dual 940 setup whose looking to upgrade i already know that you'd need dual 290 AMD Opterons (@$525each) to even approach the performance of a 3.0ghz intel quadcore. I'd say forget about the dual 940 setup and get a Q6600, decent ram and mobo, an aftermarket hsf and OC it

 

Thanks heaps for you advice. What speed would the opterons have to be, I am trying to convince someone that I work with that Intel is the way to go. Its cheaper and performs better, but they still have this theory that the dual opterons being split over two would be faster...tiresome. Do you know what it is about the quad core that leaves opterons in the dust?

 

Also, when you say good RAM, what would you recommend. I see there are so many to choose from, som cheap and some ridiculously expensive. Will the faster speed Ram really make a huge increase in performance or would I be fine with say 4GB of DDR2 400 RAM?

[tecton3d]

well, the fastest 940's available are the 290's @ 2.8 which still pale when compared to an oc'd quadcore from intel. Now let's say you have 2 systems... one is a dual - dualcore Xeon (5160 3.0ghz woodcrest comes to mind) and the other is a quadcore Core2 (QX6850) at the same clock speeds from the same gen of architecture (core2 that is!). From here, the dual-dualcore may be faster at some things (esp if we were considering memory intensive tasks and AMD's sever board architecture in which the procs don't share fsb's unlike Intels design) but such performance would be negligible considering the higher cost associated with such systems (procs, mobo's, reg/ecc ram is usually much more expensive when talking about server parts).

 

without getting into a macho longwinded dissertation about why the Core2's on a single socket are faster than a dual socket 940... let's just say it's "evolution" or "moore's law" or whatever, but the 940 (despite being seperate procs on separate sockets) are much slower than the new technology and power offered my 'Core'. Hit up any forum or website that entertains gearheads and you'll hear the same... tell your cohort you have better things to do than prove him wrong

 

Also, when you say good RAM, what would you recommend. I see there are so many to choose from, som cheap and some ridiculously expensive. Will the faster speed Ram really make a huge increase in performance or would I be fine with say 4GB of DDR2 400 RAM?

something that's proven to work with your chosen motherboard and cpu. The sweet spot is def somewhere in the middle of the price range. go with trusted companies like corsair, kingston, mushkin... basically, config yourself a rig and post it somewhere like overclockers.com or xtremesystems.com to see if any of the guru's there can help out. and though faster memory probably won't knock your socks off compared to something slightly slower, i'd reccomend you go with the fastest supported by mobo/cpu

 

proust!