system upgrade?

[sych0]

Hello everyone. Ive been considering an upgrade and am trying to decide on what to get. Should i go with a dual chip system? Specifically, a dual 1900 athlon mp with the MSI KD7 board. What are peoples experiences and such with a dual cpu system? I know tmpg is compatible, but is CCE? And will it get that much better performance than say an athlon xp 1900? Is it EXACTLY 50% faster at ripping & encoding? Or is it more like 10%? Or is it more of a case where i can set a specific app to a specific chip? Encoding 2 vids at once, one on each chip, would be just as cool. Any info would be greatly appreciated, thanks. Btw, currently im running an athlon 600 with 512mb pc100 ram and windows xp.

And no, i wont be getting an intel ;)

[tgpo]

Windows, ewwwwwww.

[TheInformer]

Compared to your current system, I think you'll be happy with either a single or dual processor system if the CPU is running at 1900+

TMPGEnc has some support for a dual processor system so that's a plus. I wish I could say more but I don't have any experience with dual processors. This should be an interesting thread to read!

[monsoon01]

tgpo,
we all know your a hard core mac fan, but do you really need to comment every time some one asks a windows question or amd/intel question?

[tgpo]

A lot of the time I do try to help people as much as possible with my small PC knowledge. However I do sometimes feel the need to express my feelings. Which I see as perfectly fine because of all the crap I've gotten from my posts in the "PC" forums when actually helping someone. So it's not every post that I give my "little comments".

To my knowledge I've never talked down about AMD. In my PC years I always prefered Amd and continue to pull for the underdogs.

So if anyone is uterly disgusted by my small comments I'm sorry it's just me expressing my feelings and giving opinions about companies and products. After all isn't that what opinion questions are all about, or are they only open to the PC users?

[monsoon01]

i dont think any one is disgusted, but i dont know, some times it just isnt really nessecary. but to each his own, do what ya want....

[vitualis]

@ tgpo,

monsoon01 is absolutely right and there is no place for posts like, "Windows, ewwwwwww".

If you are going to make a pointless and ultimately unhelpful comment, at least make it funny.

Regards.

[kwag]

@sych0:

Get an Intel.

I do agree that the AMD is a faster chip and better performer, but after I burned up my Athlon, I decided to go back to Intel.

There's a great video at www.tomshardware.com, I can't recall the exact link, but they showed what actually happens when you have a fan failure with the AMD.

The result is not very nice, actually a little "smokey"

With Intel P4's, the machine just locks up. Fix the fan, and you're back in business.

With the AMD, it's a little BBQ

I've had many friends told me the same thing. They've burned up their AMD chips.

Just a little HOT feedback

kwag

[monsoon01]

ok, please lets not start out the week(it is monday, still, lol) on an AMD vs. Intel debate. AMD has heat problems, its known and thats why you've got to buy a decent fan or just go ahead and(and this is if your building your own computer) get the warrenty, it only cost like a buck or two more for AMD proccessor (atleast where i get them it does). 3 extra years of protection for 2 bucks isnt that bad in my eyes. Plus having a nice big case helps, those damn micro cases r destroying the world, lol

[dmonty]

tgpo

MAC!?! ewwwwww. Who let that in here. Quick someone squish it. KEEP it AWAY!!!

[poopyhead]

tgpo, dunno wut's so good about macs...they certainly don't have the price or compatibility advantage (unless apple start leting 3rd party manufactures join in the fun)

[tgpo]

monsoon01 & vitualis see what I mean. But it's all in fun.

[Craig Tucker]

If you have an athlon you can always set up some software such as mother board monitor to shut your system down if the chip gets too hot. Which is what I forgot to do, so when one of the plastic lugs on the socket snapped, presumably under the weight of my Zalman flower heat sink, I cooked my XP1800+ along with my Epox 8K7A+ motherboard. Bugger!!!

Craig

P.S. I wont be fitting that damn flower on my new cpu.

[sych0]

thanks for the info (for those of you who provided it ;)) But i heard that if you use the stock fan that comes with the processor (and you dont oc) you should be fine? I still havent definately decided, but im leaning toward single. But then again, i still dont know if its a full %50 improvement with 2 chips, vs %10 or %15. And will say 1 hr shorter really make a difference if i run it while sleeping? Who knows :)
Im still unsure whether to go amd/intel tho. But i do like amd. And if i had money to buy a mac, id also consider that too ;) I do like macs. I really like the new powerbook.

[kwag]

But i heard that if you use the stock fan that comes with the processor (and you dont oc) you should be fine?

The Athlons will "Burn Up in Smoke" even without overclocking if the heat sink snaps off.

kwag

[monsoon01]

how exactly can the heat sink snap off unless its pushed? I have had my athlon for about a year now with the stock heatsink and fan and everything works fine. I think the secret is having a decent sized case and some case fans. oh and dont go pushing on the heat sink also....lol

[kwag]

how exactly can the heat sink snap off unless its pushed? I have had my athlon for about a year now with the stock heatsink and fan and everything works fine. I think the secret is having a decent sized case and some case fans. oh and dont go pushing on the heat sink also....lol

True story. Heat Sinks do snap. The clip is metal, but where the clip hooks is plastic. Talk about planned obsolecense

And the point is, that you can take the heat sink off a P4, and the CPU wil lock up and shut itself down.

Take a heat sink off an Athlon, and you have yourself a little Hibachi BBQ

kwag


kwag

[Craig Tucker]

I think in my case although the zalman flower is made for athlon chips the weight of it is way over amd specifications (I believe AMD specify a max of 300g for a heatsink and the flower is 480g). Add to that the fact that the clip was very stiff to install. The only conclusion I can come to is that during installation tha plastic lug was stressed, possibly even fractured, it held the heat sink in place for about 6 weeks before it just gave way under the weight of the heatsink.

Kwag.
Are you saying that even with motherboard monitor 5 set up to shut your pc down if your chip reaches 70 degrees C. That if the sink fell off it would fry before the pc had time to shut down.

Craig

[kwag]

.

Kwag.
Are you saying that even with motherboard monitor 5 set up to shut your pc down if your chip reaches 70 degrees C. That if the sink fell off it would fry before the pc had time to shut down.

Craig

There was a review some time ago at http://www.tomshardware.com
where they showed a video of an Athlon burning up, just by removing the heat sink.

That's how fast it heats up. After that, the chip is dead.

kwag