Specific Question about Single vs. Dual Processor System

[Rocky McGaugh]

On Sun, 6 Apr 2003, Chih King wrote:

> Hello.  I am a member of the University of Iowa Student Supercomputing
> Project (UISSP), and we are planning for the purchase of our first cluster.
> Currently we are divided between a sixteen node single-processor Pentium 4
> system and a seven node dual-processor Xeon system.  Here are the brief
> specification of both machines:
> 
> 16 Pentium 4 single-processor system (total cost $7,407):
> 
> Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz 533FSB 512KB
> ASUS P4S8X 533FSB SATA GB 8X MB w/ 10/100/1000 LAN
> 512MB PC2700 DDR333
> Maxtor 20GB Ultra100 Hard Drive
> ATI Rage Mobility VGA Card 8MB AGP
> CG 6039L 350W USB Midtower Case
> Linksys LNE100TX 10/100 Network Adaptor (2nd LAN channel)
> 
> 7 Xeon dual-processor system (total cost $8,400):
> 
> INTEL XEON 2.4GHZ 533FSB PROCESSOR x2
> TYAN S2723GNN E7501 GLAN MOTHERBOARD
> PC2100 256MB ECC/REG DDR x2
> Maxtor 20GB Ultra100 Hard Drive
> Chenbro Beige Server Case
> NMB 460W Xeon Power Supply
> MITSUMI 54X CD-ROM Drive
> 

Given the above options, i'd go with the dual Xeons. Memory bandwidth is 
greater on the 2723 due to its dual-DDR setup. It is also a server-class
motherboard. The i7501 chipset was designed for server use and works well 
for clusters.

The Asus board has a SiS chipset. It is fairly safe to assume that this 
board was optimized for AGP speed which wont matter much to you.

I think you'll find much better reliability with the servers.

-- 
Rocky McGaugh
Atipa Technologies
rocky at atipatechnologies.com
rmcgaugh at atipa.com
1-785-841-9513 x3110
http://1087800222/
perl -e 'print unpack(u, ".=W=W+F%T:7\!A+F-O;0H`");'

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