[NTLUG:Discuss] MP or Opteron??

[Chris Cox]

David Simmons wrote:
> (in that continue search for a great system)...I'm looking at a dual
> processor machine.  If you haven't done any looking' around yet...I think
> you'll be surprised at (what seems to be) very low prices for Opteron
> system?

Workstation or rack mount?

If you want Opterons, I'd hold out for another 6-8mos.  There's alot of
headroom in the Opteron that hasn't been exploited yet (talking about
chip characteristics).

> 
> While I thought MP systems would decrease in cost...that doesn't seem to be
> the case??  Am I just missing the boat?  What online supplier does everyone
> use/had good luck with a dual system?

I know someone who is selling their old S2468UGN mb... I'm trying to
get his price down to $275.  Thats a dual MP platform with 2 channel
Ultra-160. ... it's what I have at home.  I like the platform so
much, I'm tempted to buy it so I can build another duallie for
home.

Sweet spot is probably still the MP2400 with regards to price/perf.
Anything below that has some risks.... but only with suppliers with
old inventory.

Dual Opteron boards... currently... are just onboard video (ATI Rage I think).
If you want AGP (current boards don't have AGP), you'll have to wait
for those mbs... and I'd wait for a second generation board it possible, or
at least parse the reviews very carefully when released.

I think http://www.monarchcomputer.com is one of the better online
suppliers (but YMMV).  I built my own though:
http://www.theendlessnow.com/monster.txt
(btw, I filled the drive bays, purchasing the last 73.4G drives
for $150 each!!... the Ti4600 is considerably cheaper now as well,
the prices mentioned on the link are from December!)

For example, the CPU and memory prices NOW (monarchcomputer):

120614 AMD Athlon MP 2400+ (Retail Box-w-Fan) 		2 $179.00 $358.00
140852 512 MB DDR 2100 Reg ECC Corsair Low Profile 	2 $115.00 $230.00

That's considerably different from when I bought the monster.txt box
from the link above.

If I do another duallie with MPs, I'll target what I can do for less
than $2500 this time around.  Once you've experience the performance
of a dual, it's hard to go back to a single cpu (even if it's 3.5Ghz).