You know what I want? A job where I can afford things like that!

Until Intel reduce their crazy prices I'm not going to even bother giving their chips a second glance.

Well ive always wanted to go dual 8) So maybe this can be an option. How much more are xeons than normal p4s of the same speed?

my 2.2's were roughly 300usd each several months ago
they arent really any more expensive than the p4's
the expensive part is the boards to run em and the special power supply u need.

I suppose the only boards you can get are made by intel then? So no overclocking allowed

Quote:Until Intel reduce their crazy prices I'm not going to even bother giving their chips a second glance.

ummm
the amd mp processor (2200) is going for about 221 (oem)
the 2.2gig xeon is going for about 257 (oem)

i will gladly pay 30 bux a chip for an intel.

M4Carbine:
yea only intel and serverworks
my board (supermicro p4dc6+) has a forced clock function that will let me oc but the chips currently run about 30deg f over oat, and i cant find any supercoolers for the xeons.
besides these things FLY! so im not worried about oc'ing

OK just 2 more questions
 
1) Whats the HS mounting like? is it like the normal p4 mounts?
and..
2) What memory type do you use with yours? Ive got 512mb RDRAM here and it would be good if i could use that.

yea the hs/fan mounts up like normal... sort of
but remember the xeons are 600 pin chips
they arent the same overall size so a regular hs/fan wont match the clips.
 
yes i have rambus pc800 (512 also)
 
all in all with hyperthreading turned on, most software screams
some of the crappier software (surfcam and mastercam) actually generate slower.
 
i am very happy with this setup.

OK sounds good, i might have to go for them. Ive always said to myself that the next system i get will be dual, but i always thought it would be amd as my general feeling was that xeons cost a fortune. But obviously they dont
 
Ill just have to pick out a nice mobo pretty soon as i doubt rambus will be around much longer

the only sucky thing i found with the xeons is that the mobos that use ddr are all server only boards... with graphics and no agp port
supermicro, tyan and iwil make workstation type boards
but they all use rambus ram
 
i wrestled with that delema for awhile and said "screw it" and got the supermicro (about 570usd)
 
u can get a good deal on a mobo/processor combo
i got mine at
http://www.micropro.com/parts.htm
1 year warranty on everything and the mobo came with the cpu, hs/fan and memory already installed
the cpus, mem, mobo and ps were 1470
 
ps the ps MUST be a special for the p4xeons and there are only a few cases that fit those types of mobos. (server cases like antec will not work)

Strike 2 against the Xeons: Rambus RAM. Thats ridiculously priced too. Thank God Intel are ditching it...

I read somewhere that they are switching to 32 bit Rambus, which means that you will no longer have to have a matched pair of chips.

The reason why Rambus is handled in pairs (in Pentium 4 systems, Pentium 3 systems based on the craptacular i820 chipset could get away with only one RIMM and one continuity RIMM) is because the i850 (and I believe the i860 too) utilise a dual channel memory interface and you need a RIMM in each channel. Thats how they can claim "800Mhz" and "1066Mhz" when the RAM is only clocked at 400Mhz and 533Mhz respectively.
 
The i850 already supports 32bit PC1066 RDRAM but only unofficially. It's still ridiculously expensive (although thats Rambus' fault for making manufacturers take it up the butt from them with their ghey royalties) and still has to be upgraded in pairs.

Dunno if this is a reliable source of info, it was the first thing that popped up in a Google search:
 
http://www.ebnonline.com/business/news/story/OEG20020910S0056
 
RDRAM was good technology but since Rambus were greedy it never really go to have its day. Unfortunately the P4 is going to be kind of hamstrung without it but who cares.
 
^^
 
The above was written before I'd read the projections for the phase out. Intel will continue with the i850 and PC1066 RDRAM until 2005 (giving them enough time to design a chip who's performance isn't shackled to RDRAM).

rambus shot themselves in the foot by being too greedy.
 
but it's still a good technology

no i have one of the workstation boards
http://www.supermicro.com/product/motherboards/860/P4DC6+.htm
 
but go to the rest of the products and u will see that the boards with ddr mem are pretty much server only

that board rocks
got everything one would need

That's what it looks like to me.

Some info
 
 
For Servers:
 
Available speeds 2.80GHz, 2.60GHz, 2.40GHz, 2.20GHz, 2GHz, 1.80GHz
Chipset Intel E7500 Chipset
ServerWorks* GC-HE chipset
Features Dual-processor enabled
Hyper-Threading Technology
Intel NetBurst microarchitecture
Rapid Execution Engine
Streaming SIMD Extensions 2 (SSE2)
Advanced dynamic execution
 
Cache Level 1: Execution Trace cache
Level 2: 512KB Advanced Transfer cache
RAM Dual Channel DDR
I/O Bandwidth Up to 3.2 GB/sec.
System Bus Frequency 400 MHz Front Side Bus
 
 
 
For Workstations:
 
Available speeds 2.80GHz, 2.60GHz, 2.49GHz, 2.20GHz, 2GHz, 1.80GHz, 1.70GHz, 1.50GHz, 1.40GHz
Chipset Intel 860 Chipset
Features Dual-processor enabled
Intel NetBurst microarchitecture
Hyper-Pipelined Technology
Rapid Execution Engine
Streaming SIMD Extensions 2 (SSE2)
Advanced Dynamic Execution
Double Precision Floating Point
 
Cache Level 1: Execution Trace cache
Level 2: 512KB Advanced Transfer cache -- 2.40, 2.20, 2, 1.80 GHz (Level 2 256KB Advanced Transfer cache on 2, 1.70, 1.50, and 1.40 GHz only)
RAM Dual-channel RDRAM*
I/O Bandwidth Up to 3.2 GB/sec.
System Bus Frequency 400 MHz Front Side Bus
 
 
 
 
Level 2 Advanced Transfer Cache
The 512-KB L2 Advanced Transfer Cache (ATC) is available with current speeds of 1.80, 2.0, 2.20, 2.40, 2.60, and 2.80 GHz. The 256-KB L2 ATC is available with speeds of 1.40, 1.50, 1.70 and 2.0 GHz. Both deliver a much higher data throughput channel between the Level 2 Cache and the processor core. The Advanced Transfer Cache consists of a 256-bit (32-byte) interface that transfers data on each core clock. As a result, the Intel Xeon processor with 512-KB L2 Cache and Intel Xeon processor with 256-KB L2 Cache can deliver a data transfer rate of core speed multiplied by 32 bytes, reported in GBs. This compares to a transfer rate of 16-GBs on the Intel Pentium III processor at 1.0 GHz and contributes to the Intel Pentium 4 processor and Intel Xeon processor's ability to keep the high-frequency execution units executing instructions vs. sitting idle.