DUAL CPU board vs 2 Single CPU boards: bang for buck?

[Velocet]

On Thu, Mar 07, 2002 at 07:24:08AM -0500, Jim Fraser's all...
> I don't desire to start a flame but it seems to me that for computational
> intensive and memory intensive work that 2 singles are better and in most
> cases cheaper then a dual setup.  The dual SMP systems out there now have to
> fight for bandwidth along the same bus.  The AMD chips while fast appear to
> be starved for data when *big* memory jobs are running.  Further I don't see
> the cost benefits, if you actually dig into the "bang-for-buck" duals never
> seem to win.

Counter example:

d.dppc on gromacs 3.0 calculation on a dual tyan 2460 board:

1 cpu 63 ps/day
dual cpu 179 ps/day

cache, baby.

now, if only we could get 8 way athlons!

/kc

> The only significant benefit I see from dual is less hardware and higher
> computing density, that may be reason enough to go with duals esp. if your
> application does not require a lot of memory fetches.


> 
> Jim Fraser
> 
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-- 
Ken Chase, math at velocet.ca  *  Velocet Communications Inc.  *  Toronto, CANADA