Asus twin P/Pros- Good for what?

[mrhford]

I recently purchased a m/b with twin P200 PRO (on a card). Is this thing exciting? Could it be better than my POS All in one m/b & 450 K6-2?
I am going to use either 2000 or XP ... ?
I am open to Ideas..

 

[Justin]

I will tell you that you can easily and safely OC 200mhz ppros to 233mhz with no problem whatsoever using just a heatsink in most cases.


And if that is a classic k6/2 (not a k6/2+) then those dual ppros will, in most cases, and esp in multithreaded apps, totally dominate the k6/2.

 

[StormBringer]

I've heard of some people going even higher but yea, around 233 is good and stable. As Soul Harvester said, just a HS should be ok but I would add a fan anyway.

 

[Justin]

Originally posted by StormBringer
I've heard of some people going even higher but yea, around 233 is good and stable. As Soul Harvester said, just a HS should be ok but I would add a fan anyway.

The problem I've found is that most ppro boards (and by most I mean every single ppro board I've ever owned, and I've owned a lot) do not support the needed 4.0x multiplier. If they did, however, and it was a dual or quad board, that would be awesome.

At last count I had 11 pentium pros, and am dying to have a good use for them. I have a dual ppro board but it requires a VRM which I do not have, as well as being for desktop cases rather then AT or ATX form factor.

So, currently, my server is running off dual pentium MMX 233mhz.

 

[mrhford]

Dual Pentium Pros


I am "aquiring Win XP for this machine...
apparently it should out perform my current (virus ridden) 450 amd k6-2....
thanks for the info....
I will look to see what multipliers there are.....
and it has dual massive sinks with fans...
mrhford@excite.com
Henry

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

If you're replacing your current AMD K6-2/450 with dual-PPros, keep in mind that with Window$ operating systems, 2 x 233 isn't 466. You will probably notice a performance loss. In addition, PPros don't have MMX (and of course not 3DNow!) instructions that speed up quite a lot of things nowadays.

 

[mrhford]

Apparently from what I've read, these twin proc. use a 32 bit O/S. Win XP is 32 bit. Also twin 200s with the opreating system should out preform my 450. I made the mistake when I bought this unit new of getting on board Video, Audio, and modem (it died). Shared ram just kills this, along with 2k download dial-up...
Henry

 

[Justin]

Originally posted by Mictlantecuhtli
If you're replacing your current AMD K6-2/450 with dual-PPros, keep in mind that with Window$ operating systems, 2 x 233 isn't 466. You will probably notice a performance loss. In addition, PPros don't have MMX (and of course not 3DNow!) instructions that speed up quite a lot of things nowadays.

Not entirely true.

Windows NT(at least 4.0), 2k, and XP will automatically balance load between the cpus. Programs will be launched under the cpu with the least load at the time, dynamically. When the program starts a new thread it can change the cpu it is being launched under (determined by OS) and you can also assign the program to just that cpu (affinity).

And I doubt he will see a "performance loss" overall. In some areas, yes, things will run noticeably slower. However, in any multithreaded app he will notice a performance boost. Also, the on-die l2 makes a HUGE difference. The k6/2 was a horrid cpu when it came to multimedia to begin with. Sure he may not be getting the best of both worlds, but the advantages of SMP will probably offset that.

 

[mrhford]

Twin Pros


I got the unit running with NT4, it works ok but not like I thought. I hard drive is OLD (slow) so that doesn't help. At least I have a "backup" machine. Thanks for all the suggestions...
Henry

 

[Justin]

If you ever decide to get rid of that board or would be willing to trade (say for a 450mhz k6/2 board or 366mhz celeron or whatever) let me know, I'd love a working dual ppro board.

 

[mrhford]

where's U @? eh!

 

[Justin]

I live in central oregon, west of the mountains