Dual Xeon Workstation

RickC · 2003-12-14, 16:26

I am thinking of buying a Dell Precision 450 Precision Workstation with dual 2.4Ghz processors. I noticed the Xeon bus speed is still only at 533Mhz.

Does anyone know when the bus speed will go up on the Xeon?

I was looking at the benchmark page on mersenne.org and it is out of date. Does anyone know how the 533Mhz bus Xeon compares to the 800Mhz bus P4 for prime95 and in general?

Thanks,

Rick

Xyzzy · 2003-12-14, 16:31

There is a benchmark thread here with some numbers...

Basically, if 800 Xeons were available, you would see the same difference as going from a 533 to a 800 P4...

I'd have a hard time justifying the cost of a system like that, unless I had work which required it...

You can build your own much cheaper of course... Nomadicus could give you some quotes as he just built one for his son with an Asus motherboard...

QuintLeo · 2003-12-14, 23:44

I don't think Intel has even announced support for anything faster than 533 FSB on the Xeons - there has been a lot of talk about 800, but no movement yet.

The *possibility* certainly exists, though - the "P4 Special Edition" thing is nothing more than a repackaged Xeon, per a lot of reports - and Intel *could* put out such a Xeon quite quickly, once they get the MB chipset support built for it.

I suspect they're dragging their heels deliberately, though, as they don't want the Xeon to eat into Itanium sales....

PageFault · 2003-12-15, 02:14

It is just that - a xeon in retail clothing. Intel won't move fast with it because the xeon market is one where mistakes can't be tolerated, unlike the home sector ... cumine 1.13 ...

PageFault · 2003-12-15, 02:26

I saw a Dell server, xeon boart with 1 cpu, and 10krpm SCSI, for 1200 pesos. Add a second cpu for less tha 400 more ... my last two boxes are faster (6 total GHz) but cost nearly the same. With the Dell pro product support is included, three years worth.

Quote:

Originally posted by Xyzzy

I'd have a hard time justifying the cost of a system like that, unless I had work which required it...

You can build your own much cheaper of course... Nomadicus could give you some quotes as he just built one for his son with an Asus motherboard...

optim · 2003-12-15, 14:24

why not buy a uniprocessor or dual AMD Opteron workstation?

Dresdenboy · 2003-12-15, 14:51

It should be mentioned that LL testing with 2 clients on dual Xeons will be slower than on separate computers because of memory bus contention.

We had Prime95 running on 2 x 2 Xeon nodes and got notable slowdowns of LL testing. But it will still be faster than running on a single CPU

nomadicus · 2003-12-15, 21:54

A slow down yes. But nothing unexpected. The kid rarely, if ever, plays a game on it. So overall throughput is better then I expected (programming work excluded).

Saw a quad board the other day . . .

SlashDude · 2003-12-15, 23:03

Quote:

Originally posted by nomadicus
Saw a quad board the other day . . .

As much as I love quads, having 4 copies of Prime95 running causes all copies to slow down to ~50% speed. My quad Xeon 450 will finish 4 double checks in the same time as my 450MHz laptop can complete 2 double checks! (Granted the quad probably has ~15% utilization for mail and small web pages. The laptop has close to 100% for Prime '95 because that's the only thing it's used for

)

lpmurray · 2003-12-15, 23:27

Quote:

Originally posted by RickC
I am thinking of buying a Dell Precision 450 Precision Workstation with dual 2.4Ghz processors. I noticed the Xeon bus speed is still only at 533Mhz.

Does anyone know when the bus speed will go up on the Xeon?

I was looking at the benchmark page on mersenne.org and it is out of date. Does anyone know how the 533Mhz bus Xeon compares to the 800Mhz bus P4 for prime95 and in general?

Thanks,

Rick

I run 3 dell duel xeon's 2 with 2.8's 1 with 2.4's. on the 2.4's with 2 prime95's doing LL's i get .086 per itteration on each running a 10 million digit number. with one running an LL I get .077. I get the same .077 if I run a factor while running an LL.
Hope that helps. By the way I run 1600sc servers. I bought 4 of them i was able to get them with 1 2.8 in ea for $630 delivered. I stripped the processors out of 2 of the boxes and made 2 duel 2.8's. Then I bought 2 2.4's retail boxed(3year warrenty)for $460. so I have 3 duel dells for $2960 and a fourth box just waiting for the processors.

I did it that way because at the time retail boxed 2.8's were going for over $500 by themselves....

QuintLeo · 2003-12-16, 00:06

Quote:

Originally posted by PageFault
... cumine 1.13 ...

*wince*

I skipped the FC-PGA Intel generation - so I got to miss out on both that disaster and the earlier "original" 1Ghz P-III disaster....

8-)

Unfortunately, I DO remember the P90 (P75 and P100 also, IIRC) FPU disaster - and owned one of the affected chips. Didn't do much FP work at the time, though, so it didn't cause me enough problems to ever trade that CPU in.

2003-12-14, 16:26	#1
RickC Mar 2003 55₈ Posts	Dual Xeon Workstation I am thinking of buying a Dell Precision 450 Precision Workstation with dual 2.4Ghz processors. I noticed the Xeon bus speed is still only at 533Mhz. Does anyone know when the bus speed will go up on the Xeon? I was looking at the benchmark page on mersenne.org and it is out of date. Does anyone know how the 533Mhz bus Xeon compares to the 800Mhz bus P4 for prime95 and in general? Thanks, Rick

2003-12-15, 14:51	#7
Dresdenboy Apr 2003 Berlin, Germany 101101001₂ Posts	It should be mentioned that LL testing with 2 clients on dual Xeons will be slower than on separate computers because of memory bus contention. We had Prime95 running on 2 x 2 Xeon nodes and got notable slowdowns of LL testing. But it will still be faster than running on a single CPU Last fiddled with by Dresdenboy on 2003-12-15 at 14:52

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2003-12-14, 16:31	#2
Xyzzy "Mike" Aug 2002 3·2,741 Posts	There is a benchmark thread here with some numbers... Basically, if 800 Xeons were available, you would see the same difference as going from a 533 to a 800 P4... I'd have a hard time justifying the cost of a system like that, unless I had work which required it... You can build your own much cheaper of course... Nomadicus could give you some quotes as he just built one for his son with an Asus motherboard...

2003-12-14, 23:44	#3
QuintLeo Oct 2002 Lost in the hills of Iowa 2⁶·7 Posts	I don't think Intel has even announced support for anything faster than 533 FSB on the Xeons - there has been a lot of talk about 800, but no movement yet. The possibility certainly exists, though - the "P4 Special Edition" thing is nothing more than a repackaged Xeon, per a lot of reports - and Intel could put out such a Xeon quite quickly, once they get the MB chipset support built for it. I suspect they're dragging their heels deliberately, though, as they don't want the Xeon to eat into Itanium sales....

2003-12-15, 02:14	#4
PageFault Aug 2002 Dawn of the Dead 353₈ Posts	It is just that - a xeon in retail clothing. Intel won't move fast with it because the xeon market is one where mistakes can't be tolerated, unlike the home sector ... cumine 1.13 ...

2003-12-15, 14:24	#6
optim Nov 2003 European Union 150₈ Posts	why not buy a uniprocessor or dual AMD Opteron workstation?

2003-12-15, 21:54	#8
nomadicus Jan 2003 North Carolina 2·3·41 Posts	A slow down yes. But nothing unexpected. The kid rarely, if ever, plays a game on it. So overall throughput is better then I expected (programming work excluded). Saw a quad board the other day . . .