[PLUG] AMD 64 Motherboard Recommendations

[Elliott Mitchell]

>From: "John Jordan" <johnxj at comcast.net>
> Does anyone make a dual AMD-64 motherboard? Or is that a 
> useful feature anymore?

Sure. If you want to spent lots of money, Opterons are explicitly
designed for up to 8 processors in a system. I imagine someone is likely
trying to put more than 8 in a system.

> But I have paid no attention to the world of motherboards and CPUs 
> since building my Windows 2000 desktop three years ago. I built it 
> on a dual Athlon 1.2 GHz motherboard (Tyan Tiger S2460). I swear 
> it is faster and more responsive than my almost brand new 
> Compaq AMD-64 laptop with Ubuntu-64 Breezy. Nowadays I hear 
> talk of "two CPUs in one" and "dual-core" and stuff that I have no 
> ken of. In about a year I plan to build a new desktop and go totally 
> Linux (I hope). Being a desktop the power requirements are not an 
> issue, so I'd definitely like to stick with dual CPUs. 

Two things are being done. The first one on the market was Intel's
"Hyperthreading". This simulated two processors by placing two sets of
registers and context on a single processor core. This effectively splits
the processor core in two, resulting in the two virtual processors being
slower than a single processor but the net throughput being greater than
a single-context processor. Except for performance characteristics that
don't match dual-processor systems (somewhat more than half the
performance), these do otherwise look indistinguishable from
dual-processor systems.

Multi-core processors involve duplicating almost the entirety of the
processor multiple times in one package (Intel was planning to do
multiple chips in one package). For AMD this would means lower memory
bandwidth because of the shared memory controller, but otherwise for all
intents and purposes these *are* multiprocessor systems.


> Oh, and I definitely want to get one of the 24" widescreen LCD 
> monitors that run at 1920 x 1200. You can get them now for about 
> $1,000. I guess I also need to update my knowledge of video cards 
> with Linux and which ones will drive such a monitor. Plus, I really 
> want to see one in action. Does anyone know of a local store that 
> has them on display, even if it is with Windows?

For cabling a good starting place is:
http://www.pacificcable.com/DVI_Tutorial.htm

Most modern cards would drive such a beast. The trick might be getting
one where the digital path can handle the bandwidth required (most cards
merely have "single-link" outputs, not "dual-link"). If you're willing to
compromise on refresh rate that might not be an issue though (LCDs are
quite usable with a 30Hz refresh, if the electronics are up for it).


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