Dual Processor SFF

[WordVirus23]

http://www.sfftech.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=651
..you may all now commence drooling...
I'm suprised these haven't been mentioned before...
..j...

[Kyle]

[charlielangridge]

Ok, although this might sound all good and tasty, the real thing to remeber is dual-processor means twice the heat, and not (m)any vjsofts are optimised multi-processors.

If you want lots of fun speed like this, the soon to be released dual-core systems would be much more suitable for hot enviroments like clubs, since they do not dispate as much heat, and also AMD claims there chips will work in a lot of standard motherboards with a simple bios firmware upgrade.

[WordVirus23]

I would *think* that for proc. intensive apps like most 2D VJ apps are. that dual proc would be ideal.... RT effects etc.... I just hate watching my FPS go down as I stack effects.

..j...

[Syntax]

Would the duelies even show a noticable increase in speed? I'm just saying because the article sez its primarily for server environments. The thing looks schweet but I feel more inclined to go for a p4 or athlon64.

[many2]

For your information --> vJo R3.5 has some support for dual processor : for example if you use one or more video inputs they will be processed by the second processor.

A question : if an application is programmed to use the multi-threading features of your CPU, does that mean they will multi-thread over multiple processors too ? I have the impression multi-threading is a little bit like multi-processing on a single CPU but I might get this sompletely wrong.

[sleepytom]

as i understand it thread managment is handled by the OS - if you have properly multi threaded your app then it will utilise both CPUs

having said that a_lot of vj software is programed in such highlevel languages that the developers may not have any control over threading.

- the dual cpu systems that i've used have not been twice as fast as single cpu machines, they have been quite a lot faster though. (again it depends what app your running but even poorly writen apps will get some boost from dual cpus)

the reliability issue is the main problem with dual CPUs - i wouldn't like to chuck one of these boxes around too much.

[many2]

Thanks for the information Tom.

This means vJo R3.5 can get even more speed from dual-cpu systems since it is a multi-threaded application - it was programed using low-level languages, with critical parts written in assembly

about the speed gain : it's true that no dual-processor system will ever double the speed of your applications - 40% speed increase is a good all-around approximation. Dual CPUs are also great when you use more than one application at the same time.

[vjpixylight]

this would be sweet, had they opted to use PCI-express instead of the 8xAGP...What are they thinking..

Funny, I did some major seraching for SFF dual CPU rigs not more than a week ago, and couldn't find nothing..

I did find some of the latest regular ATX boards (primaraly made for extreme gaming), with dual opteron's 2 PCI express slots,
and a couple more PCI-x slots with all the reat of the bells and whistles..

One, I cant remeber now, even sported using non ECC ram, up to 8 gigs, (which would actually pay for the cost of the dual opterons processors with the saving of buying that much non-registered ram)...

But me wants a SFF

Maybe in another 6 month, shuttle or one of these other SFF will be able to go dual processor, with an PCI-express slot...Then I'll really start drooling