Not realy a problem just need help finding a new mobo.

[Guest Saxon]

OK here is the plan, I need a new workstartion and I have a rough idea of what i want but I am having a hard time tracking down a mobo I would be happy with, here is a list of requirements this board must fit into.

 

1) Must have DUAL SOCKETS! no not support for dual core processor I am talking two physical sockets.

2) The board must support socket AM2

3) Must support DDR2 800 (please note I am not wanting to use FB dims I need to be able to use normal DDR2)

4) SATA2 I must have atleast 4 SATA ports.

5) Must have atleast 1 PCI-e slot.

6) Idealy but not essential I would like to have gigabit network capabillity on the board.

 

I was looking around but there is nothing i realy like or atleast noting in socket AM2 I have 2 4200+ processors that I need to use afterall.

[mike]

Hey,

 

Have a look at this site. Might be helpful. It's a nice little widget, which has over 1,000 boards, and you can search by specific requirements.

 

ACME Motherboard Finder

 

Hope this is of some help.

[Guest Saxon]

Useful tool mike but there was nothing there, then again there was only 1000 boards available to be searched if any one has a surgestion I would love to hear it as i don't want to have to lash out for a skull trail and new processors an ram.

[Dalo Harkin]

Saxon,

 

Have a look here - Scan.co.uk: Computer Hardware - All - Motherboards-AMD (the top 3 boards)

 

But what are you reasons for opting for a dual CPU setup as opposed to a Quad core setup?

[Guest Saxon]

No I am opting for dual socket as a performance boost, I tend to run two virtual machines at any one time and I am sick an tired of my Host an Guest OS's taking a performance hit. And I am just after a uniqe and powerful workstation. I have promised myself a dual socket workstation for some time so I decided i am going to do it.

 

I am liking the Supermicro SM-H8QM3-2 NF Scan.co.uk: Supermicro SM-H8QM3-2 NF MCP55 Pro, S F(1207), PCI-E(x16), DDR2 533/ 667 Reg. ECC, SAS/SATA RAID,

 

It would mean me having to buy myself another two processors but meh I am up for it.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Get a Skull you tight sod lol.:D:D

 

Could be future proof for quite some time.

[Guest Saxon]

Yea I guess your right, plus Skulltrail can use 3 pcie graphics cards an i was hoping to upgrade from a dual monitor to a triple monitor set up anyhow.

 

Now all i need to do is find a use for the processors i have - i am thinking file server.

[Dalo Harkin]

You must be out of your mind - I GUARANTEE that my QUAD runs faster than any of the AMD offerings that you are looking at - If you are seriously looking at something futureproof - you need to look at the INTEL route - and as for GPU's 3 GPU's offer very slight benefit over 2 -

You can get a Q6600 to 3.3GHz per core if you OC it and run it on air.

 

Save yourself a **** load of cash and go for a quad setup - dual CPU sockets have been dead for years mate.

Since the old AMD Opterons.

[Guest Saxon]

Not i my experience mate, dual socket mobo's are here to stay admittedly mostly in the server world but I am running a crap load of vertualisation. I am considering the skulltrail mobo now as it happens although this means more cost it is atleast worth it.

 

Oh an I know tripple SLI is not going to give a performance boost but I wouldnt be running SLI I would like to option to though at some point.

[Dalo Harkin]

I am still not convinced that the Price over the performance of 2 dual cores Vs a Quad and thats without the MOBO price - even if you get 2 2x3.2 chips - they still wont run as fast as a Quad @3.3 simple as that, and they use far more power.

 

whatever you decide - whack it all together and run a benchmark and then post it ;)

[Guest Saxon]

Oh no in my first post i was just being cheep an wanted to recycle some parts i have knocking about, but now that I am going with skulltrail I will be getting quads.

[Dalo Harkin]

Well if you have enough money lying around to throw at it then fairplay - but there are no OS's capable of using it till windows 7

[Guest Saxon]

Most of the X64 flavors of unix will be fine with it.

[Dalo Harkin]

lol - we will see ;)