Couple of other hardware related questions

[Hansika]

What is the difference between e.g. PC3200, PC3700 DDR Memory?

How important is a good motherboard? Will a cheap one (as long as it supports the following) that can support a good processor, lots of memory cut it?

Is it worth getting dual processor motherboards and fitting two processors to effectively double your processing capacity, or are such motherboards only for programs designed to use this feature? (i.e. won't help me for most applications)

What so special about Intel Xeon processors?

[TippeX]

Originally Posted by Hansika

What is the difference between e.g. PC3200, PC3700 DDR Memory?

the speed (mhz) they run at...

How important is a good motherboard? Will a cheap one (as long as it supports the following) that can support a good processor, lots of memory cut it?

generally cheap motherboards are that.. cheap and nasty, its best buying a decent one...

Is it worth getting dual processor motherboards and fitting two processors to effectively double your processing capacity, or are such motherboards only for programs designed to use this feature? (i.e. won't help me for most applications)

not really, a few years ago the answer would probably be yes, but now with processors being > 2 cores (i7 for example, AMD phenom as another example)
there's little or no point in buying a board that supports dual processors etc...

overall, the choice of chip and board is the deciding factor.. i tend to go for amd chips and asus motherboards, but thats just a personal choice..

What so special about Intel Xeon processors?

nothing, they're old now... have been for a while...

hopefully dabhand will chip in here and give some recommendations (or correct me)...

and my suspicions about you being a bot are about 75% positive...
also, please don't use your signature for advertising, i edited it, feel free to change it but do NOT put in links or adverts...

[DABhand]

Yeah lol

Ill come save you :P nahh only joking

Xeon CPU's have been around the block for a while, and they still make them for latest CPU's but the architecture is old.

Go for Core 2 cpu's and if your flush for cash (i.e. rich) go for the Core i7's.

Dual/Quad Motherboards are only really ideal for servers on so forth, no use for a home PC unless your a professional in programming or multimedia designing (animation etc), otherwise the processors would sit and be wasted without getting used.

[TippeX]

ah, an intel fan i guess /me waves his amd + nvidia flags

[Joe Forster/STA]

TippeX, please, be my guest: http://sta.c64.org/pics.html

[DABhand]

Nahh im AMD too TippeX, but I have to be neutral because I run a business and have to give the good and bads of each processor to customers :P

And always Nvidia GPU's. ATI were on the right track until AMD bought them out, then its been downhill.

[Luciel]

I´ve seen a lot of people going for xeon recently with a dual cpu mobo and then going quad sli with it, apparently they work togueter quite well, any feedback on this dabhand? i haven´t had any clients that ordered this so i haven´t had a chance to try it out.

[DABhand]

When you Quad SLI, the speed of all GPU's drops, but Tri-SLI the speed stays at 16x.

Unfortunately most people think oooooh a 4 PCI-e 2.0 slot motherboard, mine will be the most powerful, then they find out its not :P

The best thing with a 4 way, is to have 3 SLI'd and one not, the single one can be used for a 2nd monitor which can be used for everyday normal stuff, while the triple sli can concentrate on gaming.

[Luciel]

What i have found is that when people i´ve known to go Quad SLI is that the use dual gpu graphic cards like the 9800GX2 on 2 x PCI-E ports, apparently this way it does not slow down, of course the choice in graphic cards gets very limited then, i think in modern terms aside from the mentioned one, one of the gtx cards is dual gpu cored? dunno havent really installed anything gtx further from 260

[DABhand]

Originally Posted by Luciel

What i have found is that when people i´ve known to go Quad SLI is that the use dual gpu graphic cards like the 9800GX2 on 2 x PCI-E ports, apparently this way it does not slow down, of course the choice in graphic cards gets very limited then, i think in modern terms aside from the mentioned one, one of the gtx cards is dual gpu cored? dunno havent really installed anything gtx further from 260

Thats a myth.

The bus speed is 16x.

Some Quad-sli actually drop to 4x, others 8x.

No matter if its Dual GPU's or not, the bus speed if quad-sli'd will drop lower than 16x for both GPU's on each card. It doesnt work like 2 dual must mean 2x8 speed.. its still 8 speed

[Luciel]

Originally Posted by DABhand

Thats a myth.

The bus speed is 16x.

Some Quad-sli actually drop to 4x, others 8x.

No matter if its Dual GPU's or not, the bus speed if quad-sli'd will drop lower than 16x for both GPU's on each card. It doesnt work like 2 dual must mean 2x8 speed.. its still 8 speed

But how does that make sense? why does it slow down?

[Joe Forster/STA]

Lack of bus bandwidth?