Multi CPUs

[randycw]

Okay this is a simple question for some of you: can you do dual processor with the older T-Birds or must you have the new SMP rated ones?

I currently have a 1GHz 200FSB that I thought I would find a new home (motherboard) with a friend (2nd 1GHz CPU).

[Rick_Deadly]

Not a silly question, because it's not a fully tested theory yet. Supposedly any Athlon/Duron will work in an SMP setup, but the Athlon MP has some extra addressing that speeds up a multiprocessor system a bit.

I think it was Sharky extreme that showed the benchmarks for the following dual setups:

Athlon MP
Athlon
Xeon
Duron
PIII
------
Celeron

All the AMD CPUs were run on the Tyan K7 Thunder of course. If you find the article, you'll see why I put them in that order :)

[HomeLAN]

I just built a dualie system for a friend using 2 1.2 normal T-birds. It works fine.

Watch out for that Tyan mobo, though. There's a misprint in the manual for the jumper settings on the FSB. Download the addendum from Tyan's site. Also, immediately upgrade to BIOS 2.06. The one that came on the board was crap.

After you take care of those 2 issues, the board runs great.

[Medic193]

OK so you can use non MP cpu's. How about another stupid question. Can the cpu's be different speeds? And if so, can one be a non-mp and another be an MP?

[HomeLAN]

I believe that'll work, but both CPU's will run at the slower speed. Seems like a bit of a waste, to me.

[zhotfire]

Originally posted by HomeLAN
I believe that'll work, but both CPU's will run at the slower speed. Seems like a bit of a waste, to me.
I think that would be a little too wonkers if the fsb or mulitpliers could be set individually... unless it was a dual bus board(do they exist?) :eek:

[pelligrini]

Originally posted by Medic193
OK so you can use non MP cpu's. How about another stupid question. Can the cpu's be different speeds? And if so, can one be a non-mp and another be an MP?

In my experience with Intel MP systems and from what I've read, it's not a good idea to mix different speed processors. More than likely you will encounter stability issues. It can be done, but the chips need to have the same voltage requirements. Most mobos can't provide different voltages for each chip.

[HomeLAN]

The way the Tyan Thunder K7 is set up, both CPU's MUST run on the same FSB (either 100 or 133, forget any other options). So, if you pop a 1.2 266 FSB in there and pair it with a 1.333, you're going to end up running 2 1.2's at 133 FSB.

At least that's what was happening when the test boards were being reviewed. Since I haven't personally tried this, I could, as always, be wrong. :D

[Dustin]

Originally posted by Medic193
OK so you can use non MP cpu's. How about another stupid question. Can the cpu's be different speeds? And if so, can one be a non-mp and another be an MP?


They are going to both need to be either Tbirds, or Palominos. I can't see this working with mixed cores. That's like trying to run a celeron, and a PIII on the same board together.

[wbierman]

Their stepping needs to be identical! They need to be from the same batch. Same is true for Intel but with some leeway in no more than 2 steps apart.

[siggy]

Same problem with knitting. If you do get the same dye lot. Look out.:)