1 or 2 processors?

[Prof. Jerry Place]

   I've been running a dual-SMP Linux system for over two years.  I have
older PII 350 MHz processors.  I would not do SMP again for a
workstation.  It's just too hard to get things to work together well and
with an 850 MHz or 1 GHz processor, the complexity of SMP is really not
worth it and I do a great deal of computationally intense work with
simulation and analytic models.  I'm currently running 2.2.12 and I
understand that the 2.4 kernels are much more efficient in SMP mode.  
My Linux distribution is Caldera's 2.3.

   My home system is a 750 MHz with 384 Mb memory and a 32 Gb IDE drive
and it's all I'll ever need.  I'd spend the premium you'd pay for a good
SMP board on more memory.  If you do decide to get an SMP system, use
great care in choosing the board.  Some are much better than others.
Sorry, but I don't have any URL's to pass on but there has been a great
deal of analysis done about SMP Linux systems and a simple net search on
SMP Linux should point you in the right direction.  Do your homework
thoroughly before you buy.

					-- Jerry Place
					-- CSTP

On Thu, 7 Dec 2000, Mickey Newman wrote:

> Have some questions about performance and cpu's.  Any help would be
> appreciated.
> 
> I am getting ready to build a new(er) pc to use at home to
> completely switch to linux.  Will run RH 7.0.  My question is about
> cpu and the combinations.  For the price of getting 1 PIII or equiv.
> I can get a dual PII (450 or so and possibly xeon).  Which would be
> more efficent or faster?  Dual PII's or single PIII?  I would be
> buying a board that would support dual PIII's for when the price
> comes down.
> 
> Any help would be appreciated.
> 
> Mickey
> 
> 
>