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Re: P4 VS. Athlon
Andy wrote:
> Looks like I will go with the AMD.. my next question
> would be then has anyone heard of any major problems
> with 3D software. I will be running dual boot Win2k
> and RH 7.1 because I can't get 3D Studio Max R4 for
> Linux and I don't have Maya 3.0 for Windows.
Definately go with AMD then. The FPU rocks.
There are several free 3D modeling programs. I know of two
off-hand. One is more for graphics, another for engineering.
Blender is the more graphical one and freely downloadable:
http://www.blender.nl/
BRL-CAD is CAD program and free, although you have to FAX them a
request for a key to unlock a DES enigma encrypted file:
http://ftp.arl.army.mil/brlcad/
Both support OpenGL, which means they will be hardware accelerated
under Linux if you have such hardware.
The fastest performance on Linux is available via nVidia cards, and
you would be surprised just how cheap they are. In fact, going
dual-monitor is as cheap as $100 for the video card. nVidia's
products are teired as follows currently:
Entry Consumer: GeForce2 MX [400] **
Moderate Consumer: GeForce2 / DDR
High-end Consumer: GeForce2 Ultra
Professional: Quadra2 **
** Dual Monitor Capable
The GeForce3 is starting to be available and has mixed reviews.
It's probably a killer board for more professional graphics (gaming
has been mixed). I suspect the Quadra3 and GeForce3 MX will follow
shortly. AnandTech has several discussions of this chipset:
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1426
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1442
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1470
[ The last one focuses on some of the "real-world usable
advancements" with the GeForce3 whereas the first two talk about the
architecture and performance, respectively ]
If you want to read about my exploits with a low-cost GeForce2 MX
with dual-monitors, see the following URLs:
http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/01/0015.html
http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/01/0016.html
http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/01/0017.html
http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/01/0018.html
http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/01/0019.html
http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/01/0020.html
http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/01/0029.html
^^^ This is the HOWTO for RedHat 7 systems ^^^
http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/03/0010.html
http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/03/0011.html
http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/03/0026.html
http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/03/0027.html
http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/04/0000.html
http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/04/0001.html
^^^ This (and the following 2) cover "Overclocking" ^^^
http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/04/0002.html
http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/04/0003.html
http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/04/0026.html
http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/04/0027.html
http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/2001/05/0143.html
^^^ Attempt to use the 1.0-1251 drivers ^^^
Anand's review of the latest GeForce2 MX 400 64MB product is here:
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1453
> Adam.. as far as SMP support AMD is saying their dual
> processor boards will be out Q3.
Yes. Dual-Athlon with be faster than dual-Pentium because it uses a
P2P bus of the Alpha, and not the SMP bus like Intel. The Alpha
EV6/7 actually supports upto 16 device nodes, so that means upto 14
processors (usually 8 are used, with 4 memory busses and 4 I/O
busses).
They will be more expensive though. If you want dual-processor on
Intel, don't go Intel i840 or i850 (or the new i860 for dual-P4,
although I don't think current P4s are dual rated), go ServerWorks
for dual-P3. They'll have dual boards out for P4 by year's end.
> Unfortunately I need the stuff like NOW since my
> motherboard took a nose dive and I am without a PC at
> home and they won't let me fill my PC at work with
> personal software.
The best price/performance is with the ViA KT133A chipset (note the
"A"), but the AMD 760 takes the performance crown with DDR SDRAM.
Unfortunately, the AMD 760 is in short supply and mainboards are
few, and the ALi MAGiK 1 and forthcoming KT266 are not quite up to
snuff. As such, staying with commodity KT133A chipsets may be
best. Anand did a comparison of Socket-A chipsets in April:
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1448
If you decide on the KT133A, there are dozens of boards. AnandTech
reviews several, although Tom's Hardware has a guide to 6 of them in
one article:
http://www4.tomshardware.com/mainboard/01q1/010221/index.html
He's also got a review of 3 AMD 760 boards if you can get ahold of
one:
http://www4.tomshardware.com/mainboard/01q1/010314/index.html
-- TheBS
--
Bryan J. Smith, President mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org
(407)366-7013 pager:(888)694-5793 chat:thebs413@AOL/MS/Yho
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