Dual CPU

[Guest]

First post, first question.
I am weighing up the use of dual pentium or AMD CPU's to get some "longevity",and speed,compared to a single chip.
ie dual pentium 3 833 Mhz, vs single 1.0 GigHz. (would cost about the same).
Are dual motherboards available for AMD athlons.?
2.) It seems that dual CPU's work better for certain programmes (multithreaded)? , can you guys advise which programmes will run "better" on dual processors...(or not). I am aware that i need to use NT5.
I would be using an NVidia graphics chip,twin monitors (17" & 21" ) and 512 M SDRAM.
I am using Autocad, 3D graphics presentation, stockmarket trading programmes (metastock),MP3 and engineering stress analysis apps'

 

[Guest]

There is no dual-AMD motherboard available yet. Tyan will release one in late March, and other manufacturers about a month after this.

As far as 2x833 or 1x1000 PIII, I would definately choose the dual 833 if they both cost the same or were close.

You will see a speed up and more, a great increase in responsiveness if:
1.) You use programs like 3D Studio Max which support two CPU's (as much as a 90% decrease in rendering time in my experience from the 2nd CPU), or
2.) You run more than one program at once. (like if you keep IE and Outlook open while you work on another program. In this example, the OS, Outlook, and IE can operate on CPU 1 while your other program, say Autocad or Corel, operates on CPU 2 with no slow down.)

Dual CPU's are also great for SETI