Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (
More info?)
What about the gap in clock speed? Would 6 whatevers make the 146
better even for multi tasking?
Tony Hill <hilla_nospam_20@yahoo.ca> wrote in message news:<roeh70lnbapvh4gdkao7u9nhciag2kcnp6@4ax.com>...
> On 10 Apr 2004 18:15:57 -0700, harryguy082589@aol.com (Dan Irwin)
> wrote:
> >now, my next question is, am i better off with two 240s or one 146 and
> >30 more memory(i can't imagine that'll get me much but...)
>
> The answer to that is a definite "it depends".
>
> Really it could go either way depending entirely on what applications
> you use and where you feel you need the more performance. If you just
> run mainly one single-threaded application at a time, a pair of
> processors aren't going to help you much at all, the faster single
> processor will be better. If you're applications are multithreaded
> then the dual processor system should be faster.
>
> The real advantage of dual-processor workstations though is not so
> much that they are faster at finishing a single task, but rather that
> they make the machine much more responsive for multitasking. So even
> if your applications are not multithreaded and they would actually run
> a bit slower on the dual-processor machine than the faster
> single-processor setup, the dual still might be better. Since only
> one of the two processors would be used for running your application
> in the background, you've still got another processor free to continue
> working on something else in the foreground. Even if it's just
> something simple like word processing and e-mail, having a
> dual-processor machine can be better.
>
> As for the memory question issue, again it depends. More memory only
> buys your performance until you're no longer swapping. If all your
> applications run entirely from memory with 1GB of memory, going to 2GB
> of memory buys your nothing in terms of performance. On the other
> hand, if you are swapping then adding more memory HUGELY improves
> performance.
>
> -------------
> Tony Hill
> hilla <underscore> 20 <at> yahoo <dot> ca