Hyperthreading chips....are they worth that much more???

[Testosterone boy]

I like to wait 3 years between computer purchases but these new hyperthreading chips sound potent as hell.

I have a Pentium 1.7 with 512 of RAM and dilly with Photoshop quite often.

But I use my lap top 1/2 the time and it is only a year old and slightly faster as well with 768 MB of DDR RAM.

On the other hand, if I wait several months I can be assured of getting a faster DVD-R/+R burner and this is attractive as I do professional video for people who may have a dvd-r or may have a dvd+r player.

What is the inside scoop?

 

[juiceddreadlocks]

interesting. good stuff.

 

[Code]

I don't think the average end-user will see much benefit from hyperthreading unless you are routinely pushing the envelope of your machine.

 

[Dial_tone]

It's only worth the money if you're running a DB server; for other things it's actually slower. I have a dual Xeon 1.8ghz so it's 4 processors. I don't feel much boost at all but chicks dig SMP.

 

[Lestat]

just hold off... the prices will come down and the technology will get even better.. if your current computer is still fine, don't waste the money yet.

 

[Testosterone boy]

It's only worth the money if you're running a DB server; for other things it's actually slower. I have a dual Xeon 1.8ghz so it's 4 processors. I don't feel much boost at all but chicks dig SMP.

What is a DB server and what is a SMP?

If SMP means Small Male Penis then I beg to differ.

 

[OMGWTFBBQ]

What is a DB server and what is a SMP?

If SMP means Small Male Penis then I beg to differ.

database server and DB server are the same. Elite has at least one database server.

SMP is something like symmetric multi-processing or something - it just means that you have more than one processor in the system that can access memory and the bus in parallel.

I have used HT (hyperthreading) - we have it in our new mail server.
It is really nothing at all to get excited about.

You are far better off getting something with a larger on chip cache. (L1 cache, second best is a large L2 cache, and then L3 is technically not on chip at all and you rarely even hear it mentioned anymore).

 

[supersizeme]

 

[OMGWTFBBQ]

Incidentally, SMP and HT are different. HyperThreading on the chip doesn't make it like a dual processor machine.
A dual processor machine is about 1.75-1.9 times as fast as a single.

A HT processor is about 1.25-1.5 times as fast as a single processor (it is a single physical processor, but on the chip is what is different).

You can only have an even number of processors.

XP Home won't allow multiple processors, and XP Pro will at least allow 2 processors - not sure if it will let you do 4.
But once you get to 4 or more processors, they start costing insane amounts. At that point you are better off with the blade based systems.

 

[supersizeme]

.

 

[Testosterone boy]

Say what? I see a red x.