Dual PIII vs Athlon XP

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

I currently have the second rig in my sig as a server (WHS), but since of late it has been running very warm and causing me to wonder how efficient it is. Also it gets a bit laggy during file transferes and Unraring files. Is a Dual PIII (1 GHZ) a better option?

Power Usage is a BIG concern.

[NinkobEi]

two procs are usually better than one...but if I had to guess I would say that they are close in performance to each other. of course I'm sure you want a real answer and this post is of absolutely no help, so sorry in advance.

[Mussels]

depends on the clocks. If they are tualatin cores, the speed is actually quite nice. Please keep in mind that memory speed will also play a big part here, in rar/unraring operations.

If you had some money, i'd sell that rig off (the core parts at least) and grab a cheapo core 2 system - i can get core 2 office systems (E2160, 1GB ram, 80GB sata drive, onboard vid/sound/lan + case PSU etc) for $400 au - i'm sure you could build one yourself for less, and one of those rigs will happily crunch rars all day long, whilst remaining quite power efficient.

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

I wanted to keep something legacy ... remind me of my past :)

plus i want minimum energy usage.

[Mussels]

_FBi;794199']I wanted to keep something legacy ... remind me of my past :)

plus i want minimum energy usage.

yeah but legacy contradicts your power usage concern.

A low power CPU (AMD or intel, they both have fast dual cores with low power consumption for <$80) with DDR2 (low power, cheap) and all onboard features (grab a matx board, to save a few watts more) will do a great job.

That or a laptop - my P3 1Ghz uses 20-25W surfing the web, and around 40W to watch avi files :D If you can score a laptop with say, a broken screen or keyboard for cheap, you got a small, portable server with great power efficiency and battery backup!

[marsey99]

if you want somthing legacy m8 turn it into a media player, your home server needs to be on 24/7 and you dont want to have to wait beacuse its a bit laggy.

you could build a cheap c2d/am2 setup for about £250 that would be plenty as a whs and you would still have the nostalgic media centre too.

as for the xp vs dc p3 i think it would depend on what it was doing, most software now is starting to support the multi core setups so the slower p3s may win in a few test but the raw speed of the xp would win in those that dont.

[hat]

Why not just get a cooler for it if you're concerned about heat? Run a temp monitoring program to be sure first though.

Dual PIIIs would be faster but if energy usage is a concern stick with a single proc system.

[eidairaman1]

yeah but legacy contradicts your power usage concern.

A low power CPU (AMD or intel, they both have fast dual cores with low power consumption for <$80) with DDR2 (low power, cheap) and all onboard features (grab a matx board, to save a few watts more) will do a great job.

That or a laptop - my P3 1Ghz uses 20-25W surfing the web, and around 40W to watch avi files :D If you can score a laptop with say, a broken screen or keyboard for cheap, you got a small, portable server with great power efficiency and battery backup!

i dunno about power consumption, as i noticed on the PSU calculator, my machine draws about 378 watts with what is in it right now, overclocked.

[Mussels]

i dunno about power consumption, as i noticed on the PSU calculator, my machine draws about 378 watts with what is in it right now, overclocked.

those things are wildly innacurate - try seeing what my system uses in one of those tools, a wall meter says its about 200W at idle, and 320W at load (current setup, 1x HDD)

My system dropped 50W of power when i moved from a powerstream 520W to this gameXstream, the efficiency of a PSU matters severely - upgrading the PSU in his athlon XP system and getting a new CPU cooler may well fix all his problems at once.

[Luke]

i have a server with 2x PIII 800mhz cpu's and it is not that great i suggests the E2160 system still need to get mussels to test my server for power draw

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

Hmm ... thinking about anearthwatts cause i cant understand how the exterior of my case is so hot.

[Solaris17]

i can tell you straight up my A XP 2800+ bleed heat like it was built to do it..it was rediculous. my case on the outside would be warm to the touch because it thought it would be a grat idea to change carriers after i got it and become a toster oven.

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

Im really not feeling this generic PSU i got.

[niko084]

Dual procs are nice in a server, but if you can get Dual Athlon MPs :)

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

hmmm ... http://www.wheelsjamaica.com/wheels_forum/Smileys/default/scettico.gif

[eidairaman1]

those things are wildly innacurate - try seeing what my system uses in one of those tools, a wall meter says its about 200W at idle, and 320W at load (current setup, 1x HDD)

My system dropped 50W of power when i moved from a powerstream 520W to this gameXstream, the efficiency of a PSU matters severely - upgrading the PSU in his athlon XP system and getting a new CPU cooler may well fix all his problems at once.

I have a 500 watt Antec Neo HE in this one, does job fine for what i have, Also my CPU runs at a chill 25 Idle, goes to about 32 Loaded, that is not a temp reading from a sensor on the mobo but a direct shot on the CPU below the cooler, so the cooler is doing its job.

[JrRacinFan]

Dual procs are nice in a server, but if you can get Dual Athlon MPs :)

Or Semprons and L5 bridge mod them for MP capable! :D

[eidairaman1]

Fab51 is a good place to go for mods like that.

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

where could ifind a dual athlon board for CHEAP!

[JrRacinFan]

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-MSI-K7D-Master-L-Dual-Athlon-MP-mobo-send-by-EMS_W0QQitemZ330236588490QQihZ014QQcategoryZ44941Q QssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Here's the same including dual 1800's
http://cgi.ebay.com/MSI-Motherboard-with-Dual-AMD-1800-CPU-Combo_W0QQitemZ360051550290QQihZ023QQcategoryZ4494 1QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[lemonadesoda]

The tualatin P3s (with an -S at the end) have a fat cache and other smal optimisations. They make great desktop or server CPUs. And a "classic". 2 P3-S's would provide more than enough server power for email, fileserver, webserver, etc. BUT if you want to have server services like OCR or server based MP3 or DivX encoding, then a single Core2 will beat it.

[EnglishLion]

You need to decide whether power consumption or performance is your goal. My P3 server draws 24W while idle (measured at mains) which is great but then all I'm asking of it is to be frugle and quiet and to store a few files. It's not expected to do any compression I do that on my client PCs.

I like the idea suggested earlier of picking up a cheap laptop and using that, or building based on laptop parts.