Korean Job Discussion Forums

[the_beaver]

Okay, so the time is getting nearer to my building my new machine and I'm still a little lost.

First, will a board like this one. work with just one processor installed or do I need two from the get go? How much better performance can I expect with an AMD Opteron dual-core processor (or with two) plugged in?

There are only 4 RAM slots in the board so I can probably get 8 gigs of RAM, but if I wanted more is it possible (I probably won't want more, but just curious)? Can I plug my old PATA drives into this board somehow? Like the RAM, there are only 4 card slots, which is fine for the old mobos, but with a PCIe board there are theoretically no restrictions on how many cards I can plug in -- how do I do this?

[the_beaver]

Anybody?

[Pangit]

Sorry, beaver, I think your link is out of date. I checked the URL, though, and I'm assuming that you're referring to the MSI K8T Master2 motherboard. Please tell me if I'm assuming incorrectly.

Anyway, what kind of supercomputing do you need two Opterons for with more than 8GB of RAM?

The MSI specifications for the board are on the following page, which says that the boards only handle 2GB of RAM:

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/server/svr/pro_svr_detail.php?UID=484

There's conflicting info with this page that says your board handles 8GB:

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/server/svr/pro_svr_detail.php?UID=484

I don't think the chipset on your board can handle any more than 8GB. Both pages concur that there is no PCIe on board.

[wuzza]

You are either completely paranoid about future-proofing your computer, or you are planning to lauch space shuttles from your living room.

Even if you are doing high-res video editing, then you don't need that kind of power, and to be honest, I don't think it would do you any good. You'd be much better off investing in a dedicated system like a Silicon Graphics Workstation or even a top end Mac.

I know from building systems of my own in the past that the temptation is to buy EVERYTHING, but you have to relax and think about what you need the system to do for you. Maybe you'd be better spending the RAM money on a faster hard drive or a bigger LCD monitor, whatever. I presume that you don't have an infinite budget.

I know this doesn't help with your initial questions, but I would ask you if you are asking the right questions.

If you really need dedicated hardware advice, I would recommend www.anandtech.com and click on the forums there.
There are some serious guys there who will tell you what BRAND of RAM works best with your MB, HD etc. That is more important if you want to get the best performance out of each individual component, and avoid resource hogging/conflicts etc.

Good luck, and post the specs when you get it done!

[the_beaver]

Thanks for the info -- I appreciate it.