When AMD launched the Opteron back in the spring of 2003 there were a number of workstation reviews comparing it against Intel?s Xeon, but after the initial launch we?ve not seen a tremendous amount of coverage on the 2P possibilities of AMD?s latest 64-bit chip, or a comprehensive report on how it compares against Intel?s recently-released Xeon 3.2 GHz processors.  The market has changed since Opteron appeared, with both faster versions of that CPU available and more affordable motherboards in the market so it makes sense to return to the topic and examine how various dual CPU systems stack up against both each other and the best single processor systems available today.

This is an article designed for the professional workstation user considering a high-end investment in a modern system.  We?ll be weighing the value of two high-end single-CPU configurations as well, in order to examine the situations in which a second CPU is valuable?and in which it is not.

The Contenders:

 

 

The following is a short synopsis of each system we?ll be testing?more detailed configuration information and specific platform reviews are available deeper in the review.  For those of you who only want the short and sweet version, here it is:

2x Barton 2800+ (MSI K7-Master-L):  Our first dual-CPU system is based on the now-classic AMD 760MPX chipset.  A highly competitive performer when it first arrived on the market, the MPX hasn?t been updated since debuting in the summer of 2001.  At 2 ? years old, its age is showing in a number of places, including the 266 MHz FSB of these processors, their restriction to a single channel of 266 MHz DDR memory, and no Serial ATA support.  The AthlonMP 2800+, therefore, is the CPU most-likely to be bottle-necked by the performance of its platform.  The main strength of this system is its price?two Barton 2800+?s can be had for half the cost of a single Xeon 3.2 or Opteron 248.

2x Opteron 246 (MSI K8T Master2-FAR):  Our dual Opteron 246 configuration is built on MSI?s  K8T Master2-FAR (which, as the name implies, is built using VIA?s K8T800 chipset.  This chipset for the modern AMD dual CPU offers everything the elderly 760MPX does not, specifically SATA / SATA RAID, DDR400 support, USB 2.0 support, and AGP 8X.  While not technically a ?full server? board (it offers its Opteron CPU?s only a single double-wide RAM channel, and lacks PCI-X or 64-bit PCI support), it?s an excellent workstation or mid-range server platform, and is relatively inexpensive.

2x Opteron 248 (MSI):  We?ve also tested the Opteron 248 (running at 2.2 GHz, same as the FX-51) on the same MSI platform. 

2x Xeon 3.2 GHz w/ 1 meg L2 Cache (IWILL DPI533):  We tested Intel?s new Xeon 3.2 GHz chips on IWILL?s DP533 motherboard based on the E7505 chipset.  This is the workstation / server version of the E7205 Granite Bay chipset that Intel launched roughly a year ago, and feature-wise it?s between the 760MPX and MSI K8T800.  Like the MPX, the E7505 uses DDR266, but it provides two channels of memory bandwidth, not just one, for a total of 4.3 GB/s of memory bandwidth.  Although we used the same SATA stand-alone card for the Barton system and this one, this particular board IS available in a SATA configuration. 

This board and the MSI K8T800 are targeted at essentially the same market area?the workstation / server market where 32-bit PCI is sufficient for performance.  Both are high-end workstation products and offer quite a lot of horsepower for the cost (relative to other server boards). 

Single CPU Configurations:

We?ve also included two single CPU configurations for buyers curious about how much of an impact a second CPU offers. 

Athlon FX-51 (ASUS SK8N):  We tested an Athlon 64 FX-51 in the same nForce3 SK8N board that we used for our original review.  The FX-51 is identical to the Opteron 248?same speed, same 1 meg of L2 cache.  The only difference between the two chips (other than cost) is that the Opteron 248 allows SMP operation?the FX-51 does not.

Pentium 4 3.2 GHz ?Extreme Edition? (Intel 875PBZ):  This is the same P4 3.2EE that Intel introduced last fall, with a 2 meg L3 cache and running at 3.2 GHz based on the Northwood core.  As an adapted high-end server chip, the P4EE is the highest-end ?desktop? processor Intel currently offers and, when mated with the company?s high-performing Canterwood chipset, offers formidable performance.  Although dual Xeon has the advantage of an extra processor, the Canterwood platform gives the P4 much higher memory bandwidth as well as PAT and integrated SATA support.

next >

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• Platform Costs (1 of 15)
• Opteron Platform: K8T Master2 (2 of 15)
• K8T Master2 Distinguishing Features (3 of 15)
• Xeon Platform Details: IWILL DPI533 (4 of 15)
• IWILL DPI533 Distinguishing Features (5 of 15)
• System Configuration, Office Performance (6 of 15)
• Office Performance, Cont. (7 of 15)
• Synthetic Tests (8 of 15)
• Synthetic Tests Cont. (9 of 15)
• Encoding: Flask, XMpeg, MainConcept (10 of 15)
• Encoding: WMP 9, Pinnacle 8.1 (11 of 15)
• Modeling: POV-Ray, Cinebench, Kribi (12 of 15)
• 3DS Max, Amorph, LW 7.5b, PS7 (13 of 15)
• Performance Analysis (14 of 15)
• Analysis Continued, Conclusion (15 of 15)