The Guts:
Dual
1GHz Intel Pentium IIIs
$743.78 per CPU (latest price
here)
Sure AMD will beat Intel MHz for MHz in a drag race, but
AMD still
lacks the one feature that a true power user wants... SMP. Symmetric
Multi Processing is the ability for, in this case, two processors to
work in tandem to crunch operations. While AMD's newer processors
support SMP, a motherboard/chipset that supports this feature for AMD
CPUs has yet to be released to market. Realistically speaking we won't
see AMD enter into the multi-processor field until early next year. We
can only go with the 1.0GHz version of the Pentium III due to the now
infamous recall of the 1.13GHz CPU, but in this case I think we'll be
just fine.
Another consideration here is overclocking. While
overclocking is
great for getting more performance out of a CPU, overclocking PIIIs
much past 1.0GHz is pretty much futile. Since price is no object here
it's just a much safer bet to buy the more expensive processor, even if
you are paying a premium for Intel's highest clock speed CPU. In this
case we're also going for retail CPUs just because we can and aren't
concerned with saving the extra few $$s that an OEM CPU might provide.
Sure Intel's stock HSF units generally aren't the greatest performing,
but since we're going dual with Slot 1 processors, aftermarket cooling
is going to be an issue, and we're really not looking at overclocking
so stock will do just fine.
So why SMP for gaming? Well in all honesty SMP really
doesn't help you
out all that much, unless you're playing Quake III (and there are even
conflicting reports on how much that really helps as well). However,
it's safe to say that if you're dropping this kind of cash on an
ultimate gaming rig, you want it to be able to do a hell of a lot more
than just games. Hell, being able to games flawlessly while playing
mp3s, burning a CD, and compressing a massive .zip file is something
that every hardcore gamer could appreciate. Because operating systems
like Windows NT and 2000 allow you to essentially lock processes and
programs down to one CPU, you can put all your background and 'extras'
onto one CPU while devoting the other to gaming. Hell, you could even
set up a dedicated game server on one CPU, and join it running the client on the
other. In short SMP is something that can't be resisted
if money is no object, even for games. (Perhaps next time I'll go Quad
Xeon... but this time I'll be at least somewhat realistic ;p )
Next page: Motherboard/Memory/OS
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