[mythtv-users] SMP Performance

[Brian Wood]

On Dec 11, 2006, at 11:09 AM, Greg Grotsky wrote:

> On 12/11/06, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
> A discussion of overclocking belongs elsewhere in the main, but I
> suspect I am not alone in having a working SD system but wanting to
> look into HD for the future.
>
> In that regard a discussion of CPUs is relevant, and I just wanted to
> point out that the Opteron series is often overlooked because they
> are "server" chips (whatever that means).
>
> The results posted here by many folks about success or failure to
> playback HD well seem very inconsistent, I suspect because there are
> so many unreported variables such as what else is running, what
> window manager/desktop, what resolution, what if any de-interlacing,
> and many other factors.
>
> But a lot of folks seem to *almost* be able to playback HD, and for
> them a mild OC (perhaps 10%) might make the difference between
> working well and not.
>
> For the record my 3200+ is not overclocked.  I'm running as  
> advertised and HD is no problem.  I was thinking about the  
> possiblity of running an Opteron, but like you eluded to, it's not  
> clear what exactly is better for specfic applications: Opteron or  
> Athlon64.


Shouldn't that be "alluded to" ? I'm not trying to escape anything :-)

You have to look at the core type, as as well as the cache size. I  
also think that the Opterons don't support PowerNow, which might be  
important to somebody trying to build a quiet machine.

Most Opterons are Socket 940, to allow for multiple CPUs on one  
motherboard (it's more complex than that but you get the idea I  
hope). The 165 is described as a "single CPU solution", hence the 939- 
pin socket.

Most socket 940 mobos are designed for servers and thus have things  
like 64-bit PCI slots for RAID cards, SCSI controllers and sometimes  
very basic graphics (who needs fast graphics on a server?).

The 939-pin Opterons are sort of a mixed breed, but can be useful for  
some applications.


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