Building a Dual CPU mahine..Need some help from the dual CPU masters.

[buzzcut]

I am moments away from ordering my new setup and I just want to make sure I'm doing this right. This is my first dual CPU setup. I have built many single CPU setups in the past.

ASUS A7M-266-D Mother board
2 AMD 2200 MP CPU
512 MB unregistered Crucial RAM PC2100
Enermax EG465P-VE FMA (420 watt supply)

*rest of the equipment I already own*

30 GB IBM hard drive for the OP
60 GB Seagate
120 GB WD carvier
126 MB Radeon 8500
Sound Blaster live
Yamaha CD burner
Pioneer DVD A03 Burner


My question is: Should I get registered ECC RAM? I know if I get registered I can run two extra GB of RAM and I know Registered is slower than unbuffered RAM. That being said I'm only going to run 512 MB for the time being. My system is for video editing and encoding with small amount of game play and net surfing. If you have better recommendations for brand name RAM let me know

Also do I need to buy MP chip or could I use two XP chips?

If you have any advice to anything I might need know or might encounter please let me know.

Thanks sooo much

[da franksta]

crucial might not be the best choice here, although it's been fine for me. people have been having lots of problems with it (especially with the tyan mobo's). alternative like corsair should be considered.

registered is only marginally slower than unbuffered and you do NOT want to toy with the stability of your system. in a dual system i'd recommend registered memory anytime.

smp is locked in newer athlon xp's and unlocking is quite a hassle.

i never heard of a 126MB radeon8500, custom made? :D

lots of info to be found at forums.2cpu.com

cheers

[buzzcut]

Thanks, I did some home work today I decided not to get the ASUS. I'm either going to get a TYAN board or a MSI. Found the same info on the RAM so I'm going with Kingston registered.

I read all about the XP L5 mod. I must say that seems really tempting. That would save me $200. If it doesn't work then I could just eBay the CPUs. The question is are the XP and MP the same other than the cut L5. I know MP are heavily tested by AMD. I'm not sure if the mod works on Xp2200+. I would buy the MP if there was any proof that they were different chips. For AMD $100 price diff between the two is ridiculous.

No the 128 MB Radeon card isn't custom. You can find it anywhere.

[da franksta]

120 GB WD carvier
126 MB Radeon 8500
Sound Blaster live

just making a little fun of your typo :p

[Defiler]

Go for the L5 mod. Also, you may want to consider spending the money you save on Samsung registered PC2700, since that appears to be what the Hammer motherboards will use. That way you can keep your memory when you upgrade to an x86-64 machine next year.

[Iznobad]

The L5 mod is easy, you just need some conductive paint such as a rear window defogger repair kit. Use one of the guides on the net, they've got pictures and stuff.

I've done it successfully on a 1800+ palomino and also a 1800+ thoroughbred.

For ram you should probably use registered ECC ram instead of what ever you were buying. Apparently the MPX boards are touchy about ram, I've got a regular stick in my setup too, and I think it would be more stable with ECC ram

For power your enermax choice might be enough, but if it were me, I'd go even higher. Antec True550 shoud be good, but the PC Power and Cooling 510ATX is even better. Check the power supply and make sure it has a lot of power on the +12V rail (the one that the cpus and drives use), say around 30A or more.

[Defiler]

Whoa. Major thread resurrection. Heh.

[Iznobad]

Hehe, Yeah I only noted the dates after I'd posted :)

I just bought my own rig recently so that's why I was interested

/Iz