Server with 2x cpu ?

[munken]

Hi all.

Im currently thinking of making a server with 2 x cpu (amd mp 2400+) and 1 Gb of RAM, but before I start the buying my question is!

Can HL / HL 2 use the second cpu or is it just a waste of my money ?

Thx
Munken / Monks

 

[RoyalEF]

mostly a waste of your money. If your system has real concurrent processes that demand CPU then you get benefit. Mostly people don't peg their one CPU for more than seconds at a time. Multi-CPU setups are ideal with multi-threaded or multi-cpu aware applications that consume a great deal of cpu regularly. While HL2 might have multiple threads that could be dispersed over multiple cpus in WinXP I doubt you would see an advantage since games tax video card more than cpu.

 

[magnetmannen]

well hes making a server , not a gaming rig, so his videocard doesnt matter.

however i have read that halflife will not come out in a linux version, and that it does not support multiple cpus, so sorry i dont think the server will run that mush faster than any other, however it might run smoother as any systemprogs can utilise the free cpu and let hl2 run alone undisturbed.

 

[munken]

Thx for the answer... I'll buy a amd 64bit cpu instead of the 2 md cpu's. Valve said something about HL2 would support 64bit or is my facts wrong ?

 

[TheOtherDude]

...however it might run smoother as any systemprogs can utilise the free cpu and let hl2 run alone undisturbed.

Not necessarily...

The low priority software most of us run in the background that would normally wait for the high priority apps to finish will execute on the second CPU. This can actually slow your primary app down by stealing its memory bandwidth, HD time, network, ect. This is especially a problem with SMT.

I'll buy a amd 64bit cpu instead of the 2 md cpu's. Valve said something about HL2 would support 64bit or is my facts wrong ?

Good decision.

Valve has promised a 64-bit HL2 but I wouldn't be surprised if it is no faster than the 32-bit version. Anyway, the A64 should perform well with either the 32 or 64 bit version.

 

[Asus]

It would be a good choice to go with Opterons not as much because of the 64bit but rather just how the system works with memory and overall as a server.

Now if you had 2 servers running on that PC then it could use the 2nd CPU.
The box we run is a dual CPU Athlon MP and we have 4-6 HL servers running on it.

 

[munken]

Well then its settled. It's gonna be the amd64, dont have the cash to buy a opteron but the amd64 3400+ or 3200+ could do the job

 

[jonbob]

Or you could just go the whole hog and buy a quad Xeon system.

 

[Asus]

Or you could just go the whole hog and buy a quad Xeon system.

Actually it would be a quad opteron system...

 

[mrchimp]

The full hog would be a 16 x opteron CPU cluster...

BTW does anyone hear know how much upload bandwidth you need to run a 32 player server?

 

[munken]

not sure about the bandwidth but they said they done some real work on the netcode so I dont think it will be much more then the dod and cs servers use today.... thats mo