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"hefty PCs"

What price point does the costs outweigh the specs on PCs nowadays?

SR's MAXX PCs offer a 1.7G P4 for 1199, and a 2.0G P4 for 1499, which is a pretty savage jump...

Does anyone know anything about dual processor PCs?

I'm after something REALLY substantial, but havent won the lottery yet. The 1.7G is a good price, but the PC is a bit weedy. Can I get more power out of a dual processor setup in that price range?

Going a bit OT, does anyone know about Athlon XP stepping codes? AGKGA 9, week 40...just looking for some other results.

Just to back up phil's point about Axias, my T-Bird AXIA 750 runs at 1250 without a problem apart from heat.

You gotta watch out for Dual Processor PCs. They sound great, but in practice, applications must be *specifically designed* to use both processors, you do not get a huge speed boost by simply having 2 CPUs plugged in. High-end apps like 3D packages, and even Photoshop have in-built support, but it is unlikely that you will come across many games that support more than one processor.

Also, the actual OS *MUST* support dual processors, other wise it is of no use. It used to be that Win NT supported Dual Processors, I'm not sure about what revisions of Win2K or XP support it, I'd guess that the "Professional" versions do, but make sure before you buy because if the OS doesn't recognise the extra CPUs, nothing else that you try to run will either.

Does anyone have any info on dual processors? costs, requirements, pros & cons?

Hell, if you really want hefty then get 2 MP1900+ cpus and clock them both..although that's probably a little impractical...XP1900 is the best on the market at the moment, but the XP1500s are clocking best, some reaching speeds higher than 1700s can - see if you can buy from a computer fair and choose the stepping/week.

1GHz T-Bird AXIA Y's often gave 1.5GHz - how many cpus can offer a 50% overclock out of the box, especially at those speeds..

well if you are wanting a good hefty pc i would personally go for the MAXX4D k7 1400 (soon 1600+) systems as the performance of them is better than the p4 systems also i would fit a geforce 3 vid card in it, that would be a wicked system.

C.b.

Haliminium do look kinda cool, but there aint a chance I'm paying over £200 for a case. £100 is already a lot.

Hm, I'm edging towards a halluminum case now...Lian-Li job or suchlike...however, cashflow situation may prevent this idea from developing beyond the "ooh, I like that.." stage..

Hefty PCs??? I nearly did me back in carrying my new case up the stairs!! It ways a ton!

Yes, most applications wont make use of both, and you'll need win2k.. (not sure about linux support). If you do want to do it, dual athlon systems seem to be performing very well - AthlonMP, already multiplier unlocked too, but more expensive than the XP. I only know of one dual cpu mobo, the Tyan, which is a few hundred quid in itself..

Aside from that, I'd steer you towards an AthlonXP over a P4 (see thread elsewhere in this forum for AMD/Intel argument..). Price, performance, gaming etc all seem to benefit - are you confident building a box yourself?