Computer Systems II

[Phil Ferguson]

I realize that this topic may have come up in previous threads but considering that workstation technology changes so often, I would like to get some opinions based on current knowledge.

Our company uses Dell workstations and has for about the last 4-5 years. While our workstations tend to fall into the 'low-end' of workstation class computers I am curious about a few things...

- What might be the advantage of a Xeon processor -vs- a P4 of the same rated clock speed?

- Price-wise a P4 EM64T 3.40Ghz with 2Mb L2/L3? cache is the same price as a P4 EM64T 3.60Ghz with 1Mb L2/L3? cache. Which is better...faster processor or more cache?

We use Land Desktop/Civil Design/Survey 2005 on Win XP Pro

[Glenn Pope]

Price-wise a P4 EM64T 3.40Ghz with 2Mb L2/L3? cache is the same price as a P4 EM64T 3.60Ghz with 1Mb L2/L3? cache. Which is better...faster processor or more cache?
The bigger cache size will make a pretty good increase in speed. Which probably lets the 3.4Ghz compete with the 3.6Ghz. You will probably get the same amount of performance out of both chips. The reason they are priced the same.

[robert.1.hall72202]

Vs a pentium 4 I have had better luck with the Xeon computer I have now.
The pentium 4 used to get bogged down with certain data files.......from what
I understand the Xeon is a 64 bit processor. Im doing the same work with less
hiccups/crashing on larger file sizes.

[RobertAitken]

The Xeon may be 64bit but eh OS is still 32bit so it doesn't get used to it's full potential. M$ are working on beta copies of XP64. You'll have to have a search for the link to download it though.

Pity Acad doesn't run on Linux. There's a couple of 64bit Linuxes (???) out there.

Robert Aitken

PS there's lots of articles saying the AMD have a speed advantage over Intel in CAD use.

[paddymackey]

Older 130nm Xeon chips 32 bit. The new 90nm chips are 64 bit. They're basically the same as the P4 chips (with some exceptions like memory required, bus sppeds etc), but they come with a lot more cache on-board. The Xeon MP comes with up to 8 Meg L3 cache. Standard P4 chips don't have any L3 cache.