Let's say you wanted to build a huge-ass PhotoChop workstation, and was thinking maybe a couple quad-core Opterons might be the ticket. Just because. Looking at Tyan's dual-socket Opteron boards, I don't see any with Vista support - wanting to have 4Gb or more of RAM, Vista 64-bit would seem to be the thing... ...or should one just do XP 64-bit? Photochop and other similar stuff is all that would happen on this box.
Well IMO you would be better sticking to a faster single processor system for 2 reasons, Firstly (generally speaking) the driver support is much better (particularly for vista) and secondly with the amount you save on the motherboard and second CPU you could buy much better RAM and/or hard drives, which would give you far better performance/dollar then going dual CPU.... That said having a SMP setup is great for bragging rights *pats old Dual P2 system*
There don't seem to be drivers available on the Tyan website for their dual-socket Opteron boards... ...and as for the comment about XP 64-bit, all I have to say is that I did use it for several months and loved it...but eventually caved in and went back to 32-bit just because of driver support.
Thats the problem with it and always has been and always will be. What good is an OS if it doesn't support your hardware ? I have no driver issues with Vista Ultimate X64 so far Xp 64 lasted 2 weeks at the studio and then got send on its merry way ... I would prefer Me .. the horror
Wow... I have a Dual P3 system too, bought cheaply from an auction site. Too bad I haven't even upgraded its RAM yet. Only a meagre 256MB RAM there.
I see all kinds of dual Opteron MBs on Tyan site with Vista drivers. Many of the drivers date back to May 2007. Are you looking at a particular socket type?
