Why should I NOT get a dual CPU system

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jjdynomite

New Member
Aug 11, 2016
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I am thinking about getting a dual CPU workstation. Other than additional cost why else shouldn't I get this system? Will I run into things I cannot do because I have 2 CPU's? I understand the pros (more power!) but what are the cons?

I will be running Windows 10 Pro and Ubuntu 16.04.
 

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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You also generally have lower single threaded performance in addition to having to deal with QPI. You will also have higher idle power consumption although that is mitigated with V3/ V4 chips.

I have been using dual CPU workstations for a long time now. This is my latest: My May 2015 Workstation Build
 

William

Well-Known Member
May 7, 2015
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Agreed with Patrick.

In addition some programs are not NUMA aware and will not run or you have to play some funny games to get them to work. Most of those issues are with games tho.

It's best to do some research of the apps you want to use and see if they benefit from dual cpu's. Example is some video encoding software apps prefer GPU's to do the crunching and gain little performance advantages with many cores.

All in all tho they are powerful systems.

I have run dual cpu rigs many times, gone back to singles and now going back to a dualie very soon.
 

fractal

Active Member
Jun 7, 2016
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Lemme see. Multi-socket systems frequently cost more to build, cost more to operate and cost more to license. They are often well suited to running multiple concurrent applications and as such make good servers. They rarely run normal desktop software faster than a single socket desktop processor.

There, of course, exceptions to every portion of what I said.

I have run multi socket desktops in the past. I don't any more. I focus on noise and power efficiency for the workstation near me. I will power up the multi-socket server in the other room if I need to crunch some serious numbers.
 

wildpig1234

Well-Known Member
Aug 22, 2016
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The advantage of having dual CPU usually outweigh single CPU significantly when you have any app that's fully multithread. If you ever run anything similar to y cruncher for pi calculation, a dual socket will handily beat out a single consumer i7 for much less price. I have a workstation with 2x x5550 cpu which is really old but it beats out the single i7-2600k by a good margin on that app. depend on your budget, the sweet spot is probably somewhere between a dual x5650 and dual e5-2670..
 
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