Opteron dual/ dual core rig anyone?

R
Posted By
Richard
Nov 14, 2005
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295
Replies
5
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Closed
I have in the last few days run this question over on the comp.publish.prepress NG but had very little response so as I need to move on this project very soon am taking the liberty of trying here also.

I’m looking for some advise and feedback from others who may have dipped their toes in the Opteron pond. I’m looking to putting together rather than buying a dual, dual core Opteron rig for heavy duty Photoshop work with file sizes going up to several gigs at times. In the past we have always used Matrox cards and have been well pleased with them but what would be the best graphics card to use in this planned rig?

As far as the basics are concerned it will use the fastest Seagate SCSI drives with one dedicated to OS, one for paging file, one for PS scratch drive, one for work in progress and something large and slower and cheaper for longer term storage. Yes plenty of ram and the expectation of using a software ram drive to provide a very fast small initial PS scratch drive. Likely MB will be the Tyan Thunder with SCSI on board.

Are there going to be driver problems trying to run on a 64 bit OS at this time or is it best to stick to 32 bit? All advise welcome and no we want to stick with PC’s for the heavy lifting here<G>

Cheers

Richard
—
Richard K
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Henrik Tived
Nov 15, 2005
Hi Richard,

I recently build a Dual processor Opteron, though haven’t jumped for the dual core yet, so I am only using two 250’s
it is build soly to be my digital darkroom. using it on a Tyan S2895 w/scsi u320 I have some 15k seagates disks in 36, 73 and 300Gb
dual graphics cards in my case two Nvidia Quadro FX 3400. and 8gb of ecc ram.
running windows xp x64

it has been rock solid, though I have only used it for batch processing, as there currently are no color calibration software available for win xp x64, though GretagMacBeth, should have some in the new year (keeping my fingers crossed 🙂 )

I am hoping to upgrade sometime in the new year to dual core, though the machine seems very smooth as it is.

I have, drivers for everything now, execpt to the above.

I probably jumped for it a bit too fast, and paid a premium

but it is a great beast 🙂

cheers

Henrik

PS: I have two Dell 2405FPW 24′ screens connected as well
R
Richard
Nov 16, 2005
In his posting of Tue, 15 Nov 2005, Henrik Tived writes
Hi Richard,

I recently build a Dual processor Opteron, though haven’t jumped for the dual core yet, so I am only using two 250’s
it is build soly to be my digital darkroom. using it on a Tyan S2895 w/scsi u320 I have some 15k seagates disks in 36, 73 and 300Gb
dual graphics cards in my case two Nvidia Quadro FX 3400. and 8gb of ecc ram.
running windows xp x64

it has been rock solid, though I have only used it for batch processing, as there currently are no color calibration software available for win xp x64, though GretagMacBeth, should have some in the new year (keeping my fingers crossed 🙂 )

I am hoping to upgrade sometime in the new year to dual core, though the machine seems very smooth as it is.

I have, drivers for everything now, execpt to the above.
I probably jumped for it a bit too fast, and paid a premium
but it is a great beast 🙂

cheers

Henrik

PS: I have two Dell 2405FPW 24′ screens connected as well

Dear Henrik

That’s more like it <BG> I am really only interested in this new rig running Photoshop but I do need it to be in a fully colour managed workflow, though I could run it under 32 bit for a bit. My thoughts have also strayed towards putting in a quad dual core Mum board. Perhaps fit just a couple of CPU’s for a start and then when they get cheaper put in a couple more…..any thoughts? Perhaps PS cannot cope with more than a couple of dual core dual CPU’s.

Cheers

Richard
—
Richard K
HT
Henrik Tived
Nov 17, 2005
Hi Richard,

Don’t know if PS can use more the two cores, but I am sure that if any new versions coming up will. When you move to four cpus you have to consider your OS, as you will need something like windows2003server x64 or the likes

32bit windows only support up to 4gb atm, if you fit 8gb it won’t boot! at least mine doesn’t

regards

Henrik

"Richard" wrote in message
In his posting of Tue, 15 Nov 2005, Henrik Tived writes
Hi Richard,

I recently build a Dual processor Opteron, though haven’t jumped for the dual core yet, so I am only using two 250’s
it is build soly to be my digital darkroom. using it on a Tyan S2895 w/scsi
u320 I have some 15k seagates disks in 36, 73 and 300Gb
dual graphics cards in my case two Nvidia Quadro FX 3400. and 8gb of ecc ram.
running windows xp x64

it has been rock solid, though I have only used it for batch processing, as
there currently are no color calibration software available for win xp x64,
though GretagMacBeth, should have some in the new year (keeping my fingers crossed 🙂 )

I am hoping to upgrade sometime in the new year to dual core, though the machine seems very smooth as it is.

I have, drivers for everything now, execpt to the above.
I probably jumped for it a bit too fast, and paid a premium
but it is a great beast 🙂

cheers

Henrik

PS: I have two Dell 2405FPW 24′ screens connected as well

Dear Henrik

That’s more like it <BG> I am really only interested in this new rig running Photoshop but I do need it to be in a fully colour managed workflow, though I could run it under 32 bit for a bit. My thoughts have also strayed towards putting in a quad dual core Mum board. Perhaps fit just a couple of CPU’s for a start and then when they get cheaper put in a couple more…..any thoughts? Perhaps PS cannot cope with more than a couple of dual core dual CPU’s.

Cheers

Richard
—
Richard K

R
Richard
Nov 17, 2005
In his posting of Thu, 17 Nov 2005, Henrik Tived writes
Hi Richard,

Don’t know if PS can use more the two cores, but I am sure that if any new versions coming up will. When you move to four cpus you have to consider your OS, as you will need something like windows2003server x64 or the likes
32bit windows only support up to 4gb atm, if you fit 8gb it won’t boot! at least mine doesn’t

regards

Henrik

Dear Henrik

Interesting thoughts…thanks. I will follow this up. I’m rather surprised that you are the only one here who has an Opteron rig.

Cheers

Richard
—
Richard K
RK
Rick Koelsch
Dec 10, 2005
Richard wrote:
In his posting of Thu, 17 Nov 2005, Henrik Tived writes

Hi Richard,

Don’t know if PS can use more the two cores, but I am sure that if any new
versions coming up will. When you move to four cpus you have to consider your OS, as you will need something like windows2003server x64 or the likes

32bit windows only support up to 4gb atm, if you fit 8gb it won’t boot! at
least mine doesn’t

regards

Henrik

Dear Henrik

Interesting thoughts…thanks. I will follow this up. I’m rather surprised that you are the only one here who has an Opteron rig.
Cheers

Richard

Richard,

I built a dual AMD Opteron 242 1.60Ghz. with 2.oo GB or RAM, also incorporated a NVIDIA GeForce 6200 vidoe card with 256 mb of ram. I have not had any problems with drivers for anything I have installed. This machine seemingly will handle any files I tried to open (not sure how large of files you are referring to). I am using two standard access hardrives (30 GB each) and have been having fairly fast access to my files, and superfast processing. Altogether, I would say I’m happy with this system outside of the fact that it’s a little noisy with about 5 fans, you can definitley hear it, but after a while I guess you get used to it. I’m obviously not a real techy, but can try to answer any questions you might have regarding my experience with this machine. Best Regards, Rick

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