This thing is neat! It may have to be my next desktop system…haha. I am extremely curious on how they’re going to cool this bad boy and if it will be quiet.

http://www.iwill.net/zmax/zmaxdp_1.asp

Still, it’s pretty amazing and I can see many companies releasing similar products. I only hope they have PCI-Express slots since that’s the future.

Is it me or does it sort of look like a GameCube?

[quote author=“gr00vy0ne”]This thing is neat! It may have to be my next desktop system…haha. I am extremely curious on how they’re going to cool this bad boy and if it will be quiet.

http://www.iwill.net/zmax/zmaxdp_1.asp

Still, it’s pretty amazing and I can see many companies releasing similar products. I only hope they have PCI-Express slots since that’s the future.

Is it me or does it sort of look like a GameCube?

Heh i saw that too gr00vy, i thought you might be the same gr00vy that seems to be on various SFF boards.. you’ve got one of those excellent Soldam SFF’s at the moment don’t you?

Still think i’ll be going for an A64 based Hoojum, though if they made a dual Opteron one i’d certainly have to reconsider.

Yeah, it’s me…the one and the same groovyOne.

I’m just looking forward to the new stuff that’s coming out later this year. My current Soldam is doing more than fine so I don’t have a real reason to upgrade yet as there’s no software really pushing my system yet. We’ll see what happens when Doom3 or Half-Life2 come out and if they force me to be compelled to upgrade.

I’m a huge fan of duallie systems and the fact that a vendor is trying to squeeze it into an SFF is bold. Of course, they have small window to get these out before both Intel and AMD release multiple core CPUs which will eliminate the need for multiple sockets…unless they are used for mini servers. Iwill could re-use the design to make dual socket Quad CPU SFF systems. Crazy!

Good to know gr00vy0ne, i thought it must be too much of a coincidence that there were two of you, and that you both like all your computers as small as possible.

[quote author=“gr00vy0ne”]Iwill could re-use the design to make dual socket Quad CPU SFF systems. Crazy!

Woah.. now that really would be something.. then all our racks could look like these guys!  

Hey, gr00vy, what’s the piece on the top of that machine that looks like a dorsal fin?

[quote author=“gr00vy0ne”]We’ll see what happens when Doom3 or Half-Life2 come out and if they force me to be compelled to upgrade.

I’m a huge fan of duallie systems and the fact that a vendor is trying to squeeze it into an SFF is bold.

A dual Opteron on XP isn’t the best for game playing. The Opteron has the memory contoller on the CPU, so when there’s a single memory bus path, only one CPU controls the bus. The second proc communicates with the first to get on the bus. Games are memory-intensive, so Single Opterons outperform (slightly) the dualies. Wait for a NUMA mobo and the 64-bit version of XP. And then you’re going to see some serious shit.  8)

I’ll have to disagree a bit.  The only reason not to use Opteron for gaming, in general, is higher memory latency because of the type of DRAM it needs.  The Opteron is, after all, exactly like the FX processors, modulo SMP support and marketing.

The IWILL SFF, however, does look like it only has one CPU with RAM on it, so you are partly correct.

I think you’re also correct about XP, too. IIRC, Windows XP has neither processor nor resource affinity built in.

Sorry, just being pedantic.  :wink:

Heh…well, who said anything about playing games?  :wink:

Actually, I would use it for 3DStudio/Maya type stuff where this type of configuration would work extremely well. The one good thing about having the memory controller on the chipset is that it does have lower latency than discrete solutions…even with the ECC type memory it requires. Also, it is a dual channel solution so it inherently has great bandwidth potential than the regular Socket 754 Athlon 64s. Still, Drachen is right…NUMA based boards will be the ones to get..even though it might be difficult to squeeze that into a FlexATX format. It’s probably still possible if you have 4 DIMM slots. Each pair can be paired with one processor. You can dump four 1GB ECC DIMMS for a monster 4GB configuration…or four 512MB ECC DIMMS for a modest 2GB config.

At any rate, it would probably be more than adequate for gaming and running stuff in the background. Duallies just seem creamy smooth even with day to day stuff that’s not multithreaded. I remember my old Dual Pentium Pro 166 system…that thing was so amazingly fast for its time. With NT4, that thing just ripped through applications with ease.

I’m just glad someone made one of these…it’s sure to usher in competing products and better designs as these are further refined.

Oh, I wasn’t saying not to use them. I run an Athlon FX-51 myself (which as you mentioned is just a rebadged Opteron 148), so I know exactly what kind of ass they kick for gamers. I’m just saying that for performance in modern games, the extra proc is kind of an albatross due to the memory issue above and not worth the extra cost for the hardcore gamer. An article I found on Tech Report about the new 2.4 GHz Opterons seems to bear this out.

[quote author=“CRYPTiC”]Sorry, just being pedantic.  :wink:

Back atcha.  :wink:

gr00vy: Check out the dual Opteron 3ds max benchmarks in the article I posted. Get a bucket for the drool.  :D

Yeah, those dual 250s are smoking…they make me want to upgrade for no reason. Haha…well, the models I’m working on right now aren’t really pushing my workstation so I’ll leave it alone for the time being. Also, I’m very much attached to my workstation so I’ll need a new damn sexy case before I think of upgrading.

Hey, gr00vy, what’s the piece on the top of that machine that looks like a dorsal fin?

I swear that thing looks like the same “dorsal” antenna that I see on the new BMW 5 series. I’m going to assume that thing is a Wi-Fi antenna built-into the case. Of course, I hope there’s an option to remove it if you’re not going to use it. A system like that probably has gigabit ethernet built-in so I’d be using that instead. The extra CPU can handle the additional CPU hogging of the Gig-E connection.