Splicing Motherboards?

Dayzed&Confused

Dayzed&Confused

Dayzed&Confused

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8 Apr 2012
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This will probably sound odd, but as multi-core processors are so expensive (from my point of view anyway), would it be cheaper or easier to splice two or four motherboards together and get single processors to run in sync to create a poor-mans multi-core processor?
 
err no,

it wouldnt work for a thousand and one reasons,

your best bet is a cheap multi core cpu
what are you running just now? i'm sure if you look around you'll pick up some bargain parts that would get you running multi core for not a lot of cash

oh and welcome to the forums
 
im pretty sure it would just be a nightmare to do it that way, plus look at the multi-socket motherboards, theyre not exactly cheap, tbh dual core prices arent that expensive now with the likes of sandy an now ivy coming out, so in short, probably not

(edit) indeed, welcome to the forums
 
Sounds like a ZZZAC thread!:p

But seriously, it would be virtually impossible. Welcome to the forums!:)

Plenty of bargains available from time to time and multi-core CPU's have been around for a while so not too hard to get hold of second hand.
 
Hi there and welcome to the OCUK forums :)

You couldn't splice them together and make a bunch of cheap CPUs and motherboards into a single more powerful CPU (cheap consumer grade CPUs are not designed for these interlinks) - however you could connect several computers together to make a computer cluster.

This would (when setup correctly and using software that can fully exploit the parallel computing performance) provide good performance for relatively low cost (compared to a smaller number high-end server-grade CPUs with more cores per CPU) - especially if you are running many PCs together.

However, you would need to be using software that can work with such a system and most standard software (most windows applications, games etc.) will make no use of it at all.

Therefore unless the software you are using can be used with a cluster computer then you are MUCH better off sticking with a single consumer grade CPU. Single multi-core CPUs are rather cheap these days, you can find AMD Phenom II X6 CPUs for a bit over £100 and the highly regarded Sandy Bridge i5 quad core line starts at around £150 (as do the AMD Bulldozer FX-8 octo cores).

May I ask what software you will be using?
 
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To be honest I was planning to select software afterwards in accordance with the spec of the computer, simply because my entire budget is currently £65 which is the reason why i was looking at combining cheaper processors. The reason for such a low budget, in case you are wondering, is simply because I am only fourteen, and so a lack of pocket money complicates things. Do you have any suggestions for the software to run the cluster?
Also in response to Delta12, my current system is an emachines E3028, meaning an intel celeron D 352, clock speed supposedly 3.2GHz, though this is probably way off (6yrs old), 2gb ddr sdram, ATI radeon xpress 200 graphics and an 80GB hard drive. I also have an acer 2000 series that crashes when you open the start menu.
 
Even second hand mate you're going to be VERY challenged top do much with £65.
There may be a few options of small upgrades to your current machine but with it being a prebuilt you may be restricted OCing wise.
 
http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/highlights/dsktpboards/d101ggc/

Your board appears to support up to Pentium D 950A which is a dual core processor (with the right bios version), there is a bios link on the attached page and also a listing of supported processors.

If you already have 2Gb of ram, that seems to be the limit.

You will need to be running Opensuse or similar Linux with a mosix cluster VM OS to get a clustering system working. This is why you will probably need a processor to support virtualisation.

I would try to get hold of a very cheap Pentium D if you want to play around a bit with this machine or preferably find a cheap 3-ish year old box with a dual core AMD athlon II and supporting DDR3 ram. You may be lucky and find someone upgrading (family and friends) The later the tech, the cheaper the upgrades generally DDR3 and SATA for example.
Then learn Linux as this is free to use and downloadable. Keep your e3028 as a main machine for browsing, homework etc.
 
Dayzed&Confused said:
To be honest I was planning to select software afterwards in accordance with the spec of the computer, simply because my entire budget is currently £65 which is the reason why i was looking at combining cheaper processors. The reason for such a low budget, in case you are wondering, is simply because I am only fourteen, and so a lack of pocket money complicates things. Do you have any suggestions for the software to run the cluster?
Also in response to Delta12, my current system is an emachines E3028, meaning an intel celeron D 352, clock speed supposedly 3.2GHz, though this is probably way off (6yrs old), 2gb ddr sdram, ATI radeon xpress 200 graphics and an 80GB hard drive. I also have an acer 2000 series that crashes when you open the start menu.
Click to expand...

Ah, Ok - well it sounds like you just want a faster general use computer for a very tight budget. This is very understandable, but tbh a cluster won't really be of much use to you - as you need at least several fully working computers (including CPU, motherboard, RAM, power supply and a case). This would be a good option if your budget it is in the £1000+ range (since performance/cost compared to sever-grade kit will be favourable), but for such a small budget you are going to struggle to make even a single decent PC. That's not even considering that most general computing tasks won't benefit from a cluster, instead you need to be carrying out highly parrallel, resource heavy tasks like video encoding, rendering, and distributed computing projects.

In your case, I think your best option is the peace-meal upgrade route. As for what to parts to get and in what order is really up to you. May I ask, what kind of stuff do you want your PC to be able to do? Users on these forums tend to play current-gen PC games, surf the web and watch HD videos - however many also do other resource intensive stuff like CAD, video/image/audio editing, programming and distributed computing projects. Also, do you want to spend any more than £65, and if so over what timeframe?

Looking online at your PC model number it seems to a mini-tower design. Could you confirm that it uses an ATX size PSU? If so, then a good upgrade (especially if you want to go for a power-hungry graphic card) would be a decent PSU. Also, looking inside your PC case, what do you think the maximum length graphics card it could accomodate is (assuming it goes in the main PCIE slot and has a dual slot cooler)?
 
I thought most, if not all single core chips were banished nowadays. :p

Turns out AMD still make Semprons. :D

Save your money up and get a whole new system TBH.
 
A custom mobo with several spliced together...

You are looking at spending 100s of 1000's on r and d plus the custom software and casing etc..

So it's 300k for your setup or just buy a quad core pc for £500
 
I have the same PC just like the OP on my other PC downstairs,
still works well but I have upped the RAM to 2GB.
Looking above it seems the board can handle a Dual Core CPU is tht true??
 
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