is duel processing better

[goldstar1]

So here i am, a newby, learning to tar and compress directories when i notice that in using bz2, 95% of my amd64 processor is getting used up and everything else is running real slow.

So the question is, would having a motherboard with duel processing be better on linux?

amd64
526mb ram
duel sata 200g hd
raid0

[mjman]

Well, I guess the short answer would be yes.
linux is very good with multi-processor systems (think SMP kernel)

[fpoole]

If your processor is socket 939, you can upgrade to an Athlon 64 X2. And the 95% is probably because bz2 is using as much power as is available to it to perform the operation in a timely manner. I notice my CPU tops out on apps like Thunderbird.

[goldstar1]

wow, thats a lot of cpu usage. Thanks for your response.

[ben s]

I can't see any reason why having your processors fight each other (duel) would be much help :-)

Then again, if you mean dual processors, that will make a very large difference in user interaction. I used to have a dual Celeron 466MHz (the ABit BP6 motherboard, ah, good times...) and it always felt more responsive than even the 2GHz single processor machine sitting on my desk right now. Of course, the individual processors were much slower, but when one was busy crunching numbers, the other could keep X humming along nicely.

Of course, when you have one processor and you're running something that's going to take a lot of CPU time (like compression), you can run it with "nice -+19 {program}", which will make it run with the lowest possible priority. It might take a little longer to run, but it won't impact the responsiveness of your desktop as badly.