Quad Core Mac Pro's - Questions about Dual CPU's.

[JesterDev]

I'm planning on buying a Mac Pro soon, and I'm looking at getting it with dual 3.0GHz Quad Core Xeons (8 Cores total). Now from my personal research; and I hope I understand this correctly. Going down this path will be like having 8 3.0Ghz CPU's right? (Sounds like overkill personally but I like it. ;D ) At first I thought I would be running a 24Ghz Mac, but this is not the case (acually I know it was not the case, but can't blame me for trying). So I'm wondering what speed will this Mac be running at? 3.0GHz, 6.0Ghz?

 

I'm just trying to understand how Dual CPU's work. I know that when the load becomes too heavy for one CPU the other is used to carry the remaining load. But what about in a quad core system, or is it the same?

 

I'm thinking about the future here, not the present. As of right now it's major overkill I know. But this is a $6000 system, so I don't plan on buying another for quite a few years.

 

My next concern is Linux. Will I have any issues running Linux on this Mac? I've heard of people having issues with some distro's and dual core CPUs, so perhaps 8 cores will also pose problems. Then again this was awhile back and has most likely been resolved.

 

Anyway here are the specs:

 

# Two 3.0GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

# 4GB 667MHz DDR2 fully buffered ECC memory (4 x 1GB)

# 500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s

# 750GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s

# 2 ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB of GDDR3 (2 x dual-link DVI)

# Apple Cinema HD Display (23" flat panel)

# One 16x SuperDrive