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Can you build a dual CPU PC in 2025?
Most desktop and laptop PCs have just one processor. This CPU handles everything the system needs to process, but why don't we simply add another CPU to the mix to double the amount of processing bandwidth? You can purchase motherboards that support more than one CPU unit, though they are limited to servers. Intel Xeon and AMD EPYC chips can be used in formation though whether you should do so depends on what you plan to use the device for. If it's for general use and gaming, you may want to consider alternatives (and stick to a single CPU), but for servers, virtual machines, and other cases, two CPUs can make all the difference.
Building a PC with two CPUs
Our resident Promox guru Ayush Pande decided to pick up some old server hardware, consisting of an X99 motherboard and two Intel Xeon E5-2650 v4 processors. Joining these chips was 32GBs of ECC-registered DDR4 RAM for quite the home server setup. What was interesting about this project was Ayush's decision to use the system for some gaming. The test suite included Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, Baldur’s Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, and Red Dead Redemption 2. Some heavy titles pushed the two CPUs (and the resident Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti) hard.
I tried gaming on a cheap dual-Xeon system - here's how it went
While server CPUs aren't meant for gaming, pairing them with powerful GPUs can help you attain decent FPS at higher resolutions
The CPUs performed well, although most of the workload in modern titles is handled by the graphics card and the RTX 3080 Ti is no slouch. The Intel Xeon E5-2650v4 is a powerful CPU with a whopping 12 cores. Two installed on a single dual-socket motherboard doubles this to 24 with a maximum turbo clock speed of 2.9 GHz. Games that can take advantage of higher core counts will perform well with this setup, even though the boost speeds are far lower than what we'd find on modern single CPUs from AMD and Intel.
Should you use a dual-CPU PC?
No. I don't recommend you build and use a dual-CPU system for daily tasks. It is possible to put together a dual AMD Threadripper system, but this would cost you thousands on the motherboard and processors alone. EPYC processors (like their Intel Xeon counterparts) aren't designed for typical consumer-grade desktop applications ... including gaming. You'll have a vast collection of cores and threads but they're not designed for the applications you wish to use them for. You could find an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D performs better than server-grade hardware.
You'll need to carry out ample research and be comfortable using hardware not specifically designed for what you need the platform to do. If all is well, you can find some seriously good deals on older server systems with everything you need to get started with a dual-CPU PC. Newer server-grade CPUs will perform better in relation to mainstream CPUs, but you'll still want to consider what's best for your needs, aside from bragging rights, of course!