Folding@home Team 56895 and Life with PlayStation

[dtrush]

Anyone here recommend a motherboard with 2 processor slots? If I'm going to replace my P4 2GHZ home computer sometime shortly I'd rather put in 2 Q6600's instead of one.

[alan2308]

Originally Posted by dtrush

Anyone here recommend a motherboard with 2 processor slots? If I'm going to replace my P4 2GHZ home computer sometime shortly I'd rather put in 2 Q6600's instead of one.

The only motherboards you can get with 2 sockets are LGA771, meaning XEONs or Core2 Extremes. You would be better off with 2 Q6600 systems, financially speaking.

[melikefish]

Originally Posted by dtrush

Anyone here recommend a motherboard with 2 processor slots? If I'm going to replace my P4 2GHZ home computer sometime shortly I'd rather put in 2 Q6600's instead of one.

alan2308 is right - I thought Intel made a conscious effort a while ago that the only chips that support working with other (physical) chips on the same motherboard are Xeons, hence the price premium.

If you have a P4 2Ghz (assume it is about 4 years old?) you'll be blown away with the Q6600's performance, and you could better spend your extra cash on a better video card/memory/faster hd than getting a second physical cpu.

Also - don't forget the licensing restrictions of your intended OS. Microsoft XP Professional allowed 2 (physical) cpus. They also said they would define a cpu in the physical sense, regardless of how many cores you could get on the physical chip. I don't know if that is the same for Vista - something to keep in mind.

[phlydude]

took advantage of my slow processing time to install my Zalman9700


Temps are down on Core 0 by 7°C on the same OC @ 3.005GHz....and this is without the thermal paste "setting"

[alan2308]

Originally Posted by melikefish

Also - don't forget the licensing restrictions of your intended OS. Microsoft XP Professional allowed 2 (physical) cpus. They also said they would define a cpu in the physical sense, regardless of how many cores you could get on the physical chip. I don't know if that is the same for Vista - something to keep in mind.

Vista continues in the XP fashion, a dual or quad core is fine across all versions.

[dtrush]

Thanks for the replies. I haven't really looked into the technology for a while. The last computer I put together was for the office server.

ASUS P5LD2 Board
Pentium 4 3.0 GHZ
Adaptec 3405 RAID
2 Gigs RAM

Anyways, it looks like from peoples reviews on Newegg this board can accept a Core 2 E6600. Looks like that might be a good option to replace the P4 with that to get some folding done. $230 for this seems expensive though considering everyones Q6600's are about the same price. I don't want to change the board for anything as that means that I'd have to reinstall Windows 2003 SBS and I don't want to spend the time to reconfigure it cause it's such a pain & I can't afford for the server to be down for that. For what we use it for it does just great.

As for the home computer what do you think about the Intel Xeon E5420 Harpertown 2.5GHz LGA 771 80W Quad-Core Processor I found on Newegg for $350. Could I get similar results as a Q6600 per each processor? It's $100 more per unit but I wouldn't mind so much as I could put 2 of them on the same board in my "wifes computer". She has been wanting to get a new computer but I've gotta build it to fold of course She has not a clue whether 1 or 1000 processors are needed to make it run The current computer doesn't get used for much other than MS Word & Internet Explorer nor will any other machine I build. I don't really intend on using it myself because I use the lappy for everything. Any games when I get the chance are played on the PS3.

[alan2308]

You'll get better performance with a single E5420 than a Q6600 and much better with two, but its a question of bang for the buck. The processor as you said is $100 more than the Q6600, LGA771 motherboards are way more than LGA775, and FBDIMMS are outrageously priced compared to DDR2. If you are limited to a hard count of computers, a dual quad is the way to go. But there is a reason most folding boxes are built with the Q6600. It is the best bang for the buck chip available today.

And also remember, slapping two CPUs onto a single motherboard does not give you an automatic doubling in perfromance, there is some overhead involved in running that many cores.

[reider]

Originally Posted by AlaskaDon

After reading some of the comments in this thread, I've decided to break down and build a Q6600 box. I would apprecate any advice from the SMP client gurus here on how to most easily get this done.

For starters, I will probably be ordering the CPU and Mobo from Amazon. It seems that the ASUS P5K is the way to go? Which version of it?

I plan to re-use whatever I can from my existing system. I'm currently running 2 X Seagate 160 GB SATA HDD's connected in RAID 0. I realy would prefer not to format the drives and start with them blank. Is that going to be possible? The OS I'll be using is XP Pro.

Any info much appreciated.

There are few ways to try and do it you can find online; but personally, I've tried these methods to no avail . After 10 hours of BSOD's and cursing I gave up - bought a new HDD and slaved the old one. I hope you'll have a better luck.

[bluflu]

blu-ray.com fold-a-thon! 1st week of April!

There's still time left to help the cause.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=6975

[Shin-Ra]

According to http://kakaostats.com/ we'll hit the top 100 within the next 24 hours.

[AlaskaDon]

Originally Posted by reider

There are few ways to try and do it you can find online; but personally, I've tried these methods to no avail . After 10 hours of BSOD's and cursing I gave up - bought a new HDD and slaved the old one. I hope you'll have a better luck.

Yeah, I've never had any luck pulling that off either. I was just hoping somebody might know of a way that works. I guess I'll go ahead and back-up what I must, and just figure on reformatting.

I do have a couple of other questions as my plan starts to come together. I'm definetly going to go with the P5K/Q6600 combo, and am going to order the Zalman cooling unit also. The questions I still have are -

1. Is there much advantage in using the DDR2 1066 over the DDR2 800 memory? Amazon seems to only have the 800 mHz and I'm trying to get what I need all on one order. If the 800 is not a good idea then I may just try to order everything from Newegg.

2. Also concerning memory, is anybody using Corsair Dominator series? Looking at it I was concerned that the physical height of the DIMMS might interfere with seating the graphics card. If these are a problem then what's a good alternative for gaming?

3. This box will fold most of the time, but I do like some occasional PC gaming, can anyone recommend a good graphics card? I'd want something reasonably priced that would perform well.

Thanks again for the help. You guys

[phlydude]

to anyone OC'ing the Q6600...what are your Voltages when OC'ing to 3.2 GHz?
I have mine running stock but it is a little unstable on boot...runs a little slow

[phlydude]

Originally Posted by AlaskaDon

Yeah, I've never had any luck pulling that off either. I was just hoping somebody might know of a way that works. I guess I'll go ahead and back-up what I must, and just figure on reformatting.

I do have a couple of other questions as my plan starts to come together. I'm definetly going to go with the P5K/Q6600 combo, and am going to order the Zalman cooling unit also. The questions I still have are -

1. Is there much advantage in using the DDR2 1066 over the DDR2 800 memory? Amazon seems to only have the 800 mHz and I'm trying to get what I need all on one order. If the 800 is not a good idea then I may just try to order everything from Newegg.

2. Also concerning memory, is anybody using Corsair Dominator series? Looking at it I was concerned that the physical height of the DIMMS might interfere with seating the graphics card. If these are a problem then what's a good alternative for gaming?

3. This box will fold most of the time, but I do like some occasional PC gaming, can anyone recommend a good graphics card? I'd want something reasonably priced that would perform well.

Thanks again for the help. You guys

1 - about 6 months ago, you wouldn't/couldn't justify the cost of the 1066 but now, the memory is cheaper and 1066 is worth it if you want to overclock (3.0 on the Q6600 wants memory that runs ddr2-800...anything higher and you will be OC'ing the memory too)

2- the P5K-e wifi has no clearance issues with the memory in my machine...I am running a 8600GT (http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16814133204) and have no clearance issues with this video card with 4 sticks of this RAM (http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16820146565)

3 - you want something that is fairly modern to game now and into the future...I didn't want to spend the big bucks for the 8800 series back in October but I find the 8600 to be more than adequate for everything I do

[alan2308]

@AlaskaDon

Faster memory can help, but its not a whole lot. Just make sure you get two sticks and can run them dual channeled. And make sure you have plenty of memory, especially with those killer 2619's. But raw CPU speed and cache size are whats the most important.

[AlaskaDon]

OK, so let me make sure I understand correctly. If I want to overclock beyond 3.0 gHz, which I might, then I would also need to overclock the memory if using the 800, but not necessarily if I go with the 1066 memory?

This is what I think I'm going to buy (the ones I was worried about the size on)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145197

For a graphics card I'm thinking of using this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130082

Sound like a plan?

Will have to order everything from Newegg I guess, since I can't get either one of those items from Amazon. I don't want to make multiple orders from different places since 2nd day air gets expensive for up here.

[reider]

Originally Posted by phlydude

to anyone OC'ing the Q6600...what are your Voltages when OC'ing to 3.2 GHz?
I have mine running stock but it is a little unstable on boot...runs a little slow

1.275V for 3.33GHz OC; I also upped NB & RAM voltages a little for stability. After some testing, I realized the RAM latencies are totally irrelevant for F@H performance so you can loosen them up big time... another stability improvement.
I actually managed to OC mine to 3.6GHz with 1.3Vcore and even completed one WU; but then I touched the NB heatsink with the thermocouple and 84C.... so I am back to 3.33Ghz - looks like this is a sweet spot for my setup.

[phlydude]

Originally Posted by AlaskaDon

OK, so let me make sure I understand correctly. If I want to overclock beyond 3.0 gHz, which I might, then I would also need to overclock the memory if using the 800, but not necessarily if I go with the 1066 memory?

This is what I think I'm going to buy (the ones I was worried about the size on)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145197

For a graphics card I'm thinking of using this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130082

Sound like a plan?

Will have to order everything from Newegg I guess, since I can't get either one of those items from Amazon. I don't want to make multiple orders from different places since 2nd day air gets expensive for up here.

Your memory is out of stock...
Are you stuck on 2-2gb sticks? You can 4-1GB sticks much cheaper
That Corsair looks very tall...might be an issue

At this point any 8800 series is future proof for the next 2 years at least...

[phlydude]

Originally Posted by reider

1.275V for 3.33GHz OC; I also upped NB & RAM voltages a little for stability. After some testing, I realized the RAM latencies are totally irrelevant for F@H performance so you can loosen them up big time... another stability improvement.
I actually managed to OC mine to 3.6GHz with 1.3Vcore and even completed one WU; but then I touched the NB heatsink with the thermocouple and 84C.... so I am back to 3.33Ghz - looks like this is a sweet spot for my setup.

Is your multiplier 9x370 ??? or did you underclock the multiplier a bit and raise the FSB?

[reider]

Originally Posted by phlydude

Is your multiplier 9x370 ??? or did you underclock the multiplier a bit and raise the FSB?

Yes, it is currently 370x9. I tried 400x9, and it was also stable, but like I said earlier the Northbridge got really upset . I also don't think raising FSB higher would be a good idea for the DDR2-800 that I have.

[AlaskaDon]

Originally Posted by phlydude

Your memory is out of stock...
Are you stuck on 2-2gb sticks? You can 4-1GB sticks much cheaper
That Corsair looks very tall...might be an issue

At this point any 8800 series is future proof for the next 2 years at least...

Yeah, the height was worrying me, but nobody made mention of it in the review section on newegg as being an issue.

Now here's something that's really strange. I also would have thought that 4 X 1GB sticks would be cheaper than 2 X 2GB but check this out:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145179

and it's out of stock longer than the 2GB sticks are. If they are really going to have it back in stock on 4/11 then I think I'm going to go for it. Will call them tomorrow and ask about it.