Building a dual CPU folding system

TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
edited December 2004 in Hardware
I've been wanting to play around with a dual CPU system for some time now, and now that I started folding, I'll actually have something to do with it once it's built. I'm thinking of some sort of AMD socket A system, maybe twin Athlon XP 2400's @ 2.00 Ghz each and some overclocking.

And then run 2 seperate folding programs on it.

I've seen some Asus A7M266-D motherboards on eBay, but wasn't really impressed with the specs. No USB's or ethernet jacks ?!?!?

So maybe someone can give me some ideas here. It doesn't need to have FireWire or SATA or RAID or gigabit ethernet or anything fancy, just a great cost to performance ratio for a folding system.

What are my best choices?

Comments

  • KingFishKingFish
    edited December 2004
    Make sure you get athlon MP's
  • TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    Athlon MP's for what? The A7M266-D? Some other board? They're best for folding? Something else?
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited December 2004
    "MP" stands for Multi-Processor. It is recommended so they play nice with each other.

    In the old days many multi-processor systems could just use a pair of matched "regular" CPU's. Modern AMD duallies recommend the MP spec to work right out of the box.

    I've attached the AMD MP System Builders Guide. It will give you a bunch of info on what is necessary to get a solid computer put together.

    Sorry, it is in pdf format. Probably be easier to print the sucker out and read it that way... ;D

    EDIT: Updated, because I learned something. :)
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited December 2004
    OK, a few pointers for AMD MPX systems for you here. First of all, MP processors aren't an absolute necessity; older unlocked XP procs will work with a simple mod to the L3 bridges most of the time. The only difference between an MP and a XP proc is the fact that the MP procs have been fully tested and qualified for MP operation, whereas the XP procs most probably haven't been tested for MP operation at all. Second, if you plan to use more than 2 dimms in any MPX board, you have to go with registered ram. The Asus and MSI boards are supposed to work OK with up to 2 unbuffered dimms. With that said, I use nothing but registered ECC dimms in my MPX systems. Also,the Asus board has no problems running the mobile bartons with the latest beta bios and pinmodding a high multiplier. Also with the A7M266-D board, the rev 1.04 boards have working usb 1.1 ports onboard and working vcore adjustments on both procs via jumper blocks; the earlier revs of the Asus board don't have working usb and the jumper blocks only adjust 1 proc's vcore. You can pinmod a higher vcore on the procs on the earlier rev Asus boards though. The vcore adjustment in bios on the Asus board on all revs only controls 1 proc's vcore though so you have to use the jumper block on the rev 1.04 boards. The MSI board has had very spotty success running mobile XP's with good stability though and you have to do some mods to the proc for them to work properly in the MSI board.

    A few more things about the various MPX boards; the MSI board comes both with onboard lan and no onboard lan (2 different versions, they are the same otherwise). The Chaintech board has onboard usb 1.1 and usb 2.0(via a separate controller chip). It also has an onboard promise "lite" raid controller and it has no overclocking or voltage adjustments except for fsb speed. The Gigabyte board I don't know much about but I'm pretty sure it has the same onboard promise "lite" raid controller onboard. The Iwill MPX boards are supposed to be good but hard to find; don't know too much about them otherwise as far as features. The MSI board has multiplier adjustment in bios, but only goes to a max of 12.5. It's max fsb speed is 150; the Asus and Chaintech's limits are higher. None are stellar fsb overclockers; I've heard that the Iwill board is best in that regard. None have a pci/agp lock, so operating higher than 150 fsb is very hit or miss.
  • HotrodsunHotrodsun Salem, OR
    edited December 2004
    Thats the L5 xp-mp mod. You shoud check out over at 2cpu.com. I had a Iwill board and a tyan board. The Iwill and the Msi boards are about the same for overclocking. The Tyan has no settings of any sort for OC. I would look for a Msi board, they are going to be easier to find them the Iwill and most likely cheaper. Also I would just get register ECC ram and be done with it a 512mb stick of PC-3200 reg. ecc it only like $115.00.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited December 2004
    I've owned about four of the aus borads and at least that many of the msi k7d's. The msi is better but make sure you get the later revision with the RED pcb. They are a lot better.

    I alwasy ran the modded XP chips not MP's. No probs. LOTS of people run into instabilities running non registered ram. Mine all worked even with mismatched sticks but all my non-reg ram was corsair, mushkin or samsung. With registered ddr I never had probs even running four sticks from differant manufactures. The fsb is capped at like 150fsb even on the msi board so you can probbaly get close to that even with pc2100 if its GOOD memory.

    I have four sticks of 256mb reg ddr (1gb total) and four sticks of 512mb reg ddr (2gb total) in pc2100 speed I'm about to list for sale over at 2cpu.com as I just upgradded to pc2700.

    Tex
  • TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    What are your per-stick prices? Maybe I'll get a few. List the speeds and sizes also.

    Can registered memory be used in a normal single processor computer as well? Is registering just some extra step in memory quality that dual CPU boards require?
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited December 2004
    I have the MSI and its a good board. If I were to get another I would get the Asus since I could drop in some mobiles and not have to worry about it. With a slight vcore adjustment and a higher multi you might be able to get 5ghz from one machine.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited December 2004
    The asus isnt in the same class for OC'ing as the Iwill amd MSI.

    Registered DDR is for opterons (socket 940) both single and dual cpu and its used by almost all other dual cpu machines but does not work in normal motherboards at all. It's bufferred ecc memory. Almost nothing but dual cpu rigs and socket opterons allow buffered memory.

    And I posted the size and speed of the memory. pc2100. four sticks of 256mb and four sticks of 512mb. 3gb total. 1gb of the 256mb and 2gb of the 512mb ones.

    Really don't want to do thema stick at a time. I want to sell the four 256mb as a package and all four of the 512mb ones. If I break it down farther I might sell teh 512mb ones in pairs.

    Tex
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited December 2004
    It doesnt have to be. The thing with the Asus is that it can detect the mobiles and the MSI cant. Drop a mobile into the Asus and it will work, no need to mod it like you would the MSI. Sure you stil have to to the pin mod for the higher multi but you dont have to viod the warranty by connecting bridges. And besides, you cant OC much on any Dual CPU motherboard.
  • GrayFoxGrayFox /dev/urandom Member
    edited December 2004
    KingFish wrote:
    Make sure you get athlon MP's
    keep in mind the only diffrence between the mp and xp is just the l5 cahse
    if u want the l5 cashe just solder it on a xp chip :P
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited December 2004
    Uhhh you got something mixed up there GrayFox. The difference is the L5 bridge being connected or disconnected. There is no cache(?) involved.
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