look at your wallet first, then go buy dual opterons
0
Mt_GoatHead Cheezy KnobPflugerville (north of Austin)Icrontian
edited March 2005
First it would help if you could post how myou have to spend on this project. Nextwe need to know if ou are going to be building a whole system and what parts you will be buying. Or are you just upgrading an existing CPU? In my opinion the only way to go if you are starting from scratch is to go with an A64 socket 939 board and CPU.
Not really. They all OC about the same. But the 3000+ 9x multi can hold you back some if you dont have high quality DDR400 that'll OC to >250mhz (like "TCCD" DDR).
BTW Hold off on buying for 2 weeks. The new 90nm Venice Core Athlon 64 CPUs arrive ~04/04. So you'll see some price drops on the 130nm Newcastles and 90nm Winchesters.
I really like the EPoX 9NDA3 Nvidia NF3 Ultra it has great reveiws. and is still in my budget. Now what about a case. I really don't care what it looks like as long as it has at least a 350w power supply.
You need a PSU that has at Least 18A available on the 12v rail. A 350watter wont cut it. You need 500w minimum. Personally I use 600watt PSUs. (Cheap ones though.. )
The PSU is one the most important and yet most unappreciated parts of a computer. A weak PSU will cause BSODs and Reboots yet most people think it's something else.
His opinion not withstanding, Myself I had some luck using some 600w $40 PSUs I've gotten from Ebay Cldirect2003: Axio 600w.
My Dual MP system & A64 2.5ghz is powered by 600W Robantons (Leadman OEM) I got from Ebay. (Dual Athlon MP @ 2.4ghz & 9800Pro AIW & 3 HDs)
BUT now that Video cards are using a lot more power AND I'm planning on a Tyan K8WE Dual Opteron system later this year and NF4 Mobo s work best with a 24pin PSU (the new ATX spec) & 6pin PCIe power connectors are now needed/desired. I just bought this PSU Silverstone ST65ZF 650watt SSI PSU - (Nvidia SLI Certified) from Sundial Micro for $180 shipped.
I'm planning on a Tyan K8WE Dual Opteron system later this year and NF4 Mobo s work best with a 24pin PSU (the new ATX spec) & 6pin PCIe power connectors are now needed/desired. I just bought this PSU Silverstone ST65ZF 650watt SSI PSU - (Nvidia SLI Certified) from Sundial Micro for $180 shipped.
Crap... (grin) I put a $5 converter cable to go 20pin to 24pin, and molex to 6 pin and both my dual opterons run 24/7 for the last 5 months off of PSU'S like you were running your other systems off of. 500 to 600watt cheap units with 20amp on the 12 volt rail for dual opterons running 24/7 the last 5 months. I better tell those crappy low buck psu's to knock it off as they are not powerful enough to even boot up a dual opteron! Little WOOSIES!
$180??? OMG ! Thats almost what I just paid for my new PAIR of 242 opterons for Pete's sake. (big grin)
I have bought 3 psu's over $100 and all three died in < 12 months. Since I got the big voltage regulators 2 years ago I have never had a single big cheap psu fail me. And I usually have multiple dual cpu rigs mixed in with other amd 64 rigs. I don't even own a 32bit computer anymore.
Omega I got to lure you over to the dark side and have you become a voltage regulator junkie like me. I think its one of the very best reasonably priced things you can do to prolong the life of all your componets.
Love Ya Man! Now take my hand and walk with me to the voltage regualtor check out line.
And contrary to many beliefs the vast majority of battery backups do not condition the power like a voltage regulator. They protect against spikes and switch to battery if the volts are low enough, long enough, but thats not what a voltage regulator does. Mine is locked in and the voltage never fluctuates. Many would be horrified to just stick a meter in the AC socket their computer is plugged into and monitor the voltage changes and levels for a few hours. Mine never varies a tenth of a single volt. My PSU's are much happier because of it also.
Crap... (grin) I put a $5 converter cable to go 20pin to 24pin, and molex to 6 pin and both my dual opterons run 24/7 for the last 5 months off of PSU'S like you were running your other systems off of. 500 to 600watt cheap units with 20amp on the 12 volt rail for dual opterons running 24/7 the last 5 months. I better tell those crappy low buck psu's to knock it off as they are not powerful enough to even boot up a dual opteron! Little WOOSIES!
$180??? OMG ! Thats almost what I just paid for my new PAIR of 242 opterons for Pete's sake. (big grin)
I have bought 3 psu's over $100 and all three died in < 12 months. Since I got the big voltage regulators 2 years ago I have never had a single big cheap psu fail me. And I usually have multiple dual cpu rigs mixed in with other amd 64 rigs. I don't even own a 32bit computer anymore.
Omega I got to lure you over to the dark side and have you become a voltage regulator junkie like me. I think its one of the very best reasonably priced things you can do to prolong the life of all your componets.
Love Ya Man! Now take my hand and walk with me to the voltage regualtor check out line.
And contrary to many beliefs the vast majority of battery backups do not condition the power like a voltage regualtor. They protect against spikes and switch to battery the volts are low enough long enough but thats not what a voltage regulator does.
Tex
Tex You know I'm a fan of cheap PSUs! I bought 5 of these 600w PSUs 3 weeks ago for $100 total shipped!
But remember I Overclock! I've had quality PSUs trip off on me.
After reading through a 65page Tyan K8WE Dual Opteron thread I'm convinced that for a power hungry OC'd Dual Opteron , R520 video card (due this summer) 4 HD's & 2 optical drives I'm going witha Nvidia Certified Workstation PSU.
24pin - ATX 2.03spec (adds 1-12v, 1-5v, 1-3.3v & 1-ground to 20 pin standard)
8pin - Workstation Power (4-12v & 4 ground)
6pin - AGP Pro Power (2-12v, 2-3.3v and 2 ground) NOT PCIe power
PCIe 6 pin (3-12v, 3 ground) Diferent from AGP Pro Power connector
20pin-24pin & 4pin -> 8pin Adapters are a bad idea on a power hungry system as the industry move to more wires is to reduce the current draw each wire has to handle. >8A each and they start to burn out (I believe) - Basically the old Dual CPU/Workstation standard is now mainstream. Adapters shortcircuit this measure.
School me on the Voltage regualtors though It sounds like something I need to know.
BTW the Silverstone was the CHEAPEST SSI PSU I was looking at!
This is what you need to setup an ebay search for. But I pay 20 to 30 bucks for them.
This is what you want but not the price you want to pay in other words. I know you are an eBay scarfer like me so I don't need to show you what to do here. Just have it email ya each morning when these babies get added into eBay.
I have a 1800 and a smaller 1200 that everything (computer wise) in this room is plugged into. I need another actually since Robins gear is in another room now.
I just run two cheapie PSU units to get all the HD's and cdrom's off the main unit.
Problem is getting you one for under 12 to 15 grand. 16gb in just 2gb ddr's is a pretty good chunk by itself these days new. And you will pay a surcharge probably for some proprietary ddr or some not commonly available. Most want you to buy THEIR DRR not stuff you find at newegg. And make it difficult to piece togther a cheepie unit. Most are sold to corporate environments and reliability is super critical so they worry less about overpaying to the OEM of the units then saving a couple bucks trying to cobble something together cheap.
I played with some of these YEARS ago (much smaller of course) when I was running a benchmarking lab for a consulting firm.
Comments
a good starter system
Top Motherboard Choices
AGP (chipset)
EPoX 9NDA3 (Nvidia NF3-250GB) (Good board)
Abit AV8 ( VIA K8T800 Pro) (Good board)
MSI K8N Neo2 (Nvidia NF3-250GB) (Good board but finicky)
PCIe (chipset)
DFI NF4 Ultra-D (Nvidia NF4 Ultra) - Anandtech Review - Everything else is just 2nd best...(even my beloved EPoX)
ABIT FATAL1TY AN8 (Nvidia NF4 Ultra)
EPoX 9NPA+ (Nvidia NF4 Ultra)
MSI K8N Neo4 (Nvidia NF4 Ultra)
Abit AX8 ( VIA K8T800 Pro)
PCIe SLI (chipset)
DFI Lanparty NF4 SLI-DR Everything else is just 2nd best...(even my beloved EPoX)
BTW Hold off on buying for 2 weeks. The new 90nm Venice Core Athlon 64 CPUs arrive ~04/04. So you'll see some price drops on the 130nm Newcastles and 90nm Winchesters.
Are you going AGP or PCIe?
Grap one of the AGP mobos I listed in Post #5 I personally have (or had) all three. All 3 did at least HTT270 and the NF3s did higher
No - just CPU/FPU power
Read this PSU Guide
His opinion not withstanding, Myself I had some luck using some 600w $40 PSUs I've gotten from Ebay Cldirect2003: Axio 600w.
My Dual MP system & A64 2.5ghz is powered by 600W Robantons (Leadman OEM) I got from Ebay. (Dual Athlon MP @ 2.4ghz & 9800Pro AIW & 3 HDs)
BUT now that Video cards are using a lot more power AND I'm planning on a Tyan K8WE Dual Opteron system later this year and NF4 Mobo s work best with a 24pin PSU (the new ATX spec) & 6pin PCIe power connectors are now needed/desired. I just bought this PSU Silverstone ST65ZF 650watt SSI PSU - (Nvidia SLI Certified) from Sundial Micro for $180 shipped.
Crap... (grin) I put a $5 converter cable to go 20pin to 24pin, and molex to 6 pin and both my dual opterons run 24/7 for the last 5 months off of PSU'S like you were running your other systems off of. 500 to 600watt cheap units with 20amp on the 12 volt rail for dual opterons running 24/7 the last 5 months. I better tell those crappy low buck psu's to knock it off as they are not powerful enough to even boot up a dual opteron! Little WOOSIES!
$180??? OMG ! Thats almost what I just paid for my new PAIR of 242 opterons for Pete's sake. (big grin)
I have bought 3 psu's over $100 and all three died in < 12 months. Since I got the big voltage regulators 2 years ago I have never had a single big cheap psu fail me. And I usually have multiple dual cpu rigs mixed in with other amd 64 rigs. I don't even own a 32bit computer anymore.
Omega I got to lure you over to the dark side and have you become a voltage regulator junkie like me. I think its one of the very best reasonably priced things you can do to prolong the life of all your componets.
Love Ya Man! Now take my hand and walk with me to the voltage regualtor check out line.
And contrary to many beliefs the vast majority of battery backups do not condition the power like a voltage regulator. They protect against spikes and switch to battery if the volts are low enough, long enough, but thats not what a voltage regulator does. Mine is locked in and the voltage never fluctuates. Many would be horrified to just stick a meter in the AC socket their computer is plugged into and monitor the voltage changes and levels for a few hours. Mine never varies a tenth of a single volt. My PSU's are much happier because of it also.
Tex
Tex You know I'm a fan of cheap PSUs! I bought 5 of these 600w PSUs 3 weeks ago for $100 total shipped!
But remember I Overclock!
After reading through a 65page Tyan K8WE Dual Opteron thread I'm convinced that for a power hungry OC'd Dual Opteron , R520 video card (due this summer) 4 HD's & 2 optical drives I'm going witha Nvidia Certified Workstation PSU.
24pin - ATX 2.03spec (adds 1-12v, 1-5v, 1-3.3v & 1-ground to 20 pin standard)
8pin - Workstation Power (4-12v & 4 ground)
6pin - AGP Pro Power (2-12v, 2-3.3v and 2 ground) NOT PCIe power
PCIe 6 pin (3-12v, 3 ground) Diferent from AGP Pro Power connector
20pin-24pin & 4pin -> 8pin Adapters are a bad idea on a power hungry system as the industry move to more wires is to reduce the current draw each wire has to handle. >8A each and they start to burn out (I believe) - Basically the old Dual CPU/Workstation standard is now mainstream. Adapters shortcircuit this measure.
BTW the Silverstone was the CHEAPEST SSI PSU I was looking at!
Enermax 660w EG851AX-VH(W) FM $265
PCP&C Turbo Cool 510 AG with PCIe mod ~$250
OCZ Powerstream 600w $210
The Tyan K8WE has these three mobo connectors and for SLI the manual states the 6pin should be connected.
This is what you want but not the price you want to pay in other words. I know you are an eBay scarfer like me so I don't need to show you what to do here. Just have it email ya each morning when these babies get added into eBay.
(grin)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=80182&item=5178476408&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW
Tex
I have a 1800 and a smaller 1200 that everything (computer wise) in this room is plugged into. I need another actually since Robins gear is in another room now.
I just run two cheapie PSU units to get all the HD's and cdrom's off the main unit.
two @ $17 each is < one @ $180. (BOSEG)
Thats BOSEG... Big Oh Sheet Eating Grin
Now point me towards a 8-16GB DRam hard Drive and we're all set!
I played with some of these YEARS ago (much smaller of course) when I was running a benchmarking lab for a consulting firm.
Tex
Oh well - I can dream can't I