Pentium D 820 (Dual Core) & MSI 945P Neo-F New Build
Leonardo
Wake up and smell the glaciersEagle River, Alaska Icrontian
Finally got all the parts for my new budget Folding box. Specifications:
Intel Pentium D 820 (Dual Core, 2.8GHz/core, 800MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache)
MSI 945P Neo-F motherboard
1 GB (2X512MB) Gigaram DDR2 667 (value RAM)
ATI Rage 8MB PCI video card (it does 1280X1024, 32bit color!)
Robanton 600W PSU, modified
Chieftec (Antec 1030) case, modified
Zalman CNPS 7000-AlCu HSF
WD800JB HDD
The processor came from an eBay auction, the motherboard was Newegg "refurbished", the RAM was Newegg new. Video card was on sale at CompUSA. All the other components came from my parts bin.
I was a bit concerned about the CPU, in that the seller wasn't open that it was an engineering sample. To his credit though, he posted the etched ID in his add. Had I researched better I would have known. Not to worry, the CPU and MSI BIOS played happily together the first time I fired up the partially built system - memory, CPU w/HSF, and mobo outside the case. I was also concerned about the Robantan PSU. It's a decent unit, but it had given my poor 12V lines on my overclocked P4 systems (No. 1 and 3 in signature). I don't understand it, but it has a much higher 12v line than ever before. I haven't played around in the BIOS yet. I don't know if this engineering sample CPU has the multipliers locked or not.
Intel Pentium D 820 (Dual Core, 2.8GHz/core, 800MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache)
MSI 945P Neo-F motherboard
1 GB (2X512MB) Gigaram DDR2 667 (value RAM)
ATI Rage 8MB PCI video card (it does 1280X1024, 32bit color!)
Robanton 600W PSU, modified
Chieftec (Antec 1030) case, modified
Zalman CNPS 7000-AlCu HSF
WD800JB HDD
The processor came from an eBay auction, the motherboard was Newegg "refurbished", the RAM was Newegg new. Video card was on sale at CompUSA. All the other components came from my parts bin.
I was a bit concerned about the CPU, in that the seller wasn't open that it was an engineering sample. To his credit though, he posted the etched ID in his add. Had I researched better I would have known. Not to worry, the CPU and MSI BIOS played happily together the first time I fired up the partially built system - memory, CPU w/HSF, and mobo outside the case. I was also concerned about the Robantan PSU. It's a decent unit, but it had given my poor 12V lines on my overclocked P4 systems (No. 1 and 3 in signature). I don't understand it, but it has a much higher 12v line than ever before. I haven't played around in the BIOS yet. I don't know if this engineering sample CPU has the multipliers locked or not.
0
Comments
Overclocking is next. Before building the system, I hadn't I'd have any thermal headroom for overclocking. Surpirse. I'm impressed how well the Zalman 7000 and the modified case are working together.
Temps do look good though, not the toaster that everyone was saying it would be.
The 820 doesn't support HT, but that's not really a problem with QMD's anyways. The QMD wu's use so much memory bandwidth that HT doesn't actually give you much, if any, boost in production. However, with 2 cores, that 820 should supply a much more substantial boost in production over a HT enabled single core P4. They are still somewhat memory bandwidth handicapped, but 2 separate cores will help out on production.
Another scenario to explore Leo, is to try folding 1 QMD and 1 normal Gro wu and see if your points production is actually higher than with 2 QMD's. A guy over at the overclockers team says that this is the hot ticket for a dual proc Xeon setup, which should be kind of comparable to a DC P4 setup like yours.
Digital intercept alert! >> The EPA has been notified and an agent is being dispatched to investigate a Global Warming violation in your vicinity.
Out of curiosity, is there a reason besides maybe noise you use foil tape on all the screws, etc? I don't get to this neck of the forums much, and case modding hasn't been my thing, so I'm kind of a newb here- so educate me please.
As a footnote- it must be nice to have a Zalman HSF loitering in your parts bin.
The tape merely secures the fan grills. The case came stock with the punched-out steel plate grill, which is highly airflow restrictive. I've just never bothered drilling holes for screws. The only time I see the back of the case anyway, is when I'm working on it.
Gonna being playing cards with the family this afternoon. If time permits later, I may get on with FSB and mulitplier tweaking. Well see if/how much this is possible and if the Zalman can keep up!