Pentium D 820 (Dual Core) & MSI 945P Neo-F New Build

LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciersEagle River, Alaska Icrontian
edited December 2005 in Hardware
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.

Comments

  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited December 2005
    Another concern I had with the PSU was that it is contemporary standard: 20-pin ATX plug and 4-pin "P4" plug. The MSI 945P Neo-F motherboard has the EPS12V connector, which is for an 8-pin plug and requires a 24-pin ATX plug. I purchased a 20-24 pin converter from Newegg that snaps onto the existing PSU's ATX plug. The EPS12v still concerned me. Newegg was out, and the others I found on the web cost twice as much the shipping charges were crazy. Well, I made my own. Yesterday I picked up a dead PSU from local computer shop (for free). I merely snipped off the P4 connector and spliced and soldered it in tandem with my PSU's existing connector. The pins don't fit, as they are a different array of rounded and square than the motherboard's receptacle. A razor knife fixed that simply by rounding off the misfitting square pins. The system seems to be rock-solid stable.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited December 2005
    Case modifications. Having used the case before for several years, I knew how buzzy it is with 80mm fans. I was not going to permit that annoyance again. I modified both the front and back of the case to accomodate low-RPM, 120mm fans. The case is very quiet and I'm very impressed with the cooling. I'm running both CPU cores at 100% (Folding@Home), with core(s) temperature of 42*C. The picture of the exterior back of the case shows the my crude handiwor - I drilled holes for better exhaust ventilation. Ha ha, it really works.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited December 2005
    Windows XP installation was as easy as could possibly be hoped for - completely without hangs, extra restarts, or any problems whatsoever. It was very simple. The system even performed well before I installed the Intel chipset drivers! I did though, have pretty big problems with networking. I'm using an external USB 2.0 wireless network adaptor for LAN connection. In and of itself, the unit (D-Link) is very stable, but the MSI utilities I installed caused massive conflicts. Most of the MSI stuff I would consider fluff, but some of it is good. There's a single-click program that searches for BIOS, chipset, and built-in motherboard devices. I updated the BIOS in windows. Flawless.

    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.
  • madmatmadmat
    edited December 2005
    Nice to hear that it's coming along smoothly (well, as smoothly as it is) glad to hear that the CPU is all good.
  • JimboraeJimborae Newbury, Berks, UK New
    edited December 2005
    Keep us updated with the overclocks Lynn, as I'm still in two minds whether to keep mine. If I do I'll be going for a crossfire set up with twin X850's.

    Temps do look good though, not the toaster that everyone was saying it would be.
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited December 2005
    Nice work Leo! Interesting to see that CPU-Z recognizes it as an ES chip as well. That should make a monster folding rig :D.. I'm not too familiar with intel dual cores, do they support HyperThreading on each core independantly for four logical cpus? I have a single 2.8 pressy at work that really chews through WUs with HT on.
  • BudBud Chesterfield, Va
    edited December 2005
    not the 820's dont feature hyperthreading. mine folds okay but those ht p4 keep up though on the folding side. I do think if ur do more intense thinks and the same time its easier though
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited December 2005
    It's looking good, Leo! :thumbsup:

    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.
  • QeldromaQeldroma Arid ZoneAh Member
    edited December 2005
    Haha, Leo! Now you have a core to keep each foot warm and overclocking will keep them toasty indeed!

    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. :D
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited December 2005
    Another scenario to explore Leo, is to try folding 1 QMD and 1 normal Gro
    How do I ask for assignments? I thought the "-advmetheds" was no longer viable. Please, do instruct me on this.
    Out of curiosity, is there a reason besides maybe noise you use foil tape on all the screws, etc?
    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. :D

    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!
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited December 2005
    For QMD's, set "bigpackets=yes" in the client.cfg file and then start the client with the -advmethods switch and you are almost guarranteed to draw a QMD wu. To set up a client to draw regular Gromacs wu's (non-bigWU), set the client.cfg file to "bigpackets=no" and start it with no flag. It also might draw a Tinker too, configured like the second example.
  • DonutDonut Maine New
    edited December 2005
    It will on occasion draw a tinker wu, I've got mine set up similar to what muddocktor posted. (2 for QMD's, 2 for reg. units. on a dual Xeon HT) 3 QMD's kill this rig as far as memory bandwith.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited December 2005
    muddocktor wrote:
    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.
    Alright then, I set it up the two Folding instances just that way. Thanks for the advice. Now, another question: How do you monitor individual CPU/core/box totals when you have several? Sure, I've got Electron Microscope III running, but where can I look at point tallies, other than just keeping a manual log?
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited December 2005
    Mudd, you were right! With the two cores cranking now, one on a 450 point QMD, and the other on a 600 point Gromacs, Electron Microscope estimates 624 points per day! I should try this with my HT machines.
  • DonutDonut Maine New
    edited December 2005
    AFAIK Jon and Sally are running 2 QMD on at least 1 P4. (SM-27?)
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited December 2005
    As we here at Short-Media don't have many D820s in the mix (am I the only one? ;D ), I've opened a dual core folding thread and an 820/Smithfield overclocking thread .
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