My X2 experience

[Brucifer]

I finally bit the bullet and bought an X2 AMD-64. I'm glad I didn't buy more than one. Setting up linux was a total and I mean *TOTAL* pain in the a$$. An asus mobo, and of course the on-board netcard isn't recognized. Tried a plain old pci, well it was recognized, but wouldn't communicate with anything. Finally gave up and loaded XP-64. Well the install was painless. Only problem is the firewall and MS just loving to do it all their way. Couldn't get D2OL registered on the thing..... finally just gave that up in disgust too. Never have had a lick of trouble using Gigabyte mobos with regular AMD-64's. If the damn thing hadn't cost me so much money, I'd be dribbling it down the street like a basketball. Ready to swear off computers. Really sorry I bought the thing.

[vaughan]

So should I get a dual core Intel next and stick with Windows XP Pro as the O/S?

[Brucifer]

If you are a windows guy, you won't have any trouble with an X2 and XP-Pro. It's us Unix/linux guys that have the problems with windows. :)

As for whether you get amd or intel, it's just a function of what projects you want to run on it and what cpu works best on them.

[mitchellds]

Hey Brucifer,

I've been running Fedora64 on top of a Abit av8pro board and a amd64 3600 and several gb of memory without any real hitches for at least 6-8 months now. Its great. The install process saw most everything, right down to the built in sound. I've had similar run ins with Asus boards also, and I'll never buy another myself. I've been real successful with Abit for at least my last 5 or so boards. I cant wait for a dual x2 abit board to hit the streets. I wonder if that would work with a x2 amd64 without going the amd x2 opteron route?

[Majestic-12]

Sounds like more of a motherboard support issue rather than actual CPU, strange since most mobos for AMD are NForce based and in theory support for those should be very good.

Using X2 3800 on Windows and its awesome - thought it would be server but could not make myself put it back into server pool :roll:

[Steve Lux]

My X2 3800+ runs awesomly on an ASUS board with Win-XP-Pro also. Looking at single system stats it seems B J Blumer's Power Mac has top Boinc crunching honors at 1412 RAC a day.

[Keith75]

I have become a fan of MSI. Had a few of their boards and they have all been rock solid stable and they haven't had any strange issues like my last Asus did. I have had some Soyo boards and both of them were terrible.

As for your problems I would say that you should steer clear of XP-64. I tried it and while most things worked it definitely wasn't compatible with all software. I am waiting for Vista before I get a 64-bit OS. Just load XP-Pro and things should be fine.

Keith

[cicide]

What Linux distribution did you use? I've got two X2 systems running linux and both had zero issues on install and use. I'm running Fedora Core 4 on both systems.

-Chris

[Steve Lux]

Ok, looks like I lied. My HP-3800+ doesn't have an ASUS board like I thought. Just downloaded and ran CPU-Z - it's an MSI Amethyst-M mobo with an ATI chipset.

That's what I get for not looking first. But it still crunches very well.

[NVM]

i'm having similar problems with my opteron165 running boinc. either on linux or windoze, my seti account>view computers says "AuthenticAMD
AMD Processor Model Unknown". anybody else? is this just a boinc problem?

i really think its slowing me down because it doesn't recognize it as the super cpu it is. my P4's are doing woots in less than an hour,yet my Opteron is doing them at a 2.5 hour pace. sucks!

[Brucifer]

I decided to just use the XP-64 on it. I'm running a couple instances of psp combined sieving on it and they are doing fine. I also went out and picked up a digital camera, a Nikon. So I'll just throw another HD in it along with a CD burner and that will work just fine for me.

Will experiment around with some 64-bit linux on one of the AMD-64's instead, and thus keep up the sieving projection. :)

I've got to say though that the system was a bit of an expense. By the time I purchased the OEM XP-64, a 100gb Seagate Barracude, a gig of memory, the chip and mobo, a 24pin Antec PS, and a case there was some serious bucks into it. However I am totally impressed with the low heat output as compared to my AMD-64's. And the power consumption is definitely lower than running 2 amd-64 37/3800's. Even the PS is putting out less heat -- duh... stands to reason though with less juice needed by the dual. :)