Weekend Experience with Q6600 and Cosmology

[gamer007]

Hey guys, been running Cosmology@Home non-stop for the weekend with my Q6600. :icon_mrgreen:

It's been great so far. I've been only using 2 of the 4 cores though. I've been installing and testing out various games as well. It idles around 38 degrees Celsius when I'm BOINC'ing and around 30 degrees when I'm idling with all cores. WUs work a lot faster compared to my P4. I couldn't stand waiting 10+ hours on it to finish. Now it only takes up to around 3 hours!

So is there any projects that require a boost? I'll be glad to help.

And I'm ready for the next BOINC race we'll be doing.:icon_razz:

[Nflight]

Actually gamer007 the cosmology project is our focus right now, as we are in the lead but the 2nd place team is now shadowing us with there team mates that out number us by 5 to 1. When your not gaming could you put your 4 cores on this project and help us out ? We all would appreciate you raising the temps just a few degrees to get the most out of your system while your working at McD's! Thanks in advance!

[NeoGen]

We all would appreciate you raising the temps just a few degrees to get the most out of your system while your working at McD's!
Besides, winter is coming, so you'll be saving money on heating :icon_mrgreen: :icon_lol:

[gamer007]

Haha, true. I've tried using 4 cores at once, goes up to 50 degrees. I doubt that's bad. I hear the Q6600 has a max temp. of 71 degrees Celsius. I'll be glad to use all 4 cores at once. :icon_twisted:

[meshmar]

My socket a box died over the weekend, so I've been looking around for a replacement to fit my budget, and this is the cpu that seems to fit the bill:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103194

That on a reasonable AM2 mobo with 1GB of ddr2@800 will give a little boost to my scores too. I hope to order everything tomorrow and have it in by Monday ...

[PoorBoy]

Haha, true. I've tried using 4 cores at once, goes up to 50 degrees. I doubt that's bad. I hear the Q6600 has a max temp. of 71 degrees Celsius. I'll be glad to use all 4 cores at once. :icon_twisted:

50 degrees is not bad at all for a Q6600, most of mine run that hot & even hotter. I don't know what the max Temp is for a Q6600 but I've seen temps as high as 100c already & it was still running all 4 Cores ... :)

[gatekeeper53]

DANG!! You weren't kidding about "Cherry Red" CPU's lol

[PoorBoy]

DANG!! You weren't kidding about "Cherry Red" CPU's lol

:icon_lol: ... Overclocking Experiments gone Awry it's called ... :icon_lol:

[gatekeeper53]

LOL yup I have to say even with all my bad ideas I have yet to fry an AMD CPU. I have cooked a couple of Intels.

[liuqyn]

My socket a box died over the weekend, so I've been looking around for a replacement to fit my budget, and this is the cpu that seems to fit the bill:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103194

That on a reasonable AM2 mobo with 1GB of ddr2@800 will give a little boost to my scores too. I hope to order everything tomorrow and have it in by Monday ...

you would be better off getting 2x1 gig ram and running them dual channel.
also, I believe that proc doesn't come with a heatsink/fan, so make sure you get one and if you plan to overclock the snot out of it, you better get a good one.

[meshmar]

you would be better off getting 2x1 gig ram and running them dual channel.
also, I believe that proc doesn't come with a heatsink/fan, so make sure you get one and if you plan to overclock the snot out of it, you better get a good one.

I'm getting 2x512 for the 1GB and running dual channel.

Yes, no heatsink/fan - but it's a low power cpu and you can 'overclock the snot out of it' at standard voltage to over 3 GHz with a cheap hsf and have no heat issues. I plan on getting better than 'a cheap one' :icon_mrgreen: ...

[gatekeeper53]

You can try one of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835702001 the "snot" can then run in rivers and it stays cool. I have on on my 4800 and have had it to 3.6 and the cpu stayed cool it was the southbridge that gave me fits.

[liuqyn]

nice one there, but add that cost to the cpu he listed and could just get one of these instead http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103226

[meshmar]

You can try one of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835702001 the "snot" can then run in rivers and it stays cool. I have on on my 4800 and have had it to 3.6 and the cpu stayed cool it was the southbridge that gave me fits.


They aren't in stock any more ... and this cpu doesn't need that much from every thing I've read.

Phenom ... well, it just isn't that phenom(enal) - yet.

I can get the black cpu; hsf; mobo and the mem for the cost of the Phenom ... give or take a little

[gatekeeper53]

Can't blame anyone for not spending money on one of these coolers since they cost more than a good X2. It was a fun toy for awhile though.

[meshmar]

What's nice about the Black Edition cpus - they have unlocked multipliers. You can crank that without changing voltage or any other mobo setting so the mobo runs rock stable while the cpu flies. Since it's a low power cpu, it doesn't take a massive hsf to keep it cool enough to get a huge overclock. It looks like it's going to be one of my favorites for a while on the amd side ...

[drezha]

Go for the 5000 black edition. The 6400 is to near the performance ceiling and in the UK, is about the same price (+- £10) to a Intel Q6600.

The 5000 overclocks far better than the higher one.

[meshmar]

The 5000+ is exactly the cpu I was going for ...

Evil minds think alike - and all that. :icon_lol:

In fact, I ordered:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103194
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835200036 and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820313010

[gamer007]

A day crunching Cosmo with 4 cores, lots of work being done! :icon_mrgreen:

One of the neat features about my motherboard is it has preset OC profiles of higher-end cpus. So I used one to OC up to a QX6700 (2.6GHz), works nicely. To test it out, I used 3DMark06 Advanced (came with my mobo) and scored (http://service.futuremark.com/orb/multicompare_view.jsp?p0=4048377&n0=Project+01&p1=4048516&n1=Project+02&t=My+Projects&k=14&s=-1&l=1&c=291552251) just over 500 points compared to stock speeds (2.4GHz).

I don't know how many people have have used 3DMark to benchmark their computers, so I don't know if it's worth it to post here or not. First time using it.

As for the CPU Level Up profiles, I also have a choice between a QX6800 (2.93GHz) and a QX6850 (3.0GHz). Of course, I can manually OC, but I have no experience with that.

I'm sure the faster speeds will be good for BOINC.:icon_razz:

EDIT: It even OC'd my RAM. Default speed is DDR2-667. Now it's running DDR2-742.

[drezha]

Gamer, what's the motherboard?

I'm undecided on either a AMD Black Edition of a Quad Core Intel.

[gamer007]

It's an ASUS Maximus Formula. One of 'em gaming motherboards. The mobo I originally wanted was the P5E (based on the same X38 chipset, but not labeled as a gaming mobo), but my dad upgraded it for me. :)

Rest of specs in previous thread: http://amdusers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4934

As for AMD or the Quad, I can't really say since I haven't had an AMD for several years since I had the Athlon XP 1700+ 1.4GHz.

[PoorBoy]

If your going to build a new PC & it's going to be used for the DC or BOINC Projects you are foolish if you don't get a Quad Core anymore. I don't care if it's a AMD or Intel Quad Core either, it's just simply the only way to go IMO ...

[meshmar]

Building new - go quad. I only went the way I did, because I was replace a limited number of items and was going for bang for buck (limited funds around the holidays). Using the leftovers from the dead socket a box, I am getting a nice system for the cost of just the quad cpu ...

[PoorBoy]

Building new - go quad. I only went the way I did, because I was replace a limited number of items and was going for bang for buck (limited funds around the holidays). Using the leftovers from the dead socket a box, I am getting a nice system for the cost of just the quad cpu ...

Yes, I can relate to that meshmar, I've had a EX6800 Dual Core sitting here for about 3 or 4 month's now while I fiddle around with Gigabyte. I've been trying to get them to replace a motherboard under warranty that shows bad voltage readings in the BIOS when I try to Overclock it. Their response so far has been to not overclock it then ... :icon_rolleyes:

I sent it in once already & as far as I can tell they just sent it back without doing anything to it, so I messed around with it some more & finally got it to the point where it won't even boot the PC up. So I sent it back to them again to see what their going to do with it this time. Hopefully they'll just replace it and if they do I'll throw together another PC with the EX6800 and the different MBoard ... I've had that EX6800 running the Projects @ over 3.8Ghz so it's a good CPU but I've been just keeping it around as a back up if 1 of the Quads goes bad ...

[drezha]

Cheers for the tips. Yeah it would be for DC work and more importantly, my dissertation which is computer modelling.

I was looking at the Asus P5N-e SLI because it was quite cheap. Cant afford to much! I aim to max the RAM pretty much as the models I need to run require lots of RAM and a mobo costing more than the CPU (Q6600 on eBuyer = £150, Asus maximus = £175!) is a no go really.

[sentient_life]

I wonder if we shouldn't change the name of our group to AMD/Q6600 Users!:)

[Beerknurd]

Not until I get one... :)