Building an AMD 4800+ overclocked game/crunching machine

[mitro]

How'd this become about me? :P

My Opty 175 is lagging behind my 3800's for one main reason. It's at my work and doesn't always have an internet connection, so sometimes it runs out of work. As far as what dual core will overclock higher than another is all a crapshoot. one week a certain batch of 170's may be golden and the next week its 3800's or 4400's. Both of my 3800's overclock higher than my much more expensive Opteron 175. Hopefully the 4800's are hitting this week.

I may have to get a 165 soon, as I hear the recent ones are getting around 2.8 on stock voltage in some cases.

[Jerod Vandehey]

Anyone know when AMD will re-structure their prices? I can never remember how they do it?

[Keith75]

I think the main attraction to the Opterons besides price is the fact that they have the large cache as well as running at lower voltages. Most people I have talked to can get somewhere between 2.4 and 2.5 GHz from a 170 with stock voltage and factory heatsink.

Strangely my Opteron 170 is running 100 MHz slower than my 3700+, both with 1 MB cache, yet it is getting the same integer and floating point speeds.

Not sure how accurate the BOINC benchmarks are but to compare machines they should work ok. My 3700 isn't running on there at the moment but it was getting the same numbers within about 20 pts.

http://climateapps2.oucs.ox.ac.uk/cp...?hostid=163742

Here is a comparison of his machines speed.

http://bbc.cpdn.org/hosts_user.php?u...778&show_all=1

Keith

[Steve Lux]

Got my new system's components in late the morning. I have put the system together and it posted the first try. Due to the water-cooled block on the processor it took me a few minutes to realize why I got a CPU fan error. I just went into the BIOS and disabled the CPU fan. Everything seems to be working well. At present I am formatting my HDD. Next I'll install the OS. After that will be some tests and some minor OC'ing. Then I'll install a network card and try going online for some Boincing.

Just in time too. In Predictor the British are coming, the British are coming.

[Nflight]

Anyone know when AMD will re-structure their prices? I can never remember how they do it?

You know AMD is as finicky as a cat, turning its nose up at every inconvenience or untasty treat you thought was for dinner. The prices are just as mysterious, they reduce them about every 3 to 4 months by 10%, but just when you think the next time they reduce the price, they discontinue the item your after. Please don't wait too long or you will miss out on your advantage.




Jim Thome 1st base avg .379

[Steve Lux]

Got my just-built 4800+ system up and running on Predictor. I'll start tweaking the OC tomorrow. My first complete build - it's been interesting.

[Steve Lux]

Just replaced my two 512k (PC3200U) ram sticks with two 1 Gig (PC4000) sticks in my AMD 3800+ that I'm using for Predictor. We'll see if it helps.

Also, I think I'll put the stock cooler that came with the 4800+ on this 3800+, if it will fit. It's a better fan-based cooler, but they didn't leave much room in this multimedia HP and I need to pick up more tie-wraps. They didn't do any useful wire routing in this thing. The main bundles of wires were all over the ram sticks.

I've had this HP since February and this was the first time I have opened the case on it. It needed to be cleaned anyhow.

[Keith75]

What kind of cooler did you put on the 4800? I am anxious to hear about your overclocking.

Keith

[Steve Lux]

I installed a Thermaltake Bigwater SE CL-W0005-01 RT 12cm liquid cooling system. I didn't intend to do any major overclocking so I wasn't looking for the most powerful cooler available, but I did want something to remove most of the heat generated by the processor out of the case, not just mix more hot air around inside the case.

Since my son's case has a plexiglass viewing panel on the one side the lights from the cooling kit are aesthetically pleasing to him.

The one thing I don't like about this particular cooling system is the radiator fan control. The fan speed is controlled manually by a knob mounted into one of the slots on the back of the computer. How stupid is that? I would prefer the fan's speed be controlled by the motherboard's CPU fan circuit. I can fix this by modifying the wiring, but these guys should have been smarter than this. Forcing you to waste a slot for a pot knob, forcing you to monitor CPU and mobo temperatures and forcing you to assure access to the back of your system because you must manually regulate the fan speed as the system needs it is moronic. I don't know how much they paid the engineer that made this decision but s/he ought to have their head examined for holes.

Once I modify the wiring so that the fan speed is automatically controlled by CPU temperatures (via the CPU fan plug) it'll be a good cooling system. After all, computers are supposed to be doing stuff for us, not us doing stuff for them (other than regular maintenance).

[Steve Lux]

Oh, in case you didn't see it before, my AMD 4800+ is dead. The BIOS won't POST (Power On Self Test). I checked all of the feeds and connectors from the power supply and everything is within spec. The BIOS chip get's warm but it's not even trying to POST. Since I can't get past the BIOS obviously it won't boot up. I've tried resetting the BIOS to default, several times, but this dead horse just don't ride.

I've got an e-mail in to ASUS about it. Meanwhile I've ordered another board that should be here on Friday.