Folding on Duron 1.6 GHz - now at 2.1 Ghz and still folding!

A forum just for SPCR's folding team... by request.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

Post Reply
ColdFlame
Posts: 451
Joined: Wed May 21, 2003 9:39 pm
Location: Somewhere in Time

Folding on Duron 1.6 GHz - now at 2.1 Ghz and still folding!

Post by ColdFlame » Mon Dec 08, 2003 10:33 am

This weekend I went to Fry's and picked up a combo they had on sale for $50 - a 1.6 GHz Duron OEM CPU and ECS K7VTA3 v8.0 motherboard. I felt it was a great price.

Naturally I wanted to see how well this thing can fold. I've also read that 1.6 Ghz Durons used to be unlocked and could hit 2.2 Ghz.

The CPU appeared to be a real champ, hitting 2.0 Ghz on stock voltage. A few words about this so called "motherboard". I've heard horror stories about ECS, specifically about K7S5A Pro but I hoped this one would be better. After all, this is my second Fry's combo, and the first one was great - Celeron 2.4 Ghz and VIA P4PB - great CPU and great motherboard. Well, this K7KTA3 is a very weak motherboard, I'd maybe call it junk if not for the price I paid. One sentense - it does not support overclocking. All it can do is to adjust the FSB speed to a pathetic max of 165 MHz. No voltage adjustment, no multiplier adjustment, etc. Hence, I wasn't able to _really_ overclock the Duron. I was stuck at stock voltage and stock multiplier.

Then I run some folding tests some of which are going to be finished tonight (hopefully).

Test 1: At stock speed (1.6 GHz) and with SSE turned off the box got to about 250 PPW. Since SSE plays a major role I didnt expect this number to be great.

Test 2: Overclocked poor baby to 2.0 Ghz and run folding with SSE enabled. Hard lock after 2 mins :( One thing though is that I was running 4.0 Pre2 client and I've found it to be very unstable on my other machine. I didn't try 3.24 because it resets SSE to 3DNow! after each WU and I can't seem to find 3.25 anymore.

Test 3: Adjusted speed to 1.8 Ghz and run folding with SSE enabled on the same core. Hard lock after approx. the same amount of time.

Test 4: Deleted /work directory and downloaded new core. Runs at 1.8 Ghz at stock voltage since 2am PST and hasn't failed yet. Approx PPW about 450.

Test 5: To be performed. Overclock to 2.0 Ghz and check PPW with SSE enabled.

Test 6: To be performed. Get another motherboard and try to hit 2.2 Ghz.

So my achievements so far are as follows - for $50 I got a barebone that can do 450 PPW with potential to do more - different WUs produce different PPWs, I hope to be able to run it at 2.0 Ghz, maybe I will get another motherboard and run it at 2.2 Ghz.

There is one big plus to all this - my CPU runs at 33C full load and 30C idle. I'm using old Zalman "flower" HS with 92mm fan at full speed. I'll adjust it to slower speed tonight.

Summary:
1. Folding speed is okay so far, not great because my AthlonXP at 1.75 Ghz seem to outperform this 1.8 GHz Duron by 40% - maybe lack of cache is to blame
2. Duron is a champ when it comes to overclocking
3. ECS motherboards suck for overclocking
4. Durons run _really_ cool unlike Ahtlons
5. Because it is so cheap Duron 1.6 Ghz might take a crown of the best value folding CPU
Last edited by ColdFlame on Mon Dec 15, 2003 5:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Zyzzyx
Friend of SPCR
Posts: 1063
Joined: Mon Dec 23, 2002 12:55 pm
Location: Richland, WA
Contact:

Post by Zyzzyx » Mon Dec 08, 2003 11:07 am


mormakil
Posts: 187
Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2003 1:43 am
Location: Madrid, Spain

Re: Folding on Duron 1.6 GHz - test in progress

Post by mormakil » Mon Dec 08, 2003 12:49 pm

ColdFlame wrote: The CPU appeared to be a real champ, hitting 2.0 Ghz on stock voltage. A few words about this so called "motherboard". I've heard horror stories about ECS, specifically about K7S5A Pro but I hoped this one would be better. After all, this is my second Fry's combo, and the first one was great - Celeron 2.4 Ghz and VIA P4PB - great CPU and great motherboard. Well, this K7KTA3 is a very weak motherboard, I'd maybe call it junk if not for the price I paid. One sentense - it does not support overclocking. All it can do is to adjust the FSB speed to a pathetic max of 165 MHz. No voltage adjustment, no multiplier adjustment, etc. Hence, I wasn't able to _really_ overclock the Duron. I was stuck at stock voltage and stock multiplier.
Which memory were you using? Could overclocking the memory be the cause of your instabillities at 2.0GHz (12x165)? Because F@H seems to me very exigent about memory.
ColdFlame wrote: Summary:
1. Folding speed is okay so far, not great because my AthlonXP at 1.75 Ghz seem to outperform this 1.8 GHz Duron by 40% - maybe lack of cache is to blame
2. Duron is a champ when it comes to overclocking
3. ECS motherboards suck for overclocking
4. Durons run _really_ cool unlike Ahtlons
5. Because it is so cheap Duron 1.6 Ghz might take a crown of the best value folding CPU
1. Have you compared it with similar WUs or better the same?
4. Those were temps out of a case, with ambient temp? What will be the temperature with same cooling of an Athlon?
5. But, for few more bucks (15) you can have an Athlon XP 1800, 40% of improvement may worth the extra price. Also with that pack for 50$ it seems a must buy.

Are you planning to be running it continuously? Stupid question I know. It seems you'll pass me sooner and quicker than expected :evil: Great for the team, thanks for your commitment and keep folding :)

ColdFlame
Posts: 451
Joined: Wed May 21, 2003 9:39 pm
Location: Somewhere in Time

Post by ColdFlame » Mon Dec 08, 2003 2:35 pm

0. I bought a 256MB stick of PNY PC2700. Cheesy I know but I paid $30 for it. So the memory was in spec. I think it was either lack of voltage or (most likely) SSE responsible for the hang. I got it to hang at 1.8 Ghz too, remember, for the sole reason of ruling out extensive overclocking. Unfortunately AMD+SSE+F@H isn't a great combination as we all know :)
1. I only had a chance to run 1 WU on it. I know different WUs show different PPWs so I'll gather some statistics over time.
4. I'm not sure what you are asking but CPU temp idle was 30C, full load 33C, case was around 30 too. I used the same HSF on AthlonXP 2000+ and the temp was never below 45C. Durons run cool.
5. The deal was Duron + that cheesy mobo. No other choice. I think another choice was AthlonXP 2400+ and that same mobo for $100 or something. I think Duron is a better deal. If I can get it to 2.0 Ghz then it will surpass my 2000+ Athlon and if I manage to get a different motherboard I might get it to 2.2 Ghz. At 2.0 Ghz I benchmarked it to be equal to AthlonXP 2400+ (I think 2400+ runs at 2.0 Ghz)

Yea I bought it to upgrade my p3 1 GHz which I was running 24/7. Actually I had 2 of those p3 and I figured I'd get 1 beefier PC instead of 2 slow ones. Better for electricity bill, noise and space in my room :) Plus the motherboard got ATA133 support, 6 USB, cool purple color and complete lack of overclocking capabilities :evil: Every motherboard that I owned in the past 5 years had voltage adjustments!!!

lenny
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 1642
Joined: Wed May 28, 2003 10:50 am
Location: Somewhere out there

Post by lenny » Mon Dec 08, 2003 3:59 pm

I was playing around with a K7VTA3, Athlon 2000+ CPU a month back, with supposedly PC3200 rated memory that tested fine at PC2100.

With 8.0c BIOS, memory at SPD setting, FSB jumper set to 100 MHz, BIOS overclocked to 132 MHz, memtest86 spat out lots of errors.

Same settings, FSB jumper set to 133 MHz, BIOS set to default (133 MHz), memtest86 was happy.

Perhaps you can try using the FSB jumpers to set it to 166 MHz instead of the BIOS setting.

Will the CPU bridge mod work on the Applebreds for voltage? I've also seen a couple of articles on how to enable the L2 cache on the Duron (if you're *really* lucky you might even get all 512K, and essentially have a Barton core).

ColdFlame
Posts: 451
Joined: Wed May 21, 2003 9:39 pm
Location: Somewhere in Time

Post by ColdFlame » Mon Dec 08, 2003 4:10 pm

Tonight I'm going to set the FSB to 166 Mhz via jumper on the board. This does not give me a lot of confidence because I can't change the VCore. It was reported for Duron 1.6 to run at stock voltage at 1.8 Ghz (what I have now) and even at 2.0 Ghz (but not all chips). If I could mod the voltage I would be able to run it at 2.0 - 2.2 Ghz with high confidence.

I don't plan to try the L2 cache mod because it is a hit and miss.

ColdFlame
Posts: 451
Joined: Wed May 21, 2003 9:39 pm
Location: Somewhere in Time

Post by ColdFlame » Mon Dec 08, 2003 7:23 pm

System hangs at FSB 166MHz (2.0 Ghz) withouth upping the voltage - no surprise here. 1.8 Ghz seems to be stable so I'm stuck somewhere between 1.8 Ghz - 2.0 Ghz. Not bad for $50 :)

Zyzzyx
Friend of SPCR
Posts: 1063
Joined: Mon Dec 23, 2002 12:55 pm
Location: Richland, WA
Contact:

Post by Zyzzyx » Mon Dec 08, 2003 7:27 pm

Dangit... just what I need. Another computer thing to spend money on. I'm already trying to decide on $75 for a floppy and DVD drive for one system or a new CPU for the other (to replace the old T'Bird core AMD).


Humbug.

ColdFlame
Posts: 451
Joined: Wed May 21, 2003 9:39 pm
Location: Somewhere in Time

Post by ColdFlame » Mon Dec 15, 2003 3:40 pm

Okay I got a different motherboard (NForce 400 chipset) that allows voltage adjustments. Here are the results:
1) My CPU is locked :( so I can only play with FSB
2) It is stable at 2.0 Ghz 1.6v - PPW about 500
3) I'm trying at 2.1 Ghz 1.7v right now, seems to be okay so far - 565 PPW
4) It would not go past 178 MHz FSB which gives me 2136 MHz :)

Temps are kinda high, 44C full load at 1.7V vcore and this is with Zalman flower HS and 92mm fan at full thrust and 53C at 1800 rpm (pretty quiet).

At 2.0 Ghz it is barely starting to beat my Ahtlon XP 2100+ (1.73 Ghz). Sandra says it is equal to 2400+ but that's a lie :) Lack of cache is hurting folding performance for sure.

So my budget for this folder so far:
1) CPU $25
2) Mobo $55
3) RAM $30
4) case $20
5) PSU, hard drive, CD - had in the closet all that :)
Last edited by ColdFlame on Mon Dec 15, 2003 5:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

TRC-13
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 94
Joined: Mon Apr 28, 2003 10:09 am
Location: Reno Nevada USA
Contact:

Post by TRC-13 » Mon Dec 15, 2003 3:57 pm

I unlocked one of my applebred duron 1.6's cache and it runs fine as an XP 1900 with no overclocking. I will try to find the link where I found my info.

ColdFlame
Posts: 451
Joined: Wed May 21, 2003 9:39 pm
Location: Somewhere in Time

Post by ColdFlame » Mon Dec 15, 2003 5:35 pm

Thanks for your suggestions! Was it easy to do? Did you have just one Duron so your success ratio is 100%? I looked at the CPU and all the bridges were pathetically small to my eye :)

TRC-13
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 94
Joined: Mon Apr 28, 2003 10:09 am
Location: Reno Nevada USA
Contact:

Post by TRC-13 » Mon Dec 15, 2003 5:54 pm

I only have 1 and it worked fine. I had to solder a very small wire between the two pads on the open bridge. It took me a half an hour to get it right and look good. I have had experience soldering under a microscope before when I helped solder miniature mil-spec devices a few years back. It was very difficult but it was worth it for me to get a XP 1900 for $30. There are other methods of jumping the bridges, one technique I had work successfully is to pull apart a cheap watch and use the rubber conductive pads that are used to connect the LCD to the main PCB and trim it down so that it’s snug but not to big or it will lift the heat sink off the CPU core. Also make sure you insulate the heat sink with some clear tape so only the bridges have electrical connection. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to try it unless you can solder surface mount devices by hand with confidence and skill.

haysdb
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 2425
Joined: Fri Aug 29, 2003 11:09 pm
Location: Earth

Post by haysdb » Mon Dec 15, 2003 5:59 pm

I can't beat my son, so...

If you replaced the motherboard, didn't you pay $50 for a $42 Duron 1.6?

And isn't "Now at 2.1GHz" a misleading title?

David The Mean

ColdFlame
Posts: 451
Joined: Wed May 21, 2003 9:39 pm
Location: Somewhere in Time

Post by ColdFlame » Mon Dec 15, 2003 6:09 pm

I actually plan to return the old motherboard to Fry's. I hope I can do that I'm not sure until I actually do it. :P Yes, my spendings went up this is why I listed how much I spent.

What is wrong about 2.1 Ghz in the title? I must be missing something I have one of those "flues" now so I can't think very fast.

TRC-13: This is awesome that it worked for you with just 1 unit. I'll think about it, maybe when CPUs get to 4.0 Ghz and my little Duron will be considered slow I will attempt that mod. What you described sounds scary :) even though I love to solder stuff I've never done it under the microscope. Actually, I know people use conductive glue to unlock L2 or a pencil.

haysdb
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 2425
Joined: Fri Aug 29, 2003 11:09 pm
Location: Earth

Post by haysdb » Tue Dec 16, 2003 2:42 am

ColdFlame wrote:What is wrong about 2.1 Ghz in the title?
Sorry Flame, I missed the bullet about you having reached 2.1. Is it still running stable at that speed?

I bought a Biostar motherboard for my first diskless Linux client, but I've since ordered an Abit board (VA-10) in hopes it will offer some overclocking options that the Biostar (reportedly) does not. It seems a waste to invest in these 2500+ Bartons and not at least try to push them a bit.

David

wussboy
Posts: 635
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2002 12:34 pm
Location: Southampton, UK

Post by wussboy » Tue Dec 16, 2003 8:18 am

ColdFlame wrote:Thanks for your suggestions! Was it easy to do? Did you have just one Duron so your success ratio is 100%? I looked at the CPU and all the bridges were pathetically small to my eye :)
If you search on the internet a little, you should be able to find lots of articles about unlocking AMD chips. And I think most of the methods are much easier than the one TRC-13 mentioned. Most use a conductive pen of some kind. But don't give up! If ever there was a chip you should learn on, it would be yours!

ColdFlame
Posts: 451
Joined: Wed May 21, 2003 9:39 pm
Location: Somewhere in Time

Post by ColdFlame » Tue Dec 16, 2003 9:30 am

Yes it is running stable at 2.1 Ghz and I mean _rock_stable. Even inherently unstable 4.0 Pre2 client finished with no errors.

I got Shuttle AN35N motherboard on NForce 400 chipset. It supports vast array of overclocking features, like voltages, multiplier, memory timings, etc. I paid $55 for it in local Fry's. I know not very cheap but a great board imho.

Yea, maybe I should unlock the L2 :)

Post Reply