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unregistered · Post by **unregistered** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 4:56 pm

Well Christmas is paid for . Now I get to buy myself something.

This processor is folding toooooooo slow!

I will have to get a main board and a processor, my board is maxxed.

I don't want to make a mistake and get an underfolder like this XP2200+ (no SSE). I didn't know about folding.

Right now I think the 2500 Barton is a good deal and seems to be getting good reviews at Newegg($85).

1) Is there a downside to this processor that I don't know about? (heat issues, not folding up to par, etc.)

2) Most Important. I need a good undervoltable/overclockable main board to go with this. Spending extra money on a MB has always paid off for me. I like Asus, but they don't seem offer undervolting options. Who has a good board to recommend?

Thanks in advance,

Carl

P.S. this snail of a processor bumped me into SPCR folding Top 100 TODAY!

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 5:52 pm

I like the Abit NF7. You'll need to replace the fan, but the one board I used to build a system for a friend worked like a charm, and allowed him to o/c his 2500+ to 200 MHz FSB at stock voltage. I believe it is undervoltable, though I didn't test that feature. The NB fan is irritating and there are several threads on how to replace it in this forum.

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 7:17 pm

Carl,

The 2500+ Barton seems to be a pretty good processor. I have been Folding with two 2500+ Bartons and two 2600+ (Which I'm honestly not sure are Bartons, Thorntons, or what), and have had no issues I can attribute to the cpu's themselves.

I have had some "issues" with my VIA KM400 boards, plus from what I have seen, none offer much in the way of overclocking features. That would narrow it down to an nForce board. Finding one that will allow you to undervolt will narrow your choices down a lot more.

Beyond that I can't offer any advice.

David

unregistered · Post by **unregistered** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 7:21 pm

It's on the SPCR list http://www.silentpcreview.com/modules.p ... =69&page=1 of undervoltables.

Yeah I read that thread a while back. A Zalman NB ??(two models now) heatsink. I used the same tecnique/heatsink on my AIW video card.

I will check out the specs for that board on Abit's website. Thanks

AndrewC · Post by **AndrewC** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 7:30 pm

I'd recommend this board from Epox. I have almost exactly the same board and have a 2500 running at 3200. Also it has a passive northbridge unlike the NF7.

Lockheed · Post by **Lockheed** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 7:49 pm

Post removed

ColdFlame · Post by **ColdFlame** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 9:11 pm

i think you want a board that:
a) has an nvidia chipset
b) has 4 holes around the cpu socket fot zalman 7000 alcu hsf

if you oc that 2500 to 3200 speeds you might want 7000 alcu

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 10:29 pm

A bit OT but what does it mean to OC a 2500+ to 3200+? 1.83 GHz -> 2.2 GHz?

You can measure clock frequency, but the speed rating is based partly on benchmarks and partly on AMD's marketing department.

David

1398342003 · Post by **1398342003** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 10:50 pm

The 3200+ runs at 2.2GHz, with a 400MHz FSB. It uses the same mulitplier as the 2500+ which runs at 1.83GHz, but with a 333MHz system bus. What is meant by saying OCed to 3200+ is that the performance is identical to the 3200+. It just seems simpler.

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 11:18 pm

1398342003 wrote:The 3200+ runs at 2.2GHz, with a 400MHz FSB. It uses the same mulitplier as the 2500+ which runs at 1.83GHz, but with a 333MHz system bus. What is meant by saying OCed to 3200+ is that the performance is identical to the 3200+. It just seems simpler.

OK, is the OC achieved by changing the multiplier and leaving the FSB at 333 or by increasing the fsb to 400?

unregistered, sorry for hijacking your thread!

David

CoolGav · Post by **CoolGav** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:19 am

Th OC is done by just raising the FSB to 400, which on the latest multiplier hard locked Bartons is very easy. I got an Asus A7V600, which uses the Via KT600 chipset, and my Barton XP2500+ goes to 3200+ speed. I haven't had any problems with it, but it is a windows 2k based desktop rather than a Linux blade. As such I don't think its fair to compare my PPW seeing that it does plently of other CPU intensive operations. The A7V600 has the four holes and I use the Zalman 7000A-Cu on it. The case its in isn't great, so cooling isn't fantastic, but its happy running at 100% CPU all day for ages.

TheScarf · Post by **TheScarf** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:23 am

Another vote vor the A7N8X Deluxe, mine's a rev 1, and with generic ram, runs stable @ 182mhz FSB with a barton 2500+. I have the exact combination of said asus m/b, 2500+ and a 7000 AlCu. Runs @ high 40's C while folding and doesn't miss a beat.

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:36 am

In what is becoming the overclocking thead...

I have two 2500+ Bartons in my blades, but overclocking has been out of the question on my KM400 MicroATX boards. I am hoping the nForce2 boards will be a little more accomodating. It's possible the ASUS board would allow some overclocking, but I'm not willing to push my luck right now. None allow any vcore (cpu voltage) adjustment.

David

Lockheed · Post by **Lockheed** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 4:03 am

Post removed

TheScarf · Post by **TheScarf** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 4:31 am

...from the 266/333 position (pins 1 and 2) to the 200 position (pins 2 and 3) will help rev1 boards to run 200mhz FSB stable

Thanks Lockheed, will give that a try. I wasn't specifically going for 3200+ speeds as it was a stable and quiet o/c at those settings. But, I'm always willing to experiment!

To get back to the original topic of the thread, anybody seen a bios hack that allows the A7N8X boards to implement CPU voltage adjustment below stock? Would this be possible? I've had a look and had no luck at this stage. If this Asus board had such a feature set, it would make it a great all-round o/c and u/v board!

Lockheed · Post by **Lockheed** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 8:45 am

Post removed

wgragg · Post by **wgragg** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 10:01 am

I use an Epox 8rda3+ Rev 2 and have it overclocked and undervolted a little at the same time. Has been rock solid. You might want to replace the NB fan with passive cooling, but that is all I can think of you might need to mod.

unregistered · Post by **unregistered** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 6:21 pm

That 2500 Barton is a definite!

I like the Abit NF7, but I have a 947U, that dosent look like it will clear the capacitors. Plus I don't have the time to passivate the nothbridge.

I have an Asus board now that I am as satisfied with as any other computer part that I have ever owned.

I would like to have undervolting options for future plans (HTPC) but I have been well served by Asus stability and durability.

Can't always get what you want, but I think the A7N8X Deluxe Vs. 2 will fill my need. For now!

"This upgrade will take care of all of our computer needs for at least a couple of years"

I tell her this every 6 months or so and she still believes me!

unregistered · Post by **unregistered** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 2:26 pm

Well I got my Barton ordered today. Toward the end of next week there will be a few more points going up on the board.

Now I got to figure out what to do with my old board/processor. I think I will e-bay the 2200+ T-bird and get a palamino core. Somewhere around here I saw a post about Blades

Zyzzyx · Post by **Zyzzyx** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 2:43 pm

Well, I've got money. And I'm also doing an upgrade.

Not for the computer though. New parts for the bike.

ColdFlame · Post by **ColdFlame** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 8:16 pm

unregistered wrote:I think I will e-bay the 2200+ T-bird and get a palamino core.

I didn't know there is a 2200+ T-Bird. Maybe you mean T-Bred? T-Bred is actually is better than Palomino IMHO and it has SSE od course.

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 9:01 pm

unregistered,

You can't go wrong with an ASUS board. I put a P4C800 (?) in my son's machine. Really nice board, very popular with the HTPC crowd because of it's excellent stability and compatibility. I have two ASUS microATX boards in my "blade farm" that have been rock solid, and if you have read my thread on "Folding Instabiility," you know that's really saying something! Sure, lots of other good mobo brands too (Abit, MSI, Gigabyte, etal.) but I put ASUS at the top of the list.

David

unregistered · Post by **unregistered** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 9:32 pm

ColdFlame: Your right it is a T-bred(b core). The benchmarks were higher than the paliminos, thats why I bought it. It's mounted on an older ASUS with ali-majik chipset. I read(maybe misread) on Asus website that the board supports SSE, but i can't get the force sse tags to work(folding). Just 3dnow.

I will try my old cpu on my new board, before I put the barton on, to see.
If thats the case then all I need is another more modern board to make another folder. Actually HTPC/DVR/folder. MORE folding

.

haysdb: That older above mentioned board served me well 24/7 for quite a few years. I had an 850 athlon with PC100 ram on it originally. I chose it because it also has slots for DDR ram too. ASUS is more $ but my time is so scarce nowadays, I just don't have time to trouble shoot hardware problems. I had an el-cheapo board that kept powering off by itself, I replaced it with the ASUS and the problem stopped for almost a year, I then found out it was the power supply. Static/grounding/shorting out whatever, the Asus was stable enough to handle the problem until it got worse.

I have been following your farm thread, I just don't have any of that type farming experience. I wish I had answers for you on that one. I can tell that you are going to solve the problem though.

ColdFlame · Post by **ColdFlame** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 9:46 pm

I'm not sure completely here but I think that SSE is a feature of the CPU and board has little say in whether it is supported or not.

Now, since T-Bred is a (theoretically) next gen after Palomino, it is superior in a sense that it runs cooler and overclocks way better. Actually, I might buy it from you

to see how well it can overclock. If you want that is.

unregistered · Post by **unregistered** » Sat Jan 24, 2004 6:26 am

If I can't get the SSE to work on it I will definitly dispose of it. If I can get the SSE working then I really do want to do the HTPC thing, I like tivos but don't want the extra monthly burden.

Once I get my HTPC working well, Everyone in my family is getting one for christmas, borged of course.

unregistered · Post by **unregistered** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 2:09 am

I tracked my fedex shipment and maybe today-tomorrow at the latest my parts will arrive.

Has anybody swapped MB & CPU in the middle of a WU?

I am just wondering if I should Pause folding after I complete this tinker or start another. It would be difficult for me to wait a day and a half, if I get another tinker, to do my upgrade.

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 3:01 am

unregistered wrote:Has anybody swapped MB & CPU in the middle of a WU?

As a matter of fact, I just did that today. A WU that had been started by one system is now being worked on my another. It shouldn't matter. The WU doesn't know!

David

unregistered · Post by **unregistered** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 3:20 am

Cool, I don't have to Pause folding or wait to install parts

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