I just got the Aopen + Pentium M 2 Ghz from Akihabara !

No time to set it up yet but so far, big suprise, the included heatsink is indeed very quiet : subjectively quieter than my Zalman7000 @ 5V, for a range of 5 to 12 V ! I don't think I will use the Zalman.

ps: I'll use this board in my flight simulator box (silenced microATX case) which is running out of steam on landings at Kai Tak airport in Hong Kong

Due to popular demand, I threw together a few pics of the Aopen/Aria combo. I'll do a better photography job, with more perspective, once I get it at or near final condition. The Aria case is quite crowded and small, and it's tough to route the PSU cables without some congestion. I should have a lot more info on performance by tomorrow or Friday. So far, the setup has exceeded all expectations, except for its high price!

Here's a link to some intial photos: http://www.sheltons.net/aria
Note the first shot is a cardboard MB mockup I used to optimize cable & wire routing...

More details (and performance data/screenshots) to follow!

Rich

It's worth noting that my photos make the airflow look much worse than it really is. in actuality, there is very good airflow from the front of the case, over the RAM and Northbridge, over the CPU fan, and out the PSU. In parallel, the 6800 OC + NV5 will exhaust graphis heat out the back slots....

Rich

One more installation note...

If you use a SATA drive and WinXP, you need to press F6 and add the SATA drivers via the included AOpen floppy disc. That's great, except the Aria case has no provision for a floppy drive, nor a power connector for a floppy. I ended up fusing the Aria to my basement server's FDD unit during the WinXP install, then disconnected it after the SATA driver loaded. No such problems if you use an IDE drive, and you can get away with one less cable too! But, I've decided I'm not buying any more IDE drives, so I'm stuck with situations like this from time to time...

Maybe it's time to slipstream the SATA drivers into your XP copy...

Yeah, so much for legacy free, eh?

I have a slim floppy drive I keep around so that I can do bios updates, and Windows 2K/XP installs with RAID.

You need the driver on a floppy for that one too.

-Ed

Are you sure? I can think of three ways to do it:

1: Add the SATA driver to your XP copy, I'm not totally sure how to do this.

2. Add SP2.cab to your XP copy. This is more attractive since you get 22 MB of new drivers. I didn't want SP2 so I just copied SP2.cab so I don't have to hunt drivers like I did earlier. (You can always copy the new .cab file to your existing XP installation in \WINDOWS\Driver Cache\i386\ where you have driver.cab and possibly sp1.cab. This is a nice update for everyone who dislikes SP2.)

3. Slipstream SP2 to XP. There are TONS of info about how you do it.

Edit: I misunderstood you, but I think same goes for RAID, I guess there are RAID drivers in SP2.
I usually switch bios in Windows.

What about Windows 2K?

-Ed

It's the same for all I said AFAIK.

Edit: except thet the .cab files are somewhere else, possibly in \WINNT\Driver Cache\i386 , but I think you understand that...

Edwood: In which 2k Service Pack are RAID included?

Well the odd thing is that I did use a slipstreamed version of SP2, but it didn't have the Promise SATA driver in the package ("cannot find a suitable installation device...."). I also thought I had added all of these drivers seprately to my slipstream disc.

Oh well... Anyway, back to the construction project!

Well, my first overclocking results. I got my 1.8 Dothan fairly stable at 17x133 or 2.4 Ghz (and 40C with the OEM cooler!).

At 140Mhz FSB, I had a corrupted driver crash! The following was stable for 15 minutes in Prime95, then had a rounding error. Going to back off a bit more. I kept my DDR400 running in the 375Mhz range too...

Screenshot Here

More to follow!

I wonder what that other guy did to get 178 x 15 as I mentioned earlier. He reached 2800 too. The specs looked pretty average, but he had better CPU cooling. I don't think the CPU heat is the limiting factor at 40 degrees though. He used a 2 GHz CPU, but that's still with a 100 MHz FSB. Vdimm looks high...

Edit: Shelt, are you still using Intels VGA? That's probably the limiting factor!

I'm still using VGA, and you may be right! The driver has been corrupted twice, and when I run Prime95 in a stable O/C mode, the video crashes as soon as I try to reboot. It definitely seems that it is OK on Prime 95, but not VGA I/O... I think something in the video system is unhappy with O/C.

My NV5 is supposed to be here in today's FedEx, so I'll install the 6800 then and see where we go.

Come on! Just put the card in the box and fire it up! You don't have to wait for the Silencer to do that! I mean, what are you going to do until it arrives? Aren't you curios? Not that I am...

In those shots at 178x15, he has a Vcore approaching 1.5V. It appears that he did a mod to the board enabling him to go above 1.34V. Not sure what it was, because the threads discussing it are in Japanese. It's worth noting that the DFI board may have overvolting built in....

Meanwhile, it seems I have found that the NEW version of the Aopen Speedstep utility, posted on their web site (v 1.00.05), is causing most of my crashes!! After I installed the 6800 & NV5, I still got O/C crashes. So...I suspected the overclock utility, since exiting/entering it seems to cause the crashing.

I re-installed the old version that came on the driver CD (v 1.00.02), and I am now seemingly stable at 2.32Ghz (145x16). Prime95 has been running 20 mins so far, and I've rebooted twice as well to test. The old version seems to reset the clock at 1.8Ghz each time it starts, whereas the new one boots at the last overclock freq. Not sure if that's the problem or not.

The experiments continue!

and AOpen's take on an NB heatsink.

Shelt: What about overclocking in BIOS? Better, worse? Comments?

Well, my 1.8 Dothan has been stable in Prime95 for 2.5 hours at 145x16 = 2.32Ghz. My RAM is running at 1.45*266=386Mhz, so I can't push it much more, and the multiplier is flaky at 17. My 1M SuperPi calc time is 37-38sec -- not too bad for a 1.8 laptop CPU at 20W! I'll run some UT2004 tests tomorrow. I'd like to run it faster, but I think I really need 1.45V to get it stable above 2.5Ghz...

I haven't tried O/C from the BIOS yet -- The machine is in my basement and I'm running it via RDP, so it's a pain to mess with the BIOS directly. (need to set up my DVI KVM and Apple Cinema Display tomorrow!).

As an aside, I sealed up the Antec Aria with side & top panels during the Prime95 run. The temps look like this:

Basement: 21C

CPU: 44-45C @ 100% sustained 2.3Ghz load. Fan set to go from 75% to max (1850 RPM) at 45C, so it gravitates to 45C

MB: 29C

BFG 6800 350Mhz GPU with NV5 cooler: 39c (no real GPU load...)

Antec Aria PSU fan speed rose from 1050RPM with open case to 1115 RPM during sealed Prime run.

Overall, I'm very happy so far. Very good performance, and it seems very quiet too. When I turn off O/C and run SpeedFan, I can get it down to 1000 RPM 120mm PSU fan, 0-600 RPM 80mm CPU fan, and the NV5. I'll be better able to determine sound level once I move it to my office. It's sitting next to my "jet engine" server now...

Looks like Ralf is about to have some fun!

think it will run passively with an alpha P4 heatsink? (no copper shim needed)

I'm thinking of getting one in December. The only thing holding me back is that Pentium M doesn't support Windows 64-bit...

I think a good P4 sink could run passively, as long as you don't push the CPU too far, and you get the heat out of the box.

BTW, I am fully set up now with my DVI KVM and Cinema Display -- very cool! I'm running with a 4:3 memory ratio at 2.32 Ghz (145x16). My only remaining frustration is this:

With the Aopen i855 Utility version 1.00.02, I can overclock as above, with no crash. But...when I enable SpeedStep, italways runs the CPU at the lowest selected speed (eg - 600Mhz), rather than spped vs load profile stated.

With version 1.00.05, SpeedStep works perfectly, but if I overclock as described above, (or even minor overclock), the system freezes.

I chose 1.00.02 -- I can still pick a normal CPU speed (BTW, 600Mhz is fine for normal stuff amazingly!), and then push the 2.32Ghz button wheen I need it.

What kind of heatsink would be best for passive heat dissipation?

I assume that Alpha-style pinned heatsinks would be more effevtive at passive heat transfer, compared to the newer finned designs that seem to depend on directed airflow (a dedicated fan).

I remember seeing some Dothan-specific heatsinks tailored for passive use on the "akiba hotline" in the summer. IIRC those were designed for boards like the DFI, not for a P4-style retention mechnism like the AOpen board has.

Can't wait to read the SPRC review of both boards! I would be especially interested in power consumption of the Dothan underclocked & undervolted to the various SpeedStep P-levels.

Thermalright SP-94 is another. Though finned, SP-94 does utilise heatpipes.

In a tower setup, the Scythe NCU-2000 would run passively, easily.

you want open pins, like this:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/files/ima ... MCX_04.jpg

http://www.zalmanusa.com/upload/product/6000_cu_s_p.jpg

http://www.zalmanusa.com/upload/product ... 7j_c_p.jpg

I'm really looking forward to hearing more about these boards. I'm considering an A64 or Pentium M upgrade next month. Particularly would like to see how far these boards can push a 1.6 Dothan if anyone get's a chance to find out!

I have just ordered the Aopen board and a Dothan 725 (1.6), going to try it @2133 fanless with an xp-120 heatsink. I will keep you updated in the next few days..

Where did you order your mobo?

The only swedish retailer I found who's selling it, http://www.sbs.o.se

Looks good Aira is a good case if you like Blue lights

Still havn't managed to get the A open board into my case due my bussiness trip to London

(Mind you I still havn't time to type up the article for MikeC on the Pent M AV system using the PFU Motherboard )



Tora

That could make this setup worth the cost if it works.

These are all designed for forced air cooling.
Some passive Dothan heatsink pics from akiba:

passive heatsink pics 1
passive heatsink pics 2