I have mixed emotions about this lack of stability. The part of me that enjoys playing with computers doesn't entirely mind, while another part is frustrated when things break "for no reason". It's the frustrated half speaking here.
- One of my five blades is "very unstable", rarely completing a WU. It does complete some, but it aborts more often than not.
- Another is "somewhat unstable", aborting about as many WU's as it completes.
- Two others are "relatively stable", only aborting an occasional WU, and sometimes going days in a row without any problems.
- Only one is "very stable". The "very stable" board is the only 266 FSB CPU in the farm, which seems like a clue.
- Each of the boards "freeze" once-in-a-while, with, so far, no discernable pattern.
- The least expensive motherboard (Biostar M7VIZ), with the cheapest no-name memory (PMI), is one of the "relatively stable" boards, while
- One of the boards with premium memory (Crucial) and a good quality 300W psu (Q-Technology) is the least stable.
- One of my two Abit boards is mostly stable, while the other is not. In that case the only difference is the cpu - one has an 1800+, the other a 2600+ Barton, but that could trigger a problem in any other component, so that in itself doesn't tell me anything.
The Linux server has also had some problems, so I am including that in the component shuffle also.
For this first round, I am going to play a little 3-way swap of CPU's, replacing the 2000+ in the Server with an 1800+ that has been rock solid as a folder, moving the 2000+ to one of the boards that has been unstable with a 2500+ Barton, and moving the Barton to the former stability champion the 1800+ came out of. Whether those three machines improve, stay the same, or get worse, should provide some useful data.
- None of the blades are overclocked by so much as 1 MHz.
The memory is all PC2700 (DDR333) memory, and therefore "within spec" for the FSB333 CPU's. - The heatsinks are three Artic Cooling Copper Silent, one Speeze, and an Alpha. Figuring the Alpha as the best quality cooler of the lot, I put it on the "somewhat unstable" board, along with a medium speed fan, but I noticed it aborted at least one WU last night, so the heatsink was not "THE problem."
Nope, no questions in there anywhere, but feel free to throw your 2 cents at me if you see any clues, have a suggestion, or just want to hurl insults about how stupid I am.
David