Ultimate Dual MP Gentoo Box - opinions, please

timfreeman · Posted: Mon May 26, 2003 3:09 am Post subject:

Wow, and about opteron vs. Intel..

here they've got a benchmark where its basic conclusion is that two opterons = four Itaniums, even without the Itanium's L3 cache.

But who here buys the top level CPUs anyhow? They are the ultimate, but do you really need them? I mean I WANT one, but that's totally different.. those prices are crazy.

kermitjunior · Apprentice Joined: 04 Aug 2002 Posts: 167

timfreeman · Posted: Mon May 26, 2003 6:09 am Post subject:

kermitjunior · Apprentice Joined: 04 Aug 2002 Posts: 167

Yeah, I really like the Tyan Opteron Mobo. I can add the SATA at later time without difficulty.

I know that Opteron support is coming for Gentoo, but it shouldn'thave any trouble compiling the normal, should it since the Opteron is 32 bit compatible?

I don't want order it and not be able to install gentoo. Also, do you think I'd be able to install Win98SE on a dual Opteron system? I know it would only see one processor, but I trouble shoot my mom's computer from here a lot.

Has anyone seen any good deals on a prebuilt opteron system that can beat piecemealing it together?

Thanks,
KJ
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timfreeman · Posted: Mon May 26, 2003 4:58 pm Post subject:

timfreeman · Posted: Thu May 29, 2003 3:51 pm Post subject:

I can't seem to find a good dual amd motherboard that supports a 333 FSB... ?? (which is what the fast/512cache bartons run with)

*EDIT: MSI K7D Master-L -- the previous link to the barton hack says that this board will run the bartons ... but the specs only say 266 FSB.

..

Yarrick · Posted: Thu May 29, 2003 4:13 pm Post subject:

the dual chipsets dont support 333 bus. the official barton mp has a 266 bus, and if you mod a barton you have to fix the multiplyer yourself and run with 266..

timfreeman · Posted: Thu May 29, 2003 4:34 pm Post subject:

thanks! -- I just looked over the tutorial for this info -- and there it is --
RTFM ack...

thanks

DaJoker · n00b Joined: 09 Jun 2003 Posts: 6 Location: USA

I happen to have the A7M266-D with dual 1800MP's (512MB) and it is very nice. It more-than doubles the speed of my dual PIII 1000 (TYAN 2507D mobo) computer (1024MB) either because of it being Athlon or having faster (although less) RAM. Anyway, I have not had problems with it. I have not tried out the USB on it, but it does have 2 64-bit PCI cards which is really nice, and the BIOS is very nice. As for your plan of quiet yet fast, I do not think that's the greatest idea with a Dual Athlon system...Athlons run hot. Between my Athlons and my 10000-RPM hard drive I do not use a heater in the winter (it gets cold here) at all. Sure, there are two more computers helping, but I leave my window open when it is blizzarding outside to compensate. Anyway, good luck. I like my board.

DJ

DaJoker · n00b Joined: 09 Jun 2003 Posts: 6 Location: USA

I happen to have the A7M266-D with dual 1800MP's (512MB) and it is very nice. It more-than doubles the speed of my dual PIII 1000 (TYAN 2507D mobo) computer (1024MB) either because of it being Athlon or having faster (although less) RAM. Anyway, I have not had problems with it. I have not tried out the USB on it, but it does have 2 64-bit PCI cards which is really nice, and the BIOS is very nice. As for your plan of quiet yet fast, I do not think that's the greatest idea with a Dual Athlon system...Athlons run hot. Between my Athlons and my 10000-RPM hard drive I do not use a heater in the winter (it gets cold here) at all. Sure, there are two more computers helping, but I leave my window open when it is blizzarding outside to compensate. Anyway, good luck. I like my board.

DJ

timfreeman · Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2003 3:58 am Post subject:

Well, I'm up and running here. I have basically decided to switch out my motherboard on the main comp with the new dual CPUs. Pretty damn zippy. And I tried doing as much stuff at once as I could in Windows and Gentoo and I LIKE IT. If not for speed of compiling and rendering, two CPUs are sweet for never lagging.

Are you going to go for the opterons?

mark · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 04 Jun 2002 Posts: 119

So KJ,

What was it Dual Opterons or MP's. I'm kind of in the same place as you were. My current system only boots sometimes and I'm wondering whether to get a cheaper MP (maybe modded XP) dually or hold out for an Opteron. For Opteron I'd probably be better off giving it a few months.

If I get the MP mobo I could probably go for a Raptor or two. Of course I'd also need a serial ata board to run them off as the msi k7d mobo doesnt support SATA.

Curreently I have 2 933 piii's and would be looking for much faster compile times out of any new hardware. Comon sense says go for MP but the Opterons sure are cool

I'm a little concerned about temps as my room is in a loft and can get very hot in summer

Mark
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NicholasDWolfwood · Apprentice Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 235

CPU1: AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.0Ghz) 266Mhz FSB RETAIL w/FAN - http://www.accupc.com/itemDetail.jsp?pid=su72400b -

$80.00

CPU2: AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.0Ghz) 266Mhz FSB RETAIL w/FAN - http://www.accupc.com/itemDetail.jsp?pid=su72400b -

$80.00

(CPU1: AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (2.08Ghz RETAIL) 333Mhz FSB RETAIL W/FAN -

http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=M&Product_Code=120729&Category_Code=amdxp - $157.00)

(CPU2: AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (2.08Ghz RETAIL) 333Mhz FSB RETAIL W/FAN -

http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=M&Product_Code=120729&Category_Code=amdxp - $157.00)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-7DPXDW+ Socket A AMD DUAL XP MP 266Mhz FSB DDR -
http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=M&Product_Code=110027&Category_Code=ADMB - $180.00

(Motherboard: Tyan Tiger MPX S2466N-4M Socket A AMD Dual XP MP 266Mhz FSB DDR -

http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=M&Product_Code=110536&Category_Code=ADMB - $187)

Total: $347.00 (2xXP2400+ + Tyan)
$501.00 (2xXP2800+ + Tyan)
$340.00 (2xXP2400+ + Gigabyte)
$494.00 (2xXP2800+ + Gigabyte)

http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/articles.hwz?cid=2&aid=393&page=1 = XP to MP
http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/articles.hwz?cid=2&aid=747&page=1 = BARTON XP to MP

That is what I'll be getting after I get my job and the money needed, most likely the 2x Barton 2800s and the Tyan board...the parts with parentheses around them are my second choices...
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timfreeman · Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2003 12:38 am Post subject:

I have that gigabyte motherboard, and it's stable (don't know about with the modded XPs .. I was going to do that but chickened out. Now I regret it). Since June, in a weird turn of events I've made it my server.

mark, my setup is quiet and it is not hot at all after rigging up an air tunnel that brings air in right to the cpus.

Beware the gigabyte board, though, I had a bitch of a time with 2.4 and 2.6 kernels until I switched to USB mice/keyboard. There was some interrupt mapping problem with ps/2 (some other people have had it). Now that it is my server it doesn't matter at all. It's bitchin. But go for the Tyan if you can.

(Also, I've heard of raid problems, but I don't raid).

And that extra XP-cache will be noticed I hear (though I've personally never once thought anything was going slowly).

mark · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 04 Jun 2002 Posts: 119

timfreeman

I was actuall swaying toward the msi k7d Master L. I can get it about £150.00.

Shame to hear about the raid issues. I'll have to do a search.

Mark
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Mark

Vagabond · Apprentice Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 192

Like DaJoker, I have an Asus A7m266-D but with with dual 1900MPs and 1 gig ram, I recently upped the ram amount and put in a Radeon 9800 pro 256 meg video card and I really get great performance out of this machine, however it requires a pair of huge heatsinks and noisy fans to keep the cpus in the mid to high forties (celcius) and the mobo has power requirements of over 400W. My system also requires EEC registered RAM if I want to have more them 2 chips in the machine.

When this machine gets too old (might take a while) I'd definitely water cool the next one because of the noise and the dust that accumulates in the case.
Overall I prefer a dual CPU system to a single CPU system, it multitasks a log better and can compile quickly (important for gentoo

) and I'll probably get a dual cpu machine whenever this one get retired.

Vag

d_adams · Apprentice Joined: 20 Oct 2003 Posts: 223

Just bought the MSI Master-2 FAR (the agp slot one) and haven't even compiled 64 bit on it yet, but 32 bit is considerably faster.

Seti on my old mp 2200's box versus a pair of 240's

old box wu time 4 hrs 30 min (roughly, in win2k with graphics)
new box wu time 3 hrs 30 min (in win2k, with graphics)
new box wu time 2 hrs 50 min (in win2k, without graphics)
new box wu time 1 hr 50 min (in linux, without graphics)

Not exact times, but rough estimates except for the linux time. All of this was completed in a 32 bit environment with nothing running except system processes in the background.

Anybody that might be considering opterons, any time is a good time. These things flat out cook.

Total cost for the board, cpu, and memory was about $900 shipped and other than a ECC memory problem, this setup has been pretty much exactly what I wanted. It's capable of crunching the data, compiles faster than anything I've ever built and can do gaming as well.
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sneakerski · Apprentice Joined: 14 Oct 2003 Posts: 168

d_adams - how is that board? have you been able to get agpgart to work for it? what about ide performance? i'm really looking into it (dual opteron mobo with agp for 220 bucks is really nice). course, i'm thinking i get one 244 now and another when i've got a bit more cash.

d_adams · Apprentice Joined: 20 Oct 2003 Posts: 223

MADcow · Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2003 7:59 pm Post subject:

i run a dual MP 2600 machine. it's the best desktop you'll ever get.
mine ran around 1300...
i'm using two thermaltake volcano 12's
http://store.yahoo.com/xoxide/thvo12.html

and a thermaltake Xaser III
http://xoxide.com/thxaiiiv2.html

it's loud, but the case has a hardcano to turn down the RPM of the case fans, and the volcano's have excelent speed control features (auto, full, manual), so you can make it very quiet, or very loud.
DO NOT use the stock coolers. when i got my volcano's, i dropped my cpu temps by about 20 C. that's a lot.
(no, i didn't read any post except for the parent. sue me.)

jeffbuttars · Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2004 6:35 am Post subject: I've got one of those!

I built a similar machine to what you'r looking for.
Tyan S2466N-4M, dual MP's at 2400, 512 ECC Registered Mem, nVidia Ti4200, 40GB seagate, 120GB seagate.

I use a full size tower and space is not a problem, but I do recommend rounded IDE cables or SATA, I makes the thing a lot easier to deal with.

Noise:

My machine makes my room sound like an airport.

Be very choosy about your CPU fans. Also, you should go for the MP CPU's. The MPs are actually higher performing chips that are scaled back a bit so they can run cooler than they would at there original clock speed and are more stable. This means you can use slower fans == quieter. Learn from my mistake, seriously research your CPU fans and go as quiet as you can since there will be 2 of them. My second largest source of noise is my power supply fans.

Other than the noise, an SMP setup is a rockstar for Gentoo. Except for really big packages, KDE, OpenOffice, etc. things install really quick( make -j3 ).

Caveat:
I was never able to compile my kernel or X using the march=athlon-mp or march=athlon compiler flags under the 2.4.x kernel series with out suffering a complete system lockup under heavy loads after a seemingly random amount of time. When your running 2.4.x compile the kernel and X against one of the pentium class arch's. NOTE: this problem dissapeared in 2.6.x.
Also, I never got the onboard NIC to work, even during a brief windows install( solely for acedemics).

timfreeman · Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2004 6:46 am Post subject:

Yes, I couldn't agree more. There are a lot of things you can do to make your computer less noisy or even completely silent (moving parts-less.. heh).

check out this thread, I posted some links there, it's really worth the extra money in my opinion:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=102305
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Ravaa · n00b Joined: 22 Dec 2003 Posts: 37

are serial ata drives faster than the 15k rpm scsi's?

Snake007uk · Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2004 10:07 pm Post subject:

ok this is what i have

2 * AMD 2800+ MP (Barton core)
1 gig pc2100 ram
ASUS A7M266-D MB
Intel SRCU31A Raid Controller
2 x ATLAS 10k2 10krpm u160 drives
ATI Radeon 9600 pro
Creative Audigy 2 ZS
Intel NIC
SONY DRU 500a
2 * iiyama 4637BK Dual DVI inputs (built in USB hub)

AND YES ITS!!!!!!! FAST!!!!!!!! ill give you an example

i emerged, xfree, gnome, xchat, samba, java, Gnome-VFS, evolution, Gaim, xmms, totem, k3b, netbeans, ttf-bitstream-vera, epiphany, nfs-utils, screen. ALL with 5 hours!!!!

also i did

Emerge -e world and recompiled everything in my system under 5/6 hours
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Dual AMD MP 2800+, Asus A7M266-D, 1GB Ram, 18.1GB u160 HD, ATI Radeon 9600 Pro, Creative Audigy ZS, Intel SRCU31A, Linksys NIC, iiyama 18.1 4637bk lcd

TheCoop · Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2004 10:14 pm Post subject:

you lucky lucky b*stard...
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