Help me build a dualie for DF!! EDIT: No Dualie for me :(

[JetBlack69]

Hi everybody,

Could you guys help me build a dual CPU machine for DF? I'm having trouble picking out the PSU and cooling. I've narrowed it down to these parts.

256 PC2100 DDR x 2 (total of 512)
MSI kd7 master
1 CD-ROM
1 40 Gig Seagate Cuda IV
2 amd T-Bred CPUs (probably the 1800+, depends on budget)

I picked the MSI because it is one of the few that could fit in my small ATX case. I don't plan on overclocking, but I would like a quiet HSF and PSU. What do you guys think of the 400 watt Antec PSU on sale at CompUSA? Will that be enough? For the cooling, will the Thermalright SK-7 fit? I would probably put a panaflo L1A or M1A on there to keep it quiet and cool.

Thanks everyone and have a happy new year!!


EDIT: I've decided not to get a dualie, but to get a Shuttle XPC. Don't worry, I'll still run DF 24/7

 

[FoBoT]

dude, i wish i could help you, but i have no experience with dual cpu, never had one, never played with one

best of luck and glad to hear it is slated for DF!

 

[TallBill]

never played with one either but good luck.. perhaps i'll venture into the dual cpu world when i have a real reason

 

[m0ti]

Why 2100 RAM and not 2700?

Reusing the sticks?

 

[JetBlack69]

Originally posted by: m0ti
Why 2100 RAM and not 2700?

Reusing the sticks?

Because I'm cheap. Plus I don't plan on overclocking and my mobo might not take Athlons that run on the 166 fsb because of the chipset. Also, I got them at compUSA for a grand total of $80.

 

[Insidious]

Oh nooooo JB, you get a RTFM!

The manual MSI publishes lists 300W minimum with 35A of +5V power available. (pp 2-10)

Personally, I think this sounds kind of weak. I think I'd be comfortable with the 400W Antec
unless you had some kind of abnormally large load. (Like half a dozen HDs or something)

edit: OK, now don't shoot me for saying the BB word, but they carry Antec now and would probably
beat any price CompUSA is offering.

yet another edit: If you are SURE you are not going to OC, you could get away with stock HSFs on those CPUs
just make sure to remove the thermal pad and use a quality thermal compound. (ASII is still my fav.)

 

[Electrode]

Power supply: The K7D Master requires a PSU that has a +12V P4 connecter. I don't know much about Antec's PSUs, but if you want a quiet one that supplies a lot of power, try a Vantec Stealth or Thermaltake Purepower. Both are fairly expensive, but they're dead silent. You could also get just any old PSU (I've got an 'Enhance' 350W PSU in my dualie P3 that only cost me about $30) and stick a quiet fan in it.

CPU cooling: Thermalright SK-7 heatsinks with Sunon KD1208PTB2 fans. Very effective cooling at 32.5 dBA each. Or if you want to get serious about noise, try Sunon KD1208PTB3 fans. They are 28 dBA, which is inaudible, unless you're a bat.

 

[JetBlack69]

Insidious, I tried to RTFM, but MSI's site was broken or something. Thanks for the info.

I think I will get the Antec 400W and if it is too loud, I'll put some different fans in it or something. Is the stock Amd fan quiet? I'll be sleeping in the same room so noise might be an issue. Thanks.

 

[Insidious]

The noise thingy is so subjective. I really don't know how annoying the stocks would be for you.
If it were me, I'd get retail procs. (I like the 3 yr. warranty) and if it is too loud, then look into 80mm HSFs.

 

[InverseOfNeo]

Originally posted by: JetBlack69
Insidious, I tried to RTFM, but MSI's site was broken or something. Thanks for the info. I think I will get the Antec 400W and if it is too loud, I'll put some different fans in it or something. Is the stock Amd fan quiet? I'll be sleeping in the same room so noise might be an issue. Thanks.

Oh hush up about the noise...you'll get used to it after a while. I have two computers in the same room that I sleep in and im fine with it.

 

[JetBlack69]

Originally posted by: InverseOfNeo

Originally posted by: JetBlack69
Insidious, I tried to RTFM, but MSI's site was broken or something. Thanks for the info. I think I will get the Antec 400W and if it is too loud, I'll put some different fans in it or something. Is the stock Amd fan quiet? I'll be sleeping in the same room so noise might be an issue. Thanks.

Oh hush up about the noise...you'll get used to it after a while. I have two computers in the same room that I sleep in and im fine with it.

I am used to it. In my dorm, my roomate and I sleep in a room with 4 computers running 24/7. :Q

 

[JetBlack69]

Ok, I decided to get the Chaintech 7KDD because it was in stock and $40 cheaper. Because it was cheaper, I'm going to get 2 2000+ retail. If I decide that it is too loud, I'll buy some heatsinks later when they are on sale or something. The bad part is that I won't have this computer together until Jan 19th because I'm upgrading a comp in my dorm.

Do you guys think I should put the cpu, ram and video in to see if it will post? or should I wait until the 19th to put it all together? Thanks.

 

[FoBoT]

it is always best to check out new stuff ASAP, in case there is a problem, so that you can get warranty replacement right away

 

[JetBlack69]

Well, I got my mobo today and I put in one cpu, one stick of ram and a video card. I press the power button and: beep (pause) beep (pause) beep (pause) etc. many long beeps. I know it's the ram, I shouldn't have bought it at compUSA. I can't return it because I'm 3 days passed the 14 day return policy. Grrrr :|:|:|. Oh well, live and learn. It has to be registered ram to work. I think if I bought the MSI board, my ram would have worked. I guess I'm off to buy more ram from Crucial. Grrrr...:|

 

[ken008]

WARNING ! You may not want Crucial Rregistered DDR. It is not on the approved list for most AMD boards. There is a known problem with it in Tyan boards. I know, my Crucial just failed in my Tyan dually. On the Tyan and the Asus unregistered ram will only work in the first two slots. Did you try it in the opposite slot? Do you have the CPU in the 0 socket? I am using Infineon registered in my Tyan, it is working well. I got it off Ebay for a decent price. Check out Ebay for a good deal on ram. There are not that many bidders for this type of ram.

 

[JetBlack69]

ken008, I've read about those problems too at 2cpu.com, what type of registered ram would you suggest? I put the one stick in both the farthest left and right and it still beeps. Since I can't return the ram, I might try the other stick. Also, I put in the cpu unmodded, so it was just the XP not an MP. Could that have caused the problem? I'm pretty sure that I put it in the CPU0 (the manual says CPU1 and CPU2 so I put it in CPU1) I'm going to try the XP to MP mod tonight and try with both CPUs. Any other ideas?

 

[JetBlack69]

Ok, I just got my order from crucial for my motherboard. I plugged in the PSU, one XP proc., the new RAM and a video card. I still get the beeps. Grrrrr.... :|:|:| I might try doing the XP-MP mod today because I found some rear-window defogger repair kit. It has some liquid and some adheasive, do I use the adheasive? I don't think I need to attach anything.

Thanks.

 

[ken008]

It should run one XP no problem no mod. Check your jumpers and install a PCI video card only. Clear CMOS, try it outside the case. Try a single Duron. Check jumpers again. Check the MSI website for addendum. The Tyan was a problem until I got the jumpers right. There was an error in the manual.

 

[JetBlack69]

ken008,

I actually got the Chaintech 7kdd mobo. There is a BIOS update here and it mentions a Show "Non-MP" error message (1 CPU installed) (1).Mobile CPU (2).Non-MP CPU. I wonder what would happen if I didn't have that update. Do you suppose the beeping I'm getting is because right now the cpu is not and MP? hmmmm.....

 

[muttley]

might I make a note.
I couldn't resist making a dualie myself.
Now here is what my current results are.

using DF as a benchmark.

By the time a XP 2600+ (333) reaches the 100,000 mark a 1800+ MP will be at 65,000 that is 35% difference.

That means that at 100,000 the 2 MP 1800's will have a total of 130,000 in this case the gain of the 2 MP are only 30%.

Subtracting 100mhz for each processor cause in a dual situtation gives us a combination mhz of 3400 mhz.

Basicly cost wise the single processor is a better deal. Rough $230 for the processor $120 for motherboard or less ($100 to $150) memory 512 PC-2700 (no overclocking considered yet).

Most important my test tells me that the power requirement is 60 watts at full throttle.
NO NEED FOR A SPECIAL power supply IE 400 watt.
I use a Enermax 350 watt and a GeForce4 4400 the origional XP1800 was in the 87 watt range.
So it looks like u could use easily a good quality 300 watt supply.

muttley

 

[JetBlack69]

Well, I'm not making a dualie. I tried different memory and nothing worked. I'm returning the motherboard and selling my one unopened cpu. I decided that I don't use the linux box enough for me to justify the expence. Instead, I'll probably buy the new Shuttle XPC with Nforce2. I would still use it for DF, plus I could use it for lan parties and when friends come over. Also, I can bring it home from college for breaks. Once it is too slow for modern games, I could sell it to someone who doesn't need a powerful computer and would like a small system.

 

[muttley]

How about I sell you mine and I'll build up something else to play with?

Tiger MPX (S2466) -4m (latest build)

Tiger MPX (S2466)
? Supports up to two AMD Athlon MP processors
? Four DIMM sockets for up to 4GB of PC2100 DDR RAM
? AGP slot supports 4x/2x modes
? Four 32-bit 33MHz and two 64-bit 66MHz PCI slots
? ATX footprint (12" x 10.3", 304.8mm x 261.62mm)

The Tiger MPX provides breakthrough performance for power-user PCs, ultra-fast workstations and entry-level servers, including supercomputer cluster servers. Designed around the AMD-760 MPX chipset, it supports two AMD Athlon MP Processors and features a 66MHz 64-bit PCI bus for outstanding I/O performance. The Tiger MPX also supports high-speed DDR memory, multiple 64-bit and 32-bit PCI perpherals, a 266MHz bus, 4x AGP graphics card, and 10/100 Fast Ethernet. For cost-effective, cutting-edge SMP performance, choose Tyan's Tiger MPX.

riser card available for rack mount.

2x retail MP 1800's (purchased from newegg.)

Heatsink(s) and 80mm fan(s) included.

2x 512 registered memory for a total of 1gig of memory PC-2100 (purchased from crucial web site.)

roughing out the price say
$200 for the MB
$200 for the processors ($100 each)
$300 for the memory ($150 each)
Heatsinks and 80mm fan free. Sanded on the bottom flat.
and to soften the blow I will throw in a 40 gig Seagate 5400 rpm hard drive.
and the activated Windows XP pro that has been running this machine. (Not for retail or OEM distribution that I got from florida.)
I'll leave some of the software on and thats a good deal there is some time left on McAfee virus scan. etc openoffice, StarOffice 5.2, ArmyOps etc

 

[JetBlack69]

muttley, thanks for the offer, but no thanks.