old thunderbird,,,,

[drag]

I was thinking i was gonna upgrade my motherboard. Probably a Asus or nforce2....
Right now I have a k7s5a and it is a reliable beast, if not a proper overclocker platform.
Either that or I'd max my current motherboard and get a 2400+, I just haven't made up my mind. If I get the motherboard, i'd stick with the amd 32 bit platform for the next couple years till I go onto 64bit, however if I get the new cpu, I'd keep that until the 64bit stuff becomes affordable. I am getting kinda tired on not having good performance on new games.

Well anyways my question is:

With the nforce2 motherboard and some simple water cooling how far could I push my 1.13 thunderbird? I am only gonna keep it until the prices on the new bartons fall (I like the idea of have a 400mhz bus). My guess is only about 1.20 gig max or so if I am lucky.

 

[Jeff7]

Check the core markings; I think the AXIA ones could do about 1.4GHz. What are you using as a heatsink, and what is your power supply? The 1GHz+ Tbirds put out a LOT of heat and chugged up to 72W. My Alpha 8045 with a 41CFM fan had a tough time keeping a 1GHz Tbird @ 1.4GHz below 55C. I burned out an L&C 300W PSU (blew out and burned a resistor) by running CPUBurn on it - the CPU just sucked down too much power I guess, and the power supply died.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Listen, spring the $42 for a 1700+ t-bred from Newegg because even if it's a "A" it'll still do 2200+ speed almost@default voltage. Combine it with the Epox 8RDA+ for $89 and for $131 you'll have a plenty fast system upgrade, presuming of course that you aren't using SDRAM with your K7S5A, in which case dropping the 2400+ in your current rig is probably your cheapest solution for improving frame rates even though your bandwidth will still be horribly low by current standards.

 

[Chumpman]

I have a 1.0 TBird AXIA that will do 1.416 (8.5 * 166) on my EPoX 8RDA. I'm running a Volcano 9 and it stays about 45 idle and 54 under load.

 

[drag]

Ya, well i tend to upgrade in staggered ways. I don't want to do a low buck upgrade to a 1700+ because it would be more cost effective to upgrade th moboard to a high quality unit and use that as a bases for future cpus. Performance wise 1700+ realy isn't all that much better then the thunderbird, I'd rather make the jump to 3200+ in a few months.

Oh right now I am thinking I will be hitting up a emermax 350w unit with the 2 fans, however nothing is set in stone.

For the heatsink I am thinking that I am aiming towards a homemade water block and car heater core. I want to use it more for the silence factor then improving the heat sink capabilities over a air cooled, but I plan to make it good. Currently my idea involves a twist on the old idea of a large copper pipe end-cap soldered to copper bar stock that has been lapped flat. The main variation is that I a oxy/acytenline welder so I am going to braze a copper/brass plug to the top of the bar stock effectively making it one peice of copper. The cool water will be forced down from the top of the copper cap and be forced down flowing over the bolt (which will be one with the copper base plate not soldered and have a nice threaded texture for nice tumbling effect). The openning of the outlet will be close to the plate and will suck the hottest water from the bottom...

You see it'll be a kinda heat "spike" going up into the cold water channel, so that water will have maximum flow contact with the base plate before it is evacuated by the water pump. I may or may not dig channels in to the base plate have the outlet suck water from that instead of just hovering above the base plate. Hopefully with having to open water design with the extra large bolt it would create a nice enough mass that a pump failure won't fry my cpu. I have a nice copper heatsink right now, but the case is crap so dust is a problem. My computer began crashing and It turned out that a mat of dust formed between the fan and the tightly spaced fins of the copper heatsink. It actually came out in a big square mat of dust, almost looked like somebody took a towel, cut it perfectly square and stuck it on the heatsink. Like a clothes drier's lint trap.

The case will be a generic "rackmount" style. I picked it so I could save a bit of space on my desktop by putting it underneath my monitor, doubling as a stand. Plus since it is horizontal instead of verticle I don't have to get a super-expensive pump to have high flow. Another good thing is that the inlet fan is filtered so i don't have to fight the dust bunnies. Another reason for water cooling is so I can seal up the box well and keep it clean with out having a heat build up in the case. One large inlet in the front, one small outlet in the back, plus the 2 fan set up on the power supply, I will probably have the rad in a small box (tupperware more than likely) with the pump and resevoir outside the case, with some undervolted fans on openings in the front and/or back creating wind tunnel effect, but still be quiet. maybe put some quick disconnect/water proof fittings on the side of the case were the tubes for the water have to pas thru, so i can move it easily without introducing air into the system.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

That's great about the water cooler idea Your reasoning about the 1700+ is faulty though, no way would that T-Bird be even close to a 1700+ t-bred even at default speeds since the 1700+ has SSE, data prefetch, and improve power and heat properties compared to the T-Bird. Start overclocking them and the 1700+ even the "A" will absolutely destroy the 1.13 T-Bird Pay the extra for a "B" or get a 2100+ B and the 3200+'s performance is within reach for a great deal less cash! That's what I call a nice :gift: that will pay for all the other upgrades just on the money saved on the CPU Hey, it's your money do what you will but don't try running that barely better performance FUD between a 1.13 and a 1700+ on me

 

[drag]

Not realy. I know that 1.13 vs 1700+ is a non-issue. But look at it this way, I could get a 2100+ and have it perform much closer to a 3200+ then a overclocked 1.13 vs a 1700+. But you see I've been upgrading this machine since it was a 233mmx. I went from 233 to a 466 I got for free for recovering the data off of it after a shorted powersupply went out. From the 466 to the 1.13. But now you see the technology has taken a big jump. With sata and new platforms like amd64 and the intel64 comming out, this is about the last blast for the x86. But with new technology comes new prices. So this 1.13 I want to overclock for the sort term, but the 3200+ is going for the long term. At least 3 years, and i don't want anything burning out on me or going all unstable. During that time I will just get a new computer with one of the new platforms, so I'll use this one as a server eventually.

That's my plan, but then again nothing is set in stone at this point...