Seti loves DDR!!!

[MoFunk]

Wow! I am building a computer for my cousin and was using an Epox 8K3AE with 512 or DDR and an XP1800 thouroughbread and I was getting WU times of around 3:35-3:45 per WU with just a base load of Win2K with NOTHING else installed. Started to see issues with that board (would not fire up the hard drive on a cold boot or even a reboot) and discovered that it was common so I put in an MSI K7T board that I have. This board uses SDRam so I dropped in 256 (have another 256 coming) and started her up. I will be doing a fresh install of WinXP but just wanted to let this run a while. I am now getting times of 4:25 per WU. That is a big drop off! So for those of you on SDRam and want to boost your Seti production, look into upgrading the a board that takes DDR! Just wanted to share that with everyone.

 

[sean2002]

On the P4 platform RAMBUS is the fastest for seti.

 

[SinfulWeeper]

True for both.

 

[JWMiddleton]

I did analysis on this over a year ago. Check here for the graph.

The slowest times are systems with Athlon Tbird with SDRAM, then AthlonXP with SDRAM, with the best times for AthlonXP with DDR memory.

 

[Ken g6]

So what's wrong with the Epox 8K3AE (edit: it's speeds, I mean)? I'm still looking at getting a new system and I guess I don't want that MOBO.

 

[MoFunk]

Originally posted by: Ken_g6
So what's wrong with the Epox 8K3AE (edit: it's speeds, I mean)? I'm still looking at getting a new system and I guess I don't want that MOBO.

The board speed was great! I have the 8K3A+ and love it. Got the 8K3AE for my cousin since he didn't want to spend as much but still wanted a good performer. The E means it has no overclocking capbility and does not come with the diagnostic LED's onboard that I have grown to love. But poking around at amdforums.com I have seen a few people that have the same boot problem. Once it's booted the thing is fast and stable! But it would be a pain if he has to reboot (will be using windows so do the math ) and he has to press the reset button numerous times. Especially if it's under a desk! I am going to poke around some more to see if anyone found a fix for it. I thought at first it was the power supply so I used mine (enermax 430watt) and it still does it.

Ken_g6 - the Epox 8K3A+ has been a great board for me, and I have heard really good things about the 8RDA (nforce board). Over the last couple years I have become a huge Epox fan! Starting with the 8K7A which I still use for 2 of my systems and have never had a problem! The diagnostic LED has saved me hours of troubleshooting since it tells you almost exactly what would cause a system not to boot!

 

[Ken g6]

I'm confused. JWMiddleton's page shows an EPOX 8K7A+ doing 3 hour WUs with an XP1600+ with only a slight overclock. Did that overclock cut an hour off the times?

 

[Anubis]

im sure if i stopped using my comp it would do under 3 hours

XP1700+ @ 1640MHz. FSB at 146 512 ddr 2700

 

[MoFunk]

Originally posted by: Ken_g6
I'm confused. JWMiddleton's page shows an EPOX 8K7A+ doing 3 hour WUs with an XP1600+ with only a slight overclock. Did that overclock cut an hour off the times?

Going from DDR to SDRam added almost an hour to my times! You would be surprised what the FSB can do for Seti times. Seti loves it. I run my FSB at 177 and average 3 hours a WU. Now I have WinXP and it is used all the time, if I took this same system and put only a base install with NOTHING else I am sure that this system would average much much less.

 

[SinfulWeeper]

Originally posted by: MoFunk

Originally posted by: Ken_g6
I'm confused. JWMiddleton's page shows an EPOX 8K7A+ doing 3 hour WUs with an XP1600+ with only a slight overclock. Did that overclock cut an hour off the times?

Going from DDR to SDRam added almost an hour to my times! You would be surprised what the FSB can do for Seti times. Seti loves it. I run my FSB at 177 and average 3 hours a WU. Now I have WinXP and it is used all the time, if I took this same system and put only a base install with NOTHING else I am sure that this system would average much much less.

Couldn't you just regedit all your programs starting up with Windows bootup out? SETI dont really care what is on the drive.

 

[JWMiddleton]

Originally posted by: Ken_g6
I'm confused. JWMiddleton's page shows an EPOX 8K7A+ doing 3 hour WUs with an XP1600+ with only a slight overclock. Did that overclock cut an hour off the times?

3 hours would only apply to HAR WUs. Mo stated he was getting 3:35 to 3:45/WU, mine was doing about 3:26 for a standard (.417 AR) WU. The difference could be the slight OC and/or memory tweaks. I try to run all my systems at CAS-2.

 

[Assimilator1]

Ken g6
I've got an XP1600 @ 1.6GHz (152MHz FSB) ,my Asus mbrd also uses the KT266a chipset & DDR RAM too ,I get about 3hrs 18mins for a 0.417 WU ,& goes down to about 2hrs 55mins for VHAR WU's

Mofunk
I can't believe that the Epox mbrds still suffer the reboot problem!:disgust: ,this problem was about with there 1st KT266a brd (I forget the name) back in Nov 2001 ,this was the reason I didn't buy an Epox board then & have avoided them ever since!.I hear they are great overclockers but they can't be that great mbrds if they still have rebooting problems

 

[deerslayer]

Originally posted by: TheEvil1
im sure if i stopped using my comp it would do under 3 hours

XP1700+ @ 1640MHz. FSB at 146 512 ddr 2700

Probably on very high AR WU's. I have a 1600+ @ 1743 166fsb 512 pc2700 and my average times were a little over 3 hours, high angle wu's would get done in around 2:45 or so.

 

[Polo]

I have an ASUS A7V133, XP1800+ ,256 Mb SDRAM, Mandrake Linux 9.0 running the windows SETI client under Wine.
I'm averaging 4h07' with HAR around 3h45'...

No DDR for me !

 

[DAPUNISHER]

How can you have cold boot/reboot issues if you're crunchin' SETI 24/7????

 

[CraigRT]

Seti loves DDR!!!

it sure does.
any memory improvements such as an upgrade to DDR, or upping your FSB alot help seti ALOT.
very sweet!!!!!

 

[titanmiller]

Originally posted by: JWMiddleton

The slowest times are systems with Athlon Tbird with SDRAM

Exactally what I have . 1.2ghz Athlon Tbird fed by 640mb SDRAM
My next computer I'm going with dual channel DDR400 (6.4gb/sec:Q)
or what ever is fastest at the time, DDRII @ 600mhz?

 

[MoFunk]

Originally posted by: Assimilator1
Ken g6
I've got an XP1600 @ 1.6GHz (152MHz FSB) ,my Asus mbrd also uses the KT266a chipset & DDR RAM too ,I get about 3hrs 18mins for a 0.417 WU ,& goes down to about 2hrs 55mins for VHAR WU's

Mofunk
I can't believe that the Epox mbrds still suffer the reboot problem!:disgust: ,this problem was about with there 1st KT266a brd (I forget the name) back in Nov 2001 ,this was the reason I didn't buy an Epox board then & have avoided them ever since!.I hear they are great overclockers but they can't be that great mbrds if they still have rebooting problems

Upon further review, this problem is only a problem with T-Bred chips it appears. I saw a thread about this and now that I have my Duron in there it boots and reboots fine. It also has some overclocking features. You can up the FSB and adjust the mult but it does not appear to have the 1/5 divider that the 8K3A has. So this board only has an issue with the T-Breds, which is the chip that my cousin has.