Folding@Home Weekly Team News - 7th December 2006

Hmm i think its these extremely tight A64s stock heatsinks which have got me scared... those things would be impossible to remove from an ihs less cpu without crushing the core, but i'm guessing socket A heatsinks aren't as bad?


I'm in a bit of a pickle here because i need to upgrade my fileserver from a 800mhz celeron as its not maxing out the disks, and i could do with some extra folding performance. I've decided not to downgrade the opty to the fileserver and get a new pc, but thats what i intend to do in about a 6 months to a years time, and whats in the fileserver will get passed down to something else.

If i got a core 2 duo bundle for <£300 i would end up with something thats faster than my current pc, and a bit too expensive for a fileserver, so i can't really do that, although that seems to be the sweet spot in terms of ppd/£ ratio.

I looked at athlon mp's for a long time as these were the suggestion before but they are too rare and too expensive for what they are i think. dual cpu/core is still something i'd like but not essential. I don't think i can cobble together an x2 3800+ bundle for a reasonable amount of money within my budget. I can get an 805, and i would get one but the power usage is just silly and as i've managed to avoid that horrible architecture so far it would seem a shame to get one now...

Bearing in mind this may only be on for a quarter of a day at a time 25ppd seems pathetic, so does 50 if it was on for half the day.

The budget is really anywhere between £200 and £50 depending on how good it is in terms of folding, but to me 50ppd is hardly worth it. If i can get something thats a significantly better folder for not a massive amount of extra money i think thats what i want.

I expect the ideal thing for me is a dual sempron board if only such a beast existed.
 
Joe42 said:
Call me a noob but i'm not keen on something without a heatspreader... am i worrying about nothing?

Never actually had a socket A machine before.
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If you're really worried about it get hold of a shim.
I always thought it was someone confused about their sexuality but apparently it's a thing that sits around the core and helps support the HSF and minimises the risk of damaging the core.


Of course real men aren't afraid to fit or remove SocketA heatsinks, prefuse sweating is allowed :p
 
rich99million said:
Of course real men aren't afraid to fit or remove SocketA heatsinks, prefuse sweating is allowed :p
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A64 stock heatsinks vary between models but i've had two real pigs, the one that came with my x2 3800 took me about 15 minutes of profuse sweating and cursing and bashing and anger to remove, that would have crushed a bare core no bother.

On the other hand i had a sempron one that took 30 seconds, just pull the lever and lift it off.
 
As far as I can remember the mobile XPs such as the XPM2500 can be changed to run as a MP. Im not sure as to how available the motherboards for MPs are, but quite rare I would have thought.
Socket 754 A64 3400 chips are fast (a tad slower than a 939 equivalent) and easily clock to over 2.5GHz but are only single core.
Are there any X2s on the M.Market?
 
Yes the mp boards seem just as rare as the cpus.

Not really happy about spending large amounts on the mm, but yeah if i could find an x2 3800+ bundle used for a good price thats probably what i'm aiming for...
Its a bit overkill though, and it'll doubtless clock higher than my opty which leaves me with the obligation to swap the cpus over, which is a real pain.
 
The problem with SocketA heatsinks is that they rely mainly on a stiff springy clip to hold the heatsink in place and there's generally no easy way of tensioning/untensioning it in a controlled manor. There's also the risk of breaking off the plastic tabs on the socket which the heatsink clips on to, or slipping with your screwdriver/pliers or whatever and damaging the board.
It's all good fun really :p
 
Thats what i feared. The mounting mechanism seems a bit ridiculous. Looks like it involves you prodding things with a screwdriver which is not something i like to make a habit of when said thing is 3mm above the board.

Maybe a cheap sempron bundle is the best thing to get?
Cheap but with a heatspreader. Much less faffing about.
 
The secret to removing an A64 heatsink is to do it whislt its still warm and give it a little twist side to side first before lifting it up.
I was imformed by a nice lady at AMD to do this when I RMAd a chip after bending a row of pins. :eek:
Lucky for me they replaced it.
 
Ohh i never had a problem with the paste sticking. Its getting the damn clips off that caused me no end of trouble.
 
sculptor said:
The second gen heatsinks are fine, but I know what you mean.
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I don't recall the one that came with my X2-3800 being a problem - could be 2nd gen though as it's a 2006 chip.
My Arctic Cooling 64 Pro was lovely though - if the lever resists then you know something's not on quite right :)
 
Yes the first ones were a pig, once youve lifted the clip you could hardly move it enough to free the other side.
Edit
Just wait till you use socket 775 oh what fun with 4 fiddly little push in clips.
 
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Taking about socket 775, just checked my email and my replacement DS4 is being delivered tomorrow,
Guess that means Ill have an X23800 and a DFI NF4 Ultra D to sell.

Edit: If you are interested Joe my email is [email protected]
 
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sculptor said:
Just wait till you use socket 775 oh what fun with 4 fiddly little push in clips.
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Those things are ridiculous :mad:
One of the cluster boxes at work was powering down for what appeared to be no good reason and I eventually found that two of the plastic pegs had popped free under the strain so the chip wasn't in proper contact with he HSF.

Worlds most advanced chip let down by the worlds cheapest plastic lugs :rolleyes:
Hang your heads in shame Intel.
 
never had a problem with the s775 brackets my self (but then i didn't follow the instruction) push-n-twist pha! - set to lock - grip sides - push (job done)

that said the LGA775 RM bracket for my xp-120 was much easier (but is very close to some of the vertical components around my mobo, gently now :eek: )
 
sculptor said:
Taking about socket 775, just checked my email and my replacement DS4 is being delivered tomorrow,
Guess that means Ill have an X23800 and a DFI NF4 Ultra D to sell.
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Thanks for the offer. I need to have a think about it really and decide how much i want to spend and what i want to do. I'm toying with the idea of putting my 3200+ in it and getting an x2 for the htpc, and various other things. So don't reserve it for me or anything.

I just needed to get a feel for the sort of ppd figures i would be getting with various things.
 
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