Dual Xeon -bigadv worklog

So should I go with an earlier version? Or is there a different distro that is still n00b friendly.
 
Ubuntu 8.043 LTS is still pretty n00b friendly if you want to give that a try.
 
musky said:
Ubuntu 8.043 LTS is still pretty n00b friendly if you want to give that a try.
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But will turboboost work with it? No sense switching if it wont help.

Anyone else know if a linux distro that does support turboboost?
 
Kendrak said:
But will turboboost work with it? No sense switching if it wont help.

Anyone else know if a linux distro that does support turboboost?
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No clue...don't have anything that is running turboboost at the moment. I'd load some distros up as writable installs on USB sticks to see which one works for you.
 
Kendrak said:
Anyone else know if a linux distro that does support turboboost?
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If Tobit doesn't know, then I suggest you try PMing Alan or SmokeRngs might even know. These DC forum members are the [H]ardest when it comes to Linux, and if anyone might know, it would be one of them. I want to see your rig running at its full potential because I'm very curious what these new Xeons systems are capable of.
 
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Isn't CentOS based off redhat? I have no clue if that means anything, just throwing that out there
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jebo_4jc said:
here's a little turboboost info: http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-17124

I guess it only pertains to redhat though. I'm a total linux idiot
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Actually, that doesn't pertain exclusively to CentOS and RHEL. The only things they mention there are regarding the kernel and basic Linux utilities (cpufreq). To my knowledge cpufreq is available as a package for every Linux distro and likely installed by default for the majority of them.

I can't tell you exactly what is going on with turbo boost not working. I don't run Ubuntu as I have never cared for that distro and don't particularly like Debian based distros in general. I would install it anyway just to try it out but I don't have any i7 or i5 hardware to check it out on. There is a chance this could be an Ubuntu or less likely but possibly a Debian problem. It seems that Ubuntu isn't exactly the best distro for folding or otherwise with the number of problems I've seen with it over the last few releases.

Another thing to keep in mind is that certain conditions must be met in order for turbo boost to activate. Thermal power must be within a certain range, voltage must be in a certain range as well as one or two other things if I remember correctly. At one point in time I believe turbo boost wasn't going to activate if all cores were mostly loaded down but I think Intel backtracked and allowed it to enable automatically anyway as long as all other conditions were met. As far as meeting the conditions, remember that software monitoring programs for temperature and voltage may not be the same readings the processor is reading internally. Even if you have software which would lead you to believe there is no reason for turbo boost not to be activated, the processor itself may be seeing different results. I ran into this the other night when I wiped the Win7 RC and put Vista back on. For some reason, the version of Speedfan I am running (the newest) definitely did not read the correct temps for my processor. I had to set a +10C offset to all cores in order to get the approximately correct temps. Sure, I would love to believe that my Q6600@3.6 under full load was only running 45-47C with a TRUE but I knew damn good and well that wasn't the case.

From what I've read, you must have EIST and turbo boost enabled in the BIOS for turbo boost to have a chance of working. If EIST is not enabled, turbo boost will not activate. You may also need to have all CPU settings set to auto including the CPU voltage, BCLK (or whatever the bus speed is called now) and whatever other CPU settings there may be. There is a possibility that RAM voltage may be one of the system voltages the processor checks before enabling turbo boost. This means there is a chance that if you have RAM that requires a higher voltage than spec, turbo boost may not kick in. This could also be a problem if you are using a RAM multiplier or whatever to run higher RAM speeds than normal spec. From what I've read, turbo boost can be extremely finicky about starting up. However, take everything I've said here with a grain of salt. I have not researched this thoroughly and I do not have any hardware to test any of this.

I'm going to guess that you have run this system with a current Windows OS and when that OS was running that turbo boost was working. If you have the same BIOS settings now as then, the ramblings in my previous paragraph were probably a waste of my time and a huge waste of time for anyone reading it. I apologize now for wasting your time if this is the case.

Furthermore, the only suggestion I have other than checking your BIOS settings I hate to mention. I would try another Linux distro such as the newest CentOS or openSUSE. I have never actually used any CentOS distro and it's been a long time since I last used the somewhat similar Fedora distro so I don't really have any experience with them. Tigerbiten is the resident CentOS guy. For openSUSE, I can help you with that as it's my distro of choice and I just finished putting openSUSE 11.2 on my server last week. I believe that openSUSE is an easy to install and use distro even if it is a bit bloated.

If you do decide to try openSUSE 11.2, I do not suggest using XFCE over KDE or Gnome. It's what I'm using on my server at the moment and while I want to like it, there are some rather annoying and nasty bugs with it at the moment. I don't know about Gnome as I haven't used that in any distro in a long time. I believe it defaults to KDE4 which I have tried on previous installations but did not like. It may be a bit more stable now but I'm not sure. It looks like KDE 3.5 is a possibility as libraries and such for it are still available in the package manager but I have not tried installing it just yet and I don't know if it's an option during the initial installation. It's something I will probably do in the next few days from the package manager since XFCE is not working out for me at this time and I don't personally care for KDE4.

If you have any other questions, I'll do what I can to answer them.

 
Vaulter98c said:
Isn't CentOS based off redhat? I have no clue if that means anything, just throwing that out there
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CentOS is the free version of RHEL. They are the same thing other than branding and no support for CentOS. Something to keep in mind with CentOS and RHEL is that they are usually behind the curve regarding the newest things to Linux but that is because they test the ever living hell out of everything that goes into them in order to make them as stable as possible.
 
Well... I'm going to try another distro tomorrow after the current WU finnishes (if I can find time)
 
Another vote for openSuse 11.2, I am running it on my dual xeon box, installed with no GUI on a 4GB USB flash drive. Working fine so far (don't know how long the flash drive will work like this though). Suse's configuration program (Yast) is quite nice also.

As to the Turboboost, I don't know, the Xeon e5504 doesn't support turbo boost.
 
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How hard is it to setup using a USB drive as the HDD? Anyone got an idea on performance issues this may raise (good or bad)? And thats a good question, how long will it last?
 
Well notfreds lasted well over a year on some cheap thumb drives for me. (Multipul rigs)

If you have plenty of RAM the write to the drive should be on lower side.
 
nitrobass24 said:
network boot :)
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Heh, this is how I used to do much of my Linux based folding. However, writing bigadv checkpoints every XX number of minutes across Ethernet to an NFS share isn't something I'd trust too highly. :eek:
 
Tobit said:
Heh, this is how I used to do much of my Linux based folding. However, writing bigadv checkpoints every XX number of minutes across Ethernet to an NFS share isn't something I'd trust too highly. :eek:
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me either. not for points nor for reliability.

I recommend the Patriot Xplorer XT. FWIW, I have one of these for storage use, and it's nice and fast.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220252
It has a lifetime warranty.
 
lassiterb said:
Another vote for openSuse 11.2, I am running it on my dual xeon box, installed with no GUI on a 4GB USB flash drive. Working fine so far (don't know how long the flash drive will work like this though). Suse's configuration program (Yast) is quite nice also.

As to the Turboboost, I don't know, the Xeon e5504 doesn't support turbo boost.
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Well..... I'm downloading it now. I might just install it on a 8GB thumb drive I have. The mobo has an internal USB connection, spiffy :cool:
 
Kendrak said:
Well..... I'm downloading it now. I might just install it on a 8GB thumb drive I have. The mobo has an internal USB connection, spiffy :cool:
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yep, love the internal usb connection, using it myself.
 
I'm still having issues getting turboboost to kick in on Kendrak's Asus board. However, he is now showing 28m 55s frame times at stock 2.4GHz speed. Not bad. Still confused on his turboboost problem though, not giving up yet.
 
Id be willing to bet someone that this board doesnt come to market for less than $600.

Just look at the closest competitor. X8DTH-6f. its $580 and has none of the BIOS features.
 
looking at the features all I see is EXPENSIVE
 
Vaulter98c said:
looking at the features all I see is EXPENSIVE
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"Expensive" can vary depening on the person.
Many of use drop $200-300 for video cards, or several 100 for CPU & heatsinks.

For me, it will be worth it because I can sell my high end supermicro board ( $450 when new) & i will gain the ability to overclock my X5550s. I already have the beefy heatsinks to handle the overclocking.

I do not think i will purcahse any for my E5530 systems though due to the cost difference of selling my curent boards and getting new ones.
(New they are only $230 so resale + new costs would be higher)

It will all come down to the costs and overclock performance.
 
If I can build a full PC for less than 2000 by the end of summer, I'm doing it.
 
rayman2k2 said:
If I can build a full PC for less than 2000 by the end of summer, I'm doing it.
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All depends on what kinda deal you can get on the CPUs

But you would know that about me... always looking for a bargain ;) :p
 
E5520's are $380 -- would be fun to try and OC them to 3.8 GHz. :)
 
Tobit said:
E5520's are $380 -- would be fun to try and OC them to 3.8 GHz. :)
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sure would....wouldn't it.

You'd think the overclocking headroom would be pretty durn good with the xeons, and you stick a couple $50 heatsinks on top for temp purposes.

Then, crunch away until the 32nm revolution hits. Then stick one or two 6 core CPUs in there.

Actually, looking at the FAQ again, Shamino says 200 to 205 blck is typical on air, with 230+ achievable on LN2. If that is true of the E5520, with its 17x multiplier, you're looking at "only" 3.4ghz at a blck of 200mhz.

The $560 E5530 gets up to 3.6ghz at 200 blck

The $780 E5540 get to 3.8ghz

You have to move up to the $1000 X5550 for 4ghz operation.
 
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trust me, I would love to get my hands on a couple 5520s at "only" 3.4ghz

As long as I could figure out how to use them. I suppose I'd have to resort to native linux.
 
jebo_4jc said:
Actually, looking at the FAQ again, Shamino says 200 to 205 blck is typical on air, with 230+ achievable on LN2. If that is true of the E5520, with its 17x multiplier, you're looking at "only" 3.4ghz at a blck of 200mhz.
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3.4 before turboboost kicks in and increases the multiplier. :) Providing turboboost is supported in the BIOS.
 
Tobit said:
Providing turboboost is supported in the BIOS.
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frickonastick.jpg
 
Ok, so get one 5530 now, OC it and run bigadv. Then, add a hex core later. 10 real cores, 10 HT cores, should provide for some decent times I would think!
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Vaulter98c said:
Ok, so get one 5530 now, OC it and run bigadv. Then, add a hex core later.
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I would be surprised if that would work. Normally dual socket boards require the same processors to be installed. Don't know the exact features of the EVGA board but it would be a small revolution if it supported assymetric setups.
 
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