Bloomfield, Thuban, or wait

[10e]

They are Dynatron A1. Actually made for Socket F1207 with custom pitch of 4.1" which is the pitch (ie. space between mounting screws) of G34.

But I've since replaced them as they need way too much loud airflow to provide sufficient cooling, which is typical of all-copper HeatSinks. The server was intermittently rebooting due to temperatures, which were going up to 50+ celsius with P6701 units (yay).

Right now I've put two Coolermaster Vortex Plus coolers with the AM2 mounting clips on them. Asus includes two sets of brackets to use "clip on" heatsinks but due to the pitch/width I've turned them 180 degrees so the clips face inwards toward the sockets, and clipped them on that way. I believe these types of clips also come with Tyan and Supermicro boards, but not 100% sure about that.

My only issue with the Vortex Plus coolers is that they are extremely tight and exerting a little too much force on the socket for my taste. This weekend I will try a couple of older Zalman 9900 CNPS coolers as their clips are a bit more gentle.

On another note, the temps with the Coolermaster Vortex Plus coolers have gone down to 37 celsius on 100% load which is excellent.

the two challenges with coolers on these chips is that they need to have a plate big enough to cover most of the heat spreaders on the CPUs which exceed 2 inches in width, and they need a decent AM2 or socket 939 mounting clip. The older style ones which use pressure from bending are better than the newer ones which use the "rotate style" movable latch on the one side. This is the type of clip on the Vortex Plus coolers. The pressure is so great that the clip itself is actually a little rotated around its own axis.

Scary stuff!

I will update with more pix when the Zalmans go on there. Hopefully the heat transfer plate will cover most of the chips IHS (integrated heat spreaders). The Vortex coolers don't cover them fully, but they only leave about one millimeter on each side uncovered, and no cores are showing temp differences of more than one celsius.

EDIT: I noticed you also asked about the fans. I got four silicon grommets to keep vibration to a minimum, and where you can see the silicon grommet, there is a screw there using pressure between fins to hold in the fan. They were more than tight enough. I used two per fan. One fan was a 70mm Coolermaster running at 5,000 RPM (!!!!!) and the other an AMD stock cooler fan that I parted from an older AMD heatsink. Neither one worked as well as I would have liked. I then fashioned some fan clips out of large paper clips using pliers to bend them to shape and tucked them in under the side mounting screws. These worked well, but again, with the heatsinks being copper, I need a lot of airflow and they weren't cutting it. Thus the high temps and either the chips would cycle down to 800mhz or the server would reboot.

Since I added the CM Vortex coolers, the temps have been so low that both chips have been solid at 1900mhz with no thermal slowdowns and my TPF on 2685 was down to 22:30, equalling about 58K PPD.

10e, out of curiosity what kind of cooling system is this for your 24 core rig? I noticed that the only company making a HSF for socket G34 cpus is Dynatron. It looks rather different and the reviews i've read for the Dynatron HSF is that it is very loud and doesn't seem to keep the cpu very cool as a few reviewers were complaining of temps above 60 degrees.

 

[10e]

If I could get them, I would use these:

http://www.tt-itbu.com/product/Server/amd_2u.htm

All of them except the middle one would work, and probably work very well. The problem with most of the all-copper ones is they need a lot of cross flow forced air to get good cooling.

With the Dynatrons, if I had continued with them, I was going to fashion a "sleeve" out of aluminum and tap some screw holes in them similar to the CLS0017 on this page.

Alas I decided to try and use an out-of-box solution without cutting and scraping so that others wouldn't go through this morass of junk

I hate Frankenstein solutions that cost too much time and effort in re-producing. I am hoping those Zalman 9900s have big enough heat plates for the G34s, and they look snazzy even after all these years. Another solution that looks good is using some of the Scythe solutions that have the flexible mounting clips on them. I have an older Ninja Mini I may try as well, if, again, it has a large enough heat transfer plate.

Pix to come.

the heatsink 10e's using is still better then that first thermaltake hsf.. most of the stuff dynatron has is junk.. but those pure copper heatsinks hes using are the best when you pair it with your own fan.. the other ones look like remakes of the stock HSF that AMD already uses.. instead of splitting the pipes 2 on each side and taking advantage of how long the socket is and putting the heat pipes on 1 side of the heatsink.. but seeing has how they are unoverclockable 140w of cooling really isnt all that necessary..

btw the 2.1ghz 12 core magny just hit newegg.. for $999.. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819105264

 

[jebo_4jc]

Since I added the CM Vortex coolers, the temps have been so low that both chips have been solid at 1900mhz with no thermal slowdowns and my TPF on 2685 was down to 22:30, equalling about 58K PPD.

Good info. I think that's relatively equal to what I've seen the Gulftown users reporting with their 980x at ~4ghz.

A 4ghz SR2 rig gets in the 75k ppd range with quad core chips.

A 4ghz 920 gets about 25-30k ppd on p2685.

Let's see some cost/benefit analysis

 

[amdgamer]

If I could get them, I would use these:

http://www.tt-itbu.com/product/Server/amd_2u.htm

All of them except the middle one would work, and probably work very well. The problem with most of the all-copper ones is they need a lot of cross flow forced air to get good cooling.

With the Dynatrons, if I had continued with them, I was going to fashion a "sleeve" out of aluminum and tap some screw holes in them similar to the CLS0017 on this page.

Alas I decided to try and use an out-of-box solution without cutting and scraping so that others wouldn't go through this morass of junk

I hate Frankenstein solutions that cost too much time and effort in re-producing. I am hoping those Zalman 9900s have big enough heat plates for the G34s, and they look snazzy even after all these years. Another solution that looks good is using some of the Scythe solutions that have the flexible mounting clips on them. I have an older Ninja Mini I may try as well, if, again, it has a large enough heat transfer plate.

Pix to come.

Thanks for pitching in as i'd glad you are going through this ordeal so that I won't have to if I decide to go with dual Magnys later this year

I guess that rules out going with that massive all copper passive heat sink then since you didn't have very good luck with it. I see the Thermaltake there, but it sounds like the fan could get very noise as it is able to speed upto 6000rpms. Keep us updated as you have my dream rig! I love those rectangular cpus as they look so cool.

Good info. I think that's relatively equal to what I've seen the Gulftown users reporting with their 980x at ~4ghz.

A 4ghz SR2 rig gets in the 75k ppd range with quad core chips.

A 4ghz 920 gets about 25-30k ppd on p2685.

Let's see some cost/benefit analysis

I would be willing to bet that a dual Magny rig will be using far less power than those options above. It takes a lot of juice from what i've seen to get those 920/930's to 4ghz and of course a dual SR2 is going to be sucking juice as well.

I hope that we will get an overclockable Magny board one day.

If I go with a dual Magny solution, I have a feeling that i'm going to try my hand at water cooling. Due to the server nature of these cpus, I somehow doubt we are ever going to get any nice tower coolers that actually work without being loud as well.

 

[jebo_4jc]

good point. 10e do you have a kill a watt?

I can tell you a couple SR2 readings:

Kendrak's dual 5530 rig at 3.8 pulls about 480W while folding. Vaulter's similar rig at 3.9 drew 515W. Musky's dual 5530 rig at stock clocks only draws 245w but also only produces 35k ppd.
My dual 5640 rig at 4.0 draws 450W

Muskys 920 at 4ghz draws 287w

 

[APOLLO]

http://www.koolance.com/water-cooling/product_info.php?product_id=978

Here is another option I just found. I'm writing the literature review for my thesis, but am so bored out of my mind that I can't concentrate.

It looks like they make a water block that can fit socket G34 cpus!

If I go with a dual Magny solution, I have a feeling that i'm going to try my hand at water cooling. Due to the server nature of these cpus, I somehow doubt we are ever going to get any nice tower coolers that actually work without being loud as well.

Why water cooling? Is it only for the quietness? The blocks and associated hardware is going to cost you a lot more than even high-end HSFs. WC is only worthwhile when we have processors and motherboards capable of extreme frequencies that produce excessive amounts of heat. A dual hex-core SR-2 system would be a good candidate for WC. The M-C systems so far have proven incapable of attaining high OCs. All you really need are decent HSF combos and you should be good to go. It will save you a lot of money not to mention all the complexity associated with a dual CPU WC rig.

I'm using solid copper passive sinks on one Xeon system and attached a couple of fans by simply forcing bolts between the malleable fins. It works very well and the processors are only warm at full load despite being overclocked.

 

[Vaulter98c]

Yea, dont go WC, waste of money on an MC setup. I wouldnt plan on which HS/F to get just yet. Go ahead and plan on a price point, but I'd wait until you buy to chose those. There will be more variety by then and youll just have to rethink the choice then anyways, save a little trouble and just budget for a set price then move on. Planning rigs more than a month out is kinda pointless with how fast the industry changes, learned that with Skynet

 

[amdgamer]

Yeah a WC setup would be to limit noise. I just don't want a rig that sounds like a dust buster since the storage room is right next to my bedroom. For what I gather, 10e appears to not have had much luck with putting fans on passive all copper heat sinks for his dual magny setup. He posted earlier that his system was rebooting because the processors were running too hot. A water cooler setup would be very unlikely though considering my risk adverse nature and the fact that I do not like the idea of liquids being inside a computer.

It appears that only Dyantron and Thermaltake make G34 coolers right now and both of them are loud as well from what I can gather from spec sheets. I've never tried my hand at a multiprocessor rig using server boards and chips before, so i'm trying to plan right now so that I will know what I am doing if I do go with this setup by the end of the year.

I have no desire to buy any parts until the funds are there and I know I can commit, but this stuff is pretty different from the desktop market. I find it scary that I started folding just a few months ago and now i'm planning out dual processors boards now.

 

[Vaulter98c]

Go Octo

once you go 8 you'll never go back to 1 again, something about a tray of 8 quad cores all for one computer
Posted via [H] Mobile Device

 

[APOLLO]

It appears that only Dyantron and Thermaltake make G34 coolers right now and both of them are loud as well from what I can gather from spec sheets.

If you are concerned about sound levels, what I'd do is get the best HSFs you can find and just connect fan controllers to them. I know the Dynatrons are very loud, so controllers would be a must. In cooler seasons you wouldn't need the fans spinning at cyclonic velocities anyway, and the cooling capability is always on tap for the heat of the summer months.

I find it scary that I started folding just a few months ago and now i'm planning out dual processors boards now.

For me it was the opposite. I had used dual-processor machines before and in 2001 they went to good use when I started folding. You will always get more mileage from a dual-processor system. Up until -bigadv, they were not really cost efficient from a points per dollar perspective. I had always preferred them because they are great from a points per square footage angle.

 

[amdgamer]

Go Octo

once you go 8 you'll never go back to 1 again, something about a tray of 8 quad cores all for one computer
Posted via [H] Mobile Device

Heh, I would love to have a system like the one Punchy at eVGA has, but I gotta have your credit card number first.

With the price of quad processor motherboards as high as they are(quad G34's run about $800-900), I don't even want to know how much an 8 way G34 board will cost. Tyan sells a dual G34 E-ATX board which is the form-factor I need since almost every full tower case supports that form-factor, but I wouldn't even know what to do with a 4 way or 8 way motherboard as those are frickin huge.

Can you even put mobos that big on a rack? I wouldn't even want to know how much juice it would need and now much heat it would give off. It would also be loud as hell I bet.

 

[amdgamer]

If you are concerned about sound levels, what I'd do is get the best HSFs you can find and just connect fan controllers to them. I know the Dynatrons are very loud, so controllers would be a must. In cooler seasons you wouldn't need the fans spinning at cyclonic velocities anyway, and the cooling capability is always on tap for the heat of the summer months.

For me it was the opposite. I had used dual-processor machines before and in 2001 they went to good use when I started folding. You will always get more mileage from a dual-processor system. Up until -bigadv, they were not really cost efficient from a points per dollar perspective. I had always preferred them because they are great from a points per square footage angle.

Yeah space for me isn't much of an issue as I don't plan on doing a massive farm. Basically everything will get hooked up to wireless and be put into the guest bedroom which functions as a storage room right now. That is where my current i7 930 rig is located. For me, i've never had a use for dual processor rigs as it doesn't do a thing for gaming, and I don't do anything else on the gaming rig.

I'm mostly just mulling over my options right now as I won't be making any commitments for a few more months. I would like to make this an AMD build, but an Intel or even SR2 setup is not out of the question if it offers a much better value. If we see some very powerful desktop processors come out this winter, that would change plans as well.

 

[amdgamer]

Off to Micro Center............

BTW, have you guys tried those VGA or KVM switches? I have spare monitors everywhere in the house(all are very old CRT's), and I have spare PS/2 keyboards and mice laying around but the thought or sharing all 3 paraphanalia via a central switch is intriguing.

 

[jebo_4jc]

yeah kvm works like a charm

 

[SazanEyes]

KVMs are nice, and VGA models should be relatively cheap now. I recently upgraded from a VGA and PS/2 switch to a DVI and USB model.

 

[leagle]

Check craigslist, ebay and the for sale forum here at [H] before you pay retail for a kvm. There's almost no reason to buy a new one.

 

[amdgamer]

I just bought one of those IOGEAR 2 port KVM switches from Micro Center for $39.99. Hopefully my new folding rig will be done by tonight as i'm at work tomarrow and won't have time to go pick it up.

Once I pick it up, i'll probably let it run at stock speeds as I won't have time to do any overclocking till this weekend at the earliest.........

 

[APOLLO]

Hopefully my new folding rig will be done by tonight as i'm at work tomarrow and won't have time to go pick it up.

Once I pick it up, i'll probably let it run at stock speeds as I won't have time to do any overclocking till this weekend at the earliest.........

What system did you get?

 

[amdgamer]

What system did you get?

I had to go with what I could afford unfortunately, no matter how badly I want a dual magny system. I thought about waiting till this winter, but eVGA will have mowed us by then. Right now, I think it is about how long we can hold them off. It is so nice to see the BOINC fellow join us to fold with that other team closing in on us. They will take us down, but we arn't going to make it easy for them!

 

[jebo_4jc]

You still haven't told us what you got, but I' assuming since I see "Folding2" in your sig, with an i7, that you bought a 920 at Microcenter

 

[lehmann]

his sig says 980X

 

[musky]

A 980X for a folding rig...nice!

 

[amdgamer]

Yeah, I changed my sig after I noticed I left out what processor I was running. I was changing my sig and got distracted, thus leaving it incomplete until now.

Unfortunatly, I still don't have my rig yet as Micro Center didn't finish assembling it. They gave me an ETA of 4pm tomarrow as they said they are very busy. It is understandable since Micro Center is the only reputable big computer store in Cincinnati. I don't consider Best Buy reputable. This means that I won't be able to put my new rig online till Wednesday since i'll be busy at work tomarrow(starting a new job). I won't even have time to do any overclocking till this weekend.

 

[APOLLO]

You purchased a 980X..?!

 

[amdgamer]

A 980X for a folding rig...nice!

You purchased a 980X..?!

Yeah, I decided to bite the bullet as my financials were better than expected. I was saving for a dual Magny rig by the end of this year and realized that my entertainment budget was a little over halfway there. I did the math this morning and realized that I would need roughly $3400-3500 to do a dual 12 core 2.1ghz Magny rig with a Tyan E-ATX motherboard. I was 60% of the way there, which gave me enough in my budget for a Gulftown. From what we have seen on 2685 bigadv, an overclocked Gulftown will come within 6000-7000ppd of a dual Magny 1.9ghz rig since one overclocks and the other doesn't.

What this will free me up to do is buy a second Gulftown for my folding1 rig by this winter for the same total cost.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

Yeah, I changed my sig after I noticed I left out what processor I was running. I was changing my sig and got distracted, thus leaving it incomplete until now.

Unfortunatly, I still don't have my rig yet as Micro Center didn't finish assembling it. They gave me an ETA of 4pm tomarrow as they said they are very busy. It is understandable since Micro Center is the only reputable big computer store in Cincinnati. I don't consider Best Buy reputable. This means that I won't be able to put my new rig online till Wednesday since i'll be busy at work tomarrow(starting a new job). I won't even have time to do any overclocking till this weekend.

you got some balls.. i wouldnt let anyone friggin touch any of my systems.. I dont give a crap out many certifications they have..

 

[APOLLO]

What this will free me up to do is buy a second Gulftown for my folding1 rig by this winter for the same total cost.

Yes, and that will net you a much higher total PPD later on. Moreover, because you purchased now instead of waiting when you could afford the dual MC, you will be producing the additional PPD right away. So, not only will you benefit eventually from a larger total production but also reaping immediate gains. Very good forward thinking.

 

[amdgamer]

you got some balls.. i wouldnt let anyone friggin touch any of my systems.. I dont give a crap out many certifications they have..

It is mostly because I don't do my own system builds anymore, and Micro Center has done a LOT of builds for me over the years. I developed a severe fear of doing my own computer work after I accidently drilled right through a $2000 wiring harness in my Ford Taurus SHO at the time while trying to rig a remote filtration system.

Yes, and that will net you a much higher total PPD later on. Moreover, because you purchased now, instead of waiting when you could afford the dual MC, you will be producing the additional PPD right away. So, not only will you benefit eventually from a larger total production but also reaping immediate gains. Very good forward thinking.

That was exactly how I thought this morning when I ran the numbers. I wanted to increase my production now as eVGA is scheduled to run us down in 3 months or less. However I realized that for the same total $3400-3500 I was anticipating, I could start producing a lot more points right now and further increase my production more by having the money to upgrade folding1 to a Gulftown by this winter. So I increase points now to help hold them off as long as possible, and I can then increase my production again once we have been passed so we can mow them back over.

 

[Kendrak]

Well you should be hitting the top 20 board soon. Congrats on a schweet proc.

 

[jebo_4jc]

yeah thats a superb upgrade. I bet your PPD/w will be significantly better than a dual magny rig would be as well.

Enjoy that baby

 

[amdgamer]

Well you should be hitting the top 20 board soon. Congrats on a schweet proc.

I just want to do my part to help with the folding project, and make sure that we don't go quietly when that day comes.

yeah thats a superb upgrade. I bet your PPD/w will be significantly better than a dual magny rig would be as well.

Enjoy that baby

The problem is that I feel like a traitor. This means that I am no better than those fair weather AMD fans who left AMD as soon as Intel took the top spot again. However I really hope that we see a SR2 like motherboard for the AMD market one day as an overclockable Magny Cour would be just an obscene amount of computing power.

 

[APOLLO]

The problem is that I feel like a traitor. This means that I am no better than those fair weather AMD fans who left AMD as soon as Intel took the top spot again.

The big difference is that you're folding with these systems. There is real research being accomplished and it's going towards medical biology. A very worthy trade off.

However I really hope that we see a SR2 like motherboard for the AMD market one day as an overclockable Magny Cour would be just an obscene amount of computing power.

If that happens, you can count me in for one.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

I just want to do my part to help with the folding project, and make sure that we don't go quietly when that day comes.



The problem is that I feel like a traitor. This means that I am no better than those fair weather AMD fans who left AMD as soon as Intel took the top spot again. However I really hope that we see a SR2 like motherboard for the AMD market one day as an overclockable Magny Cour would be just an obscene amount of computing power.

yeah i wish i could get my hands on some ES model magny's since they have the unlocked multiplier..

hell even i have thought about building an intel rig for folding.. but i just cant bring myself to give intel any of my hard earned cash.. the only way id even think about going intel is by buying parts from here.. at least then ill feel better that its not going directly to intel..

 

[amdgamer]

yeah i wish i could get my hands on some ES model magny's since they have the unlocked multiplier..

hell even i have thought about building an intel rig for folding.. but i just cant bring myself to give intel any of my hard earned cash.. the only way id even think about going intel is by buying parts from here.. at least then ill feel better that its not going directly to intel..

My Core i7 930 will probably go on sale late this winter if my plans work out right. My processors have NEVER been abused, but i'm also convinced my 930 is a dud. It didn't want to overclock as I hit a wall at 3.67ghz. Anything more required a huge increase in voltage that created too much heat. It is currently running at 3.46ghz with a vcore of 1.2685 volts.

We can also hope that AMD releases something to fill in the gap before Bulldozer comes out. BTW, there are some ES 12 core Magnys on Ebay right now, or there were when I checked yesterday. The seller was in Taiwan though, but willing to ship.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

My Core i7 930 will probably go on sale late this winter if my plans work out right. My processors have NEVER been abused, but i'm also convinced my 930 is a dud. It didn't want to overclock as I hit a wall at 3.67ghz. Anything more required a huge increase in voltage that created too much heat. It is currently running at 3.46ghz with a vcore of 1.2685 volts.

We can also hope that AMD releases something to fill in the gap before Bulldozer comes out. BTW, there are some ES 12 core Magnys on Ebay right now, or there were when I checked yesterday. The seller was in Taiwan though, but willing to ship.

yeah i never lied the 930's.. friggin hit or miss getting a processor that could over clock.. at least the 920's are far more consistent and well you know me i have to overclock everything so i probably will pass up the 930 when you decide to sell it.. though im sure some one that doesnt like overclocking will probably buy it..

 

[amdgamer]

Microcenter just called and said the rig is ready and done. Damn........

I won't have time to pick it up today, although I may be able to sneak in right before they clase at 9pm to try to pick it up. Start my new job today...........

BTW, they tried to talk me about of the Cogage cooler that I bought for it. The tech told me that if I am willing to deal with the noise, that the stock 980x cooler cools much better and is superior to anything but the biggest and most outrageous air coolers. I told him to go ahead and install the Cogage anyway as i'm not sure I want a super loud air cooler. My stock cooler in my gaming rig sounds like a little dust buster once the room temps start going up.

 

[jebo_4jc]

hm. i havent seen a whole lot of tests of the improved cooler the 980x uses, but i would bet money on the cogage beating it with a decent fan.

 

[10e]

No, but I'm going to try and pick one up today when I get (what I think) are the final heat sinks from TigerDirect. They usually have the Kill-A-Watt thingies in stock in the retail shop..

I would be really surprised if it pulled any where near those SR-2 totals from the wall. Hopefully I can get one tonight and put it on.

good point. 10e do you have a kill a watt?

I can tell you a couple SR2 readings:

Kendrak's dual 5530 rig at 3.8 pulls about 480W while folding. Vaulter's similar rig at 3.9 drew 515W. Musky's dual 5530 rig at stock clocks only draws 245w but also only produces 35k ppd.
My dual 5640 rig at 4.0 draws 450W

Muskys 920 at 4ghz draws 287w

 

[10e]

I'd agree that it's the best way to go. I love my 2xMC system but folding-wise it doesn't seem any faster clock-for-clock and core-for-core than the previous gen Opterons.

Also, if I didn't already have 8 available DDR3 modules, I would have re-considered and gone Gulftown. I may still do so. I can re-coup those extra costs by getting rid of some i7 920s and an i7 860 and ultimately the upgrade for a couple of 'em will only cost me a few hundreds.

Enjoy the rig, and the new job. I'll update what is going on soon. Was a busy weekend.

Yeah, I decided to bite the bullet as my financials were better than expected. I was saving for a dual Magny rig by the end of this year and realized that my entertainment budget was a little over halfway there. I did the math this morning and realized that I would need roughly $3400-3500 to do a dual 12 core 2.1ghz Magny rig with a Tyan E-ATX motherboard. I was 60% of the way there, which gave me enough in my budget for a Gulftown. From what we have seen on 2685 bigadv, an overclocked Gulftown will come within 6000-7000ppd of a dual Magny 1.9ghz rig since one overclocks and the other doesn't.

What this will free me up to do is buy a second Gulftown for my folding1 rig by this winter for the same total cost.

 

[musky]

BTW, they tried to talk me about of the Cogage cooler that I bought for it. The tech told me that if I am willing to deal with the noise, that the stock 980x cooler cools much better and is superior to anything but the biggest and most outrageous air coolers. I told him to go ahead and install the Cogage anyway as i'm not sure I want a super loud air cooler. My stock cooler in my gaming rig sounds like a little dust buster once the room temps start going up.

I kinda doubt this is even close to being true. This isn't with a True, but it does show what the stock solution at high power does. I would be shocked if the True doesn't do significantly better.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/6-coolers_8.html#sect0