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Building a dual CPU SFF, zmax-DP

U

Ultra Wide

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jul 23, 2000
Messages
1,396
I have been out of the build your own scene for quite a bit. I have never used anything but intel since 1993. Recently I have just been buying Dells and upgrading them a bit. I was going to get a Precision 380, but Dell cancelled my order 4 times so I decided to give AMD a try. Ok so what I got so far:

1 x Iwill zmax-DP
2 x Kingston 512MB reg ECC PC3200 FBGA (KVR400S4R3A/512)
2 x Opteron 244 Revision AU, Stepping CG
1 x ATi FireGL X1 AGP
1 x Asus DVD-ROM supposed to be quiet and less deep
1 x Santa Cruz PCI

1 x Firewire 320GB
1 x USB BenQ 16 DVD+RW (might switch it to a firewire enclosure)
1 x Ceramique thermal compound


I need some input on a quiet and cool hdd. I don't need to overclock anything and I don't need WD Raptor speeds. What I want to accomplish is a quiet and cool system that is powerful and compact. I chose the 244s since they should run cool enough, the FBGA RAM should also consume less power and run cooler. I need a quiet SATA hdd that runs cool. Currently I have a 7200.7 PATA and it is quiet, but I did some reading and it seems that certain Samsungs are even quieter, but having a hard time narrowing down which model number is the exact drive. Also, is Ceramique the best thermal compound these days? or is that Shin Etsu the best for AMD? I haven't done any computer building since 2000 and always stayed away from AMD because of the chipset horror stories, but maybe the nVidia chipset is more mature like intel's... Please feel free to comment and give me advice about more current products, techniques, etc. :)

(Didn't know there was a SFF forum :p)
 
Is there a reason you want opterons vs. dual core? Also, why the FireGL? What type of workstation are you looking for? From what you've speced-out, I would say 3d-rendering (not gaming), is this what you're doing? If not, you might want to think about what you're buying and go with more mainstream options (Dual core, consumer line video cards, etc.)
 
I will do a lot of video encoding. The FireGL I already have so it's just getting recycled until I can afford something else.

I have gotten all my parts except for the RAM, newegg sent me old stock based on TSOP, instead of BGA. I am hoping the exchange will get me BGA, but they said it's not guaranteed. :rolleyes: yet they show the BGA on their pictures... oh well

I did get to fire it up briefly and went into the BIOS and let it run, it's not very loud. The CPUs were doing 50C and 42C, I am guessing it's full throttle since it's in the BIOS. Maybe the XP CPU idler can reduce the running temps a little.
 
You would have had significantly better performance with an overclocked dual core chip, because your clock would probably be around 700MHz higher and mem bandwidth much better. It also would have allowed you to use a near silent Zalman 7000 or 7700 cooler, but oh well. That's what happens when you buy first and ask questions later.

Not sure how much clearance you have, but a Thermaltake Silent Boost on both chips would help with noise. I can pretty much guarantee that if you try an LG DVD burner, it will be quieter than the ASUS or BenQ - trust me. :cool: It is longer though.

Ceramique is fine. There's not a big difference between the top thermal compounds. Shin Etsu was on par with AS3 and Ceramique was supposed to do about as well, but it's alot easier to work with. AS5 is the current best.

Samsung Spinpoints are a bit quieter, but the dif is minimal. You lose about an equal amount of performance. Sort on idle noise:
http://www.storagereview.com/php/benchmark/bench_sort.php
 
Wooo Hoo! another zmax dp owner. Welcome to the club.

Anyways on topic, have you updated to the latest bios because your temps seem high? I also have a pair of 244s and my temps were like that. I updated the bios and now get the correct readings. I idle at mid 30s for both. ALso go with samsungs. I have two 120gig hdds and they are silent. My video card right now is the loudest thing.
 
Dual-core does sound pretty fancy, but I have always wanted a Dual cpu system, so this was like a "just do it" moment and I pulled the trigger. From what I can see that advantage to having dual-cpu vs. dual-core seems to be the memory bandwidth, but I guess you pay for it since the zmax-dp is expensive, but the 244s were cheap, ~$299 for the matched pair (about 200 serials apart) :)
 
Ultra Wide said:
Dual-core does sound pretty fancy, but I have always wanted a Dual cpu system, so this was like a "just do it" moment and I pulled the trigger. From what I can see that advantage to having dual-cpu vs. dual-core seems to be the memory bandwidth, but I guess you pay for it since the zmax-dp is expensive, but the 244s were cheap, ~$299 for the matched pair (about 200 serials apart) :)
Click to expand...

Wow, I didn't think a matched pair would be that inexpensive. How much was the zmax-dp?
 
zmax-DP is $710 at newegg.com

I guess it's reverse pricing for dual-core:

$700 for CPU
$300 for SFF case

haha
 
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