Minor problems with the new rig

[Otto Dafe]

So I just put together the new rig: X2 3800+/1900xt, it's distinctly better than the old 1333c/GF2 mx I've been wrangling for the past 2 months. I gotta say I'm most pleased by how quiet it is, sure the video card is terrifying: it's comfortable at 90C and it weighs more than my cat, but I've never seen the fan over 50%, it's really not too bad. I was going to hold out for core 2 price drops and whatnot, but the PCI bus on the old board was misbehaving and losing data on the hard drives, and Gothic 3, Medieval 2, etc... Anyway, it's actually running and stable without further cash infusion--a first for me--particularly surprising in this instance as it's running on a $20 power supply (muahaha, madness!). But of course there are a few minor irks I'd like to iron out if possible:

1. Fan Speed: The stock cpu fan (a corner I may regret cutting) runs ~3200 rpm all the time, unless I kill the case exhaust fan and put the side on the case, which will kick it up to ~4200. What's irritating about this is that it's utterly indifferent to the state of the CPU, with prime95 torturing both cores the CPU temp tops out at 60C...CPU fan? 3200 rpm--but, with the CPU idling at 38, if the case is closed with no exhaust fan--4200. First of all let me express my abject derision for this sort of behavior, but beyond that, what is going on? I assume the temp sensor controlling the fan is a diode hanging off it's power cord (which is stupid). Anyone know details about this fan, I think they're the same from 3000+-4200+. Is there any way to get control of the sucker?

2. Memory Bottleneck: Another corner I cut was using an old stick of 512 DDR133, this was the main reason I got a 939 system--perhaps foolish, but I just can't buy everything at once, and the last box was a ticking timebomb I tells ya. Obviously I'm going to get the dual ddr200 going ASAP, but I think I underestimated how severe a bottleneck the mem bandwidth is. I expected, in a game for example, that when the physical mem ran out there would be some serious stuttering, what I did not anticipate is that the CPU appears to be effectively crippled, well before it runs out of phys mem. Pretty much any recent game I test evinces all the signs of being CPU bound, which, now that I think about it, 2x ddr200 would be, hmmm 3x the bandwidth I have right now. Anyway, I guess the question is how much more effective will this CPU be with the right memory? Is there another problem I should be looking at, or is it just the crap mem bandwidth?

Sorry this post is running on way too long, I'm just excited about the new stuff in the box, you guys know how it is. One thing I will say that's probably old hat is that the on-die mem controller is a bad mofo--this ddr133 is clocked at 125 and is performing almost as well as ddr166 on an old northbridge. Everything is really impressive on the 5-year upgrade cycle--looking forward to my 80 core CPU .

 

[Bobbler]

The computer actually works with DDR266? (I don't think people call it DDR133)

You should look for DDR400 (which is what I think you're talking about when you say DDR200). Should be reasonably cheap to get at least a 1gb kit (2x 512s), or even better a 2gb kit (2x 1gbs; will last you longer -- especially if you plan on upgrading to vista any time soon). You should notice a big difference from the ram size alone, the speed will likely help a bit, but mostly the size -- 512 ram on an XP system while trying to play modern games is going to be pretty miserable.


No idea about the fan -- I'd say look into a third party HSF though (probably find one that's pretty quiet too -- those Zalman ones are, I think?). Although that X1900 HSF is likely going to be the bottleneck in how quiet you can get your system (might want to take a look at the after market X1900 coolers too).

 

[Sxotty]

Can't you tell the bios to control the fan speed?

 

[Otto Dafe]

Ah, sorry, yes DDR266, or pc2100 if you like. Indeed I think that all 939 boards support it, although the multiplier doesn't support the exact clock. Definitely planning a 2x1gB kit, I don't know exactly how soon. Right now I'm just trying to figure out if it's generally memory bound or CPU bound. It's odd because I expected a lot of hitching and disk thrashing, instead I'm just getting very consistent low frame rates. Is there a way to test to see if the mem bandwidth is saturated? Also, are ATI drivers multi-threaded by default, or do I need to do something with that?

As far as after market cooling I was thinking about this, however the board I got, the ECS rx480-a, has the chipset right next to the socket, such that I had to bend the clip on the stock heatsink just to get it on. Peculiar design decision that, don't see how it didn't come up in testing

For right now it just irritates me that the stock fan will quietly watch the CPU commit suicide without even spinning up. The only BIOS option that might be related is CoolnQuiet, which I have not yet monkeyed with. Does anyone know if these stock HSFs have their own thermal sensor/throttling, or is the MB the culprit? Another disturbing thing is the BIOS temp warning does not seem to kick in at 60C when it should.

 

[Sxotty]

Make sure you have the latest bios. I have not seen a 939 board that doesnt have some sort of temperature controlled fan and a cutoff point where it will throttle the CPU as well as shut down the system. Granted I have not seen all or even the majority of said boards, but I still find it wierd that nothing like that is in there. Where are you looking for it in bios?

The PC Health Status menu contains real time statistics on all BIOS monitored temperatures, voltages, and speeds of fans connected to monitored headers. The Shutdown Temperature option defines the monitored CPU operating temperature threshold; temperatures above this threshold trigger a BIOS initiated system shutdown. Unless running stock with good cooling, it is probably best to leave this option disabled since the upper temperature limit allowed is only 70C.

So no it should not watch while your CPU dies.

 

[Cartoon Corpse]

cpu at 90 celsius? whenever i remember (not too often) to check my sensor temps, it's only around the upper 30's.

what is a normal temp?

 

[Bobbler]

cpu at 90 celsius? whenever i remember (not too often) to check my sensor temps, it's only around the upper 30's.

what is a normal temp?

I don't think any consumer CPU is rated to even handle temps that high -- most will crap out well before then (I think if you look at their specs most say something like 85c). GPUs are a different story though, and ATI's X1900s will commonly hang out at around 85-95c under load.

25-40 or so should be normal range while idle... depending on the CPU and HSF... under load you might see upwards of 60 if you got a prescott and a sucky HSF or as low as 40s if you got a good HSF and something like a C2D or A64.

 

[Cartoon Corpse]

mine's an fx60 with coolermaster liquid unit thingy.

my GPU is hotter (i only check after i've been gaming, not really during gaming though). but it's in the 40's when i look i think. they' re both pretty close.

ambient censor hangs at around 19-20 no matter what (well maybe an occasional 21). i think room temp is about 18, which is what it starts at i think.