Folding@home Systems Synopsis

NRG = mc²

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Yes we do have to stop these trips. The only reason I'm doing them is for my parents - and, of course, to meet some of the lovely people over there (right!) :mrgrn:

I'm going to be in this hell-hole* for 3 months. If I brought the XP with me (difficult task considering its on the other side of Europe) I'd have a tough time cooling it - the P3-733 and Barracuda I'm using now are too hot to touch if I don't have the A/C on. I have to devise something here.

On the other hand, I'm not leaving an Athlon switched on for three months unattended (no one else is there), and I've stashed it in the attic so that any theives can't get at it - I live in a wonderful area.
 

NRG = mc²

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* about the hell-hole. More a hell hole because of the people's attitude rather than anything else. I'm sick of hearing most of them bragging about their superiority when their country is stuck in the dark age. :eekers:
 

Cliptin

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Cliptin said:
I also suspect that it takes slightly longer for an Ag29a though I need to evaluate it more closely.

I was wrong. It does not take as long to complete an Ag29a as an A.
My PI does the Ag29a 10 minutes faster.
 

Groltz

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I thought I would take a few minutes to chat about FAH, my hardware setup, and some benchmarks I recorded. To forewarn, this is mostly a lot of rambling detail and not very interesting.

First, I’ll let a small skeleton out of the closet: Mourn = me

Now that I have made a small impression in SF’s FAH scores I figured “why keep it concealed any longer?” The problem is that I have only one machine, my home PC. I have been able to let it crunch away, unattended, for long periods recently. If I start needing it for anything intensive, though, my FAH output will be reduced or halted. I am considering building a second machine once I get recalled to work. (If ever) Then I could dedicate one for crunching and one for everything else.



Hardware: I am running a Palomino-based Athlon XP 1900+ on an Epox 8K3A+ motherboard. The Athlon is multiplier-unlocked.

It is well known that Athlon XP’s use quite a bit of power and radiate a substantial amount of heat. To make it worse, the following variables all add even more heat: Running a program (FAH) that causes a 100% CPU load nonstop, running a CPU at higher than default speeds, adding additional voltage to a CPU to access those higher than default speeds.

Personally, I hate hot-running CPU’s. (Not enough to go back to Intel CPU’s, though) I also hate noisy PC’s. After the above combination started making more heat than my HSF could handle I starting thinking about a solution. I didn’t want to go to water-cooling or a peltier. Air-cooling is as complicated as I intend to commit to. The first heatsink that came to mind was the massive Swiftech MCX462. This awesome heatsink blows away the competition but requires bolting it through the motherboard, which is more of a pain in the ass than I wanted. Instead I used the smaller Swiftech MCXC370, which allows socket clipping and is easily removable.

Next, I started thinking about a fan. Since I like to assemble rheostat-controlled fan harnesses I figured I would use one that could be run very fast and be dialed down to a quieter level if desired. I chose a Delta FFB0612SHE which is 60 X 60 X 38mm, spins at 7000 rpm (in free air, about 7500 rpm when mounted to the heatsink) and makes 50.5 decibels of noise running at full speed. The fan’s specs say that it draws .55 amps, but that is when it is when it is already running, not initially. I took my DMM, put it in series with the fan, and set it to record the maximum current draw. I then powered up the fan 10 times and earned a highest recorded starting current of 1.44 amps! That translates to 17.28 watts at 12 volts. Safe to say I wouldn’t be powering this beast from a motherboard header. I am to understand most motherboard fan headers are rated for about 3 watts or so.

The next step was to pick out a good rheostat and decide what values would be best for it. From tinkering with DC fans, I have found that the more powerful ones of a given size need less resistance induced to slow them down a given amount of RPM as opposed to slower fans. Experimenting with some potentiometers I already had showed that it only took 8.3 ohms of resistance to slow this fan from 7000 rpm down to 5500 rpm. With that in consideration, I obtained a 50 ohm, wirewound Ohmite rheostat rated for 25 watts. This is bigger than necessary, but I had the room to mount it and would rather overbuild than underbuild such a setup.

The fan wiring was routed like this: The RPM sense lead was terminated with a motherboard fan header connector and plugged into the motherboard’s CPU fan header. (This motherboard will not power up if it doesn’t detect fan RPM on the header) The ground lead was connected to an extra ground wire from the PSU by means of a quick-disconnect terminal. The 12-volt positive lead was soldered to the rheostat and another wire went from the rheostat’s other leg to a 12-volt positive lead from the PSU by means of another quick-disconnect terminal.

I obtained a nice 1 ¾” wide aluminum knob that I put on the rheostat shaft which sticks though the back of the case just below the exhaust fan.

The resulting setup has worked pretty well. If I want to overclock fairly high and run FAH, I can crank the fan up to maximum and leave the room. If I want to use the PC and not suffer deafness or insanity from the fan noise I can set the CPU speed and voltage down closer to default in the bios and dial the fan down to 4500 rpm or so, which is nice and quiet. The bios for this motherboard has the additional ability to power down the PC if the CPU temperature reaches a preset level. I have that parameter set at 60 degrees Celsius, which is the lowest setting. This is a nice safeguard against roasting a CPU if the cooling fan decides to die.



Benchmarks and Overclocking: A Palomino-based Athlon XP 1900+ runs at 12(multiplier) X 133(front side bus) for 1600Mhz @ 1.75 volts at its default setting.

In trying to see how fast I could get mine up to without suffering instability or overheating I experimented for several days using different parameters while monitoring the heat output with Motherboard Probe the whole time. I discovered that the ambient temperature was my limiting factor. During the week I was experimenting we had some 80 and even 90 degree (F) days. During that time I could only crank the CPU up so far without nearing the 60 degree Celsius redline that I had imposed on it.

After the weather cooled down a bit I had better luck. The highest I managed to push the CPU and keep it stable and cool was 10.5 (multiplier) X 172.84 (front side bus) for 1814.82Mhz @ 1.95 volts. At this speed, the fastest I was able to complete a single frame of ProteinA was in 6 minutes, 54 seconds. I had FAH running in a 20Mb ramdrive for this test. This speed and voltage was a bit too much for continuous use, I decided. I ended up using a slightly more conservative 10.5 X 167.73 for 1761.13 Mhz @ 1.85 volts for regular nonstop FAH use. At this speed the fastest ProteinA frames I have recorded were done in 7 minutes, 6 seconds. This was also done running in a ramdrive.

Running FAH from my hard drive instead of a ramdrive results in only a slight increase in frame completion time. I actually do run FAH from my hard drive normally. With a ramdrive you will lose all your work if the PC loses power. Running FAH from the hard drive lets you start right back at the frame you stopped at if the power is disrupted, which I have had happen.



Pictures I apologize for the horrible quality of these pictures. I don’t own a digital camera or even a decent film camera. These were all taken with a ten-year-old Canon Z-115 pocket camera. The images were obtained from the shoddy CD that was included with the developing.

[Mod: Picture links removed at the request of Groltz, who wants Handruin to be able to use his server space for other things. Pictures detailed the inside of Groltz's PC, a very nice overclocked machine with a clean wiring job. -- Mercutio]


Anyway, for those of you still awake, I hope to keep contributing to SF’s FAH team score. I think we have the capability of reaching the top 35 rank, eventually, at our current weekly output rate.

---Steve
 

NRG = mc²

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Steve, nice review and nice case - but what are those heatspreaders you're using? Or are those Corsair sticks with the built in heatspreader?

For a quiet PC, you could also try the Zalman heatsink - not good for overclocking but certainly quieter than the Delta setup you've got there.

See my review here

http://www.storageforum.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=614
 

Groltz

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NRG = mc² said:
Steve, nice review and nice case - but what are those heatspreaders you're using? Or are those Corsair sticks with the built in heatspreader?

For a quiet PC, you could also try the Zalman heatsink - not good for overclocking but certainly quieter than the Delta setup you've got there.

See my review here

http://www.storageforum.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=614

Thanks NRG. Those are Mushkin Hi Perf LEVEL 2 DDR sticks.

This PC can be quiet if I want it to be. When the fan is turned down to 4000rpm or so it isn't loud at all.
 

CougTek

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Wow Steve, I didn't know you were such a freaking overclocker. Nice setup BTW. It's awesome the frequency you can reach with that Athlon. Was the CPU OEM or retail?

I would like to build a box with an Athlon XP 1600+ working at 1.75GHz (166MHz FSB frequency) on an Asus A7N266-C. I know the motherboard can take it, but last Fall, the last time I tried to o/c seriously, most Athlon XP couldn't work at that frequency reliably. AMD must has refined its manufacturing process since then because I heard a lot of stories recently about people reaching insane frequencies with their newly bought Athlon XP. I might give it a shot again.

BTW, over 1.85V Vcore for an Athlon XP is evil. Don't do it unless you don't plan to keep your processor for a while (but 1.85V is ok, just no more than that please, it's cruel).
 

Sol

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I just got my 333Mhz DDR a couple of days ago and having been playing arround with overclocking. Unfortunatly my CPU won't unlock reliably. I've tried quite a few times and I just can't get it to work. I suspect it has somthing to do with having to solder one of the pins back on as it worked fine with my last CPU with much less trouble.
Still I managed to get a 1900+ up to 1763Mhz with just FSB overclocking(145FSB), after that my video card starts playing up. Its still faster than my 1700+ which I clocked up to 1681Mhz and the upgrade was free.
I don't worry to much about voltage, just crank it up until it works. I'll pay a little more attention when the temp hits 35 under load.

Groltz, maybe you should think about water cooling, it's a bit on the expensive side. But once you have it working properly its a real load off your mind. I can set my CPU to any voltage and any frequency my motherboard can provide and know that the CPU won't get hot enough to do any damage at all. All with minimal noise.
 

NRG = mc²

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The AGKGA-Y (week 42 IIRC) are said to be very good overclockers. Incidentally I have one of those (XP1800) that I've managed to get working (apparently stable) at 1820MHz or something thereabouts using an Alpha8045 and cranked voltage up two steps in the A7V266E BIOS (whatever voltage that is). Pretty nice but very noisy & hot.
 

Tea

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Clocker, I think you better hand back your handle!

Steve, that's a nice rig you have. And the photos show a tidy, workmanlike job. (Come to think of it, given your trade, I guess that is only to be expected.) And great to see you adding some oomph to the team.

I've slowed right up this last week or two - Clocker is out-crunching me at present, let alone JoJo, but I'll see if I can't rig up better system later on, so I can get several machines going without the current messing about with network connections, which is too labour intensive to keep up for very long.
 

Groltz

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CougTek said:
Don't do it unless you don't plan to keep your processor for a while (but 1.85V is ok, just no more than that please, it's cruel).

I know that running it at 1.95 was on the high side but I had done some homework first and saw that some people had gone as high as 2.0 volts and more while OC'ing their Athlon XP's. Personally, I think 1.95 is too high to keep on a regular basis and run at 1.85 (or less) normally. The biggest problem is the heat induced by the extra voltage. While running this machine at 1.95 I never let the temperature get above 55 degrees (C) or so. You can see in the screenshot that I took of WCPUID at 1814Mhz that the temperature was a cozy 45 degrees.

Sol said:
...Unfortunatly my CPU won't unlock reliably...maybe you should think about water cooling

Can you give some detail on what method you used to unlock it, Sol? It took me a few tries to hit upon the right chemicals to use in closing the gaps and bridging the traces. Also, as poor as my eyes are, I never could have done it without some good magnification. I used a 20X stereo dissection microscope for the operation. That alone made it easy. Tell Tony to buy you one...I don't really want to tangle with water cooling, I like the challenge of getting air cooling to do the job. I already have ideas for improving this setup: I would like to get a high speed 60mm TMD fan if YS Tech would ever get their thumbs out of their collective butts and put them on the market. Right now TMD fans are only available in 70mm.

Tony said:
And the photos show a tidy, workmanlike job. (Come to think of it, given your trade, I guess that is only to be expected.)

Thank you, Tony. I did time in 1998 and 1999 as a radio electrician with UAL. It was a good way to learn fundamental skills like bundling wires, ringing out harnesses with a DMM, etc. I had been tinkering with electronics long before that, though. Back in the late eighties people used to pay me to peak out their CB radios. (heh) :diablo:
 

Groltz

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NRG = mc² said:
BTW, what are those round cables - they seem very thin, who makes them?

The two silver cables are a floppy and an IDE. The IDE just connects an internal ZIP drive to the MB. I can't exactly remember where I got them from but it was probably either Plycon or Sidewinder



Thank you, Cliptin!
 

Groltz

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Groltz said:
"...The first heatsink that came to mind was the massive Swiftech MCX462. This awesome heatsink blows away the competition but requires bolting it through the motherboard, which is more of a pain in the ass than I wanted. Instead I used the smaller Swiftech MCXC370, which allows socket clipping and is easily removable..."

OK guys, I have seen some very interesting new developments in cooling gear. ThermalRight has come out with a new Socket A cooler called "SLK-800". It was given a very good review at HardOCP in which it beat a Swiftech MC462! Also over at Dan's Data it is the new record holder in his huge cooler comparison page.

The SLK-800 uses socket clips for attachment and can accommodate a 60, 70 or 80mm fan.

I am going to be getting one of these babies to use on my rig to try and further reduce the temperature. (I am still having trouble keeping under 60/C on hot days with the CPU running at 1750Mhz or higher) The only problem is that every retailer that I know of is sold out right now. I am waiting for someone to get them in stock so I can order one.

As for a fan, I am going to try a 70mm YS Tech TMD-fan. They are available in 3 speeds. I am going to go with the fastest one (5800RPM) and run it through a rheostat. (as usual) I have already got the fan on order.

I will post the results of this upgrade once I get it done.

--Steve
 

Bartender

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Yes, that is a nice article with some nice pictures. That product would probably be too expensive for Buck to sell (if his distributor even ended up carrying the product).

Tea, Tannin had purchased some cooling equipment a while back. What have the results been?
 

Tea

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The results were that I got a pro-forma faxed to me yesterday, did a direct deposit, and should get my goodies about 4:30 this afternoon. :) Vin - the guy I'm buying these things from - also sent me a link to one of the funniest things I've seen in a while, and a page that is absolutely sure to have Apple's lawyers writing some "cease, desist, and leave this planet immediately" letters. I have the link at the office. I'll post it shortly. Just as soon as I tear myself away from Steve's DansData cooler article and get dressed and go to the office.

(Err ... sorry. That's Tannin that has to get dressed, of course. We get confused sometimes. I just wear fur. Damnit, the cats grow a beautiful thick winter coat round this time of year. I have to get by on my usual one-size-fits orange-brown rig, and it's just not warm enough for this part of the world. Still, at least I don't moult over the carpet twice a year.)

(I tried borrowing one of Tannin's overcoats but I kept tripping over the sleeves where they dangle on the floor. Why do humans have such ridiculously short arms? Guess I'll just have to keep on shivering.)
 

NRG = mc²

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Tea, I don't suppose you're talking about the "All Pc users know the blue screen of death. When it happens, your machine dies. I'm self employed, a PR consultant. I don't have an IT department, I use a Macintosh. I don't get the blue sceen of death any more. It doesn't crash." video?
 

Tea

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Nope. I'm talking about this. It seems that there two major makers of quality audio editing software in the PC world, both German, Steinberg and the other lot, who I can't remember the name of. These are products in the four figure price bracket.

Well, Apple just bought that other company, Steinberg's main competitor, in order to get their greasy little hands on the technology. And immediately announced that they are closing them down. All support for their PC products will cease on a certain date (November, I think). All their users will have to resign themselves to using an orphan product with no upgrades and no support. Or buy a Mac.

Apple are not popular in the audio community right now.

(After you take the link, click on the iToilet - it's a riot!).
 

Handruin

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Tea said:
Nope. I'm talking about this. It seems that there two major makers of quality audio editing software in the PC world, both German, Steinberg and the other lot, who I can't remember the name of. These are products in the four figure price bracket.

Well, Apple just bought that other company, Steinberg's main competitor, in order to get their greasy little hands on the technology. And immediately announced that they are closing them down. All support for their PC products will cease on a certain date (November, I think). All their users will have to resign themselves to using an orphan product with no upgrades and no support. Or buy a Mac.

Apple are not popular in the audio community right now.

(After you take the link, click on the iToilet - it's a riot!).


:mrgrn: :rofl:
 

Groltz

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Well, at this point I can only offer an update on my procurement status:

I have the TMD fan in my possession. It is nicely quiet for a 5800 rpm unit. I am happy to report that my existing 50-ohm rheostat will work just fine in adjusting the fan, should I want to. I found that it took 43 ohms to reduce the fan's speed from 5800 rpm to 3000 rpm.

I have the ThermalRight SLK-800 on order from Sidewinder computer and should be receiving it on either this Friday or perhaps next Monday.

I will post results as to its ability to cool this rig after I get it installed.

--Steve
 

Groltz

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Well, at this point I can only offer an update on my procurement status:

I have the TMD fan in my possession. It is nicely quiet for a 5800 rpm unit. I am happy to report that my existing 50-ohm rheostat will work just fine in adjusting the fan, should I want to. I found that it took 43 ohms to reduce the fan's speed from 5800 rpm to 3000 rpm.

I have the ThermalRight SLK-800 on order from Sidewinder computer and should be receiving it on either this Friday or perhaps next Monday.

I will post results as to its ability to cool this rig after I get it installed.

--Steve
 

Groltz

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I have the ThermalRight SLK-800 with 70mm YS Tech TMD-fan installed.

The installation process wasn't bad although I don't like the fan retention clips at all. I'd rather use machine screws going into a threaded boss or nut than these flimsy things. The TMD has a weird characteristic of its own...It requires a /2 divider to give an accurate rpm reading. While the Motherboard Monitor 5 program I use for monitoring can be adjusted to handle this anomaly, my bios can not. It shows the fan running at 11,065rpm.

Here are some temperature readings I took:

Ambient temperature: 79°F/26°C

All CPU temps were taken with the PC running FAH and stabilized 10 minutes between readings. CPU is a Palomino cored Athlon XP 1900+ .
CPU is running at 166.7 X 10.5 (1750.4 Mhz)


Old HSF (Swiftech MCXC370 with Delta 60 X 38mm fan) :

@ 7500rpm (MAX) 54°C
@ 6500rpm 56°C
@ 5500rpm 58.5°C

*******************************************

SLK-800 with 70 X 15mm :

@ 5600rpm (MAX) 53.5°C

Even at maximum speed (5600rpm), the TMD fan is quieter than the Delta fan @5500rpm.

--Steve
 

Groltz

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Cliptin said:
Which model YSTech fan is that?

PD1270155B-2F

Dimension: 74 x 74 x 15mm
Rated Voltage: DC 12V
Voltage range: DC 7V ~ DC 13.2V
Starting Voltage: DC 7V
Rated Current: 0.295A +/- 10%
Power Consumption: 3.84W +/- 10%
Speed: 5600rpm +/- 10%
Max Airflow: 36.5CFM
Max. static pressure: 5.2mmH2O
Noise level: 38.0dBA
Life Expectancy: 80,000 hrs. @30C
Rotating Direction: Counter- clockwise
Bearing: two ball
Connector: 3pin w/ rpm sensor
 

Groltz

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Full day heat update:

With the ambient temperature now at about 86°F/30°C I am seeing that the SLK-800 with TMD-fan is up at 59°C. It looks like I am going to need a more powerful fan to keep it cooler than that. Too bad the 80mm TMD fans are not on the market yet...
 

Cliptin

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Groltz said:
Full day heat update:

With the ambient temperature now at about 86°F/30°C I am seeing that the SLK-800 with TMD-fan is up at 59°C. It looks like I am going to need a more powerful fan to keep it cooler than that. Too bad the 80mm TMD fans are not on the market yet...

How hot are you willing to let it get? For example, my 1800+ has run for the last month at 65C.
 

Groltz

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Frankenstein's Monster Update

The YS Tech TMD-Fan has been removed and replaced with an 80mm Vantec "Tornado" fan. This is the loudest and highest airflow 80mm fan available. It spins at 5700rpm, flows 84.1 cfm, and is rated at 55.2 dba noise by the manufacturer. (A review site actually measured it at around 70dba with their decibel meter)

Sitting in the rheostat harness, I have it turned down to 4000rpm which isn't too bad, noise-wise. I have our Palomino Athlon XP 1900+ humming along at 1805Mhz (10.5 X 171.82), FAH running, and a CPU temperature of 50°C. The ambient temperature isn't very high today, however, only about 74°F/23°C.

Anybody interested in a pair of 70 X 15mm TMD's? I was impressed by how quiet they are in proportion to how much air they flow. They just weren't quite powerful enough to keep this demanding machine at the temperature I want it at. I bought two of them. One was used, the other kept for backup. Scroll up 4 posts to see the specs.

--Steve
 
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