SYSTEM UPGRADES: FEEDBACK, IDEAS???

[Santilli]

Hi
I've noticed a number of intresting items that I might take advantage of to speed things up.

First: X5DA8 dual 2.8 Xeon mobo and system.

I noticed LSI makes a raid card for the onboard scsi. I'm currently using a Megaraid 320-1 to raid my 5 drive SCA box.

I'm considering picking up the LSI zero socket card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118083

LSI LOGIC LSI00028-F 64-bit, 133MHz PCI-X (ZCR-enabled slot only) Uses Motherboard's own SCSI connectors MegaRAID 320-0X 0Ch U320 128MB - using it to connect the SCA box to the motherboard, and use the onboard SCSI.

The original, and only, Adaptec 21010S card only ran at about 80 mb/sec, no matter how many drives you hooked up. I sold it. Anyone tried this one, and attained transfer rates in the 110-120mb/sec or more range?

Likely I'd take this card, and use the SCA raid setup, move
this card to the game machine:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118050
LSI LOGIC LSI00107 64-bit/66MHz PCI SCSI MegaRAID 320-1LP 1Ch LP U320 128MB RAID 0/1/5/10/50
and raid another 15k cheetah, and have a 73 gig, or more, boot drive for the game machine. More likely, I'd raid another couple drives, either 10k larger cheetahs, or 15K, for a bigger boot drive.

Now, one other consideration: video cards for the Xeon:

Saw this:

anyone tried one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150223

XFX PVT71AYDF3 GeForce 7950GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail

I like the 24 pipes, and the 512 mb ram, not to mention the price isn't too absurd.

Heat is a concern.

OK:

Now to the gaming rig:

3200 Athlon, 2 gigs ram, 850XT ATI video card, LSI single channel scsi, with 15k 36 gig boot drive. Kind of small for
a gaming boot drive, and, removeable SATA housing for storage.

Ideas to consider:

Moving aformentioned Megaraid 320-1 to this rig, install another 36 gig cheetah, and boot from raid 0, using 2003 Server.

Or,
Upgrade PCI E video card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121025

or
Opteron 185

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103002&Tpk=Opteron+185

OR:

Add another 2 gigs of ram. 2003 does seem to like ram...




ASUS EN7950GT/HTDP/512M GeForce 7950GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Splendid Video Card

Suggestions, product reviews, experience?

Thanks

Dr G

 

[Bozo]

Why the Xeons when you can do dual and quad processors on a single socket motherboard?

Bozo :joker:

 

[Santilli]

Because I bought the dual Xeons before dual cores were made...

Dr G

 

[P5-133XL]

I don't know enough on the individual raid cards to offer an opinion.

For a gaming machine, The video card is generally the most important characteristic and so, that is where I would put upgrade money into, rather than the CPU or RAM. however, I'd be choosing the 8000 series over the 7000 series video cards.

For an AMD XP machine, I would definately try to limit spending much on upgrading and consider saving that money for the concept of MB/CPU replacement as a more cost-effective long term solution to performance issues.

 

[Santilli]

I posted this for a couple reasons.

I noticed a bunch of guys that said going from 1.8 ghz to 2.6 ghz in either a dual core 185 or FX amd processor didn't seem like that much of a jump, and, it was an expensive upgrade.

Others said it was a big jump. My thinking was the processor(s) might be starved for data, (solution boot from raid 0 dual 15K's at around 90-120 mb/sec) video card bottle neck, hence considering the 24 pipeline video card, or perhaps a lack of RAM?

I was kind of hoping Splash had used the LSI card for the X5DA8's at work, so he might have better figures then the old Adaptec 21010S.

Advantage of the drives and scsi card is you can take it with you to the next level, something you can't do with an AGP graphics card, ram for that motherboard, or, ram for the Xeon motherboard.

Dr GS

 

[P5-133XL]

How much of a jump the processor upgrade will produce, depends on what you are doing with the processor. With gaming, it won't gain you that much. Almost all gaming is single-core, which means multi-core only slows you down (There is overhead with SMP processing). The clocks are going to gain you 30% on processor bound applications which isn't normally a productive gain (50% to be detectable, 100% is my minimum increase for productivity). The improved cache, typically will gain you 5-15% which is again, not enough to justify. With RAM, 1-2GB is normally plenty for gaming and beyond that typically gains nothing.

Typically, with gaming, the bottleneck is the video card. However, it depends on the resolution you are running at. For an 800XL I would say that it is fine as long as you are running at 1280x1024 or less (where your CPU is probably the limmiting factor), but it probably is still good enough to produce a reasonable frame rate for all but the most demanding of games like BF2. If above 1280x1024, then the video card is Probably your limiting factor. It comes down to how many pixels you have to push and the capability of the card.

Mind you these are my generalities. Different people have different perceptions, priorities, and interpretations.

As for drives, I will agree, that most of the time you can take them with you through an upgrade cycle or two. SCSI raid card, less so because of drivers: Multiple companies are starting to orphan their cards. I have an old adaptec SCSI card that they orphaned at Windows 2003 (I was quite annoyed) and lots of cards are being orphaned with Vista.

As to transfer rates, those are rarely capped by the CPU which doesn't normally have much to do with transfering HD data on a modern machine. Occasionally it will be limited by the Bus the card is plugged into (PCI-E is better than PCI-x which can be much better than PCI). However, most of the time it is the card itself that puts the cap on the transfer rates. higher-end cards have better processors (on the card itself) and better drivers that off-load, from the CPU, more of the work. Cheap cards typically do all the work by the CPU itself and tend to be much worse performing. You get what you pay for and you have to do the research ...

 

[ddrueding]

Nice summary, Mark.

 

[Santilli]

"As for drives, I will agree, that most of the time you can take them with you through an upgrade cycle or two. SCSI raid card, less so because of drivers: Multiple companies are starting to orphan their cards. I have an old adaptec SCSI card that they orphaned at Windows 2003 (I was quite annoyed) and lots of cards are being orphaned with Vista.

As to transfer rates, those are rarely capped by the CPU which doesn't normally have much to do with transfering HD data on a modern machine. Occasionally it will be limited by the Bus the card is plugged into (PCI-E is better than PCI-x which can be much better than PCI). However, most of the time it is the card itself that puts the cap on the transfer rates. higher-end cards have better processors (on the card itself) and better drivers that off-load, from the CPU, more of the work. Cheap cards typically do all the work by the CPU itself and tend to be much worse performing. You get what you pay for and you have to do the research ..."

Hi Mark

I pretty much agree with, or have experienced everything you've mentioned.

LSI cards haven't been orphaned, or at least not with my experience, and, seem to use quality components, with excellent transfer rates.

Since ATTO and Adaptec stopped writing drivers for older cards, I stopped using their cards.

My gaming is done at 1152 or lower, and, the card is fine at those rates.

What it all really comes down to is forget the upgrades, unless something breaks, and wait.

While I like duals, I was, and am, reluctant to spring for a 185, since it's expensive, and, as you've pointed out, it isn't really that big a jump for a gaming rig.

A 24 pipe video card is certainly an intresting idea, and, I'm waiting to find some decent review on those cards.
The card is actually an X 850XT, shipped when the prior 800 died. Thanks ATI.

Thanks

Dr GS

 

[ddrueding]

Sounds good Greg. If you feel you need something now, get the fastest AGP card they will ever make and then wait for a major upgrade.