Which of these CPUs is most productive? - Page 7

Christenson · 2011-01-20, 22:19

I don't think it will quite be here this weekend...I only paid for 3-day shipping...but hopefully I'll get that old machine booted on Ubuntu and booting off both hard drives. I also have to spend Saturday outdoors, staining the lips red with the juice of the saphu that sets the mind in motion....

And odd...I don't have any pictures of my computers...nor are any of mine ever shiny...polish is an internal thing...and I don't call my machines by any kind of animate name, either...just "DC7900 SFF PC" or "So-and-so's old PC"...

lavalamp · 2011-01-21, 02:07

I assume that means you will be drinking wine of some sort. I googled and found only references to Dune.

My PCs are named after layers of the atmosphere, and my main PC is natually exosphere. I'd like a new naming scheme but nothing cliché like Greek/Roman gods, and they have to be reasonably short because I tend to type them a lot. Maybe I could start picking off letters of the NATO alphabet.

Anyway, when all the stuff is delivered, remember that you will need to mount the CPU cooler to the motherboard BEFORE it goes into the case, which also means putting the CPU in before installing the cooler. This then means you'll need to put the PSU in the case before installing the motherboard, otherwise the beefy cooler will be in the way. Something else you'll need to put in first is the motherboard backplate, also called the I/O shield, it fits in a cut out at the back of the case (though there will be a generic I/O shield to remove first).

There is a video of how to install the cooler on Newegg, I suggest you watch that, but be a LOT more careful than the guy in the video and rest components on their anti-static bags. His mishandling of the components borders on contempt for the hardware, but perhaps he is just trying to be quick for the video.

Here are a selection of pictures from some past builds. I highly recommend a good Phillips screwdriver like the one in the top right corner of 200812-3.jpg. Small enough to wield easily, but chunky enough to get some torque behind if you need to.

http://david.hddkillers.com/PCs/

retina · 2011-01-21, 03:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by lavalamp

I highly recommend a good Phillips screwdriver ...

I would highly recommend staying very far away from using a Phillips screwdriver of any type, for anything. Instead use Posi-drive. And make sure you use the right sized tip for the screw. There is no such thing as one size fits all. Indeed, buy three different sized posi-drive screwdrivers. You can use them everywhere and you will never have to worry about stripping the screw heads ever again.

Christenson · 2011-01-21, 04:07

And where do i pick up my set of Pozidrivs, in the midst of the american suburban wastelands? I unfortuneately have a collection of phillips drivers....

Also, from discussion of this case, I suspect that too much torque on any of these screws is going strip threads easily...so maybe that loss of torque isn't such a problem.

And thanks for the pictures...though it sounds like assembly order will be PSU, I/O shield, Motherboard with CPU and cooler and fan, then drives...hopefully ubuntu will have partitioned and been loaded on the hard drive first...the big uncertainty is on that Rosewill case...

One other thing I saw in the pics, that might have helped Prime95...one of the motherboards said it had a triple DDR3 channel, and the one we are working only has a dual...seems like # of DDR3 channels might have a significant effect on performance. Ideas for next time?

lavalamp · 2011-01-21, 04:23

I don't think I've seen any PC screws that are Pozidriv, and using a Pozidriv screwdriver for a Phillips screw sounds counter-productive:

Quote:

Originally Posted by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_screw_drives#Pozidriv

The marker lines on a Pozidriv screwdriver will not fit a Phillips screw correctly, and are likely to slip or tear out the screw head.

I've honestly never had a problem with Phillips screws though, yes some tend to wear down if you keep taking them in and out, but I've always had abundantly many PC screws to spare if need be (all Phillips). Most often when I get a stubborn screw I just apply more force to keep the screwdriver in contact, allowing me to apply the right amount of torque.

Even though PC screws are small, they do have a nice deep head on them, and you don't need to tighten them up so much anyway. If you do them up too tight, it's usually the threads on the case (or whatever else you're screwing them into) that go before the screw heads.

Edit: Yeah, all those i7 systems had triple channel RAM, but so far all of the Sandy Bridge chips use dual channel RAM, and I don't think any desktop AMD systems have ever been above 2 channels. It shouldn't hurt performance, there's still a lot of bandwidth there (1600 * 8 * 2 = 25,600 MB/s). That's not going to stop Intel from moving to quad channel RAM for the high end 6 and 8 core chips though. Some time down the road I've got my eye on an 8 core system with 16 GB RAM.

xilman · 2011-01-21, 08:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by lavalamp

My PCs are named after layers of the atmosphere, and my main PC is natually exosphere. I'd like a new naming scheme but nothing cliché like Greek/Roman gods, and they have to be reasonably short because I tend to type them a lot. Maybe I could start picking off letters of the NATO alphabet.

Mine are generally Egyptian gods or honorary gods. The current main machine is Anubis, the previous one Imhotep, the Win7 laptop is Ptah. The Sun file server is, of course, Ra.

Back when I was still in Oxford I tried to get the research group to use infectious diseases --- anthrax, bilharzia, cholera, dengue, and so on --- but they chose Shakesperian characters instead.

Paul

Christenson · 2011-01-21, 14:12

Dune, yes...but only drinking red Gatorade...I'll be hiking in Shenandoah National Park, getting exercise to keep the blood moving to the brain and the rest of the body...this helps set the mind in motion.....does Ubuntu side-by-side install allow installation on a separate hard drive? (The old PC seems not to want to boot from anything besides floppy or HD, and I don't have any floppies in my life anymore...)

Christenson · 2011-01-26, 03:27

Ubuntu seems to have screwed up the boot on the old machine, now I have to get it a floppy to make it boot the CD. (Whines -- think I have that solved, but it *is* a complication)

At this point, I'll smoke test the new machine tomorrow. There were two complications to assembly, one being the heatsink latch on the CPU, the other being the multiple size screws for the Rosewill case and some of them requiring a very short screwdriver. I assume it's OK to have the indicator LEDs in backwards polarity.
All parts are in, but we forgot a power cord (I scavenged this), and I have extra SATA cables. I left the stock cooler on the CPU, until I look at it with the thermal camera from work and see how it runs. I'm busy getting ubunth CDs; I wasn't able to make one at work today as the download was almost as slow as dialup.

Also have another machine contributing ECM factoring cycles for me tonight; we'll see how that goes -- it's gonna cost me writing some serious JAVA code as payment.

mdettweiler · 2011-01-26, 04:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Christenson

... I assume it's OK to have the indicator LEDs in backwards polarity. ...

Definitely not, I'm afraid. LEDs, unlike regular light bulbs, will only work if the polarity is correct. (Not to worry, though--if it goes the wrong way, which is easy to do on some less-clearly-labeled motherboards, the lights simply won't light up--you won't bust anything. Just flip 'em around and try again.)

Christenson · 2011-01-26, 04:26

I was just too lazy to get out a resistor and check the polarity with the bench power supply....the problem isn't the motherboard, it's the cabling from the case...I was only worried about damage, knowing full well they weren't likely back-to-back LEDs.

lavalamp · 2011-01-26, 05:43

On the ends of the plugs for the front panel connectors, it should say what each does, but even if it doesn't you can tell by the colour of the cabling what the polarity is. Most are a colour and a white wire, the white is -ve (or ground actually), the colour is +ve. The motherboard is also colour coded and should also say what each of the pins do in REALLY small writing, but it's written bigger in the motherboard manual.

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2011-01-20, 22:19	#67
Christenson Dec 2010 Monticello 5·359 Posts	I don't think it will quite be here this weekend...I only paid for 3-day shipping...but hopefully I'll get that old machine booted on Ubuntu and booting off both hard drives. I also have to spend Saturday outdoors, staining the lips red with the juice of the saphu that sets the mind in motion.... And odd...I don't have any pictures of my computers...nor are any of mine ever shiny...polish is an internal thing...and I don't call my machines by any kind of animate name, either...just "DC7900 SFF PC" or "So-and-so's old PC"...

2011-01-21, 02:07	#68
lavalamp Oct 2007 Manchester, UK 2²×3×113 Posts	I assume that means you will be drinking wine of some sort. I googled and found only references to Dune. My PCs are named after layers of the atmosphere, and my main PC is natually exosphere. I'd like a new naming scheme but nothing cliché like Greek/Roman gods, and they have to be reasonably short because I tend to type them a lot. Maybe I could start picking off letters of the NATO alphabet. Anyway, when all the stuff is delivered, remember that you will need to mount the CPU cooler to the motherboard BEFORE it goes into the case, which also means putting the CPU in before installing the cooler. This then means you'll need to put the PSU in the case before installing the motherboard, otherwise the beefy cooler will be in the way. Something else you'll need to put in first is the motherboard backplate, also called the I/O shield, it fits in a cut out at the back of the case (though there will be a generic I/O shield to remove first). There is a video of how to install the cooler on Newegg, I suggest you watch that, but be a LOT more careful than the guy in the video and rest components on their anti-static bags. His mishandling of the components borders on contempt for the hardware, but perhaps he is just trying to be quick for the video. Here are a selection of pictures from some past builds. I highly recommend a good Phillips screwdriver like the one in the top right corner of 200812-3.jpg. Small enough to wield easily, but chunky enough to get some torque behind if you need to. http://david.hddkillers.com/PCs/

2011-01-21, 04:07	#70
Christenson Dec 2010 Monticello 5·359 Posts	And where do i pick up my set of Pozidrivs, in the midst of the american suburban wastelands? I unfortuneately have a collection of phillips drivers.... Also, from discussion of this case, I suspect that too much torque on any of these screws is going strip threads easily...so maybe that loss of torque isn't such a problem. And thanks for the pictures...though it sounds like assembly order will be PSU, I/O shield, Motherboard with CPU and cooler and fan, then drives...hopefully ubuntu will have partitioned and been loaded on the hard drive first...the big uncertainty is on that Rosewill case... One other thing I saw in the pics, that might have helped Prime95...one of the motherboards said it had a triple DDR3 channel, and the one we are working only has a dual...seems like # of DDR3 channels might have a significant effect on performance. Ideas for next time?

2011-01-21, 14:12	#73
Christenson Dec 2010 Monticello 5×359 Posts	Dune, yes...but only drinking red Gatorade...I'll be hiking in Shenandoah National Park, getting exercise to keep the blood moving to the brain and the rest of the body...this helps set the mind in motion.....does Ubuntu side-by-side install allow installation on a separate hard drive? (The old PC seems not to want to boot from anything besides floppy or HD, and I don't have any floppies in my life anymore...)

2011-01-26, 03:27	#74
Christenson Dec 2010 Monticello 5×359 Posts	Ubuntu seems to have screwed up the boot on the old machine, now I have to get it a floppy to make it boot the CD. (Whines -- think I have that solved, but it is a complication) At this point, I'll smoke test the new machine tomorrow. There were two complications to assembly, one being the heatsink latch on the CPU, the other being the multiple size screws for the Rosewill case and some of them requiring a very short screwdriver. I assume it's OK to have the indicator LEDs in backwards polarity. All parts are in, but we forgot a power cord (I scavenged this), and I have extra SATA cables. I left the stock cooler on the CPU, until I look at it with the thermal camera from work and see how it runs. I'm busy getting ubunth CDs; I wasn't able to make one at work today as the download was almost as slow as dialup. Also have another machine contributing ECM factoring cycles for me tonight; we'll see how that goes -- it's gonna cost me writing some serious JAVA code as payment.

2011-01-26, 04:26	#76
Christenson Dec 2010 Monticello 5×359 Posts	I was just too lazy to get out a resistor and check the polarity with the bench power supply....the problem isn't the motherboard, it's the cabling from the case...I was only worried about damage, knowing full well they weren't likely back-to-back LEDs.

2011-01-26, 05:43	#77
lavalamp Oct 2007 Manchester, UK 2²×3×113 Posts	On the ends of the plugs for the front panel connectors, it should say what each does, but even if it doesn't you can tell by the colour of the cabling what the polarity is. Most are a colour and a white wire, the white is -ve (or ground actually), the colour is +ve. The motherboard is also colour coded and should also say what each of the pins do in REALLY small writing, but it's written bigger in the motherboard manual.