O/T - should I build a P4 3.2GHz Prescott cruncher?

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Ned Slider

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Message 137829 - Posted: 17 Jul 2005, 18:33:30 UTC
Last modified: 17 Jul 2005, 18:34:34 UTC

Hey folks,

I'm thinking of putting together a P4 3.2GHz HT Prescott system, but I'm a total newb when it comes to Intel systems - my last intel build was an i486. I could really do with an Intel based system to help in developing and testing optimized clients for this platform as all my current systems are AMD.

I've looked at the sort of times these throw out and see that I can expect it to complete 2 WUs every 1.5 hours with HT, so it has relatively good price/performance.

So I've figured out I should probably go with socket 775 and probably not the nForce4 for intel chipset (saw a bad review). But I have absolutely no idea what motherboard/chipset I should be looking at and what memory (DDR2?) and speed I should go for. Also, as always I'd like to overclock if that's possible.

Anyone able to point me in the right direction to get me started?

Thanks,

Ned

PS - first person to suggest buying a Dell gets shot :D


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Message 137831 - Posted: 17 Jul 2005, 18:36:14 UTC - in response to Message 137829.  


PS - first person to suggest buying a Dell gets shot :D


Why not simply buy a Dell ;)

[duck for cover]
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Message 137850 - Posted: 17 Jul 2005, 18:53:05 UTC - in response to Message 137831.  


PS - first person to suggest buying a Dell gets shot :D


Why not simply buy a Dell ;)

[duck for cover]


Have 3 Dells and I love them......one is a 840 ee 3.2 dual,does 4 WUs in about 1 1/2 hrs give or take, optimized....

Semper Eadem
So long Paul, it has been a hell of a ride.

Park your ego's, fire up the computers, Science YES, Credits No.
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Profile Paul D. Buck
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Message 137857 - Posted: 17 Jul 2005, 19:03:15 UTC - in response to Message 137829.  

I've looked at the sort of times these throw out and see that I can expect it to complete 2 WUs every 1.5 hours with HT, so it has relatively good price/performance.

Ned,

My 3.2 GHz do a Work Unit in 3 hours and change. That means that it averages one every hour and a half.

Complete stats here.

There you can see relative performance. I like Intel and Abit boards. I have had good luck with them. IN the past I had a string of Soyo boards that seemed to be pretty good.

Re: Dell, I don't know what bad experience you have had with them. All I can say is that I got two dual Xeons from them and as best as I can tell, I might not have been able to build an equivelent system for the same money. And I have built a few systems on my own (only about 20-25) so ... there is that.

Yes, if I was a super aggressive shopper those numbers can be beat, with my situation, well, lets just say I am happy with the two that when it comes time to buy another it is likely to be another Dell ... the Dells came in at about $3,400 all told ...

The AMD chips beat the Intel times, the problem as I see it is the Xeon/P4s get beat on an absolute basis for a run time, but win on throughput. But I could be wrong on that ... but all the numbers i see are for dual chip/dual core and they are comparable to the Xeon as a dual, except that the Xeons are doing 4, not 2 at a time.

All that behind us ... you could also consider the Apple ... My PowerMac G5 at 2.0 GHz has very good numbers too ... so much so that I was going to be an all Mac shop till Jobes decided to switch ... so I will wait to see if an Apple on Intel beat Windows on Intel or if it is a draw, then the crunchers are Dells or white boxes with my workstation being an Apple PowerMac on Intel ...
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Message 137862 - Posted: 17 Jul 2005, 19:12:11 UTC
Last modified: 17 Jul 2005, 19:14:46 UTC

Ned
I can't offer advice on 3.2s but I have a 3.0E ( E meaning it has sse3 I understand rather than extreme ) HT Prescot PC 2700 RAM and it flies. When just running optimised seti and optimised boinc it was easily in the top 450 PCs. Running Windows server 2003 Enterprise with nothing else at all. So my guess would be that a 3.2 could easily pitch you into the top 400.....if thats a metric that helps you are welcome. Alternatively it can get to 530 RAC.
regards
Ian

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Message 137864 - Posted: 17 Jul 2005, 19:14:52 UTC - in response to Message 137857.  



My 3.2 GHz do a Work Unit in 3 hours and change. That means that it averages one every hour and a half.



Thanks Paul - I'm guessing that's with the stock client? You should literaly be able to double that performance with an optimized client :)


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Message 137865 - Posted: 17 Jul 2005, 19:18:59 UTC - in response to Message 137862.  

Ned
I can't offer advice on 3.2s but I have a 3.0E ( E meaning it has sse3 I understand rather than extreme ) HT Prescot PC 2700 RAM and it flies. When just running optimised seti and optimised boinc it was easily in the top 450 PCs. Running Windows server 2003 Enterprise with nothing else at all. So my guess would be that a 3.2 could easily pitch you into the top 400.....if thats a metric that helps you are welcome. Alternatively it can get to 530 RAC.
regards
Ian


Thanks Ian.

Just think what the latest chipsets and DDR2 memory could achieve. Trouble is, I don't know what I should be getting :(


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Message 137868 - Posted: 17 Jul 2005, 19:20:45 UTC

Now remember,,,until the other day I was ONLY running a P4 1.8 and an Athlonxp 2200+. I just got my new notebook with an Athlon 64 3700+ w/1M ram. I'm so damn happy with it (until I notice the X2 times). Heres some sample times:

LHC 2:26, and 2:29
Seti (optimized) 1:03, 1:13, and 1:14
Seti beta (optimized) 5:08, 5:14, and 5:16
PPAH 0:26, 00:25, 00:25, 00:26, 00:26, 00:24, and 00:25

With my XP2200+ times were:

Seti 8:11, and 8:10
PPAH 1:41, 1:48, 1:45, 1:48, and 1:24

Roughly six times faster on PPAH and eight times faster on Seti. Man,,,,oh man,,,oh man.
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Message 137870 - Posted: 17 Jul 2005, 19:23:55 UTC - in response to Message 137857.  


Re: Dell, I don't know what bad experience you have had with them. All I can say is that I got two dual Xeons from them and as best as I can tell, I might not have been able to build an equivelent system for the same money. And I have built a few systems on my own (only about 20-25) so ... there is that.



I had a look at the dual Xeon server you got from Dell - I must admit it does look tempting and the price is excellent. For a desktop/workstation it's the extra's that kills the price for me. I only want a bare bones system and already have HD's, graphics cards, optical drives etc available. Then I have to buy a 17" monitor and an OS that I don't want either (all linux here). For a desktop system, this puts the price way over what I could purchase a motherboard/CPU/memory combo for.

The price of the Dell dual Xeon server is helped by the fact I wouldn't have to purchase a monitor or OS with the package :)

Ned

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Message 137891 - Posted: 17 Jul 2005, 19:54:26 UTC

If you can afford it the Dell that Paul talks about is great. Having said that my 3.0E HT cost £290 to build in total incl 450W power supply and dvd. Thats what about $600. Perhaps a small farm of those would be nice eh?

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Profile Paul D. Buck
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Message 137908 - Posted: 17 Jul 2005, 20:37:28 UTC

Ned,

I have tried to use an optimized client several times ... I followed the directions and everything ... what I always wound up with was a bunch of burned work units ... so, not being able to handle stress well ... I put it on the shelf. I did have one of my editors summarize his experiences on installing an optimized client, and one of the tasks in my short list of things to do is to follow his procedure and then see how many things I can get wrong with it ...

But, that still has to wait for the future when SETI@Home is back in the groove with work.

I got the Precision 670's with dual Xeon 3.4GHz, 1G RAM, the 32 bit one has the smallest 10K RPM drive, the 64 bit has a smaller 7,200 disk to keep the price lower. but buying through the small business you don't have to buy a monitor. That is the price for the unit. Which is about what I spent a couple years ago on a dual AMD system ...

And, I know you can build systems that are equivelent for less, for me, and my lowered abilities it was a relief to get a computer that worked right out of the box without haveing to go back to the store or return something to the mail order place. So, I plead guilty to higher price ... :)

Any way ... I hope you can get a good system ...

I just like seeing 19 work units in-flight ... the new Xeon has already done 137 work units in the short week since I got it ... look at the average processing times ...
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Message 137915 - Posted: 17 Jul 2005, 20:53:05 UTC
Last modified: 17 Jul 2005, 21:01:07 UTC

Have you looked at places likes Toms Hardware, I know they mainly aim at the Games market but they do review components and bench mark with other software. Myself I would recommend For MoBo - Gigabyte, Asus and Abit, and for memory twined sticks from Corsair or OCZ.

Another place to look is Sharkey Extreme on the left they have their choice of components under Buyer's Guide, last page on each article gives list of components and cost at time of writing.

When ordering the memory check the latency timings. See Corsair Memory Basics if you need more info on memory timings. I find by going for one speed higher than required you can either O/C or set shorter timings. I find you can get a reasonable boost in performance by setting the timings shorted rather than leaving the BIOS to auto set by SPD.

As its going to be using the cpu 100% in might be better to by OEM CPU and fit better cooler. The right ones can be more efficient and quieter. Good place to start here is Coolermaster, Antec.

Don't skimp on the PSU, 28% of all PC faults are down to this one cheap item. If you need case look for ones with good ventilation. Again Coolermaster (expensive), Antec.

Andy
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Message 137922 - Posted: 17 Jul 2005, 21:10:30 UTC

Hi Ned my Current P4 3.2

Intel P4 3.2
Mobo I875 on an Epox 4PC3AI
2 x 512 MB Twinmos Syster running at 2.0 2 2 5
Radeon 8500, i am no Gamer
WD 200 GIG SATA
Fortron 300 PSU
and a low noice CPU Cooler

etc

Results

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/results.php?hostid=56765

Greetings from Germany NRW
Ulli

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Message 137923 - Posted: 17 Jul 2005, 21:16:41 UTC - in response to Message 137922.  
Last modified: 17 Jul 2005, 21:17:18 UTC

Hi Ned my Current P4 3.2

Intel P4 3.2
Mobo I875 on an Epox 4PC3AI
2 x 512 MB Twinmos Syster running at 2.0 2 2 5
Radeon 8500, i am no Gamer
WD 200 GIG SATA
Fortron 300 PSU
and a low noice CPU Cooler

etc

Results

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/results.php?hostid=56765

Greetings from Germany NRW
Ulli



My Prescott 3.2 is running @3.6 GHz right now on stock voltage and air cooled.
I recommend buying some good ram and at least ddr pc 4000 to give some space for overclocking.

I would recommend also an Asus mobo that supports dual channel setup.



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Message 137968 - Posted: 17 Jul 2005, 23:22:34 UTC

So if you guys are using DDR memory, does that mean you're all using the older socket 478? Anyone using the newer 775 with DDR2?

Also, are these CPUs locked and what sort of overclock can you get from them?

Ned

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Message 138137 - Posted: 18 Jul 2005, 5:44:24 UTC

Ned

I've just built Pent Mobile using 915 chip set and DDR2, I bought corsair twinx memory that they say can go to 800MHz i.e. 1600 with quad pumping dual channel. But not overclocked yet as with supplied heatsink at 100% CPU useage my temp is ave 68C. Waiting for better heatsink/fan, had trouble finding one to fit.

But I adjusted memory timings from stock 4-4-4-12 to 3-3-3-6 and its been running 24/7 for 12 days, that gave me 8% improvement as timed by Super Pi.

Andy
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Message 138305 - Posted: 18 Jul 2005, 16:12:35 UTC

I rebuilt my system earlier this year. My 3.2GHz Prescott is sitting on an ASUS P4P800S-E Deluxe with 1GB of 400MHz DDR Corsair RAM, with an Antec SmartPower 2.0 450W PSU, (more then I need but quieter and cooler). I've upgraded the disk to an 120GB Seagate SATA. The other peripherals are legacy, but I don't use them much.

I don't overclock. Always seems like asking for trouble, especially in the floating point dependent distributed computing arena. However, the MoBo has an intelligent overclocker built in, you tell it a percentage you want to overclock by and it adjusts everything for you.
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Message 138333 - Posted: 18 Jul 2005, 16:49:42 UTC

Thanks everyone,

Well, I'm looking at an Asus P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard with a 3.2GHz P4 HT. I'll probably go with 512MB of Crucial PC4000 (DDR500) so I can hit 250fsb.

These things look like they run very hot though :(

Ned
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Message 138336 - Posted: 18 Jul 2005, 16:56:22 UTC - in response to Message 138333.  

Thanks everyone,

Well, I'm looking at an Asus P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard with a 3.2GHz P4 HT. I'll probably go with 512MB of Crucial PC4000 (DDR500) so I can hit 250fsb.

These things look like they run very hot though :(

Ned


Ned
I have a PC with a P4P800 board....aged now ...but a great board top be sure. I'm sure the C version will be even better. ASUS do nice stuff. Never runs hot I might add even with two hard discs, 2.8 HT, dvd, cd, ATI 9800 and .5 Gig RAM. So good choice I think.

Regards

Ian


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Message 138344 - Posted: 18 Jul 2005, 17:15:15 UTC - in response to Message 137829.  

Hey folks,

I'm thinking of putting together a P4 3.2GHz HT Prescott system, but I'm a total newb when it comes to Intel systems - my last intel build was an i486. I could really do with an Intel based system to help in developing and testing optimized clients for this platform as all my current systems are AMD.

I've looked at the sort of times these throw out and see that I can expect it to complete 2 WUs every 1.5 hours with HT, so it has relatively good price/performance.

So I've figured out I should probably go with socket 775 and probably not the nForce4 for intel chipset (saw a bad review). But I have absolutely no idea what motherboard/chipset I should be looking at and what memory (DDR2?) and speed I should go for. Also, as always I'd like to overclock if that's possible.

Anyone able to point me in the right direction to get me started?

Thanks,

Ned

PS - first person to suggest buying a Dell gets shot :D


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Message boards : Number crunching : O/T - should I build a P4 3.2GHz Prescott cruncher?


 
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