AMD 64 FX 55 or Dual Opteron 248

Rusty1973 · Post by **Rusty1973** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 9:10 am

Hey there !

I'm about to buy a new Computer and i'm not really sure what kind of Config i want:

1. choice:

AMD64 FX 55 based System with min. 2 GB Ram
MSI or ASUS SLI MOBO
NForce4 Chipset
Nvidia 6600GT by Gainward PCIe (Only One no SLI)

or

Dual Opteron 246 or 248 based on the new Tyan 2895A2NRF MOBO
NForce4 Pro Chipset
Same PCIe Grafix
min. 2 GB Ram (1 GB each CPU)

both System will have the same Config below:

4 WD Raptors 74GB running Linux SW Raid 10 for Gentoo
1 WD 250GB PATA for Windows XP
Pioneer DVD Writer
Enermax Enermax CS-800TA "Chrome Fantasy" Case Black
some other toys.

What would you take ???

I want max performance on Programming and Compiling
I'm not a Gamer
The only Game i may play is something like SimCity on Windows.

Will Gentoo Work on the New NForce4 Pro Opteron Chipset ?

Let me know

gringo · Post by **gringo** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 9:28 am

I want max performance on Programming and Compiling

if these are your needs, i would go for the opterons, but i really dont know how well this new chipset is sopprted right now.
Im have dual opterons + K8W board running here on my server and its been running without problems so far for 6 months now.

cheers

SureFoot · Post by **SureFoot** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 11:01 am

Opteron is the good choice for a dev / server system. Gentoo has still a few quirks at installation time though, especially with SATA.

superwutze · Post by **superwutze** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 2:27 pm

i have dual opterons 246 on a tyan k8w for my own workstation and several single/dual/quad opteron server for customers and those things really rock as development/server computers.

Krischi · Post by **Krischi** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 3:46 pm

No question about it. Dual Opterons all the way for a developer workstation. The time that you save through parallel makes (-j3 seems to be optimal on this platform) by far outweighs the slightly slower speed of the individual processors.

If you want a proven setup, I would get the Tyan Thunder K8W. All its hardware is fully supported by Gentoo, and rock-stable. You just may have to insert the SATA and network driver modules manually during the bootstrap (sata_sil and tg3) - at least that was my experience with the 2004.3 install. You also may want to buy an addon USB 2.0 card, since the on-board controller is USB 1.1 only.

Rusty1973 · Post by **Rusty1973** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 9:59 pm

Hey Guys !

Thank You

I guess i will go with the K8W
i just want to know, if anybody is using this board and how it works

So i guess i will have

Tyan K8W
2x Opteron 248
2 GB Ram (still don't what kind/brand)
Nvidia 6600 GT
or maybe the Matrox Parhelia (does Gentoo support it nativly ???)
4 WD Raptors 74 GB

About the Powersupply...

Is anybody using a Forton Powersupply ??? 440W EPS ???

LaNcom · Post by **LaNcom** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 10:22 pm

I'm only using the cheap K8W (Tiger, not Thunder), but everything on that board is supported... Anyway, I'd suggest to get the Nvidia card, the Matrox is way too expensive, given that you can't use it's full potential due to missing drivers. And I don't really like Fortron PSU's, had two dying - I'm using an Enermax PSU these days, quality stuff!

Something else: If money doesn't matter, I'd recommend 2x Corsair TwinX1024RE-3200LL memory modules. Those are about the fastest registered ECC modules available (2-3-2-6 - it really _does_ make a difference!), the timings are in the SPD, which is very important as the Tyan BIOS' usually won't allow to set the timing manually, and they come as matched pair:

http://www.corsairmemory.com/corsair/pr ... 3200ll.pdf

Krischi · Post by **Krischi** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 11:03 pm

The price of the LL memory is actually not that bad. It is pretty much comparable to other high-quality memory, and honestly, with an Opteron it would be foolish to settle for anything less. With memory you get what you pay for.

Also, if every bit of memory performance matters, definitely get the Thunder K8W, not the Tiger. The Thunder supports NUMA through per-CPU memory banks, whereas the Tiger does not. This effectively doubles your available memory bandwidth.

BTW, Monarch Computers sells workstations based exactly on this setup at reasonable prices if you want to avoid the hassle of building the system yourself, under the name of "Ultimate Linux Box 2005."

DNL · Post by **DNL** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 11:11 am

Just to add to it... dual opterons for development. No other choice. -j3 does seem to be the best. I went with an enermax 550w power supply personally. I agree on the corsair recommendation.

Once you go dual, you'll never go back. And when dual core chips come out, you'll be all ready for quad. <drool> Then in theory, -j5 will be best, but we'll see. I will anyway. Have the money ready to spend when they're available. Let the glamers play with the single procs. All I care about is how fast KDE will recompile when I'm trying to rice my system. LOL.

mark · Post by **mark** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 12:58 pm

I have had an tiger k8w myself for about a year and been happy.

2x240 cpu
1 Gb corsair (forget modsel sorry)
1x74gb raptor
1xmaxtor plus pata,1xhitachi 80 gb sata
I've used both nvidia ti4200 and 6600GT (see below)

However, I'm starting to suspect its chipset may not like the nvidia 6600GT, from what I have read the Thunder k8w using the same chipset does have issues with ATI cards. According to forums on www.2cpu.com there is a problem with the AGP bridge in the AMD chipset used. YMMV

If I enable AGP (either NVidia or kernel built in) my monitor goes to sleep and I need to reboot. I have decided its not an interupt issue and I'm running the latest BIOS. It could be a driver issue but I've tried multriple versions. I did periodically get X freezes with my old ti4200 as many others have recently been reporting with othert chipsets and boards, but I am suspiciuos of this mobo/chipset.

Perhaps others here may be able to comment on the k8w 6600gt combination before you buy. I just wanted to pass along my experience. It is true however that others may have got it to work. The opteron is a nice chip.

Mark

Krischi · Post by **Krischi** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 1:45 pm

For what it is worth, the Thunder K8W + GeForce 6800 (not GT) combo is stable.

fyrcon · Post by **fyrcon** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 5:11 pm

hey, take a look at this one:
http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/pro ... &model=264

look like a great mobo, and you can save a lot of money on the memory, since this mobo supports unbuffered memory if you have CG stepping or later opterons.

dweigert · Post by **dweigert** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 12:07 am

For what its worth, another Thunder K8W user here, happy as well. One thing to think about, is if you ever intend to put more RAM in the box, is that the registered DRAM is the only way to go. The more chips on your memory bus, the worse the timings. In registered DRAM, oonly the buffer chip is actually on the bus, the RAM itself is behind the chip. You lose one clock cycle for the access, but things get much worse with unbuffered memory when you put 4 dims in a bus...

Dan

Rusty1973 · Post by **Rusty1973** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 8:38 pm

Hey

I got my System today and it is rocking fast !

The config is a little different but i think a made good choice!

Dual 250's
4 GB Ram ECC Reg DDR400 CL2,5
Tyan Thunder K8W
Adaptec U320 SCSI Dual Channel Adapter PCI-X
ATI 9800 Pro 128 MB
4 Fujitsu U320 73 GB 10.000 U/min (two on each channel of the Adaptec)
Lian Li Case 1200B Black
DVD Reader and Writer
Enermax EPS PSU 550 Watt

Thank you to everybody for the input

Sure i run Gentoo on it !!!
I'm about to install 2005.0 on it

Crocodil · Post by **Crocodil** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 3:05 pm

Rusty1973 wrote:Hey

I got my System today and it is rocking fast !

The config is a little different but i think a made good choice!

Dual 250's
4 GB Ram ECC Reg DDR400 CL2,5
Tyan Thunder K8W
Adaptec U320 SCSI Dual Channel Adapter PCI-X
ATI 9800 Pro 128 MB
4 Fujitsu U320 73 GB 10.000 U/min (two on each channel of the Adaptec)
Lian Li Case 1200B Black
DVD Reader and Writer
Enermax EPS PSU 550 Watt

Thank you to everybody for the input

Sure i run Gentoo on it !!!
I'm about to install 2005.0 on it

Wow

I'd love to have a setup like that - can't afford it... The thing would cost a fortune in Poland

One thing I would change is the Radeon, I'd take GeForce instead

Luckily ATI's drivers are slowly but stabily getting better...

Please keep us posted how the 2005.0 installation did.

Regards,
Crocodil

Rusty1973 · Post by **Rusty1973** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 12:50 pm

After working a while with Gentoo 2004.3 i switch over to 2005.0 and changed a little bit the hardware.

I got the new K8WE Mainboard and two Geforce 6600GT and a LSI Megaraid 320-2x (PCI-X)
everything else is still the same

The Gentoo Intstall worked just fine without any problem
I moved from Software Raid to true Hardware Raid running Raid 0+1 on my 4 SCSI disks

I'm also using a Intel Gigabit card (PCI-X) because i don't like the org nForce onboard cards.
i may change back to them later.

2005.0 just did a perfect job and works rock solid !

I have now horse power like hell and playing Doom on this box is just ass kicking !

I love Gentoo

get sirius · Post by **get sirius** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 12:50 am

So, you apparently switched from the K8W to the K8WE after just two months; were you dissatisfied with the performance? of did the lure of the SLI setup with two graphics cards overcome you?

(Not that I haven't been eyeing the K8WE myself. I've been running the K8W for over a year and a half now with complete satisfaction - first with 248's for about a year and now with 252's. But I'd really like to see the two motherboards benchmarked against each other and the K8WE winning before I'd jump!:D )

benow · Post by **benow** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 9:39 am

GamePC have an excellent review of k8we vs k8w. High points are not so much in memory/processor benchmark improvements, but in the nForce components. SLI, USB2 and onboard SATA are much faster, and the NUMA is smokin', tho with a bit of a latency trade-off.

Anyone know more about NUMA and the k8we? Is it possible to have NUMA in single processor configuration?

I've a scsi k8we, dual 246 (HE-55W), ASUS 6600GT box coming together here. Can't wait. The upgrade path is quite amazing, from single to dual cpu to single dual core to dual dual core (and perhaps even to dual quad core in a year or two, if the rumors pan out), not to mention SLI. Should be good for *years*.

brankob · Post by **brankob** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 5:49 pm

I have K8W as well as K8WE and I'm not quite thrilled with the K8WE.

It is nice, but:

- drivers for onboard ethernet are lame
- it seems that quality of boards is still uneven. First baord died after two days of use and USB cintroller on its replacement died after a few weeks.

I don't see why NUMA on K8W would be in any way inferior to NUMA on K8WE. Both CPUs have their own ram and HT channel between them. I suppose that any difference in that test you mentioned is due to different internal RAM settings that BIOS does at startup, not due to quality of the board itself.

If I would have to choose between K8W and K8WE today, I would choose K8WE. If someone offered me K8WEs in exchange for K8Ws in my machines, I would pass the offer. K8W rocks and the difference is not worth the effort IMO.

Unless of course you WANT dual graphic cards in SLI etc...

Gentoo Forums

AMD 64 FX 55 or Dual Opteron 248

AMD 64 FX 55 or Dual Opteron 248

I made my Choice !

opteron 240

The final System just arrived !

Re: The final System just arrived !

Gentoo 2005.0 Install on my new Opteron Monster