dual xeon nocona's cooled by Storms
 

This is my workstation, made for go, not for show

http://img35.exs.cx/img35/3633/IMG_656.jpg
side by side Storms on xeon Nocona's on a Iwill DH800... close tolearances....had to remove DD NV68 water block from 6800GT vid card due to ~3mm clearance


http://img35.exs.cx/img35/2148/IMG_657.jpg
Coolermaster Stacker case, Swifty MCP650 died during leak testing, need to RMA it so tossed in a old Little Giant M3D pump - runs on line current. Also note my version of a BA rad - 300 cfm blower on a variable speed control under a 24cm x 15cm x 2cm single pass truck heater core


http://img19.exs.cx/img19/2421/IMG_0656.jpg
showing rad & fillport

those things almost dont fit. why dont you just take some off the storm to make your block fit. also what kind of temps are you getting

didn't want to cut the Storm plates just yet

getting ~38c for both cpu's in BIOS (Iwill states this is at mid-cpu load, no one can read accurate temps on this board with any current software in Windows or SuSE)

thats a pretty damn good temp.

Can you tell us the spec's of the rig.

3.0 Nocona's D0 stepping running at 3.3 GHz (220 fsb)
1 gig Corsair Twinx1024-3200XL (2-2-2-5 timings)
Iwill DH800 mobo
2 73 Gig Raptors
Antec 550 eps p/s
Coolermaster Stacker case
XFX 6800 GT (405/1.05 on air now)
Little River Storm waterblocks
Fedco 2-342 heater core
unknown 150mm 120v 300cfm fan on a fan speed control in the back
mix tygon & clearflex tubing
now on a Little Giant 3MD pump, Swiftech MCP650 died....

Thats a pretty sick setup. Should have gone dualy opteron though. Faster...

Do you notice any slowdown in games due to the xeons messed up memory bandwidth and dual cpu confusion??

How much of an increse in desktop performance have you noticed with the dual over a a single (your last setup i guess)?

slowdown? hardly!
my gaming rig is in my PCDB link, 3.2P4 at 3.77 24/7, higher FSB than this workstation & this machine blows away my gaming rig for video editing, gaming & overall general use.

have built 6 dual opterons here at work, have more stability with the xeons by far - they just work.

& with the EM64T & SuSE 9.2 64 bit it rocks

Interesting because from what I have read (benchmarks) of dual cpu setups, they are horrible for gamming. They dont work correctly with games because games are not designed for multi cpu. I wish I could find the review.

More stability?

games mostly are not smp aware, yes
the key difference here is the nocona xeons (800 fsb, dual channell DDR400 on a 875P mobo)
the power of a nocona xeon is very good, better than a P4 by far

every opteron box we have has had to be continually tweaked, often at the kernel level
our machines are pure number crunchers for CFD, CKM & 3D visualization

strange to hear, I also do alot of visual stuff 2d/3d and not getting into audio and looking into h20 cooling my workstations or atleast my main for now, which is dual opteron.

I've built used then sold systems, been through a few 2 xeons 2 opterons and have had 0 issues due the arch/cpu.

dual boot setups always, windows for games mostly, linux for everything else.

i had issues with my first nv under linux but i'll have to chalk that up to driver issues and its since been resolved


I do have one question however, just been checking out the swiftechs and g4s, thinking i'm gonna go g4, g5 is too much atm, been googling for a place to check pricing/possibly buy these things and haven't found a store carrying them.

where can a guy get some g4s?

If you are looking for a G4 setup, try Powermax.com and browse their used CPU's. They have the best selection of used Apples I have seen on the web, including dual G4's. I've got to be honest with you though, those things are always pricier than what they're worth number-crunching wise, even though newer Apples are fun to use, IMO.

EDIT: Duh, just realized you're talking about Cathar's blocks and not Apple computers....:( Talk to Cathar on the forums, he can direct you to a place for G5 and G4 waterblocks ! :)

funny :D

thanks HAL

lol hal. cathar makes them..

I should state we use SuSE 9.2 64 bit, opteron box are more stable in 9.2 32 bit...

I've got dual Opteron 250s myself, but I'd hardly call Xeons slouches... I think that your milage varies in comparison --Opterons are faster on one thing, Xeons faster on other things.

My dual Opterons are liquid-cooled too, together with a Radeon 9800 on a BIX with a low-flow Panaflo. I get 40C at rest, 45C under load. Which is nice. :D