| Step-by-Step: How to
build a cheap and quiet AMD dually.
Step-by-Step: How to Build a
Cheap and Quiet AMD Dually.
This
thread is an attempt at explaining, once and for all,
how to build a cheap and quiet AMD dually. I will start
by telling you that I am, by nature, a very cheap guy.
I'm also very, very picky about computer noise. It has
been a serious mission, for me, to build an AMD dually
that was both cheap, and very quiet.
I have built
five AMD duallies in the past two years and I have
learned a lot. Many times, I learned by doing research.
Many times, I learned by messing up, the first time (or
the second time, or the third time...)
Hopefully,
this guide will help you to build a very fast AMD
dually, without making the mistakes I made, or making
bad purcahsing decisions. This is not an Intel-vs-AMD
discussion. It is simply the instructions for building a
cheap, quiet, and very, very fast dual AMD
computer.
This is targeted, mainly, to people
building their system completely from scratch (i.e. no
case, no nothing), although the information can be just
as useful to upgraders and system modders,
too.
PURCHASES
*MOTHERBOARD*
MSI K7D Master ($182)
(search
http://www.pricewatch.com/ for "MSI
K7D Master", but do not get the K7 Master, which is a
single CPU board.)
MSI K7D Master-L (has
onboard LAN) ($195)
(search http://www.pricewatch.com/ for "MSI
K7D Master-L")
(The MSI K7D Master is
considered the best dual AMD motherboard for
overclocking. The Asus A7M-266D holds second
place.)
(Whenever using Pricewatch to find
resellers, make sure to run every reseller's name
through http://www.resellerratings.com/. Most
of the resellers listed on Pricewatch are not very good.
ResellerRatings is a good way to find out who is worth
ordering from, and who isn't. Personally, I don't order
from any reseller who doesn't have a score of at least 8
out of 10, at ResellerRatings.
*PROCESSORS*
Two XP1700's,
preferably T-bred B's ($50 each)
(These are great
overclockers, often reaching 2.0-2.3 GHz on
air.)
*MEMORY*
512 MB Samsung
Registered ECC PC2700 ($111) (search http://www.pricewatch/ for "Samsung
Registered ECC PC2700)
(You can use regular,
unbuffered DDR, but AMD duals REQUIRE Registered DDR if
you want to use more than two sticks. I prefer the
Samsung Registered ECC PC2700, because it is capable of
overclocking to 150 FSB, the limit of the motherboard,
at fast memory settings. This is why I suggest the
Samsung, over Crucial Registered ECC PC2100. If you
already have some unbuffered DDR, you can use that. All
of the dual Opteron boards that I have seen REQUIRE
Registered ECC PC2700. If you plan on upgrading to a
dual Opteron someday, when they become affordable, you
would already have memory you could use, if you got the
Samsung Registered ECC PC2700.)
*HEATSINKS AND FANS*
Two SK-7's
($20 each) (http://www.svc.com/ is a good reseller
for these.)
(See this thread for a list of heatsinks
verified to fit on the K7D. I believe the SLK-800 and
SK-7 are the best heatsinks, because their performance
is fantastic, even with low speed, low noise fans. I
suggest the SK-7, for the budget-minded, because the
SLK-800 costs 50% more, yet only cools about 1 degree C,
better than the SK-7, with the same fan.)
Two
Panaflo L1A fans ($10 each)
(These are great
fans. They are very quiet and perform well on the SK-7
or SLK-800. Don't forget, when ordering, to order tails
for the fans. Stock, they only come with bare leads.
These also make good case fans and replacement power
supply fans. If you would like more flexible heatsink
cooling, consider the Enermax Manually Adjustable 80mm
fan. It has it's own rheostat, built in, on a long cord,
so you can manually change the fan speed. At low speed,
it is fairly quiet. At high speed, it pushes a mountain
of air.)
*POWER
SUPPLY*
500-550 Watt Power Supply
($20-75)
(AMD duallies require a LOT of juice
from their power supply. Most won't run, or will be
quite unstable, on a power supply less than 450 watts.
There are a few exceptions, such as the Antec True 430,
but these are VERY few. I have used cheap "Power Magic"
Brand PSU's, between 500 and 550 watts. They have worked
just fine, for me. They are VERY, VERY cheap, but I have
used them on two AMD duallies and haven't had any
trouble out of them. Other well-respected Power Supplies
include Antec, TTGI, and Fortron. I have used Enermax
and Vantec, too, but they, like almost every other PSU,
are too loud, for my tastes. The Fortron- P530XF530W 530
Watt PSU is supposed to very good and is only
$75.)
*CASE*
Antec SLK3700AMB Case
($68) (search http://www.pricewatch.com/ for
"SLK3700AMB")
One additional 120mm fan for
intake. ($10)
(Duallies require a case with good
airflow. A case with a single 80mm exhaust isn't good
enough. The Antec SLK3700AMB case has one 120mm intake
and one 120mm exhaust. It also comes with one Antec
120mm fan and a 350 watt Antec Power Supply. This power
supply isn't enough juice for an AMD dually, but it is a
great freebie that you can use on a single CPU system.
There is a great review of this case, with some good
pictures, here. If you have a different case
(using 80mm fans) you would like to use, make sure it
has at least two 80mm exhausts and two 80mm intakes.
MODIFICATIONS
*CASE MODS*
The Antec
SLK3700AMB case is a great choice for quiet computing
for two reasons. First, it comes with rubber grommets
for mounting up to five hard drives, which really lowers
the amount of transferred vibration from the hard
drives. This transferred vibration is a major cause of
system noise. Second, it comes with mounts for 120mm
intake and exhaust fans. 120mm fans, at low speed, move
more air and produce less noise, than a couple 80mm
fans.
Here's a shot of my SLK3700AMB:
The only thing this case needs is a mod
to the intake and exhaust fan grills. The intake and
exhaust ports, unfortunately, are just little holes
drilled into the metal chassis for airflow. This greatly
restricts airflow and causes cavitation
noise.
The ports, ideally, need to just be just
one, big 120mm hole in the chassis. I suggest either a
dremel (the slow, clean way) or a jigsaw with a metal
cutting blade (the quick, dirty way). Cut the port
completely open. Make it one, big 120mm hole, instead of
that swiss-cheese look they give you, at the factory.
When you're doing the cutting, make sure the case sides
are on, because they give the case strength and
stability, while you're hacking away at it. Also, it is
a good idea to set the case on a towel or something, to
keep it from getting marred, and put tape all around the
hole, where you are cutting, to keep the chassis from
getting scratched up.
The 120mm fans don't attach
to the case. They actually attach to a plastic housing,
which is then attached to the case. This housing also
needs some work. It has cross braces all over the place.
There are too many of them, and they are restricting
airflow a bit, too. Grab a pair of angle-cutters and cut
some of those out.
This is what the rear should
look like, after you cut out the hole and trim those
cross braces:
(I know the picture quality is bad, but
you get the idea.)
The case comes with one 120mm
fan located at the exhaust. It is an Antec and is pretty
good. I suggest getting one more 120mm fan for the
intake, too, preferable one with a Molex connector. The
last case mod, is really a fan mod. For lower system
noise, mod both fans for 5V or 7V. They will still move a good
amount of air, keeping the system supplied with fresh,
cold air for those soon-to-be-overclocked
CPU's.
*MOTHERBOARD
MODS*
There is one main mod to do. The
K7D comes with a fan on the northbridge heatsink. It is
noisy and unnecessary. I have three K7D systems. I have
removed the Northbridge heatsink fan from all of them
and haven't had one problem.
No other mods are
required, yet. The MSI K7D Master allow multiplier
change in the BIOS, up to 12.5, with CPU's that are
unlocked by default. Those T-bred B XP1700's can reach
up to 2 GHz, or higher, though, so 12.5 won't be high
enough. Higher multipliers can be used. I will address
this, below.
*CPU
MODS*
Athlon XP's can be modded to run
as MP's. For all the information on this, including
instructions on how to do the "L5 mod", see this sticky. The first reply includes
links to articles explaining the mod, with pictures!
Note: if you bridge the L5's, you will need to scrape
the bridges a little bit, first, to expose the copper.
There is a thin coating over them. You can use a thumb
tack or needle or similar to give those a little scrape,
first.
For the answer to almost any
non-SMP-specific question you could ever have about AMD
CPU's, please see this excellent FAQ.
If you want
to overclock, you can overclock up to 12.5*150=1875 MHz,
just using the BIOS, no mods to the chips, other than
the L5 mod. If you want to overclock higher than that,
then you will have to mod the multiplier.
There
are two main popular methods that I have used. One is
called "bridge blowing" and involves popping some of the
L3 bridges, using electricity. Sounds dangerous, but it
isn't. See this thread to find out more about
this method. Please read the ENTIRE THREAD. Personally,
I prefer the 5V method. It has worked consistently, for
me.
The other multiplier mod, called the
"pin-mod", involves modding the CPU socket, on the
motherboard, to change multipliers. You just use little
pieces of U-shaped wire, dropped into the appropriate
socket holes, to achieve the desired multiplier. Here is the interactive diagram for
the method and here are the instructions. There is an
alternate method to doing this mod, here. This method has three main
benefits. First, it is somewhat less nerve-wracking then
blowing bridges. Second, it is easily undone, or
changed. In the bridge-blowing method, if you blow
bridges and don't like your results, you may have to
re-mod the chip. Sometimes, this involves re-bridging a
bridge you have previously blown (not too difficult, but
still.) In the pin-mod method, if you change the
multiplier and don't like your results, you can just
remove the CPU, and remove the mod or change it. Third,
this method may be better because of a new chip design
from AMD. Some of the newest T-bred B's, now have a
thick coating over all of the bridges. This can make it
very difficult to get to them. For the L5 mod, it's not
a problem. You can just put some conductive paint in the
pit of the appropriate L5 bridge, and that will connect
the bridges. For bridge-blowing multiplier modification,
however, this is a problem, because it is hard to get
contact with the L3 bridges.
There is a third way
to modify your multipliers, but I haven't personally
used it, yet. I recently found out, here, about a product that is a new
version of the classic Golden Sockets adapter. This
product claims to let you change the multi on any AMD
CPU to anything from 5X-24X. Looks really promising. Here is a link to the manufacturer's
spec page about the product. The manufacturer does admit
that you have to use CPU's that are unlocked (the L1's
are not cut) to be able to use this product.
Fortunately, that includes all T-breds and Bartons, as
far as I know. This would be a good thing to have to
test the overclockability of your CPU's. Once you know,
you can blow the bridges (or do the pin-mod), set the
multi, and be done. That way, you don't have to blow
bridges more than once, or screw around with
reconnecting bridges and such. There is a review of this
product here.
*POWER
SUPPLY MODS*
Every 500+ watt PSU I
have ever used has been too noisy, in my opinion. I
always take them apart and replace the stock fans with
Panaflo L1A's. You can find a few articles that explain
the process of replacing fans, here, here, and here.
INSTALLATION AND
TESTING
*CPU SMP
AND MULTIPLIER TESTING*
First things,
first. The hardest thing about building an AMD dually,
with modded processors, is modding the CPU's and making
sure that they really do show up as MP's...
consistently.
There is one sure-fire method, in
my opinion, for getting this right and making your life
easier.
First, do the L5 mod and let the
conductive paint dry for a few hours.
Second,
set up a stipped-down system, outside of the case. Set
the motherboard on top of a non-conductive surface, such
as a wooden table, or FedEx box Connect the
system with ONLY the following components... Power
Supply, Motherboard, one stick of RAM, and one video
card. Do not plug in the PSU, yet.
Third, put
your first modded CPU in the primary CPU socket. This is
the one in the middle of the board. Put on its heatsink
and fan. Set the FSB jumper to 100 (this is useful for
initial testing, because it removes a few variables.)
Fourth, hook up your monitor and keyboard, then
plug in the power supply. Boot up the system and make
sure, when it shows the CPU, that is shows up as an
"MP". If it shows up as an XP, then your L5 mod is bad
and you need to shut down, unplug the PSU, remove the
CPU and redo the mod. If it shows up as an MP, verify
that it is showing the right multiplier. Your FSB is
100, so your XP1700, at stock, should be showing up as
1100 MHz (its default multiplier is 11X.) If you already
modded the CPU for a higher multiplier, then verify that
it is showing up properly. If you modded for 15X, then
it should show up as 1500 MHz, etc. (If you plan on
doing the pin-mod, wait until you have finished testing
both CPU's.)
Fifth, now that you're done with the
first CPU. You know that the L5 mod is good and you know
that the multiplier mod is good (if applicable.) Shut
down the computer, unplug the PSU, remove that CPU and
put in the other one, again, in the Primary CPU socket.
Test this one, individually, as you did the
other.
Note, the reason for checking each CPU,
individually, is that if you don't, and you have a
problem, then you don't know where your problem is.
Finding and fixing this can more time consuming and
frustrating, then just doing it right, the first time. I
have built five AMD duallies. I have learned these
lessons the hard way. There is a smart way to do things,
and there is a dumb/fast way to do things. Save yourself
some headaches and learn from my
mistakes.
Sixth, now you're done with both
CPU's and you have verified that they both, indeed, show
up as MP's. Now, Shut down the computer, unplug the PSU,
do your pin-mod to both sockets (if applicable), then
put in both CPU's and their heatsinks and fans. Boot up
the system, still at 100 FSB, and verify that both CPU's
are showing as MP's and the multiplier is right. Now is
a good time to check to see what BIOS version you are
running. The latest (as of 8/4/03) is version 1.82. You
should see the BIOS version on the top of the screen,
above and to the left of the CPU speed, during bootup. I
suggest running BIOS 1.5, or later. Now, go into the
BIOS, because there is one important thing to change,
before you start upping the FSB. The memory settings on
this board sometimes have problems with certain kinds of
memory. The Auto settings, for some kinds of memory, are
too aggressive for the system to boot at 133 FSB. This
affects several kinds of memory, but most notably,
Corsair brand PC2700 or higher. Set the memory settings
to Manual. The best memory settings for this board are
this: 16,16,6,2,2,2,3. Use those settings, if possible.
If you're running PC2700, those settings should be fine,
all the way up to 150 FSB (the FSB limit of the
board.)
Note, if you are going to run a
multiplier higher than 12.5X, then you need to leave the
multiplier set to Auto in the BIOS. If you change it,
the system won't boot.
*INSTALLING THE OPERATING
SYSTEM*
Now that you've verified that
the CPU's are showing up as MP's and their multipliers
are correct, it would be a good time to install an
Operating System. Keep in mind that the only Microsoft
Operating Systems that support dual processors are: NT,
2000, and XP Professional. You want to install the OS,
when the system isn't really overclocked, so you won't
possibly corrupt system files, during installation. I
suggest just leaving your FSB jumper at 100; this will
let the CPU run slower and more stable, for the OS
installation.
Your system should still be
running, outside the case. There is a reason for this. I
will get to it later. Go ahead and hook up your hard
drive, CD drive, and other PCI peripherals and install
the OS.
Download and install your chipset
drivers. You can get them here. (Ignore the five LAN drivers
on the top of that page. They are for other
motherboards.)
Download and install
Motherboard Monitor. You can get it from here. Set the sensors to
this:
CPU1: Winbond 2 2N3904
CPU2: Winbond 3
2N3904
Case Temp: Winbond 1
For testing
purposes, configure it to start when the computer
starts, and to open the dashboard as
well.
*CPU STABILITY
TESTING*
Once the OS is installed, and
your drivers are up to date, download and install
Prime95 from www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm. This is
an excellent CPU testing program. For instructions on
how to install and run this program on TWO processors,
see my post in the thread here.
Once that is installed,
shut down, move the FSB jumper to 133 and boot up.
If the system won't POST, then move the FSB
jumper back to 100. Boot up, go into the BIOS, and set
the Vcore to a manual value higher than the default
value. T-bred B XP1700's have a default Vcore of 1.65.
Try 1.675, then shut down, move the FSB jumper and try
again. Repeat as necessary.
If the system does
POST, but you Windows won't load, or you get a error
message during bootup, then restart, go into the BIOS
and give the CPU's a little more Vcore. Just take it up
one notch at a time, until Windows loads.
Once
Windows loads correctly, run two instances of Prime95,
for at least 30 minutes, to check for initial stability.
If Prime95 fails, reboot, up the Vcore a notch, and try
again. If you can run two instances of Prime95,
overnight, without errors, then your system is solid. An
additional test is to run two instances of Prime95 and
loop 3DMark2001, overnight. If that can run, overnight,
then you should be pretty darn stable.
The steps,
below, are optional. Burning in the system can help you
overclock higher and require less Vcore to get there.
Less Vcore = lower temps.
After checking for
initial stability (and making sure your temps aren't too
high) start increasing Vcore and running two instances
of Prime95. Watch your temps and make sure they don't go
too high (50-60C is ok) and let the computer chew on
Prime95 for a few days to burn the CPU's in (keep
increasing Vcore, until your full-load temps are too
high.) After a few days of this, start jacking up the
FSB, all the way to 150 (you'll probably need PC2700 to
get this high, with the aggressive memory timings I
listed above.) If you can get up to 15*150 with
stability (tested and verified with Prime95) then start
lowering the Vcore and re-testing. Keep lowering until
the system fails at Prime95 or can't boot. Keep in mind
that there are two primary reason for CPU instability:
CPU Overheating and Insufficient Vcore. These are
opposite extremes. If your temps are too high, your
CPU's could be unstable. Adding more Vcore will only
make this situation worse. If your CPU needs so much
Vcore to be stable that it overheats, then you shoot
yourself in the foot with Vcore.
Now, you
will have a good idea of your CPU's MHz potential at a
certain Vcore (and temp.) It is a good idea to record
your stable speeds at different Vcores. If your temps
are good and you have some room to play with, then
consider upping the multi again, or lowering your multi,
so you can raise your FSB (higher FSB generally yields
higher overall system performance, then higher
multiplier.)
At this point, you know your system
is stable, you know that your modifications are done,
and you shouldn't need to mess around with the CPU's,
anymore.
PUTTING IT ALL
TOGETHER
It is finally time to put
this thing in the case! I refrained from telling you to
put the system in the case before, for a couple reasons.
For one, it is pretty hard to install the heatsink on
CPU2, when the motherboard is in the case. If you
decided to remove the CPU's, to further mod them,
sometime during the installation and testing phases,
then you would have a really hard time getting the
heatsink back on CPU2 (I killed a processor, because of
this.) Also, the sockets wouldn't be as easy to get to,
if you wanted to re-mod them. Another reason is that the
systems temps should remain fairly stable, when the
system is run open-air. This is useful, when you're
doing burn-in and running high temps, on
purpose.
Anyway, now you can take all your PCI
and AGP cards out and unhook everything from the
motherboard. Leave the CPU's, Heatsinks and memory on
it, though. It is SO MUCH EASIER to mount those, before
you put the motherboard into the case.
Put it all
together again. Boot up and enjoy. Remember to keep an
eye on your temps. They will likely be a little higher,
with the motherboard and CPU's inside a close case. This
depends, largely, on the amount of case
airflow.
OTHER QUIET COMPUTER
PARTS I RECOMMEND
*HARD DRIVES*
Hard Drives are a
major contributor to system noise. Over the years, I
have discovered three hard drives that I just love. Each
is quiet, and is suitable for different
needs.
The Western Digital JB series of drives is
just great. They are one of the few IDE drives that are
still sold with a 3-yr. warranty. They have an 8MB
cache, their performance is great, and they are quieter
than most other IDE drives. The only exception is their
drives below 80GB. For some reason, those below 80GB,
such as the 400JB, are designed slightly differently,
and are VERY loud. 800JB and up are very
good.
The Seagate Barracuda V is the quietest IDE
drive you can get, I believe. It, too, is 7200 RPM and
features a 2-MB cache. Its performance is quite as good
as the Western Digital JB drives, but it is still very
good, and it is quieter than the WD's. If you want the
absolute, quietest computer you can get, get a Seagate
Barracuda V.
The Seagate Cheetah 15K.3 is the
quietest 15K SCSI drive, available. It is also one of
the highest performance drives, anywhere. If you can
afford to go with 15K SCSI, I highly recommend it. I
think that my upgrade to 15K SCSI gave me more of a
performance increase than any other upgrade I have EVER
made. For a SCSI controller, I highly recommend the LSI
U160. It is a great SCSI controller and only costs about
$45. http://www.svc.com/ is a good place to
get cheap, round SCSI/IDE/Floppy cables. On my Primary
machine, I have a Seagate 15K.3 for my Operating Systems
and Games partitions. I have a Seagate Barracuda V for
my Files partition, where I keep backups and stuff I
need permanent storage for.
A great resource for
good hard drive data, including performance and noise,
is http://www.storagereview.com/. You can
access their Benchmark Database here. Change the drop down menu and
click "Sort" to see how drives compare in a variety of
real benchmarks and measurements. They have one
especially useful database just for Drive Idle
Noise.
*INSULATION*
I have used a
product called "Akasa Pax Mate" on many of my computers.
It is available from http://www.svc.com./ It is a thin,
foam insulation that you put on the sides, top, and
bottom of your case. It is supposed to absorb some sound
and make your computer quieter. I don't know if it
really works, or not. I do know that it makes your
temperatures higher, since some of the heat inside your
case can't radiate through the metal sides.
This
should be considered a luxury item for the truly
noise-picky, who aren't afraid to have slightly higher
temperatures.
This thread is published
as an article HERE.
This thread/article is
the first in a three part series, on Quiet Computing.
The second part "Step-by-Step: Building a Quiet PC from
the Ground Up" is published, HERE. The forum version of that
article can be found HERE. |
08-05-2003 03:57
AM 
Sticky 
...will
be digging this thread up when i go duallie .gif)
.gif)
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> Step-by-Step: How to build a cheap and quiet AMD dually. 
