Asus NCCH-DL or a PC-DL?

[GoHack]

Hi,

I'm in the process of purchasing a matched pair of 2.0 GHz LV Xeon's w/HT:

20x
604 pin
1.3v
0.13 micron
D1 Core Stepping
SL6XL sSpec
512 L2
400 Mhz Bus Speed

I'm looking at either an Asus NCCH-DL or a PC-DL. They are both in my price range. I plan on using them mostly for DC-BOINC:ClimatePrediction.

Any opinions on them, or other options?

With the NCCH-DL, it supports the new Nocona 64 bit Xeon's, for future upgrade, but in order to use w/my 400 Mhz bus speed Xeon's, I'll have to o/c them, which is fine w/me. How overclockable friendly is the NCCH-DL?

With the PC-DL, it's an older m/b, but it would work fine, but it is not upgradable to the 64 bit Xeon's. How overclockable friendly is the PC-DL?

Do these m/b's only support ECC DDR, or can I use standard unBuffered DDR's?

Thx.

[dicecca112]

they are both overclocker boards, both use non ECC DDR Ram which is nice. Frankly either board works, and FYI the PC-DL has a hacked bios that supports the Noconas, don't know how well it works, but its out there

[Twin_Turbo]

I've got a few of the PC-DL motherboards but no NCCH-DL
I believe that they are both similar for overclocking
Just change a jumper on the PC-DL motherboard and the bus is now 533 (133x4)
You can tweak the FSB and muliplier in the BIOS

Here is a good site for many Asus Xeon boards
http://www.datamine.tk/

[GoHack]

Can the NCCH-DL be run at 400 MHz, or has it only 533 and 800 bus speeds?

How about the Iwill DH800 m/b?

From what I've seen and experienced, Asus has a much better history of product support than Iwill does, so that's one negative against Iwill.

By the way, how is my choice of the 2.0 GHz LP Xeon's? How overclockable are they having 20x multipliers? 20x 133 MHz (2.66 GHz) or better? Are these multiplier locked?

Thx.

[Twin_Turbo]

Can the NCCH-DL be run at 400 MHz, or has it only 533 and 800 bus speeds?
I don't know from experience, but according to the NCCH-DL thread at 2cpu.com it will
http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=52272

[Twin_Turbo]

I downloaded the manual for the NCCH-DL
Page 2-22 shows the jumpers for setting the CPU external frequency
It looks identical to the PC-DL
The choices are Auto Select, 100, 133, 166 and 200

[GoHack]

I downloaded the manual for the NCCH-DL
Page 2-22 shows the jumpers for setting the CPU external frequency
It looks identical to the PC-DL
The choices are Auto Select, 100, 133, 166 and 200


Thx. I guess I'll go w/the NCCH-DL then. :)

Again, how is choice of the 2.0 GHz LP Xeon's? How overclockable are they having 20x multipliers? 20x 133 MHz (2.66 GHz) or better? Are these multiplier locked? These are socket 604's w/HT. I'm paying $160 for the pair. I happened to come across them on eBay.

[Albaholic]

I can vouch for the ncch-dl. Its been pretty problem free so far. As for the Ocability of the 2.0 LP im not too sure (never looked them up). the multipliers are locked upwards but unlocked downwards.

[zachj]

I highly doubt that you'll be able to hit 200MHz FSB (800MHz if you want to look at it that way) on boot, but you should be able to use ClockGen to bump it up in Windows to 200MHz if you boot with a low multiplier. The computer briefly attempts to boot at the hard-wired default multiplier x the FSB you set in BIOS, so if you set 200MHz FSB, the computer will briefly try to boot at 4GHz even with a multiplier of 12 in the BIOS. The fact that they're low voltage D1s means they should hit at least 3.0 at 800MHz FSB (the D1 stepping was the one Intel had to release in order to make the P4C generation that runs at 800MHz FSB). I've got low voltage 1.6 D1s and they're not stable at 3.2, but rock solid at 3.0 (I figure they're probably good for around 210x15). As long as your board will boot with the 400MHz bus speed, they're probably just fine. I've heard the PC-DL is faster than the NCCH-DL, but don't ask me why (you stand to hit higher FSB with the PC-DL than the NCCH).

Good luck.

Z

[DaveB]

Just remember if you get the NCCH-DL that you have to use Nocona heatsinks even with those Prestonia CPUs. The mounting holes on the NCCH-DL are setup that way.

[dustybyrd]

the advantages to the ncch-dl over the pc-dl:

two separate SATA RAID sets of ports (2 and 4 ports each)
2x 66mhz PCI-X slots, if you need them
two VRMS, one for each cpu, thus cooler running
supports 64bit xeons, if needed
VDIMM control up to 2.8v in bios---more ram options and faster speeds w/o mods

disadvantages:

more expensive (about $50 more)
the highest stable fsb might be better on the pc-dl


those 2.0ghz LV xeons should be good for 3-3.4ghz with the 1.6v pin mod of the cpu sockets (see this thread: http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=363017 )

but, as was mentioned by zachj, you will probably need to set the fsb to 133-165mhz and leave it alone (or increase with clockgen in windows)...the multiplier is unlocked downward...so you can likely hit 200mhz+fsb with clockgen in windows if you lower the multiplier to 15 or 16x

[Rpkole]

i had a pair but never got around to OCing them but did see them post at 3.3ghz with 1.6 volts. the 2ghzLV's should be good for 3ghz+

[XeonStrikeForce]

every thing you'll ever need to know about the PC-DL > http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=40755 it'll take a couple days to read all the info

Every thing you'll ever need to know about the NCCH-DL > http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=52272 it'll take a couple days to read all the info

[iceage]

The PC-DL in my sig has been rock solid for 6 months. You gotta love the OC on those 1.6LV xeons.

Btw, if I were to build another dual xeon I'd probably go with the NCCH-DL. I had to put some major airflow over the PC-DL VRMs to keep them in a temp range that I felt comfortable with, i.e. less than 50C.

Good luck!!

[GoHack]

Thank you for all the responses.

How is the retail Intel Nocona heatsink/fan (HSF) for cooling? It appears to be all copper. There doesn't appear to be a whole lot of HSF's available for the Xeons. Anyway, I'm looking into buying a pair.

Can the NCCH-DL use a standard power supply, or does it require one w/a special connector? I'm looking get around a 500 watt.

Thx again.

[zachj]

The heatsink that comes with any processor will be adequate. It meets the manufacturer's specifications. Intel's Wind Tunnel is a good design, but annoyingly loud. If you can afford to buy different coolers, I highly recommend you do it. They may not provide drastically reduced temperatures (though they will go down), but they'll do it at a MUCH more tolerable noise level.

As for the motherboard, I believe the NCCH-DL will take a standard 20-pin connector from the PSU, but if you have to buy a PSU anyway, there's no logical reason not to get a 24-pin PSU. They're a little more expensive, but you're paying for quality and a guarantee that it will work. I had a 520W Vantec PSU that has a 24-pin connector and it still wasn't enough to supply my Xeons, even at 2.4GHz. Get an EPS power supply and you're all set.

I highly recommend the Antec 550 EPS (not the new one with two twelve-volt rails). It's amazingly quiet for its capabilities and handles my Xeons at 3.0GHz with utter stability.

Z

[GoHack]

I highly recommend the Antec 550 EPS (not the new one with two twelve-volt rails). It's amazingly quiet for its capabilities and handles my Xeons at 3.0GHz with utter stability. Z
TRUECONTROL 550 or TRUE550 EPS12V?

[Albaholic]

the eps12v one is the one u need

[Helheim]

I have both a PC-DL and NCCH-DL and the PC-DL has given me WAY less problems. With the same set of 1.6 LV chips I can run them stable at 3Ghz (200 X 15) in the PC-DL but in the NCCH-DL they won't run stable at all at 200FSB no matter what the multi is. I tried different RAM and everything.