supermicro super s2dl3/p3 questions

i got this mobo a while back at a comp expo. when i got it i wasnt sure if it worked or not. the board its-self was only 5 bucks and the guy was also selling cracked cpus - not just the core, the ENTIRE cpu. a little while ago, i got a 450mhz p2 and ploped it in. when i tried it out, i got a missing/wrong ram beep code so now i know it works.

anyway, i had acouple questions revolving around it.
1) on the bottem, right above the isa slot, there is a red dip switch. what does this do (i couldnt find this in the downloadable manual)?
2) does this board require a vrm (or whatever they are called)?
3) the board supports dual cpus upto 900mhz. if i were to put in two 933mhz cpus (133x7), would it clock them down to 700mhz (100x7)? this is just because the 933 is about $67 online while the 700 is like $150.
4) would the cpus require any more than passive submersion?
5)i will be turning this into a half-life based game server (i heard this was multi-threaded in linux-any truth?), ftp, and a internet distributer. would dual 900's be able to support this and would 1gb of ram be enough? at $185 per stick of 1gb, i will only be able to afford one for a while.
6) is there anything else i need to know about smp that i havent already checked out in the stickeys/top posts?
anything about networking linux with wXP i can pick up in networking section.

edit:
i just rememberd theres a jumper for fsb setting so it could take the 100x7 p3 933's and make them 133x7 p3 900's. right?

someone?

pwnt by pat said:

anyway, i had acouple questions revolving around it.
1) on the bottem, right above the isa slot, there is a red dip switch. what does this do (i couldnt find this in the downloadable manual)?
2) does this board require a vrm (or whatever they are called)?
3) the board supports dual cpus upto 900mhz. if i were to put in two 933mhz cpus (133x7), would it clock them down to 700mhz (100x7)? this is just because the 933 is about $67 online while the 700 is like $150.
4) would the cpus require any more than passive submersion?
5)i will be turning this into a half-life based game server (i heard this was multi-threaded in linux-any truth?), ftp, and a internet distributer. would dual 900's be able to support this and would 1gb of ram be enough? at $185 per stick of 1gb, i will only be able to afford one for a while.
6) is there anything else i need to know about smp that i havent already checked out in the stickeys/top posts?
anything about networking linux with wXP i can pick up in networking section.

edit:
i just rememberd theres a jumper for fsb setting so it could take the 100x7 p3 933's and make them 133x7 p3 900's. right?

Click to expand...

Firstly, that is a NICE board! Lets you use both types of PIII Xeons, saving you a big headache.

1) That is likely a manual way to adjust the CPU speed, and should do the same thing as the BIOS.

2) No, that board has them built in.

3) It appears to support up to 1GHz (may depend on PCB revision I suppose). I'm sure you could clock the CPUs down, but there's no reason to do that unless you wish to reduce heat output.

4) This may be related to the above mention of underclocking, but they should cool just fine that way. People on 2cpu.com are running athlons submerged with no problem.

5) I'm not sure about HLDS linux version, and I'm also not sure about HLDS windows version being multithreaded. Either way, that is plenty of CPU power for the job. 1Gb of memory is great, and should work well. More than that would be overkill unless you are running more games on this box.

6) If you read the stickies, they you already know a little about older Xeons, which will be helpful in your quest to find some.

Regarding that last statement, 100x7 is 700MHz, and 133x7 is 933MHz. I'm not sure what you're getting at there - post more info .

thanks for replying! im not sure what this board can support cpu-wise. printed on the pcb, there is a cpu table, the highest most is 900/1200, however on the site it says to 900, oh well ill get the 933's and rma if they dont work. this board sells new for like 650-700 and i bought it for 5! saved me almost 650 itself...

anyway, in the last statement i ment something like this:
the board has a manual jumper to regulate fsb speed, on for 100, off for 133 or something like that. if i put the 933mhz chips on the 100 bus in and they clocked down to 100x7, if i put the jumper on, wouldnt they clock back up to 133x7?

beppi rocks! (if thats who you were referring to) but he didnt have passive, he had the mineral oil pump out to a res burried in the ground... awesome guy.