Need a cheap, good dual rig.

sandman001 · May 12, 2004

I'm going to put together a dual for some folding, game hosting, rendering, and to be my general Multimedia box.

Motherboard: Not sure, I've heard the K7D is good, but it's a bit expensive for my tastes, anything still good, but cheaper? I would like some overclocking options if possible.

Cpu's: 2x some old unlocked 1700, 1800, 2100, or 2500 processors. Probably going ot end up with 1800's though.

ram: 2x256mb DDR 333. (these boards can't really hit anything over 150fsb can they?)

All of this shoudl work fine, right?

Again, what's a decent cheap motherboard?

diehrd · May 12, 2004

Look at newegg refurb there are some really good prices on boards.Or look over at 2cpu.com for a used board.

disk11 · May 12, 2004

A new K7D is the cheapest way to go for new boards and still get decent performance. Maybe see if you can get a used MSI or Asus MPX board from here ,2cpu.com's forums if you have some established form of feedback, or online store's refurbished sections. The Gigabyte is OK if it really comes down to it, but the K7D and A7M-266d are better.

I would see if Mobiles are in your budget. They should be good for 2.2 ghz at the minimum. Good unlocked desktop Athlons might be hard to find currently.

Yes, most boards are capped to 150 FSB. If you can, I would go for a gig of RAM and get registered sticks. Many of the MPX boards can be picky with unregistered sticks, so do some research if you stick with unbuffered/unregistered. I know that low latency sticks have issues on the inital boot, and you will need another stick to tell the board to use "by spd" before you use them.

sandman001 · May 12, 2004

Thanks guys, I was just gonan pick up some samsung DDR 333 rated 2.5-3-37 or something, so that should work fine i hope.

I'll chekc over at 2cpu.com. Maybe I can pick up a whole package, eh?

MRD · May 13, 2004

Be careful, if you use more than 2 sticks of ram, you need to get registered ram. Unregistered will only work in up to 2 slots.

Also you don't need DDR333. PC2700 will work just fine in those boards, all the AMD athlon duallie boards are fsb 266.

cmcquistion · May 13, 2004

If you haven't already, I strongly recommend you read my "Cheap and Quiet AMD Dually" sticky in this forum. There is a link to it, in my sig.

DuallyKickass · May 13, 2004

[EDIT] LOL

cmcquistion · May 13, 2004

DuallyKickass said:
<--- got a dually for sale.

Genuine AMD MP 2400's
768MEG DDR

Etc gimme bell if u want it

In the future, please send this kind of information through a PM and do not post this in the open forum. It is against the forum rules.

No big deal, just thought I would let you know.

Oh, yeah... WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!!!

sandman001 · May 13, 2004

I read that sticky, however I'm going to fo with a lian li PC60 case. It may take 80mm fans, but that's alright with me.

Xenocide · May 13, 2004

i wouldnt' reccomend non registerd in k7d, killed a stick of bh6 when i had one. i wasn't oced or anything..

cmcquistion · May 13, 2004

For what it's worth, I've used unbuffered RAM is several K7D systems, with no problems. I usually use Crucial or Samsung RAM.

DuallyKickass · May 14, 2004

only wish i didndt have to pay for ecc memory.

cost me £85 for 1 x 512 stick, thats like $150

RS3RS · May 14, 2004

MRD said:
Also you don't need DDR333. PC2700 will work just fine in those boards

DDR333 = PC2700

Spl Engineering · May 14, 2004

I use non reg ram as well with no issues. I also have the K7D master L. I would venture to say It depends on if you plan on filling up all 4 slots or not

cmcquistion · May 14, 2004

DuallyKickass said:
only wish i didndt have to pay for ecc memory.

cost me £85 for 1 x 512 stick, thats like $150

You don't. You can use unbuffered (which means non-Registered) memory and non-ECC memory. ECC does not mean Registered. You can get unbuffered memory that is ECC, but this isn't required. Most Registered memory is also ECC, but you don't have to use the ECC function and it isn't required. The only thing that is required is that you use all Registered memory, if you want to run more than two sticks of memory. If you are happy with one or two sticks of RAM, then you can use standard, unbuffered, non-ECC memory.

DuallyKickass · May 14, 2004

Sorry.

Im a little bit new here. i aint the most clever. But i see it as pointless to buy cheap memory when i was going to upgrade to atleast 2gig which requires registered stuff, correct?

Heheh

cmcquistion · May 14, 2004

DuallyKickass said:
Sorry.

Im a little bit new here. i aint the most clever. But i see it as pointless to buy cheap memory when i was going to upgrade to atleast 2gig which requires registered stuff, correct?

Heheh

I just wanted to make sure there was no confusion about what was required and what wasn't.

For some people, being able to re-use their old (unbuffered) memory can make a big difference. For others, who want to spend as little as possible and don't forsee needing more than 1 GB of memory, going with unbuffered DDR can be a good option. For anyone, like yourself, who plans to upgrade to 2 GB someday, Registered is definitely the best choice.

Audioaficionado · May 15, 2004

The base price for the K7D Master L/pair of modded mobile Bartons is ~$350

The base price of an Asus PC-DL and a pair of 2.4 Xeons ~$600 before the upcoming Xeon price drops. Maybe $500 after.

Just another option to consider.

sandman001 · May 19, 2004

I decided not to go dual..yea yea I know.....but the cahs just ain't there right now.

Need a cheap, good dual rig.

sandman001

Just Freeze It

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