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I have decided to go Dothan

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Sjaak

Member
Joined
Apr 26, 2004
Location
The Netherlands
Dothan sticky is up and running. If you have general questions or comments please post them there. If you have anything to say about my personal 'adventure', please keep it here.

Pics of my rig up and running: http://www.ocforums.com/showpost.php?p=4075203&postcount=1045


As the title says. I have decided to go Dothan. Reasons? read on!

- Great performance at relatively low clockspeeds
- Great for games
- Low TDP, even when overclocked
- Thus, easy (silent) cooling
- Great for folding
- Good OC perspective

For more info, some suggestions:

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=385603&highlight=dothan
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=375960&highlight=dothan
http://www.tweakers.net/nieuws/33443
http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=dothan20&page=1

What do i intend?

To get a Dothan, a motherboard fitted for it and see what exactly it can do regarding overclocking, performance and cooling. The 1.6 and 1.86 models (133FSB) are looking quite good, and prices keep lowering. If succesful, i will attempt to write a frontpage article about it, to reveal some of Dothan's most intimate secrets to the greater public. THG or X86-secret doing reviews is nice, but i really like to see things up close myself if they interest me, and do benchmarks that matter most for me. (and probably to most people here on OCF)

Why?

Because i want to try and see the possibilities myself. Because i am in need of a better system, because Dual-Cores, the P4 6x0 and the A64 are nice, but not nice enough to me. I'm in for a change, and the tiny little notebook chip-that-could seems right to me. I have always been a fan of 'don't ask why, but ask 'why not?''

Since last friday, i have been owning a Dothan chip in my second laptop. I cannot help but feel that it is very, very smooth, even better then my desktop. Running multiple FF windows, Skype, MSN, F@H etc. and still the system is responsive and smooth.

When?

I am looking approximatly 1.5 - 2 months ahead. The chips are available right now, but motherboards are lacking, The only one available has the intel 855 chipset, an outdated, singlechannel notebook chipset. Therefor i need to wait for the new 915 motherboards with socket 479. They will be more expensive then normal desktop boards and the simpler 855 ones, but will offer a much broader range of features and overclocking options. The ASUS adapter is an option, too, but it will seriously limit cooling options. Therefor i consider it a last resort, when the other boards are too expensive or simply lacking in availability.

How?

Yes, Dothans, and especially the motherboards, are expensive. I estimated that i am going to need somewhere between 500€ and 800€ for this upgrade. (please read on for an explanation!) Therefor i will need to save money. My birthday is May 18th, i probably will be getting some nice extra funding then. I will cut down on my saturday-nights-out, and try to work more. I will sell some of my other hardware in order to gather money. I will put those funds saved on a separate bank account, specially reserved for this upgrade. I will keep the second post updated with financial information. Anyone willing to support is most welcome =)

What else?

Depending on the amount of money i can gather, i would like to get watercooling, too. Will make for a better silent system, and better cooling. If Dothan gets my blessing, i will sell my current rig (cpu - mobo - VGA) and get a next-gen VGA, too. Quite a big step, yes, but it has been a good 10 months since i spent more then 25€ on my pc.

Why this thread?

I felt there was a need for a decent thread on just Dothan, free of other platform discussions. All good threads on it have been spoiled by Dual-Core and A64 stuff, something i'd rather not have here. I have read up plenty on dothan, and i think i know what i am doing. If you have any ideas, you are welcome, but please keep it on topic. If i make any progress, or any revelations regarding Dothan appear, i will let it know here.

People who are interested in Dothan are extremely welcome, please PM / mail / MSN me so we can discuss possible options.


Progress notes

- none currently


Parts list:

Asus CT479 adapter - check
Asus P4C800-E DLX - check
Dothan 1.6Ghz 533FSB - check
4x512MB BH5 - check
Another pair of seagate drives - check
 
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Links that may be useful:

Dothan chips in the German pricewatch

Dothan in SuperPi - Thanks to Speed Bump

Thread on XS on RAM compatibility - Thanks to Speed Bump

Dothan in 3Dmark - Thanks to UnderTheSun

XS thread on mounting the CT-479 Adapter - Thanks to Gautam

P4P800 + adapter overclock results - Thanks to Evilsizer

Vcore mods for Dothan - Thanks to Evilsizer

List of compatible BIOS'es for the ASUS boards

XS on 'how to Dothan' - Thanks to Evilsizer

Pictures of the modded Asus adapter here and here <-- Recommended!


Links to parts that may be useful:

Processors:

Dothan 1.60Ghz, 133*12

Dothan 1.86Ghz, 133*14

Dothan 2.00Ghz, 133*15


Motherboards:

Aopen i915GM (Post) Available at NewEgg (Review) - Thanks to Jamesavery22

Aopen i855GME

DFI 855GME-MGF (Post) - Thanks to JCLW

Asus P4C800-E DLX (BIOS list) - Thanks to Datura3


Accessoires

Asus CT-479 Adapter (Review) (Post) Available in the UK - Thanks to my friend Jimbob


Input by other members

Asus Adapter: Alternate mounting idea by my friend Jimbob, Practical design here

Gautam compares Dothan to his A64

Highlanders has fun with the 715

Speed Bump's thread on Dothan parts in the USA <-- Recommended for USA!


I will be adding to these lists continuesly, with referal to reviews and/or posts below that may contain useful information.


My financial status:

'Upgrade Account': 300€


Update 06/17 -440,44, 4x512MB BH5 and a pair of seagate drives
Update 06/17 -211,40, distracted to pay the mailman on monday for the dothan
Update 06/17 +897, gotta love tax returns
Update 06/03 +25, friend payed me back three cinema visits
Update 06/01 -204,95, Dothan 1.6Ghz 533FSB
Update 06/01 +75, more b-day money
Update 05/31; +30, (part of) a hard days work
Update 05/30; +20, Ebay money
Update 05/29; -105, bought P4C800-E DLX
Update 05/27; +40 - more b-day money
Update 05/18; +35 - first b-day money
Update 05/17; +20 - ebay money
Update 05/11; +20 - ebay money
Started 05/10 with 85€

Note: total count may not be accurate.


Next on the wish list:

- High-end AGP videocard
- water cooling

(in order of importance)
 
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This should be a good thread... i'm very interested to see what the dothan can do with maybe, dual channel DDR2 and a PCI-x graphics card!

Good luck Sjaak, look forward to seeing results in a few months - if the funding is there!

~t0m
 
How about getting a Asus p4p800se(865 chipset) which is a very cheap mobo and the asus 479 adapter, i think it was proven what that mobo and pc3200 gives the dothan a ridiculas amount of bandwith which the cpu doesnt fully use.
Im think very tight memory timings may help the dothan alot more then high speed not sure though.
 
jenko said:
How about getting a Asus p4p800se(865 chipset) which is a very cheap mobo and the asus 479 adapter, i think it was proven what that mobo and pc3200 gives the dothan a ridiculas amount of bandwith which the cpu doesnt fully use.
Im think very tight memory timings may help the dothan alot more then high speed not sure though.

Please read the start post:

Sjaak said:
The ASUS adapter is an option, too, but it will seriously limit cooling options. Therefor i consider it a last resort, when the other boards are too expensive or simply lacking in availability.
 
I'm trying to decide between a Dothan and an Opteron system myself.

Aopen currently has an i915 s479 board out.
 
JCLW said:
Aopen currently has an i915 s479 board out.

Over the past month i have been looking into The Athlon 64, Dual-Core and Dothan, and made up my mind.

http://www.aopen.nl/products/mb/i915GMm-HFS.htm

Thats the AOPEN board with 915 chipset. The features look very promising. Too bad it has no AGP, which would force me to get a new VGA card straight away. I might just use an old PCI-VGA for the CPU benchmarks and overclocking and buy an good PCI-E VGA later on when i've decided to stay with Dothan.

Another major drawback there is that the Mounting holes around the socket aren't standard size. Will limit cooling options, too.
 
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Updated start post, added information to second post.

I will do some calculations on clockspeeds later, so expect another upgrade and some pondering on which Dothan will be best.
 
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:D Sweet subscribed.

My Dothan is awesome. I reached 1.9 Ghz on stock voltage but my chipset started going buggy. Definitely get a agp/pci lock lol. I wish my laptop had it. The temps were incredibly low and I bet I could hit 2.3 Ghz easy. This chip is awesome.
 
JCLW said:
Don't forget the DFI 855GME-MGF

It uses the Hance Rapids southbridge for PCI-X support.
Schweet, i couldn't find that one myself anywhere. Will add it ASAP. The board has some drawbacks though. No PCI-E, few S-ata ports, no decent mounting holes. Plus it is not available in The Netherlands. I may have to go look into the german market for availability.

JCLW said:
Also, no i915 board will support AGP.
I noticed. Would force me to upgrade my VGA, too. I will do with a simple PCI VGA at first for the overclocking and testing, and when it's worth it, i will buy a PCI-E VGA.
 
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I for one have looked into this as well. I considered it as a next upgrade, but in the end am a little too much of a tightwad. The Mrs' needed a laptop before I spend money on myself.

Personally if I were to go through with it and spend that much on the project, I would just forget the 855gm chipset boards outright. I know that seriously limits your choices, but you should see a fair amount of advantage in the long run with the newer chipset and the added bandwith.

I would really appriciate your views these next few months on how you plan on accomplishing it, to the benchmarks/pics. This is an exciting project to which I feel has great overclocking potential.
 
Dylruss said:
I would really appriciate your views these next few months on how you plan on accomplishing it, to the benchmarks/pics. This is an exciting project to which I feel has great overclocking potential.

I'm really curious myself :) This one time, i can't wait to be one of the first guys in line. Of anyone feels the urge to support me (see bottom line of 2nd post lmao), let me know. (something tells me that thelemac or hoot will edit this out)

About the 915 board:

The only real drawback is the lack of 'normal' mounting holes. But i guess a little modding can do miracles. Plus if i get to buy WC, water blocks make for easy mounting on almost any holes.
 
Good luck with the Dothan thing Sjaak, I think i'm going to stick with my original plan, unless you find out some nice information, such as a abit/asus board with some nice mounting holes for my TDX :D!! haha. oh, and AGP. :p

I think it's great that so many people are interested in the Dothan, it's a real shame they are so hard to put to good use, I hope the future for the Dothan gets better, it seems a shame to almost overlook such a great CPU. :)
 
If it were me I would get the the asus combo's. SO far they have OC'd the best with the most performence. You don;t need much for cooling even at 3GHz they are like at 45~55w at best. I have never had a problem attaching a HS to a device. If you gots to whip out the dremel or file then so be it. Maybe solder the connector sideways out the side and for the jumpers on the CT-479 use some wires soldered to a dipswitch or similar.

ASUS dothan setup = Best performence and least expensive.
 
ol' man said:
If it were me I would get the the asus combo's. SO far they have OC'd the best with the most performence. You don;t need much for cooling even at 3GHz they are like at 45~55w at best. I have never had a problem attaching a HS to a device. If you gots to whip out the dremel or file then so be it. Maybe solder the connector sideways out the side and for the jumpers on the CT-479 use some wires soldered to a dipswitch or similar.

ASUS dothan setup = Best performence and least expensive.

Yeah, i've been thinking of that. Rip the retention bracket off, file / bend the adapter untill it fits around the holes, then mount a waterblock on it. Or maybe mod the mounting system of my Zalman 6500-B so it it will fit the retention bracket over the extra 1cm height added by the adapter. Will go look into that!
 
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Only thing i can think of is, where the Dothan adapter covers the holes, it would probably be possible to file a ridge into the side of the ''poles'' that mount the TDX. My only worry would be that the poles in that place would be rather thin, and not knowing how much pressure they are under doesn't help me. filing the adapter down a tad would also have to be done i think.

Anyone see any major faults in this idea? :rolleyes:
 
Combine this:

[BBE]Jimbob said:
Only thing i can think of is, where the Dothan adapter covers the holes, it would probably be possible to file a ridge into the side of the ''poles'' that mount the TDX. My only worry would be that the poles in that place would be rather thin, and not knowing how much pressure they are under doesn't help me. filing the adapter down a tad would also have to be done i think.
With this:

sjaak said:
Yeah, i've been thinking of that. Rip the retention bracket off, file / bend the adapter untill it fits around the holes, then mount a waterblock on it. Or maybe mod the mounting system of my Zalman 6500-B so it it will fit the retention bracket over the extra 1cm height added by the adapter. Will go look into that!
And you get this:
 

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