My budget build

I picked up a 506(533fsb 2.66) for $105 on newegg a couple of weeks ago, as well as an abit as8 on ebay for $30 shipped. 2 sticks of 512mb crucial pc3200 memory set me back about $80. I got an el cheapo rosewill case/ps for $30. I also got a thermaltake big typhoon cpu cooler. I used existing drives, so this system set me back just under $300. This is my main computer at the office as well. So far im running at 3940mhz. Stock voltage is 1.35 for the chip, but abit eq shows idle voltage at 1.31 and load voltage at 1.28. This board droops quite a bit. To run stable at this speed i have to set the voltage to 1.425, which gives me stock voltage at load(1.35-1.37). I think I am at the limit of this power supply, because i cant get anymore out of it with any voltage. It will run windows fine at 4ghz(200x20), but will fail prime. I havent tried folding on it at that speed. At 3940mhz Abit eq shows idle temps for cpu/system/pwm as 24/25/35 respectively, and 35/25/57 while folding. I had to put some ramsinks on all the mosfets, as they were getting to 80 degrees under load. Right now it is folding p2381 worth 677 points. EM shows about 450ppd. The first wu it completed was a p1481 for 364 points. EM showed it was getting about 460ppd on it. I would like to bench a qmd on it, but I dont have any old copies saved. Overall, Im very happy with it.

That's pretty nice, especially for what you paid for it.

Awesome rig man. Especially for the amount you paid. Building, overclocking and finally, folding with the completed machine is very rewarding.
I sometimes get more of a kick out of building and tinkering with value machines and hardware than out of my main rig. (Main rigs tend to become so perfect and stable, theres not much to play with sometimes!)

450 PPD from a budget rig! Nice!

Misfit138 said:

Awesome rig man. Especially for the amount you paid. Building, overclocking and finally, folding with the completed machine is very rewarding.
I sometimes get more of a kick out of building and tinkering with value machines and hardware than out of my main rig. (Main rigs tend to become so perfect and stable, theres not much to play with sometimes!)

Click to expand...

Yeah, my northy is pretty much a value rig. I've got value ram and a terrible elitegroup board and I have way more fun with it than with my dual xeon or my pent.D rigs.

Sounds like a fun and relatively cheap machine, man.

I've been looking on eBay myself the last few days and I scored a new XP90C for $35 delivered this morning. I plan to replace the SLK947-U with the noisy Delta FFB that's on my old P4 rig with it and a nice, quiet 92mm Panaflo. I'm trying to quiet down all my machines in my computer room now with more efficient hsf's, since 8-9 machines make a lot of noise. I also have a Big Typhoon waiting for me at the house when I get back in from the drilling rig to install on my Opti system and replace my SLK-948-U (and another Delta FFB).

Update!

I dont know exactly what the n/b strap does, but changing it from "by cpu" to "fsb 800" my stability got way better. The absolute farthest i can push it is 4500mhz.
http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc?id=75072
The fastest I can complete a 1m superpi is at 4380mhz for a time of 32.202 seconds. Ive yet to determine the fastest "folding stable" speed, but I will be working on that today. cpu temps are still good, as i have yet to see 50 degrees under full load, but my pwm temps are getting way up there. I glued ramsinks on all the mosfets and have a fan blowing toward them, but they still try to get over 70. Are there any other benchmarks I should try on it? my best 3dmark 2001se is 10060, but my vid card is only a gf3 ti200 @ 230/510.

nice results

I recall putting my bios settings for the AS8 into JoeCamels old 'help an amd guy out with intels" thread ... I have a couple of AS8's.

Also, if you want I can send you a preconvergence QMD for you to test with ... it is about .5 mb zipped. PM me with an email address if you want it.

/EDIT PCMark04 is good for a quick stabilty test - make sure you get a score from it or it failed! A QMD test will be a much better test, and more applicable to folding usage athough it does't test all the stuff PCMARK04 does. I usaually do pcmark04 first, then a bit of p95 (through second test) and then a folding test.

Since the qmd has been turned in already, I am not sure if you even need to disable the lan connection but i always do it when testing ... stanford doesn't need the extra workload of uploading and processing a duplicate wu.

pscout said:

nice results

I recall putting my bios settings for the AS8 into JoeCamels old 'help an amd guy out with intels" thread ... I have a couple of AS8's.

Also, if you want I can send you a preconvergence QMD for you to test with ... it is about .5 mb zipped. PM me with an email address if you want it.

Click to expand...

Ill check out JoeCamels thread. Thanks for the offer. WarriorII sent me a qmd last week. If i need another, ill let you know.

If you got the qmd from warrior then it is probably the same one.

Im benching the QMD @ 4200mhz(20x210) Memory is 1:[email protected] in dual channel. cpu voltage is set to 1.475 and ddr is 3.1. I modded the board for vdroop, and while folding abiteq shows cpu voltage from 1.45-1.48. Cpu temp is 44 while folding. I looked at the other thread and set my bios settings to the same. I am getting 552ppd off the qmd which is 131ppd/ghz. According to what ChaseR said in that other thread, I should be getting closer to 160ppd/ghz with this rig. Any Ideas what I could be doing wrong?

As with any overclock, Your Milage May Vary (YMMV)
even with the exact same stuff ChasR is using.

131ppd/ghz may be all your going to get.

But that doesn't mean, stop trying.

WarriorII said:

As with any overclock, Your Milage May Vary (YMMV)
even with the exact same stuff ChasR is using.

131ppd/ghz may be all your going to get.

But that doesn't mean, stop trying.

Click to expand...

I am trying. i tightened the memory to 2.5-2-2-6 and now im getting 570ppd(136ppd/ghz). Im just wondering if there is anything im missing in the bios? My previous o/c was a p3, so things have changed.

I think i may have maxxed it out. 4260mhz 2.5-2-2-6 is getting 581ppd. Not bad for a $100 cpu.

Thats as good total ppd as i got folding single intance QMD's on any of my 775's. My OC's are lower than yours so my ppd/ghz is higher.

I'd say you got a good qmd cruncher there. Hopefully they come back soon.