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N00b's Guide to Conroe Based Performance Computing and OC Results

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Yea, but where's the nForce5 Asus board? Thats the one I want.

I hope it comes it soon because I need to buy a new machine and I won't be building a new one for another 3-4 years (well maybe a GPU upgrade oce or twice as needed) and I'd love to have that machine be a Conroe but... if things aren't available by mid-August I'm in trouble.

But if need be I'll just go with the P5B - if the P965 chipset performs well. But, being an ASUS board will there be any FSB OC issues?
 
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PCP&C is rated at peak for 670W...but here's some food for thought, I'm running a Conroe at 4 GHz, and two X1900's in CrossFire off of a 700W Zippy with similar specs to the PCP&C. TBH before I went Conroe I was thinking of selling it and trying to get my hands on an 850W, but that would have been unnecessary. The +12v rail only drops .01V under load which is simply amazing. I've never seen anything like it. I don't know if the PCP&C will be of quite the same build quality but it'll probably be pretty close. IMHO, 600-700W with a high enough +12V rail is enough to power just about anything.

But you can ignore that since I'd love to see you guinea pig the Athena for us and report results. :p What are you planning on running anyways that you figure is going to draw that much?

It's kind of a tough call. I really didn't like spending $300 on a PSU, but given the choice between what I've got and saving my cash and going for the PCP&C, I really can't say for sure which I'd take. Server grade units do add plenty of peace of mind, but for most I think the PCP&C is the best fit, and I do expect them to sell amazingly. They are clearly a better option than everything else in the price range. (OCZ GameXStream, Fortron Epsilon, etc) Now that I'm "stuck" with what I'll have I'll remain content, but still thinking, "what if?"
 
Thanks for the tips marco and mykorpal, hope I've fixed most of what you guys have suggested. Thanks for fixing the link VR.

Antioch, I don't see the NF5 Intel listed on ASUS' website. We should see something definitive by the end of the month. I tell you what, looking at these new boards, a common recuuring theme has been the beefy northbridge cooling. Instead of being elated, I'm worried that we are seeing a runaway thermal problem. Looks like the newer feature packed chipsets are running hot as hell. :shrug:
 
About the boards, the P5W DH is nothing short of excellent and has the level of quality I'd expect from Asus. High-end buyers can purchase this board with confidence.

Initial results of the Gigabyte seem very disappointing. The shipping BIOS apparantly can't run at more than 280MHz FSB, and a tweaked beta allows 360MHz. I've personally used an I975X Gigabyte on a Cedar Mill and didn't like it one bit, so I don't know if its Gigabyte or the 965 chipset that's weak.

I also want to be upfront about something that I've hinted at in other threads. 4 GHz stable on phase change did not come easy. I don't think the promises on XS of 4 GHz stable on air will come true. Benchmarks will be doable, but 24/7 usage, and folding especially are not going to happen at speeds like that if my proc is any indication. I'm expecting most to run at about 3.5-3.7GHz daily on 6600's and 6700's. The Allendales I have no idea about, but for them the FSB's will be a problem. For the 6600's and 6700's I think that 400MHz will be more than enough for most. Expecting to run at 500MHz+ is unrealistic and won't be happening outside of very extreme conditions, at least from what we've seen so far.
 
I'm gunning more for a future proof PSU since I'm sick of upgrading every month.

I have practically gone through at least 10 PSU's in the last 12 months.

Well after thinking about it for some time now, I’m debating whether or not I should upgrade to Conroe right away. Main reason is gaming, which is why I buy high end stuff so that I can play games with everything maxed out. With that being said, I don’t see any games till 2007 that will really require me to upgrade my hardware since that will be the time DX10 finds some ground and Vista gets released. I will be turning my current PC into HTPC soon as I get all the stuff that I need.

The setup that I’m looking to upgrade will be:

Kentsfield

985 mobo or nForce

4GB RAM / 2GBx2 (I was told that these kits will be available by 2007)

DX10 Vid card (by 2007 we will most likely see quad core VPU’s as well) in SLI provided that nForce chipset delivers

½ TB in RAID0

I usually have at least 6-7 12V fans in the case

Blu-Ray or HD-DVD optical drives…

With all of that I think I’ll need at least 600W for OC’d system and 40A on 12V.
 
The PCP&C units should suffice, not because of the Wattage, but because of their efficiency at say 40C. Don't go by the Watts or how beefy the 12V rail is, look for efficiency at higher tempratures. The reason I went with supermicro-ablecom is because its a server unit. Servers are typically very demanding on all rails in terms of power draw and hence demand efficient sources.

If you visited a cluster computing arena, you would notice that the temp is usually about 10-15C. That is for the PSU's more than the other components.
 
From my experiences with PSU's I had allot of trouble with ones that had low ampage on 12V rail and dual rail PSU's.

I used to get regular (random reboots) when system was OC'd and later figured that 12V rail was dropping down bellow 11.50V.

Finally I got Silverstone 560W with 38A on 12V and I beefed up the 12V to 12.50V and never had any problems since.
 
your silverstone is the unit I am intrested in.. Its not quite SN's unit, but I wouldnt be supprised if it could do crossfire with a low TDP CPU system.
And if it were me, SN's unit vs the Athena, the specs tell me SN's unit is stronger.
 
Yea that unit looks very good for that price point and the specs are great.

Silverstone 560W unit is by far the best PSU I have used up to date. It's cheap and it's single 38A 12V. I have been running my system with SLI setup for 4 months now and have not experienced any troubles. Plus the rails are rock solid.
 
RedDragonXXX said:
Yea that unit looks very good for that price point and the specs are great.

Silverstone 560W unit is by far the best PSU I have used up to date. It's cheap and it's single 38A 12V. I have been running my system with SLI setup for 4 months now and have not experienced any troubles. Plus the rails are rock solid.
Click to expand...

Yes. That is a superb unit. If I'm not mistaken, Ross is running his stuff on the same unit. As green said, it should be able to pull off CF without a hitch.

Dragon, if you don't mind voiding the warranty, can you post pics of the innards of the unit? :)
 
Super Nade said:
Yes. That is a superb unit. If I'm not mistaken, Ross is running his stuff on the same unit. As green said, it should be able to pull off CF without a hitch.

Dragon, if you don't mind voiding the warranty, can you post pics of the innards of the unit? :)
Click to expand...

Sure thing, since I voided the warranty when I cranked up the rail pot which required opening up the PSU plus I have sleeving kit coming in so I'll post them up soon as I get it :thup:
 
I have been looking for a cheap server psu for a conroe build and think I found one for only 40 bucks. here http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-b...WER_SUPPLY_--_2X_12_30A,_2.2_20A,_5_35A_.html

I have not been able to find the spec sheet for this and it does NOT have atx connectors but if you look at links on the website posted there is info for how to convert it from someone who did the prodject himself.

2x 560 W PSUs look good with 30A on the 12v line on both units.

this would require modding but do you think it could fit the bill? it normally is ment to power a dual xeon with up to 12gb of ram and up to 1.3TB Ultra320 SCSI storage 24/7. also i dont know how loud those little blower fans would get.
 
needs a jumper to start IOW 100% chance it wont power on like an ATX supply with a regular case switch, propiatarty conectors, rather low (comparitivly) 12V amps. FREAKING HUGE. If you can work around its shortcomings then you have the redudnant feature going for you. :shrug: Ill pass
other ATX supplies would give 30A and be alot more reasonalble IMHO.
 
BossBorot, welcome to the forums!

There are quite a few points which go against that unit.
  • It is bulky and won't fit in an ATX case.
  • Not ATX standard, rails require modding.
  • The 12V rail is not the best. It may suite a server with lots of HDD's as the HDD's do not draw from the 12V line .But a high end video card like say an x1800xt is a hog, so that 12V line would falter if you overclock.
  • Remember time is money. I'd be putting a lot of effort into an iffy unit as we don't know who the OEM manufacturer is.
Just not worth it IMHO.
 
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