Re: quiet dual dual-core opteron
Quoting Peter A. H. Peterson: I've started a wiki for K8N-DL information if anyone cares: http://tastytronic.net/k8ndlis/ So, my quiet 4-way dual-core Opteron system is up and running. * ASUS K8N-DL motherboard because of it's smallish size and it's support for dual-core CPUs and NUMA. * 2x 400GB SATA disks in RAID1 configuration. * 4GB RAM (2GB on each CPU). * Antec Sonata II case with an Antec NeoPower HE 550 PSU (sold seperately). I am currently using the stock AMD coolers because they fit the Sonata wind tunnel better than the Zalmans. ...and the system is very quiet! The trick with the K8N-DL motherboards is to get the BIOS flashed up -- they often ship with rev 1003 which does not support dual-core CPUs (you have to boot with 1 CPU to flash up) but the EZ Flash utility included is great -- put the new BIOS on a CD and hit Alt+F2 while POSTing and the motherboard will find the file and flash it automatically. It wasn't working at first but that's because I was booting with two dual cores on an older BIOS. I'll keep this thread up to date... not because it's gripping drama, but just for posterity and future searches. Thanks for all your suggestions... unclepedro -- Peter A. H. Peterson, technician and musician. ---=[ http://tastytronic.net/~pedro/ ]=--- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: quiet dual dual-core opteron
Quoting Peter A. H. Peterson: I know this is a little something of a tall order, but I am looking to replace my aging SMP system with a dual, dual-core Opteron system (probably Opteron 265s). Noise level is a primary concern because our apartment is very small. ... Does anyone have experience with a working dual, dual-core opteron system that is less than full-tower size and relatively quiet? Or even a quiet-but-full-tower machine? So I went with the ASUS K8N-DL motherboard because it is the smallest I could find that had ccNUMA support and good Linux support (SiL SATA and a Broadcom NIC instead of the nVidia nForce Pro 2200 onboards). The board itself is slightly larger than standard ATX with a small tab off to one side with some connectors. The board also features two normal Opteron retention clips, unlike the MSI board. Unfortunately, I have also discovered that the ASUS K8N-DL board does not fit into the Antec Overture II HTPC (home theatre pc) or media center sized case. I couldn't find any documentation about that online so I took a gamble. The placement of the power supply directly blocks the extra tab of the motherboard and I don't think there's any good way to mod around it (even if I wanted to). Here are some interesting links on the ASUS K8N-DL: http://www.lostcircuits.com/motherboard/asus_k8n-dl/ http://gentoo-wiki.com/ASUS_K8N-DL_dual_Opteron_motherboard It will not accomodate the horizontal Zalman coolers. I think it might accomodate the vertical coolers, but these are so tall they may not fit well into a HTPC case. I bought the Opterons in a retail bundle so they came with the stock AMD coolers... does anyone have experience with these? Are they either super noisy or poor quality? I didn't realize that my CPUs came with heatsinks so I bought some Antec Performance Coolers: http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=77099# ...because they would fit into the Overture II case. However, now that I have CPU coolers thanks to AMD, and I may be getting a taller case that could accomodate the Zalman vertical coolers, I may end up returning these. If anyone has experience with the ZMAX unit and can speak to its noise level (especially with dual core chips) that would be great too. I decided against the ZMAX (and many other standard ATX boards) because they only have a single memory bank and do not support NUMA (Non-Uniform Memory Architecture -- memory for each CPU) and because the general word on the Shuttle-style cubes was that they were noisy. I figured that even if you guys didn't know these pieces of hardware specifically, the peanut gallery would at least have opinions about the best way to make a quiet dual dual-opteron server. I'll keep y'all posted. --pedro -- Peter A. H. Peterson, technician and musician. ---=[ http://tastytronic.net/~pedro/ ]=--- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: quiet dual dual-core opteron
Quoting Peter A. H. Peterson: It will not accomodate the horizontal Zalman coolers. I think it might accomodate the vertical coolers, but these are so tall they may not fit well into a HTPC case. http://episteme.arstechnica.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/77909585/m/904003883731/r/393004493731#393004493731 Actually, it looks like I'm wrong. I don't think those CNPS7700-AlCu units are modded. Hurray! I guess I'll keep those stock coolers as backups. Now to figure out what the smallest and quietest case is that will hold the ASUS K8N-DL... pedro -- Peter A. H. Peterson, technician and musician. ---=[ http://tastytronic.net/~pedro/ ]=--- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: quiet dual dual-core opteron
Quoting Peter A. H. Peterson: Quoting Peter A. H. Peterson: It will not accomodate the horizontal Zalman coolers. I think it might accomodate the vertical coolers, but these are so tall they may not fit well into a HTPC case. http://episteme.arstechnica.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/77909585/m/904003883731/r/393004493731#393004493731 Actually, it looks like I'm wrong. Yes, you can install the CPNS7700-AlCu units but you do lose the PCIe x1 slot. I've started a wiki for K8N-DL information if anyone cares: http://tastytronic.net/k8ndlis/ ...and a list for discussion for the wiki: http://tastytronic.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/k8ndlis/ ... I'll keep you posted as I continue on this journey. Peter -- Peter A. H. Peterson, technician and musician. ---=[ http://tastytronic.net/~pedro/ ]=--- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: quiet dual dual-core opteron
It looks and acts like spray paint. Its a bit thicker and has a rubbery feel once applied. You can spray it over screw holes and then just poke screws through it if it occludes the hole. I don't know what you mean by how much space does it take up, its just like applying a coat of paint. - Naz. Peter A. H. Peterson wrote: Quoting Naz Gassiep: If you're willing to perform some mods to the case, spraying the inside with Dynamat Accoustic Absorption spray reduces the noise noticably. If done well all internal surfaces including the sides of the PSU etc) the noise drop is dramatic. http://www.dynamat.com/products_car_audio_dynaspray.html That is *good* stuff generally, I keep a can right next to my WD40. How much space does it take up? Like, do I have to be careful about spraying it so that I can reassemble the case or is it unobtrusive enough to just spray everywhere? Thanks, Peter -- MrNaz photo gallery and journal at: www.mrnaz.com -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: quiet dual dual-core opteron
That answers my questions -- I just wasn't sure if I had to meticulously mask out areas for when I reassembled the case or if you could pretty much just put it back to gether if you sprayed the whole insides... anyway, I think you answered my question, thanks. Peter Quoting Naz Gassiep: It looks and acts like spray paint. Its a bit thicker and has a rubbery feel once applied. You can spray it over screw holes and then just poke screws through it if it occludes the hole. I don't know what you mean by how much space does it take up, its just like applying a coat of paint. - Naz. Peter A. H. Peterson wrote: Quoting Naz Gassiep: If you're willing to perform some mods to the case, spraying the inside with Dynamat Accoustic Absorption spray reduces the noise noticably. If done well all internal surfaces including the sides of the PSU etc) the noise drop is dramatic. http://www.dynamat.com/products_car_audio_dynaspray.html That is *good* stuff generally, I keep a can right next to my WD40. How much space does it take up? Like, do I have to be careful about spraying it so that I can reassemble the case or is it unobtrusive enough to just spray everywhere? Thanks, Peter -- MrNaz photo gallery and journal at: www.mrnaz.com -- Peter A. H. Peterson, technician and musician. ---=[ http://tastytronic.net/~pedro/ ]=--- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: quiet dual dual-core opteron
On 3/26/06, Peter A. H. Peterson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: That answers my questions -- I just wasn't sure if I had to meticulously mask out areas for when I reassembled the case or if you could pretty much just put it back to gether if you sprayed the whole insides... anyway, I think you answered my question, thanks. Peter Quoting Naz Gassiep: It looks and acts like spray paint. Its a bit thicker and has a rubbery feel once applied. You can spray it over screw holes and then just poke screws through it if it occludes the hole. I don't know what you mean by how much space does it take up, its just like applying a coat of paint. - Naz. Peter A. H. Peterson wrote: Quoting Naz Gassiep: If you're willing to perform some mods to the case, spraying the inside with Dynamat Accoustic Absorption spray reduces the noise noticably. If done well all internal surfaces including the sides of the PSU etc) the noise drop is dramatic. http://www.dynamat.com/products_car_audio_dynaspray.html That is *good* stuff generally, I keep a can right next to my WD40. How much space does it take up? Like, do I have to be careful about spraying it so that I can reassemble the case or is it unobtrusive enough to just spray everywhere? Thanks, Peter -- MrNaz photo gallery and journal at: www.mrnaz.com -- Peter A. H. Peterson, technician and musician. ---=[ http://tastytronic.net/~pedro/ ]=--- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] I'd fit the machine all together first. I have a two different cases in which the powersupply goes in as a friction fit, and barely in at that. Any addition to the outside of the ps would make it impossible to fit in the case. Well, at least not with some dremeling. That said, where as normal paint may add as little as a few thousandths of an inch to a surface, this stuff will be quite a bit thicker. Oh, 7 ten thousandths, approx it says: Recommended Thickness: 0.070 (1.78 mm) That's not chump-change to even loosely fitted parts, especially when you factor in two sides, as appropriate to some components. However, it should be much easier to just poke holes through it to clear out through screwholes after the fact. Non-through screwholes could be another issue. Automotive supplies can come in handy for case modding. If you want to recolor plastic parts (faceplates), look into vinyl-die. Works awesome. -- Noah Dain Single failures can occur for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with a hardware defect, such as cosmic radiation ... - IBM Thinkpad R40 maintenance manual, page 25
Re: quiet dual dual-core opteron
If you're willing to perform some mods to the case, spraying the inside with Dynamat Accoustic Absorption spray reduces the noise noticably. If done well all internal surfaces including the sides of the PSU etc) the noise drop is dramatic. http://www.dynamat.com/products_car_audio_dynaspray.html That is *good* stuff generally, I keep a can right next to my WD40. - Naz. Peter A. H. Peterson wrote: Hi All, I know this is a little something of a tall order, but I am looking to replace my aging SMP system with a dual, dual-core Opteron system (probably Opteron 265s). Noise level is a primary concern because our apartment is very small. I recognize that this is quite a constraint, but then that's what makes it interesting. The box will primarily be a server but may also run MythTV. (Just to make it *really* interesting.) I was thinking about using a ZMAX DP system, which is supposed to be Dual-core ready (or so I've read), but then I have heard that the ZMAX units run more around 50 db (more than the 38db on the ZMAX specs). Plus, there's not much room for upgrading and I would be forced to use USB network dongles... etc. And, I would prefer to use stock kernel or experimental drivers -- I don't want to have to use binary nVidia drivers. Is nForce3 fully supported without the binary drivers? Then I started thinking about using a K8T Master2 Far-7 board because it is only standard ATX and seeing if I could get that board into a Sonata II case... but I'm not sure if that is even possible and, once again, I can't seem to find a lot of specs about it or people who have tried. Does anyone have experience with a working dual, dual-core opteron system that is less than full-tower size and relatively quiet? Or even a quiet-but-full-tower machine? If anyone has experience with the ZMAX unit and can speak to its noise level (especially with dual core chips) that would be great too. I figured that even if you guys didn't know these pieces of hardware specifically, the peanut gallery would at least have opinions about the best way to make a quiet dual dual-opteron server. Thanks, Peter -- MrNaz photo gallery and journal at: www.mrnaz.com -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: quiet dual dual-core opteron
Quoting Naz Gassiep: If you're willing to perform some mods to the case, spraying the inside with Dynamat Accoustic Absorption spray reduces the noise noticably. If done well all internal surfaces including the sides of the PSU etc) the noise drop is dramatic. http://www.dynamat.com/products_car_audio_dynaspray.html That is *good* stuff generally, I keep a can right next to my WD40. How much space does it take up? Like, do I have to be careful about spraying it so that I can reassemble the case or is it unobtrusive enough to just spray everywhere? Thanks, Peter -- Peter A. H. Peterson, technician and musician. ---=[ http://tastytronic.net/~pedro/ ]=--- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: quiet dual dual-core opteron
Ok I haven't read your complete mail, but here is what we have ordered as most-possible-but-affordabel workstations (sw development) in our Company (it differs from what you need, but still it should be a good base): First, the case which is most important: Antec P180. It should be possible to fit that ASUS 2x Opteron board inside, cause ist is just a little bigger than standard ATX. Even EATX should fit into that case. It has the PSU below everything else, so it is thermally in it's own region, together with the hard disks. The cases side panels are two-layer plastic and metal which helps damping sounds. I don't know if extra damping material is available but the case is very quiet already, because it features thre 120mm fans which may be run very slowly, also depending on the mainboard's capabilities of course (thermal fan regulation). The power supply we used is a Fortron 400W model, don't know exactly which one, with a 120mm fan. Very Quiet. We have ASUS A8N-VM CSM as the mainboard, single socket 939 only of course, also µATX, but there's plenty of space left inside the case. We wanted to have Dual-DVI so together with a GeForce 6200 this was the cheapest, yet well-working solution (DVI from 6200 + DVI from onboard). CPU is Athlon 64 X2 4800+, under full load the system is absolutely inaudible in our office environment. Not sure for the living room, I haven't taken one there. The 120mm fans should have enough reserve for double CPU power to still run quietly, just make sure you use a fanless GFX card if possible. The K8T Master2 Far-7 you mention only sports RAM slots for one CPU IIRC, that is IMHO not a good idea as you loose half the possible bandwith and add a lot of latency for RAM access for the 2nd CPU in any case. Symmetrical RAM for each CPU is the best case under all circumstances. Hope that helped a bit. Did you want it really small? Not such a good idea for dual CPU I think, as you said ZmaxDP is not quiet at all for very good reasons. The P180 case is a midi tower, so you can put it below or on top of your desk. It's not too big and looks quite nice IMHO. My collegues were quite pleased, too =8) Darn, can't find which CPU cooler our supplier used, it's one of the big heatpipe towers with the fan on the side, not on top. If you take one, er two, of those, you should have a look at the airflow, depending of the socket direction it may blow 90° to the case's general air flow (front-to-back usually)... so long, Sönke
Re: quiet dual dual-core opteron
Does anyone have experience with a working dual, dual-core opteron system that is less than full-tower size and relatively quiet? Or even a quiet-but-full-tower machine? I've got a largeish EATX thermaltake xaser3 case (next size up from standard midi towers), Tagan PSU, Zalman CPU coolers and a Tyan S2885 motherboard (though the S2895 is probably a better bet for new systems). The CPU fans are temperature controlled by the motherboard (and rarely get above 50% speed) and the case fans are on a fixed 40% speed controller. It's not totally silent, but it is quiet even under heavy load. Like a low purr rather than the roar generated by most PCs. The noisiest bit is the harddrives clicking when accesses. Paul -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: quiet dual dual-core opteron
I have put a few together for engineers where I work. The low power single core units were expensive, but made a huge difference. I used a Quiet PC power supply and case fan, a large Chenbro tower case, and two of the Zalman 7000 (?) CPU sinks. Almost silent except for, yes, the SCSI drive noise. I will probably be doing a few dual core units in the next month and I will be using the new Zalman 9000-something cooler and essentially the same setup. I can list the specific part numbers later today if anyone is curious, but the low noise case fan, power supply, and CPU sinks were key, and the low power (HE, I think) CPUs made all of that possible by not forcing me to move a ton of air. Brendan Todd Corkery -Original Message- From: Paul Brook [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 7:57 AM To: debian-amd64@lists.debian.org Cc: Peter A. H. Peterson Subject: Re: quiet dual dual-core opteron Does anyone have experience with a working dual, dual-core opteron system that is less than full-tower size and relatively quiet? Or even a quiet-but-full-tower machine? I've got a largeish EATX thermaltake xaser3 case (next size up from standard midi towers), Tagan PSU, Zalman CPU coolers and a Tyan S2885 motherboard (though the S2895 is probably a better bet for new systems). The CPU fans are temperature controlled by the motherboard (and rarely get above 50% speed) and the case fans are on a fixed 40% speed controller. It's not totally silent, but it is quiet even under heavy load. Like a low purr rather than the roar generated by most PCs. The noisiest bit is the harddrives clicking when accesses. Paul -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: quiet dual dual-core opteron
Brendan Corkery wrote: I have put a few together for engineers where I work. The low power single core units were expensive, but made a huge difference. I used a Quiet PC power supply and case fan, a large Chenbro tower case, and two of the Zalman 7000 (?) CPU sinks. Almost silent except for, yes, the SCSI drive noise. I will probably be doing a few dual core units in the next month and I will be using the new Zalman 9000-something cooler and essentially the same setup. I can list the specific part numbers later today if anyone is curious, but the low noise case fan, power supply, and CPU sinks were key, and the low power (HE, I think) CPUs made all of that possible by not forcing me to move a ton of air. Remember too that these are AMD chips, not Intel. They use a fraction of the juice (and therefore generate a fraction of the heat and require a fraction of the cooling) of the Intel offerings. My dual-Opteron 246 tower is quieter and cooler than my PentiumIII laptop. The Opteron CPUs in this box hover around the 40c mark (~105f). Regards, Ozz. signature.asc Description: OpenPGP digital signature
RE: quiet dual dual-core opteron
Certainly -- the dual core Intels are a serious pain to cool. But the difference between 55 and 90 watts is nothing to sneeze at (the low power 2.2GHz Opteron vs the normal 2.2GHz Opteron). With the dual core units it is the difference between 55 watts and 95 watts for the same 2.2GHz. That is enough to pay extra for just to cut the fan noise down. I think that the dual core Intel Pentium Extreme is 200 watts or so, so the Opterons are far easier to cool, of course, but every little bit helps. I have used the 1.4GHz low power Opterons (35 watts!!!) in a number of utility servers that didn't need more power and I could use passive cooling, which is wonderful -- one less moving part to fail. Brendan Todd Corkery Brendan Todd Corkery [EMAIL PROTECTED] UNIX Support Advantage RD (713)305-1621 cell (281)260-5799 work (281)872-1628 fax CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This communication (and any attachment) is confidential. It should only be read by the person(s) to whom it is addressed. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender by reply and delete this communication. -Original Message- From: Austin Denyer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 9:31 AM To: debian-amd64@lists.debian.org Subject: Re: quiet dual dual-core opteron Brendan Corkery wrote: I have put a few together for engineers where I work. The low power single core units were expensive, but made a huge difference. I used a Quiet PC power supply and case fan, a large Chenbro tower case, and two of the Zalman 7000 (?) CPU sinks. Almost silent except for, yes, the SCSI drive noise. I will probably be doing a few dual core units in the next month and I will be using the new Zalman 9000-something cooler and essentially the same setup. I can list the specific part numbers later today if anyone is curious, but the low noise case fan, power supply, and CPU sinks were key, and the low power (HE, I think) CPUs made all of that possible by not forcing me to move a ton of air. Remember too that these are AMD chips, not Intel. They use a fraction of the juice (and therefore generate a fraction of the heat and require a fraction of the cooling) of the Intel offerings. My dual-Opteron 246 tower is quieter and cooler than my PentiumIII laptop. The Opteron CPUs in this box hover around the 40c mark (~105f). Regards, Ozz.
Re: quiet dual dual-core opteron
Thanks for the input... your setup sounds pretty good. I was hoping to avoid EATX because I have a cabinet I'd like to get the unit to fit in... Quoting Soenke von Stamm: The K8T Master2 Far-7 you mention only sports RAM slots for one CPU IIRC, that is IMHO not a good idea as you loose half the possible bandwith and add a lot of latency for RAM access for the 2nd CPU in any case. Symmetrical RAM for each CPU is the best case under all circumstances. Ouch. Thanks for pointing that out... I hadn't noticed but of course that's a huge drawback. Yuck. Hope that helped a bit. Did you want it really small? Not such a good idea for dual CPU I think, as you said ZmaxDP is not quiet at all for very good reasons. The P180 case is a midi tower, so you can put it below or on top of your desk. It's not too big and looks quite nice IMHO. My collegues were quite pleased, too =8) As I mentioned I have a cabinet I'd like to get it inside so I would like to use a standard ATX board but I'm not sure that I'm going to be able to get the mobo features I want without EATX on the Thunder or similar. Darn, can't find which CPU cooler our supplier used, it's one of the big heatpipe towers with the fan on the side, not on top. If you take one, er two, of those, you should have a look at the airflow, depending of the socket direction it may blow 90? to the case's general air flow (front-to-back usually)... Cool. Thanks again... Peter -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: quiet dual dual-core opteron
Thanks for the ideas. I'd like to use some nice CPU coolers (like the Zalman ones) and one concern with going ATX (like the Master) in addition to the RAM issue pointed out previously is that with the smaller form factor you often don't have the real estate for efficient coolers. Thanks again, Peter Quoting Paul Brook: I've got a largeish EATX thermaltake xaser3 case (next size up from standard midi towers), Tagan PSU, Zalman CPU coolers and a Tyan S2885 motherboard (though the S2895 is probably a better bet for new systems). The CPU fans are temperature controlled by the motherboard (and rarely get above 50% speed) and the case fans are on a fixed 40% speed controller. It's not totally silent, but it is quiet even under heavy load. Like a low purr rather than the roar generated by most PCs. The noisiest bit is the harddrives clicking when accesses. -- Peter A. H. Peterson, technician and musician. ---=[ http://tastytronic.net/~pedro/ ]=--- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: quiet dual dual-core opteron
OK, this is what I used for a bunch of systems: Two of these CPUs: http://www.amdcompare.com/us-en/opteron/details.aspx?opn=OSK248FAA5BL 2.2GHz low power Opterons This motherboard: http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thunderk8w.html I may go with a different one for the dual core units because the users want PCI-Express video cards now This RAM: http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/configurator_new/partsinfo.asp?ktcpartno=KVR 333D4R25/2G Usually a full 16GB. This case: http://www.chenbro.com.tw/usa/product/product_preview.php?pid=134 with the SCSI hot swap backplane. Remove the rear fan because it sounds like a jet engine. This RAID controller: http://www.lsilogic.com/products/megaraid/scsi_320_1.html These CPU coolers: http://www.zalmanusa.com/ -- search for CNPS7000B-Cu This 460 watt power supply: http://www.quietpcusa.com/acb/showdetl.cfm?DID=8Product_ID=30CATID=2 -- wonderful and close to dead silent This case fan: http://www.quietpcusa.com/acb/showdetl.cfm?DID=8Product_ID=261CATID=7 -- the 120mm one, in the Chenbro bracket that came from Chenbro with a fan that would be right at home in a small helicopter. At the lowest setting, you really have a hard time hearing it. Disks varied, as did video cards. For the next bunch, I may use a slightly different Tyan board, but I am not sure yet. With the dual core AMD CPUs ( http://www.amdcompare.com/us-en/opteron/details.aspx?opn=OSK275FAA6CB ) and the Zalman CPU sink CPNS9500, ideally without those silly LEDs. Something nice that I have found makes the users happy is this: http://www.mitsumi.com/products/fa402amain.html Instead of a regular floppy, they have a media reader for stuff. Happy to answer any questions. Brendan Todd Corkery [EMAIL PROTECTED] UNIX Support Advantage RD (713)305-1621 cell (281)260-5799 work (281)872-1628 fax CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This communication (and any attachment) is confidential. It should only be read by the person(s) to whom it is addressed. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender by reply and delete this communication. -Original Message- From: Peter A. H. Peterson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 11:28 AM To: Paul Brook Cc: debian-amd64@lists.debian.org; Peter A. H. Peterson Subject: Re: quiet dual dual-core opteron Thanks for the ideas. I'd like to use some nice CPU coolers (like the Zalman ones) and one concern with going ATX (like the Master) in addition to the RAM issue pointed out previously is that with the smaller form factor you often don't have the real estate for efficient coolers. Thanks again, Peter Quoting Paul Brook: I've got a largeish EATX thermaltake xaser3 case (next size up from standard midi towers), Tagan PSU, Zalman CPU coolers and a Tyan S2885 motherboard (though the S2895 is probably a better bet for new systems). The CPU fans are temperature controlled by the motherboard (and rarely get above 50% speed) and the case fans are on a fixed 40% speed controller. It's not totally silent, but it is quiet even under heavy load. Like a low purr rather than the roar generated by most PCs. The noisiest bit is the harddrives clicking when accesses. -- Peter A. H. Peterson, technician and musician. ---=[ http://tastytronic.net/~pedro/ ]=--- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: quiet dual dual-core opteron
Quoting Brendan Todd Corkery: This motherboard: http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thunderk8w.html I may go with a different one for the dual core units because the users want PCI-Express video cards now This case: http://www.chenbro.com.tw/usa/product/product_preview.php?pid=134 I'm just not crazy about the quiet cases for EATX mobos. I guess that shouldn't be that surprising... -- Peter A. H. Peterson, technician and musician. ---=[ http://tastytronic.net/~pedro/ ]=--- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
quiet dual dual-core opteron
Hi All, I know this is a little something of a tall order, but I am looking to replace my aging SMP system with a dual, dual-core Opteron system (probably Opteron 265s). Noise level is a primary concern because our apartment is very small. I recognize that this is quite a constraint, but then that's what makes it interesting. The box will primarily be a server but may also run MythTV. (Just to make it *really* interesting.) I was thinking about using a ZMAX DP system, which is supposed to be Dual-core ready (or so I've read), but then I have heard that the ZMAX units run more around 50 db (more than the 38db on the ZMAX specs). Plus, there's not much room for upgrading and I would be forced to use USB network dongles... etc. And, I would prefer to use stock kernel or experimental drivers -- I don't want to have to use binary nVidia drivers. Is nForce3 fully supported without the binary drivers? Then I started thinking about using a K8T Master2 Far-7 board because it is only standard ATX and seeing if I could get that board into a Sonata II case... but I'm not sure if that is even possible and, once again, I can't seem to find a lot of specs about it or people who have tried. Does anyone have experience with a working dual, dual-core opteron system that is less than full-tower size and relatively quiet? Or even a quiet-but-full-tower machine? If anyone has experience with the ZMAX unit and can speak to its noise level (especially with dual core chips) that would be great too. I figured that even if you guys didn't know these pieces of hardware specifically, the peanut gallery would at least have opinions about the best way to make a quiet dual dual-opteron server. Thanks, Peter -- Peter A. H. Peterson, technician and musician. ---=[ http://tastytronic.net/~pedro/ ]=--- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
