AMD64 questions

[RedRed]

On the question of RAM, I have 2 X .5Gb Corsair Value select ddr 3200's waiting for a RMA.
never had a problem with crucial.

[Kurt]

who set the voltage at 3.5? ;-)

[TnT]

On PSUs: when I was younger we had a few Enlight cases that came with power supplies. My mom's and my bro's both blew, luckily it didn't damage anything. I then convinced them that paying an extra $30 for good (and even quieter) units was one of the best upgrades that can be done.

On RAM: yeah, I've gone through a good amount of Crucial at home and at work. Never gave me problems. Looks like I'll drop the extra cash for it.

Thanks guys. I'm about to blow some dough...

Thien

[Kurt]

You'd be amazed at how many PSUs we change at customer locations. Usually they're el cheapo stuff that has between 1 and 3 years. The things just blow capacitors like mad. Sometimes they take the rest of the system with them too...
We upgrade them to Fortron Source PSUs (or made by FS, like Aopen, Zalman, etc) and all is well.

[TnT]

Alrighty. Got my computer up and running using Gentoo Linux! It's mighty nice having a fast computer again. Old one was an 1800+ and my work computer is a G4 400 MHz

A couple hiccups:
Had to update BIOS to F3 for Gentoo to work correctly.

Adapter cable on case fan got loose when I was mucking around and it shorted at one point. Reset the PSU and everything is okay.

Forgot I had my hard drives on separate IDE ports before... had them both on master... tore my hair out wondering why it wasn't working afraid it was due to above... woke up the next morning and realized I was an idiot

Notes:
Compiling Gentoo is way faster than before.

Needed to use driver off of nVidia's site, not one in Portage. Once I got that going GeForce 6600 is way faster than a Matrox G200. Wow a grenade going off in Enemy Territory doesn't cause the screen to jerk! Neverball and Neverputt is pretty fun.

Powernow on processor working. It only does 1800 or 1000 for me though.

Audio worked pretty easily.

Network pretty much just worked.

I think I need to change the batteries on my MX700. It's acting funky. Currently using a 2-button mouse w/o scroll.

Working on setting up GNOME right now.

[xortam]

... Currently using a 2-button mouse w/o scroll. ...

Oh the agony!

[spadnos]

[snip]
Notes:
Compiling Gentoo is way faster than before.
[snip]

Like - how much faster?
I'm looking at making an Opteron system, and I'm curious about how long it'll take to compile everything. I think it was around 3-4 days on my Athlon 2200 system (doing a stage 1 or stage 2-type install, with OpenOffice, KDE, gnome, etc.)

I'd be interested to know how many hours (days) shorter it is on an AMD64 system.

Also, if you have any sense of the speed improvements of the applications, I'd love to hear about that too.

Thanks
- Steve

[Nowhere]

can't...resist...posting

http://greenfly.org/mes.html
http://funroll-loops.org/

[Wombat]

Any rumors about AMD price drops now that Intel has paper-launched another chip?

[TnT]

Like - how much faster?
I'm looking at making an Opteron system, and I'm curious about how long it'll take to compile everything. I think it was around 3-4 days on my Athlon 2200 system (doing a stage 1 or stage 2-type install, with OpenOffice, KDE, gnome, etc.)

I'd be interested to know how many hours (days) shorter it is on an AMD64 system.

Also, if you have any sense of the speed improvements of the applications, I'd love to hear about that too.

Thanks
- Steve

I remembered it taking 6 or so hours to bootstrap on a 1800+. With my new computer it took 2 and a half hours. Didn't really pay attention to other timings. I got everything up in 3 days, but I also had to go to class and work, so only got to do things after I woke up and when I got home.

@Nowhere

"Looks like we've gotten some attention on the Gentoo Forums recently. Good to see people can take a joke and poke fun. If you're offended, I have a friend who uses Gentoo, and well ... let's just say it's difficult to drink beer with someone who insists on building his drink "from scratch" and with "optimized hops", not to mention, the hot waitress doesn't appreciate his need to know her on a "low-level, stripped down without the bloat" kind of way."

I guess the page creator has never brewed his own beer. That's fun too.


My MX700 is now officially having issues. I put in new rechargeable batteries and it still has the same problem as before. It also does it in Windows.
Buttons work correctly, but the mouse only moves in a small square (as in the pointer jumps between 4 points to form a square). Ideas on what could be wrong?

[Wombat]

On the question of RAM, I have 2 X .5Gb Corsair Value select ddr 3200's waiting for a RMA.
never had a problem with crucial.

Are you sure it's the RAM, and not a bad memory controller?

[Chrono_Wanderer]

Hmm the 24pin connector on new AMD motherboards. AFAIK it supplies power to the PCIe bus... you know, AGP supplied ~40W while PCIe supplies like ~80W...

So what I think is... anything above 6600, you should get a 24pin PSU

There are 20->24pins converters, but I don't know how well that works... I'd magine if you use that, current increases on each wire...

[Kurt]

Yes, that's why you need a real PSU and not a cheap rebranded 350W ->550W Ã* la Q-TEC.

[Chrono_Wanderer]

What else can i say, Noisetaker 485W all the way

[Wombat]

There are 20->24pins converters, but I don't know how well that works... I'd magine if you use that, current increases on each wire...

I've heard a LOT of people say they had really unstable systems with those converters, and their systems became rock solid with a proper PSU & 24-pin setup.