$75 Opteron 1354

[PoppaGeek]

i found the posts very informative and yes im a amd fanboy i guess but from what ive seen that little opti is a good bang for your bucks i might try it out with a DFI micro atx im curious how high it will clock. thanks again poppa for the good reading.

Thanks for the feed back. Feel free to post pics or stats here, always like hardware p0rn.

[PoppaGeek]

Swapped PSUs on 1354/Gigabyte combo. One an Antec Earthwatts 80+ Certified and the other a PC P & C not 80+. Used KillAWatts meter.

Opteron 1354 on Gigabyte MA74GM-S2 1 stick 1 gig ram. 4 cores @ 100% WCG
80+ Eathwatts - 1.09 amps 130 watts
PC P & C ------- 1.14 amps 135 watts

[Tom128]

I am curious also about the Phenom 1 9600BE. It is a fairly cheap chip now as well and does have an unlocked multi. Most of them seem stuck at 2.5Ghz but a few do seem to be able to reach towards 3Ghz. With an ACC enabled board perhaps 3Ghz+ (no sure, my old one stopped at 2.9Ghz in my M3A79-T Deluxe but it seemed like a real dud). Most important though, any idea if the TLB bug has any effect on folding? I know it effects the L3, and the L3 is for sharing among cores, and from what I gather without the source on hand, it looks like each thread is pretty independent on its own core the entire time. Could be an idea for another cheap folder with potentially better clocks?

[mreuter80]

I am curious also about the Phenom 1 9600BE. It is a fairly cheap chip now as well and does have an unlocked multi. Most of them seem stuck at 2.5Ghz but a few do seem to be able to reach towards 3Ghz. With an ACC enabled board perhaps 3Ghz+ (no sure, my old one stopped at 2.9Ghz in my M3A79-T Deluxe but it seemed like a real dud). Most important though, any idea if the TLB bug has any effect on folding? I know it effects the L3, and the L3 is for sharing among cores, and from what I gather without the source on hand, it looks like each thread is pretty independent on its own core the entire time. Could be an idea for another cheap folder with potentially better clocks?

I'm not so sure about folding, but the chip doesn't crunch well. PG's numbers with the Operton are already better @ 2.2 GHz than my 9600 (non BE) at 2.5 GHz and TLB fix disabled. Don't waste your money on this chip.
If you want to use it for GPU folding might be a different scenario - since the CPU is almost not used.

[PoppaGeek]

Finally found out why the Opty/MSI combo did not do well under WinXP and why I had so many weird problems with Linux. Hard drive failing. Now FAILED. Old 13gig Maxtor with many hours on it. RIP.

Since I am still having problems getting the diskless setup working I decided to try the USB stick and it is now working. Boots a little slow but once running rather snappy. I will get a disk drive first of the month and continue to try and get diskless to work.

Before I forget and do not document this I am going to do it here:
Under Dotsch/UX Linux:
> you need to install smbfs, Samba server, for BoincView to work.
> Add remote_hosts.cfg file to $home/Boinc/
> "sudo vi $home/BOINC/gui_rpc_auth.cfg" and blank out the password. save empty file
> click on System > Administration > Login Window > Security tab and check Enable Automatic Login
> system username boinc password boinc
> go to /etc/network and "sudo vi interfaces", add "auto eth0" or whatever network interface name being used
> click on System > Preferences > Remote Desktop > General tab check Allow other users to view desktop & allow other users to control desktop, the other options are up to you, this is for VNC access. If problems uncheck other options on these tabs.

I like Dotsch/UX but it is a work in progress and ya usually gotta get your hands a little dirty to get it all to work. But it is free and is light on requirements. It is still an active project by the author.

[cdu cnp]

Tried xubuntu?
Designed for older low power stuff.
Hell it seems snappy on a old p4, should haul bootay on better equpment.

[mreuter80]

Hey guys,
I just found this interesting report about the new 6 core opterons.
http://techreport.com/articles.x/17005/12 (this is the direct link to the conclusion)
If (... and only if ...) AMD slashes the price in a couple of months it might become a very interesting processor.
I don't know much about the motherboards though.

[PoppaGeek]

Hey guys,
I just found this interesting report about the new 6 core opterons.
http://techreport.com/articles.x/17005/12 (this is the direct link to the conclusion)
If (... and only if ...) AMD slashes the price in a couple of months it might become a very interesting processor.
I don't know much about the motherboards though.

I dunno how long it will take for the prices to drop on these but I will definitely be watching and waiting.

[Tom128]

I literally just sat down to buy one of the Opty's and what do I see? They went up to $90 I will wait and see if they drop down again.

[PoppaGeek]

I literally just sat down to buy one of the Opty's and what do I see? They went up to $90 I will wait and see if they drop down again.

Newegg AMD cpu prices have been jumping up and down on several models this last week. I found the 705e fianlly listed but still no 905e. I guess the new models are starting to show up and prices will settle in next week or so. The 810 has jumped around almost every 24 hours.

Yes I check Newegg AMD CPUs daily.

I'd sit it out. Price may drop next day or two.

[Duh]

Hey guys,
I just found this interesting report about the new 6 core opterons.
http://techreport.com/articles.x/17005/12 (this is the direct link to the conclusion)
If (... and only if ...) AMD slashes the price in a couple of months it might become a very interesting processor.
I don't know much about the motherboards though.

yeah, I am willing to wait until the optie is slashed down ( a rela big one) and I will buy them

[PoppaGeek]

Was looking at a dual socket Tyan Thunder board, $299 and a pair of 2378 Shanghi @ $189 each, added it up $680. OR 2 Gigabyte boards and 2 Budapest 1354s even at $90 each and it's less than $300. Even the extra PSU and even a cheap case and I am way under the Tyan/Shanghi combo. I doubt memory would make a big difference in price as both would need about the same.

I was toying with the idea of getting a Tyan/Shanghi combo this fall then upgrade to the Istanbul when prices dropped. Instead I may just go with more Budapest. With a little luck the Istanbul will work in a cheap non-server board. But at the prices of the GA/1354 combo I cannot justify the price difference.

My little cheapo combo looks better all the time.

[mreuter80]

keep in mind Shanghai uses Socket F - likewise the Istanbul 6-cores, while Budapest uses AM2 sockets. The chance you find a desktop mobo that has socket F is I think very slim - at least I didn't see any on Newegg ....

[shadowwind]

i was looking at the intel server I7 i pulled the trigger on that build then canceled it.i need a server so i went with what you built poppa for now
parts are sitting in newjersey right now . all so bought a 955 cpu to replace an old BE 9600 i will post when i get my parts come in.

[PoppaGeek]

keep in mind Shanghai uses Socket F - likewise the Istanbul 6-cores, while Budapest uses AM2 sockets. The chance you find a desktop mobo that has socket F is I think very slim - at least I didn't see any on Newegg ....

oh yeah

[PoppaGeek]

i was looking at the intel server I7 i pulled the trigger on that build then canceled it.i need a server so i went with what you built poppa for now
parts are sitting in newjersey right now . all so bought a 955 cpu to replace an old BE 9600 i will post when i get my parts come in.

Cool! I hope to get a 955 someday for my GD70. I think it deserves it.

[mreuter80]

oh yeah

don't be so hard to yourself

I'm sure the six-cores come to the 1300 series as well ... some day ... maybe

[PoppaGeek]

I don't know how many 1354s were sold because of my thread here but I am finding more reviews on Newegg both under the 1354 and some motherboards, one even mentioning his new 1354 had not found a cure for cancer yet. I hope that this thread has helped people find a good deal on a good cruncher even if Newegg rewarded the sales with a price increase! The Opty went to $89 and the GA MA74GM-S2 went to $54.

I continue to try to figure out why the Opty/GA combo outperforms the Opty/MSI combo.

I have changed and/or swapped everything. After a bit of research I have enabled HPET in the BIOs of the MSI and disabled c1e. I ran the Boinc CPU benchmarks and they are very close, close enough to be the same.

I am not happy with the Dotsch on a USB stick. Besides a limited life, can't find anything definitive on life span of USB sticks, it has been picky about which sticks and install is unreliable. Getting a hard drive for it.

[PoppaGeek]

The second Opty is finally up to the first Optys output. 9.4k ppd and 22 WUs over 7 days. After swapping everything around and trying different OSes I finally found the difference. The Gigabyte board had HPET enabled and the MSI did not. As soon as I enabled it things got better. At 14 days I will post a screen shot.

Both are now running 2.4gz, I found out the CPU setting c1e can effect OCing and disabling it on the MSI fixed the flaky OCing I saw earlier.

I am pleased with the Opteron 1354 and may well get more this fall. They have turned out to be a cheap crunch!

With new AM2/AM3 Opterons coming soon prices and choice should only get better.

[CaptMorgan]

Great Job PoppaGeek, very informative and fun read- and as usually very tempting

[PoppaGeek]

Great Job PoppaGeek, very informative and fun read- and as usually very tempting

Thanks for the kind comments. Appreciated.

[PoppaGeek]

Here is the 2nd Opty after 2 weeks with HPET enabled running at 2.4gz. Numbers average 9.8k and 22.5 WUs a day, pretty much the same as the 1st one. Over a 30 day average the 1st one had 10k and 21.86 WUs.

[Duh]

sorry for the thread revival, but: why is the egg playing with us? the current price of this is of 90 bucks instead of the 75 bucks previous price

[PoppaGeek]

sorry for the thread revival, but: why is the egg playing with us? the current price of this is of 90 bucks instead of the 75 bucks previous price

My guess because it started selling. They raised the price of the Gigabyte MB too.

[CaptMorgan]

Revival of this thread is nothing but a good thing