Late to the 2 CPU game - several questions for ASUS A7M-266D owners

[Philx509]

A long time ago, I bought two of these ASUS dual CPU boards, intending
to build up 2 new systems, for me and for my wife. But "life
happened" and the project didn't progress. Recently, I got 3 Althon XP
2000s and 4 Athlon XP 1900s from a friend whose company didn't need
these any more.

I know these processors aren't state of the art. But using these free
processors allows me to spend more money on other parts of the system,
like memory. (and I get some spares in case I botch the XP to MP
conversion.) Later on, I may upgrade my system to the fastest
possible Athlons with a 266 clock speed.

So no more delays. I'm not a gamer, but I'm interested in doing lots
of Photoshop-type work.

If you have a ASUS 266D system or even a non-ASUS dual CPU system,what
do you think of my plans?
-use the hard drives in our current systems. For my wife, it's a
one-drive IDE system. For me, it's 3 SCSI-160 drives + SCSI tape.
-Win 2000 to start, because that's what is in our current systems, but
upgrade to XP in a few months.
-use the CD-ROM and CD-R systems in our current systems.
-64 bit LSI SCSI-160 host adapter for my system
-Matrox G550 or 650 (used from Ebay)
-Antec or Enermax P/S, 400+W. Exact size and model tbd.
-Addtronics 7896A case for me (similar to the popular 750A case)
-Coolermaster or Lian Li case for my wife.
-sound card???

-BIOS Savior to allow me to experiment with different revs. (which
model BIOS Savior?)

Also:

1. Did you overclock the CPUs? How much? Or if not, why not? Is it
worth the effort to overclock?
2. What heat sink/fan did you buy? Which one would you buy today?
3. Are there any "gotchas" with HS/F, either due to a tight fit or
some other reason? Were you brave enough to drill out the HS/F
mounting holes on the motherboard? Besides strong nerves, what is
needed to do this?
4. Which power supply are you using? What would you buy today?
5. Do you use the onboard sound or do you have a PCI sound card? Why?
6. Which brand and speed of memory? (overclocking?) How much RAM?
7. Which BIOS rev? Why?
8. How did you do the XP-to-MP conversion? Would you do it the same
way today or use a different approach?

Truly, thanks very much in advance

PhilX509

 

[Me]

I'm running a A7M-266D board myself, have been for 18 months.
Ran with Windows XP to start with but now use Windows 2003 server.
Only gripe now is the lack of upto date IDE drivers for Win2003 Server.

I currently run 2x Athlon XP 1700's.
No problems with my set-up at all in that time.
CPU's run together with no changes to them.
Both use what I would class as normal aluminium heatsinks with
the fans modded to run at 7volts instead of 12v to lower the noise.
Temps are always in the low 60's C. Not probs with that at all.
Power supply is a no name 350 watts unit.
Sound is the onboard device but I don't use it at all.
Memory is 2 x 256Mb PC2100 dimms, no particular make using Samsung chips
if I remember correctly.
The bios revision was the one that came with the board for a long time,
V1004
is I recall. I've only just updated the bios to version 1010a in readiness
for a
possible CPU upgrade, didn't need to as I was not having any trouble with
the original one.
From my results there is no real need to use exotic components with this
board if you plan on running it within design specs. I have tried faster ram
and bigger
copper heatsinks along with a more pwerful power supply in the past. No
extra
performance gains were to be had though.
Not using SCSI with it so can't comment on that.


They will over clock as a pair from 133MHz to 140MHz.
Any more and the system is very unstable.

I'm currently looking at changing the 2 CPU's for maybe Athlon XP 2400.
Just wanting info on which chips people have use with success.

Also want to up the memory from 512Mb to 1024Mb but don't want to use
registered dimms. Any experience with using 2 x 512Mb dimms ?

 

[boostland]

Check out the 2cpu forums they have all the answers over there.
http://forums.2cpu.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=13
I love my Iwill MPX2 with 170 fsb and barton 3200's.
It would make a Dual G5 mac user cry, Cinebench on my system is a quite a
bit faster even if the mac runs the beta g5 optimised version. I emailed my
results to 2 of the mac webpages and funny enuff they did not list them on
their benchmark page ;-P.
I use Kingmax unbuffered pc3200, leadtek A250 GF4 Ti4400 with rivatuner
softquadro hack makes it a Quadro 750, Sound blaster Live, Realtek 8139c
lan, Maxtor Ata 133 160/120gb 8m cache, Volcano 9 coolers.
Btw FSB = life, 170 is a lot faster than 133 in most apps. I get 2200 in
sandra 2003 for mem benchmark.
The Asus is supposed to be able to do 160 fsb with the right pci cards.
Check out http://www.ocinside.de for pin mods for higher/lower multipliers.
I have my wire in my sockets to make the chips boot at 1.85v and the bios
sets it lower, I was having rebooting problems without that mod (the voltage
set in the bios is applied after the cpu boots).

 

[boostland]

If you want to get later cpu's you will have to get pre week 39 cpus as most
made after that are multi locked.

 

[Philx509]

I forgot to mention that the CPUs that I got do not have heat sinks.
Therefore, even if I don't need "high performance," I still need
_something_, preferably quiet.

 

[Michael Brown]

A long time ago, I bought two of these ASUS dual CPU boards,
intending to build up 2 new systems, for me and for my wife. But
"life happened" and the project didn't progress. Recently, I got 3
Althon XP 2000s and 4 Athlon XP 1900s from a friend whose company
didn't need these any more. [...]
1. Did you overclock the CPUs? How much? Or if not, why not? Is it
worth the effort to overclock?

I'm picking up a MSI K7D-Master tomorrow (I would have loved to get an IWILL
MPX2, but I would have had to get it specially imported = $$$), and I'm
putting a couple of (unlocked) Barton 2500's in there. So I can't comment
directly on your setup, but I can say a bit about what I've done/thought
about. I've tested them individually and they run happily at 2200 MHz
(133x16.5) with a vcore of 1.7V so that's where they're probably going to be
on the K7D. There's a decent rise in single-cpu performance from 1833 to
2200, so I think it's worth doing. I'm also planning to crank up the FSB and
drop the multiplier once I see what the K7D is capable of.

I forgot to mention that the CPUs that I got do not have heat sinks.
Therefore, even if I don't need "high performance," I still need
_something_, preferably quiet.

I'm currently running them (well, one at the moment) on a ThermalTake Silent
Boost. Basically a thin-fin copper heatsink with a quiet 80mm PanaFlo fan on
the top. I'm completely sold on these, both temperature and noise wise, but
then again I had a Volcano 7+ (on low) before, so perhaps I don't know what
quiet really is

Yikes, I wouldn't ever drill holes in the motherboard! You never know what
traces are down there just waiting to to be cut. I'll find out tomorrow if
the Silent Boosts will fit, though from various pictures I'm pretty sure
they will.

Hyena (ie: generic) 500W. It was either that or pay over three times as much
for a 400W Antec TruePower, and the current ratings seem to be OK. Again,
I'll find out tomorrow if it's capable of it ...

Oops, hadn't thought about that ... hope the K7D has onboard otherwise I
might have to get me a el-cheapo PCI card ... I'm not into sound a lot in
case you didn't guess

Generic non-registered PC2700, two sticks of 256. Board can only do 150 MHz
so the RAM should be fine (tested and can do CAS2 at this speed). More than
two sticks and you'd need registered, so I'm going to be at 512 for a while.

Pass

Did it the easiest way there is Cleaned out the pit with methalated
spirits on a bit of cotton till it was nice and shiny, then stuffed some
conductive goop down ther (after taping over the other pits with masking
tape). Worked first time both times, and couldn't be easier. Certainly
easier than pinmodding the things to get 13x and higher multipliers ...

 

[boostland]

Be aware that cpus don't overclock as well in SMP as they do in a single cpu
board.

A long time ago, I bought two of these ASUS dual CPU boards,
intending to build up 2 new systems, for me and for my wife. But
"life happened" and the project didn't progress. Recently, I got 3
Althon XP 2000s and 4 Athlon XP 1900s from a friend whose company
didn't need these any more. [...]
1. Did you overclock the CPUs? How much? Or if not, why not? Is it
worth the effort to overclock?

I'm picking up a MSI K7D-Master tomorrow (I would have loved to get an IWILL
MPX2, but I would have had to get it specially imported = $$$), and I'm
putting a couple of (unlocked) Barton 2500's in there. So I can't comment
directly on your setup, but I can say a bit about what I've done/thought
about. I've tested them individually and they run happily at 2200 MHz
(133x16.5) with a vcore of 1.7V so that's where they're probably going to be
on the K7D. There's a decent rise in single-cpu performance from 1833 to
2200, so I think it's worth doing. I'm also planning to crank up the FSB and
drop the multiplier once I see what the K7D is capable of.

I forgot to mention that the CPUs that I got do not have heat sinks.
Therefore, even if I don't need "high performance," I still need
_something_, preferably quiet.

I'm currently running them (well, one at the moment) on a ThermalTake Silent
Boost. Basically a thin-fin copper heatsink with a quiet 80mm PanaFlo fan on
the top. I'm completely sold on these, both temperature and noise wise, but
then again I had a Volcano 7+ (on low) before, so perhaps I don't know what
quiet really is

Yikes, I wouldn't ever drill holes in the motherboard! You never know what
traces are down there just waiting to to be cut. I'll find out tomorrow if
the Silent Boosts will fit, though from various pictures I'm pretty sure
they will.

Hyena (ie: generic) 500W. It was either that or pay over three times as much
for a 400W Antec TruePower, and the current ratings seem to be OK. Again,
I'll find out tomorrow if it's capable of it ...

Oops, hadn't thought about that ... hope the K7D has onboard otherwise I
might have to get me a el-cheapo PCI card ... I'm not into sound a lot in
case you didn't guess

Generic non-registered PC2700, two sticks of 256. Board can only do 150 MHz
so the RAM should be fine (tested and can do CAS2 at this speed). More than
two sticks and you'd need registered, so I'm going to be at 512 for a while.
Pass

Did it the easiest way there is Cleaned out the pit with methalated
spirits on a bit of cotton till it was nice and shiny, then stuffed some
conductive goop down ther (after taping over the other pits with masking
tape). Worked first time both times, and couldn't be easier. Certainly
easier than pinmodding the things to get 13x and higher multipliers ...

 

[~misfit~]

I forgot to mention that the CPUs that I got do not have heat sinks.
Therefore, even if I don't need "high performance," I still need
_something_, preferably quiet.

Good friend you've got there. Are these Palomino or T'bred CPUs?

 

[Rob Stow]

Good friend you've got there. Are these Palomino or T'bred CPUs?

Note that Thoroughbred 1900s can be used in pairs but the
Palominos can't. Or is it the other way around ? I can't
remember which came first anymore.

 

[Michael Brown]

Note that Thoroughbred 1900s can be used in pairs but the
Palominos can't. Or is it the other way around ? I can't
remember which came first anymore.

Palominos (the earlier ones) need the L5 bridge rejoined. I'm not sure if
this is what you're talking about though, as I thought the bridge was cut on
the TBreds too (it was cut on my Bartons).

 

[boostland]

Morgan cored Durons work as well as they have similar cores to the
palamino's.
Tbirds won't work the same as the Spitfire based durons.

 

[Wes Newell]

Morgan cored Durons work as well as they have similar cores to the
palamino's.

I find cored prunes work best.

 

[boostland]

Like this do ya mean
You should start drinking prune juice and KY jelly cocktails right now,
that will make things a lot smoother.
-Felatio Love

 

[Winey]

Be aware that cpus don't overclock as well in SMP as they do in a single cpu
board.

No doubt. Do you have any direct experience, or a URL to someone's
tests?

If was really, really interested in the best O/C I could squeeze out
of these CPUs, I would not try to run them dual.

But if everyone says that it's easy to get to say 140 or 145 (not to
be greedy) then I'll try for it and be happy with that.

x509

A long time ago, I bought two of these ASUS dual CPU boards,
intending to build up 2 new systems, for me and for my wife. But
"life happened" and the project didn't progress. Recently, I got 3
Althon XP 2000s and 4 Athlon XP 1900s from a friend whose company
didn't need these any more. [...]
1. Did you overclock the CPUs? How much? Or if not, why not? Is it
worth the effort to overclock?

I'm picking up a MSI K7D-Master tomorrow (I would have loved to get an IWILL
MPX2, but I would have had to get it specially imported = $$$), and I'm
putting a couple of (unlocked) Barton 2500's in there. So I can't comment
directly on your setup, but I can say a bit about what I've done/thought
about. I've tested them individually and they run happily at 2200 MHz
(133x16.5) with a vcore of 1.7V so that's where they're probably going to be
on the K7D. There's a decent rise in single-cpu performance from 1833 to
2200, so I think it's worth doing. I'm also planning to crank up the FSB and
drop the multiplier once I see what the K7D is capable of.

2. What heat sink/fan did you buy? Which one would you buy today?

I forgot to mention that the CPUs that I got do not have heat sinks.
Therefore, even if I don't need "high performance," I still need
_something_, preferably quiet.

I'm currently running them (well, one at the moment) on a ThermalTake Silent
Boost. Basically a thin-fin copper heatsink with a quiet 80mm PanaFlo fan on
the top. I'm completely sold on these, both temperature and noise wise, but
then again I had a Volcano 7+ (on low) before, so perhaps I don't know what
quiet really is

3. Are there any "gotchas" with HS/F, either due to a tight fit or
some other reason? Were you brave enough to drill out the HS/F
mounting holes on the motherboard? Besides strong nerves, what is
needed to do this?

Yikes, I wouldn't ever drill holes in the motherboard! You never know what
traces are down there just waiting to to be cut. I'll find out tomorrow if
the Silent Boosts will fit, though from various pictures I'm pretty sure
they will.

4. Which power supply are you using? What would you buy today?

Hyena (ie: generic) 500W. It was either that or pay over three times as much
for a 400W Antec TruePower, and the current ratings seem to be OK. Again,
I'll find out tomorrow if it's capable of it ...

5. Do you use the onboard sound or do you have a PCI sound card?
Why?

Oops, hadn't thought about that ... hope the K7D has onboard otherwise I
might have to get me a el-cheapo PCI card ... I'm not into sound a lot in
case you didn't guess

6. Which brand and speed of memory? (overclocking?) How much RAM?

Generic non-registered PC2700, two sticks of 256. Board can only do 150 MHz
so the RAM should be fine (tested and can do CAS2 at this speed). More than
two sticks and you'd need registered, so I'm going to be at 512 for a while.

7. Which BIOS rev? Why?

Pass

8. How did you do the XP-to-MP conversion? Would you do it the same
way today or use a different approach?

Did it the easiest way there is Cleaned out the pit with methalated
spirits on a bit of cotton till it was nice and shiny, then stuffed some
conductive goop down ther (after taping over the other pits with masking
tape). Worked first time both times, and couldn't be easier. Certainly
easier than pinmodding the things to get 13x and higher multipliers ...

 

[Winey]

Good friend you've got there. Are these Palomino or T'bred CPUs?

Yeah truly a good friend. I think they are T'bred. When I got them,
I spent a bit of time trying to figure that out from the codes on the
CPU, but I had to put all that away until now.

 

[boostland]

Yes I do have experience.
I have overclocked several cpus on several mainboards.
They allways overclock better with one cpu.
I have worked for over 10 years in R&.D.
I have used SGI and Cray systems since the late 80's. So I do have some
computer skills.
I also run a computer repair business, and I am not afraid to take a
soldering iron to a mainboard.
I have designed and programmed industrial control and data logging systems
as well.
So you could say I have some experience.

Be aware that cpus don't overclock as well in SMP as they do in a single cpu
board.

No doubt. Do you have any direct experience, or a URL to someone's
tests?

If was really, really interested in the best O/C I could squeeze out
of these CPUs, I would not try to run them dual.

But if everyone says that it's easy to get to say 140 or 145 (not to
be greedy) then I'll try for it and be happy with that.

x509

Philx509 wrote:

A long time ago, I bought two of these ASUS dual CPU boards,
intending to build up 2 new systems, for me and for my wife. But
"life happened" and the project didn't progress. Recently, I got 3
Althon XP 2000s and 4 Athlon XP 1900s from a friend whose company
didn't need these any more.
[...]
1. Did you overclock the CPUs? How much? Or if not, why not? Is it
worth the effort to overclock?

I'm picking up a MSI K7D-Master tomorrow (I would have loved to get an IWILL
MPX2, but I would have had to get it specially imported = $$$), and I'm
putting a couple of (unlocked) Barton 2500's in there. So I can't comment
directly on your setup, but I can say a bit about what I've done/thought
about. I've tested them individually and they run happily at 2200 MHz
(133x16.5) with a vcore of 1.7V so that's where they're probably going

to
be

on the K7D. There's a decent rise in single-cpu performance from 1833 to
2200, so I think it's worth doing. I'm also planning to crank up the

FSB
and

drop the multiplier once I see what the K7D is capable of.

2. What heat sink/fan did you buy? Which one would you buy today?

I forgot to mention that the CPUs that I got do not have heat sinks.
Therefore, even if I don't need "high performance," I still need
_something_, preferably quiet.

I'm currently running them (well, one at the moment) on a ThermalTake Silent
Boost. Basically a thin-fin copper heatsink with a quiet 80mm PanaFlo

fan
on

the top. I'm completely sold on these, both temperature and noise wise, but
then again I had a Volcano 7+ (on low) before, so perhaps I don't know what
quiet really is

3. Are there any "gotchas" with HS/F, either due to a tight fit or
some other reason? Were you brave enough to drill out the HS/F
mounting holes on the motherboard? Besides strong nerves, what is
needed to do this?

Yikes, I wouldn't ever drill holes in the motherboard! You never know what
traces are down there just waiting to to be cut. I'll find out tomorrow if
the Silent Boosts will fit, though from various pictures I'm pretty sure
they will.

4. Which power supply are you using? What would you buy today?

Hyena (ie: generic) 500W. It was either that or pay over three times as much
for a 400W Antec TruePower, and the current ratings seem to be OK. Again,
I'll find out tomorrow if it's capable of it ...

5. Do you use the onboard sound or do you have a PCI sound card?
Why?

Oops, hadn't thought about that ... hope the K7D has onboard otherwise I
might have to get me a el-cheapo PCI card ... I'm not into sound a lot in
case you didn't guess

6. Which brand and speed of memory? (overclocking?) How much RAM?

Generic non-registered PC2700, two sticks of 256. Board can only do 150 MHz
so the RAM should be fine (tested and can do CAS2 at this speed). More than
two sticks and you'd need registered, so I'm going to be at 512 for a while.

7. Which BIOS rev? Why?

Pass

8. How did you do the XP-to-MP conversion? Would you do it the same
way today or use a different approach?

Did it the easiest way there is Cleaned out the pit with methalated
spirits on a bit of cotton till it was nice and shiny, then stuffed some
conductive goop down ther (after taping over the other pits with masking
tape). Worked first time both times, and couldn't be easier. Certainly
easier than pinmodding the things to get 13x and higher multipliers ...

 

[Joe R]

The largest selection of info on 2 cpu's is here.
http://forums.2cpu.com/

Joe

A long time ago, I bought two of these ASUS dual CPU boards,
intending to build up 2 new systems, for me and for my wife. But
"life happened" and the project didn't progress. Recently, I got 3
Althon XP 2000s and 4 Athlon XP 1900s from a friend whose company
didn't need these any more.
[...]
1. Did you overclock the CPUs? How much? Or if not, why not? Is it
worth the effort to overclock?

[snip]

 

[Winey]

Yes I do have experience.
I have overclocked several cpus on several mainboards.
They allways overclock better with one cpu.
I have worked for over 10 years in R&.D.
I have used SGI and Cray systems since the late 80's. So I do have some
computer skills.

Duly noted.

I also run a computer repair business, and I am not afraid to take a
soldering iron to a mainboard.
I have designed and programmed industrial control and data logging systems
as well.
So you could say I have some experience.

Yes, and I'm pleased to see that you do have the expertise. Sometimes
someone who posts in these groups is just speculating. Obviously you
are not.

Be aware that cpus don't overclock as well in SMP as they do in a single cpu
board.

No doubt. Do you have any direct experience, or a URL to someone's
tests?

If was really, really interested in the best O/C I could squeeze out
of these CPUs, I would not try to run them dual.

But if everyone says that it's easy to get to say 140 or 145 (not to
be greedy) then I'll try for it and be happy with that.

x509

Philx509 wrote:

A long time ago, I bought two of these ASUS dual CPU boards,
intending to build up 2 new systems, for me and for my wife. But
"life happened" and the project didn't progress. Recently, I got 3
Althon XP 2000s and 4 Athlon XP 1900s from a friend whose company
didn't need these any more.
[...]
1. Did you overclock the CPUs? How much? Or if not, why not? Is it
worth the effort to overclock?

I'm picking up a MSI K7D-Master tomorrow (I would have loved to get an
IWILL
MPX2, but I would have had to get it specially imported = $$$), and I'm
putting a couple of (unlocked) Barton 2500's in there. So I can't comment
directly on your setup, but I can say a bit about what I've done/thought
about. I've tested them individually and they run happily at 2200 MHz
(133x16.5) with a vcore of 1.7V so that's where they're probably going to
be
on the K7D. There's a decent rise in single-cpu performance from 1833 to
2200, so I think it's worth doing. I'm also planning to crank up the FSB
and
drop the multiplier once I see what the K7D is capable of.

2. What heat sink/fan did you buy? Which one would you buy today?

I forgot to mention that the CPUs that I got do not have heat sinks.
Therefore, even if I don't need "high performance," I still need
_something_, preferably quiet.

I'm currently running them (well, one at the moment) on a ThermalTake
Silent
Boost. Basically a thin-fin copper heatsink with a quiet 80mm PanaFlo fan
on
the top. I'm completely sold on these, both temperature and noise wise,
but
then again I had a Volcano 7+ (on low) before, so perhaps I don't know
what
quiet really is

3. Are there any "gotchas" with HS/F, either due to a tight fit or
some other reason? Were you brave enough to drill out the HS/F
mounting holes on the motherboard? Besides strong nerves, what is
needed to do this?

Yikes, I wouldn't ever drill holes in the motherboard! You never know what
traces are down there just waiting to to be cut. I'll find out tomorrow if
the Silent Boosts will fit, though from various pictures I'm pretty sure
they will.

4. Which power supply are you using? What would you buy today?

Hyena (ie: generic) 500W. It was either that or pay over three times as
much
for a 400W Antec TruePower, and the current ratings seem to be OK. Again,
I'll find out tomorrow if it's capable of it ...

5. Do you use the onboard sound or do you have a PCI sound card?
Why?

Oops, hadn't thought about that ... hope the K7D has onboard otherwise I
might have to get me a el-cheapo PCI card ... I'm not into sound a lot in
case you didn't guess

6. Which brand and speed of memory? (overclocking?) How much RAM?

Generic non-registered PC2700, two sticks of 256. Board can only do 150
MHz
so the RAM should be fine (tested and can do CAS2 at this speed). More
than
two sticks and you'd need registered, so I'm going to be at 512 for a
while.

7. Which BIOS rev? Why?

Pass

8. How did you do the XP-to-MP conversion? Would you do it the same
way today or use a different approach?

Did it the easiest way there is Cleaned out the pit with methalated
spirits on a bit of cotton till it was nice and shiny, then stuffed some
conductive goop down ther (after taping over the other pits with masking
tape). Worked first time both times, and couldn't be easier. Certainly
easier than pinmodding the things to get 13x and higher multipliers ...

 

[Michael Brown]

Be aware that cpus don't overclock as well in SMP as they do in a
single cpu board.

Hehe, finally got the board up and running, and the opposite seems to be
true One of the chips would only do about 2133MHz at stock in on my
single CPU motherboard, but does does 2200 in the K7D at the same voltage
(according to MBM5). I might try upping it a bit more if Prime 95 goes
without any problems for another couple hours.

 

[boostland]

Some mainboards have better voltage regulation than others, and provide more
vcore to the cpu.
See what you can get out of each cpu in the K7D using only one of them, and
then try them both SMP you will find that you will have to drop the speed a
bit to get fully stable.
My Mpx2 gives cpu0 a bit more than cpu1, both from bios and MBM as well.
Prime can run stable by itself, but will fail when a 3d game is run at the
same time.
I can prime single cpu at 2325 @ 1.65v (on the worst cpu). But with both of
them I am back to 2210 @ 1.75v.