Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

^because they're "rare". They have a "leaked" feel, like contraband. Kinda like if one had an EV1 that didn't get crushed or disabled... practical, no; rare and unique, yes.

Due to V5.2 being unstable, I've been running this one to do stuff. It's very stable and running well. 99.9% sure the ES CPUs were to blame... who cares, it's working, so I'm not complaining.

4GB modules are getting cheap:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dataram-6335...torefresh=true

I saw another listing for $3 shipped but there were only 3 left. I best offered ^ instead. Edit- I was able to offer them down to $4 a pop... Still, $16 shipped isn't too bad.

This thing can run them; 4 of them would be 8 ranks and the max of 16GB (I have 8GB currently). For under $20 (and potentially under $15) that's pretty nice. Doesn't compare to the 32GB (64GB max) of V5.2, but for what this will be doing 16GB is plenty.

[kc8adu]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

yes es cpu's can be a mixed bag.
i have some that are super overclockers and 24/7/365 stable.
and some that are barely runnable at stock.
they often have lots of unpatched issues too.
not sure why folks pay stupid money for them.as in more than a production part.

[Topcat]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

ES CPU's while not locked are not the cream of the crop. They are stepchild's of what is to come. As you said yourself "Engineering samples: fun to play with, not so fun to use on a daily basis". Bragging because they are not common is ok when it matters. In this case it does not, these are shit and you got suckered into the Engineering Sample Drama. Stop spending your money on shit already now that you have job and no longer are freeloaded on the government you should wake up.

LOL....did you miss your bran muffin this morning?!

Yes, you are correct about engineering samples... They are not the cat's ass they are hyped up to be, but like RD mentioned, a lot of fun to play around with.

They were given to me, I had fun with them, and passed them onto RD.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

ES CPU's while not locked are not the cream of the crop. They are stepchild's of what is to come. As you said yourself "Engineering samples: fun to play with, not so fun to use on a daily basis". Bragging because they are not common is ok when it matters. In this case it does not, these are shit and you got suckered into the Engineering Sample Drama. Stop spending your money on shit already now that you have job and no longer are freeloaded on the government you should wake up.

They were a GIFT. From Topcat no less. I never was a freeloader on the government by the way... other than tax refunds, I wasn't on welfare or medicaid.

[brethin]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

ES CPU's while not locked are not the cream of the crop. They are stepchild's of what is to come. As you said yourself "Engineering samples: fun to play with, not so fun to use on a daily basis". Bragging because they are not common is ok when it matters. In this case it does not, these are shit and you got suckered into the Engineering Sample Drama. Stop spending your money on shit already now that you have job and no longer are freeloaded on the government you should wake up.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

BTW, here's a pic of the engineering sample CPUs:



Engineering samples: fun to play with, not so fun to use on a daily basis.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

It's been pretty stable from my limited testing... Run a few days straight without any BSODs (or mystery reboots). I did one hiccup but that was due to S3 sleep being enabled (bad idea for HW RAID cards as I've found out).

Seems like the issue was quirky CPUs... cool chips indeed, but not stable...

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

They're finally starting to break that barrier (with multi-core CPUs), the I7-4790k and I7-6700k both come with a stock (non-turbo) frequency of 4GHZ (and 88w and 91w TDPs), the 220w space-heater that is the AMD FX-9590 comes with a stock frequency of 4.7GHZ

Damn. Having taken a couple of relevant classes in college that's no easy feat (as at those frequencies one must use analog/RF design methods even though the processors are obviously digital).

---

CPUs came in today... so far, so good, the issues I had before are gone. Time will tell if it will behave or not...

[dmill89]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

Scored the CPUs for $24 shipped (both CPUs). These are actually faster, as the 3.8 was a later version (3.6 was the fastest at launch, hence why that's what the engineering samples were). Also in terms of stock clock frequency this is one of the fastest CPUs ever made, as 3.8GHz was as far as anybody dared to go out of the box (the 4Ghz Barrier as they say). Hence why multi-core CPUs became the new trend. That's your CPU history lesson for the day, lol.

They're finally starting to break that barrier (with multi-core CPUs), the I7-4790k and I7-6700k both come with a stock (non-turbo) frequency of 4GHZ (and 88w and 91w TDPs), the 220w space-heater that is the AMD FX-9590 comes with a stock frequency of 4.7GHZ

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

Scored the CPUs for $24 shipped (both CPUs). These are actually faster, as the 3.8 was a later version (3.6 was the fastest at launch, hence why that's what the engineering samples were). Also in terms of stock clock frequency this is one of the fastest CPUs ever made, as 3.8GHz was as far as anybody dared to go out of the box (the 4Ghz Barrier as they say). Hence why multi-core CPUs became the new trend. That's your CPU history lesson for the day, lol.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

Just bury this one as a dead soldier now that you have V5.

Umm no. V3.5 was faster too... The only reason it's a higher number is because it was a later purchase (cheap ebay score) and Topcat more or less gave the number (originally it didn't have one since it broke the number scheme).

The CPUs I found are cheap enough and given a known good set of HDDs (and controller, since other known good controllers caused the same issue), Good tested RAM (as per memtest86), and no other culprits, I'm thinking it's either CPUs or mobo. I do have a spare board though (one known bad USB header channel) so even if the board is the issue I at least have a means of recourse...

That said it, like my two gallatin rigs, it isn't currently in use but I do have future plans once I have an actual house. It was to become either a 2nd main workstation (for my wife perhaps?) or perhaps a workshop/garage computer.

[brethin]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

Just bury this one as a dead soldier now that you have V5.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

Whatever caused the blue screen also nuked my fresh install, as it instantly BSODs on bootup. Before it crashed during testing Windows activation would crash. Something isn't happy, that's for sure.

Here's what I got from the BIOS hardware monitor after trying and failing with the various startup repair utilities built into 7:



(clearly startup repair only used the first CPU)



Vcore looks good? I didn't see much in the way of fluctuations, and all the caps are good on the mobo (It's a freaking supermicro after all). FWIW the nominal Vcore for Irwindales is 1.25–1.3875 V.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

Did some testing with a different set of HDDs (the 74GB raptors from Main rig V2.0/V3.0/V3.5/V5.0) and it crashed again.

I didn't recall the nocona's that came in it doing that... but that was on a different (nearly identical) board though.

I suspect the issue is the CPUs... I've put in an offer on a pair of 3.8GHz ones (SL7ZB). In the mean time, I didn't look for vcore readings but I'll nab some real quick and post them as a reply.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

No clue. Outta town until the week after next.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

Umm ok?

I'm running 3.6GHz Xeon Irwindales, Engineering samples. Would that be the issue (the engineering sample part, that is)?

The system was a barebones with a beefy 650W Ablecom (supermicro) PSU and all power connections populated. My GPU is a Geforce 9800GT that uses no external power connector; it's one of these, which I hear draws pretty close to the max 75W under stress, which the system isn't under when the BSOD happens.

I dunno. Does the any of your Vcore readings look like any undervolting going on?

I bet a system with that error also has Prime95 and Linpack failing.
(Which is just a confirmation of the CPU flunking math.)

For some reason, Windows likes to report "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" when the CPU flipped bits randomly, for me.

But, never had that with a stocker! Something's real wrong, with them at stock!

While OTOH, a "WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR" BSOD on a Core 2 Quad is most likely the darn FSB termination issue.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

Usually unstable core(s). Looks like not enough Vcore or OC'ed too much.
Linpack can fail with that code as well.

My darn T-bird 900 @ 1050 used to give me that BSOD.

Umm ok?

I'm running 3.6GHz Xeon Irwindales, Engineering samples. Would that be the issue (the engineering sample part, that is)?

The system was a barebones with a beefy 650W Ablecom (supermicro) PSU and all power connections populated. My GPU is a Geforce 9800GT that uses no external power connector; it's one of these, which I hear draws pretty close to the max 75W under stress, which the system isn't under when the BSOD happens.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

the error on the bsod:

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

Usually unstable core(s). Looks like not enough Vcore or OC'ed too much.
Linpack can fail with that code as well.

My darn T-bird 900 @ 1050 used to give me that BSOD.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

What are you doing still up, I thought I was the only night owl.

Nope. I hate mornings.

[rhomanski]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

What are you doing still up, I thought I was the only night owl.