ianmknight

Wevsspot, Repr again many thanks for both your input. And well I guess my question is answered if I want to double my CPU speed today inasmuch as Intel looks the best for raw cpu speed and I guess the extra Cache will have a goodly improvment as well. As a final point as my application requirement is not be to far from what the FOLDING and SETI guys need what are top of the benches for thoes apps. Again many thanks for your input and by the way which 775 DDR? Mobo are you recommending? IMK

So Repr many thanks for your input and well to cover a cople of points the issue of core numbers above two is little pointless in my situation and as my math model stuff is single threaded and I am not going to re-write it for multi-threading. (So one core running flat out and the other mostly idle doing some I/O etc.) But many thanks for the advice re 775 I had not realised that it was on its way in twelve or so, also given what you say about ddr2/ddr3 speed v latence then it seems much of a muchness which one to go at this time other than ddr3 investment may have a longer life should I find I move back to AM3. I guess the really question should then be "does anyone have any idea of AM3 core speed and cache size are the going to be hits 5Ghz"? Again many thanks IMK

So at a glance this seems like a no brainer but I thought I would ask just in case I had missed something. Should I go for Intel E8500 or 6400+ AM2 and the associated up grade paths. Currently I have a very nice 939 setup, Dfi venus, Opty 170 at 275x10 and 1gb Gskill RAM at ddr550. This system is just about ok for my needs at this time as I run mathematical models that take hours but I need some extra RAM as some of them are so large the system starts swapping and thing slow down. However I been unable to buy any more new ddr550 as it as just disappeared from the market and the second user stuff I have purchased as been overclocked to death and is just basically flaky. So I figure the best way out is to upgrade to either AMD AM2 6400 and 2GB of DDR2 or Intel E8500 and DDR3. The but is, that I feel the upgrade path for the Intel solution is easier as it is just to wait for newer faster E8xxx CPU’s, but the AMD path is upgrade to AM2+ then change motherboards again to AM3 DDR3 next year. Or have I mist something? Many thanks IMK

Hello About a two months ago I got fed up with the amount of fan noise from my system and decided to replace my system fans with some 120mm, and to remove the Chip Set Fan and replace it with a home made passive heat pipe one based on a CPU cooler. So I pulled the system apart most carefully, removing all cables and lifted the Venus MoBo out of the case but left the RAM, CPU and it cooler mounted on the Mobo intact as I did not need to touch them, and fitted the new Chip Set cooler. Cleaned up the case, moved a couple of drives about for better air flow, fitted the new 120mm case fans and put it all back together again most carefully. However when I tried to start-up the system it would not boot, I double checked everything and tried again but still no boot. So I cleared the CMOS and went back to NONE overclocked default setting, tried to boot again and the system came up and ran fine. So I started to overclock and found that now no matter what I try I can not get the CPU to go beyond 2520 MHz where before the system rebuild it worked all-day every day without a hitch or crash at 2800 MHz at vcore of 1.35 . Now I know you may think that I have mist something but I kept very careful notes of the original overclock, pages of them with all the result at various speeds being well recorded. (By the way the chip set now runs a couple degrees cooler, and is silent so I don't think I have caused any damage there) Any Ideas please many thanks in advance IMK This is the system as of today BUT with its previous 100% stable overclock Enermax NoiseTakerEG701AX DFi Venus Ser. #079 CPU Opertron 170 280*10=2800 full load temp 53c Vcore 1.35 Zalman 9500 G.Skill 2x512MB TCCD DDR550 at 560 2.5,3,3,7

Hello About a two weeks ago I got fed up with the amount of fan noise from my system and decided to replace my system fans with some 120mm, and to remove the Chip Set Fan and replace it with a home made passive heat pipe one based on a CPU cooler. So I pulled the system apart most carefully, removing all cables and lifted the Venus MoBo out of the case but left the RAM, CPU and it cooler mounted on the Mobo intact as I did not need to touch them, and fitted the new Chip Set cooler. Cleaned up the case, moved a couple of drives about for better air flow, fitted the new 120mm case fans and put it all back together again most carefully. However when I tried to start-up the system it would not boot, I double checked everything and tried again but still no boot. So I cleared the CMOS and went back to NONE overclocked default setting, tried to boot again and the system came up and ran fine. So I started to overclock and found that now no matter what I try I can not get the CPU to go beyond 2520 MHz where before the system rebuild it worked all-day every day without a hitch or crash at 2800 MHz at vcore of 1.35 . Now I know you may think that I have mist something but I kept very careful notes of the original overclock, pages of them with all the result at various speed being well recorded. By the way the chip set now runs a couple degrees cooler, and is silent Any Ideas please many thanks in advance IMK

Hello, I have a stable OC in my Venus with an Opteron 170 at 1.35 Vcore running at 2.8x10=2800, with a 1Gb pair of G.Skill 550 F1/LE’s at DDR560 T1,2.5,4,3,7. 2.7 VDIMM. (SIMM 2/4) Working 100% stable all day every day. So today I added an extra 1Gb pair of G.Skill 550 F1/LE’s and not only wont the system run at my OC but it won’t even run at 2.0x10=2000 DDR400. With no other changes than the FSB reduced. I have tested both pairs of simms at my OC and as 1Gb sets they are fine in either SIMM 1/3 or 2/4) but as 2Gb they show errors in MemTest386 or Crash XP. Any ideas please. Many thanks in advance IMK

Hello, Anyone know where you can buy the COMM port header/cable/back platel for the expert/venus MoBo in the UK. Many thanks IMK

Hello, Does anyone know if SATA drives are hot swappable, inasmuch as can I plug in power and SATA interface to a disk on a running system. Brgds IMK

Just to let you all know, I managed to recover all the data as anly the MBR and partition table had been screwed up by this RAID10/0+1 problem. I am going back to my orignal solution that has worked for many years. So I going to find myself/or write a nice little automatic backup util.. All the bast IMK

Fixed by installing the util and drivers from the DFi Venus link,, Beware of the downloads on the SilImages site..

Hello, DFi venus I configured it in the bioa for raid 10 (0+1) with for disks, installed the drivers (3114r_x86_10150_logo.zip) and the system works just fine. So I downloaded the Java_SATARaid_GUI_v1.22.zip and installed it. However when I run it XP crashes, then reboot and crashes... Endless loop.. So I have had to run in safe mode. Can you help please. IMK

If you are considering a RAID read this and make sure you have an external backup of your system/important files. Background: I have a three disk system: SATA Raptor 70gb as Boot Disk C: SATA Raptor 70Gb as my software development disk.. (All this stuff I am currently working on YEARS OF WORK) D: SATA WD1600 for my download stuff (drivers, small application bought on line, all my digital pictures etc) PLUS A BACKUP OF THE D: DISK (Development software) E: These disks are plugged in to the nVidia controller in my Expert/Venus. Most Friday’s I do a drag and drop of my D: development software disk to the E:. This provides me with a simple and very effective backup of the software I develop. About every month or so, I save this backup E: disk to my old standby PC. This gives me a second backup of the development software and a first backup of all the other stuff.. Ok, so this is not a glamorous solution, it is a bit of a pain also and in the heat of life sometimes one of the backup cycles gets skipped and I am out by a couple of weeks or month… So I decided to implement a RAID solutions, I found on that ONLINE AUCTION web site some new WD400 40GB disks at a bargain price, five disks for less than the price of a single 70 gb raptor. So I installed four of these to the 3114 SilImage control and set them up as a mirrored strip. (RAID10 two strips that are mirrored) This gave me an 80 gb RAID array, that by all accounts should be fast and RELIABLE. After much testing and benching it turns out to be overall much faster than a single 70gb raptor, although the seek time is a little slower. Next I unplug my current single disks (CDE) from the nVidia control, installed these four WD400 on the nVidia and set it up as a RAID10, installed XP and did some more benching to see if the nVidia RAID10 was any better than the 3114. (It was about the same) So with all this new knowledge I decided to setup the system with a SilImage 3114 RAID10 for my development software D: disk, as it was fast and supposed to be secure. Then use the pair of raptors as a RAID1 boot disk. And a pair of WD1600 RAID1 for all my other stuff, both of these RAID1’s to be on the nVidia. This is where it all goes wrong So I powered off, moved all the disks to there original controllers and ports. Four WD400 to the 3114, and the two raptor 70’s and WD1600 to the nVidia, AND DISABLED THE Nvida RAID10 in the bios. As expected the system came up in it original configuration and worked perfectly. I copied my development files (current D: disk) to the RAID10 (X: disk) with out problem. So I thought as all my development software is currently safe on my D: disk and backed up to the E: I would test out the RAID10 on the 3114. So I powered off, unpluged one of the RAID10 disks and powered on again. I saw in the BIOS boot display that a disk was missing from the RAID10 but when Windows booted no error was reported to say part of the RAID10 had failed. I looked at the data on the RAID10 and it was OK also the D: and E: where fine. So I powered off, pluged in the RAID10 disk I had removed and started the system up again. The XP boot was slower than normal and seemed to have a lot more disk activity. However, when XP had booted the RAID10 X: disk had completely lost the development files I had copied to it. Also, and this is the REALLY BAD NEWS, the raptor d: and the wd1600 f: where also corrupted/destroyed. So much so that they reported as not formatted RAW disks. What I think has happened is that XP or some driver saw the faulty RAID10 x: disk on the 3114 and tried to fix the NOW REMOVED RAID10 on the nVidia, the result was that every has been lost, on the D:,E and X: disks I am currently working with the good people at BootMaster to try to recover all my lost data and year of development work. Wish me luck IMK

Hello, I have for sale a retail boxed one year old with warrenty/fan etc. Athlon64 3700+ San Diago Core CPU. I have run this CPU for about a year at 2700Mhz at 1.6 vcore, In a DFi Ultra D Nf4 MB, with 1Gb of OCZ Gold Rev3 RAM this OC'ed to 480 DDR, and Artic Freezer 64. The RAM, MoBo and Freezer are also for sale. I have not set a price for any of this as would just like to offer these items to viewer of this forum, because I know I'm am dealing with good OC'ers before I risk all and go the the online auctions Mmmmm. These items have all worked 100% together with a Antec Neo 480w (this is not for sale). I am only selling because I found a new Venus and a nice Opteron. I am in the UK and would like to post to UK but will ship world wide if asked. All the best to all IMK

Hello, (NF4 Venus/Expert System) Though I would do some RAID0+1 and RAID5 testing. I have installed 4 NEW WD400 40gb drives on the SI3114 controller set them up in the BIOS as RAID10 in the SI3114 config to create the RAID put the XP CD in booted from CD and started to install XP did F6 and installed the drives etc. However when XP install come to the install part where you select to format the disk, XP install pops up a message that says "can't find a disk to install XP on" and quites. Any ideas please? Tried it a couple of times and same proble. Also is RAID10 selection in the BIOS as RAID0+1 that this controller is surposed to support or have I mist somthing? I did go on to do a 4 disk RAID5 and this works no trouble first, although very slow at first, after two hours of sycning its not to bad a mean read of 50mbs...I know RAID 0+1 will be quicker but how do you set it up. Many thanks in advance IMK Opppsssssssss Forgot to install SI3114 RAID 5 driver.... Yap you need to install this drivers for other RAID types on the 3114.. Been a long day.. works just fine and 96mbs 4xwd400 (40gs) = 70gb drive in RAID10... And real cheap at 75UKL for four drives

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/7300_Series.html (~70UKL)