Rev F Dual Dual core Opteron Quad SLI

[Venturi]

Since the NDA is lifted here are a few comments and pics on my new rev F opteron build.

Dual Opteron Dual Core 2218s
Tyan s2915
Quad SLI (2) 7950 XFX 570/1550
16GB Ram DDR-2 ECC Reg
6 terabytes (8x750GB drives) Raid ex8350 pci-e controller
Dual linked 750W power supplies
Apple 30" Cinema LCD at 2560x1600
Windows Enterprise Server 2003 64-bit
Suse 10.1 64-bit
Stacker CM server case
Deck Legend Keyboard


























I did some really careful comparisons between the opteron F and the Woodcrest. Rather than inviting a debate hear over one another, in my humble opinion I selecte the opteron F platform.

Currently using a pre-release 91.47 64-bit beta driver for quad SLI.

Its running windows server 2003 64-bit. There are a few cusatomizations to the OS to tweak it well past the performance of xp 32 and 64.

No errant unnecesarry services, the correct drivers, correct video and mb bioses, PLL clocks, correct harware settings, all the normal HKLM tweaks in memory manager/session manager, L2 Cache definitions, IO holds, paging, remove performance counters, file attribute monikers, page file removal, ram optimizations, disc optimizations, remove ctf.mon, mdm.exe, cgdss, wmi (etc etc. pages worth of the normal stuff, that's why it takes a few hours to get an OS configured correctly)

I'm assuming that games were prepped accordingly:
As much as eye candy as possible at the largest resolution possible, then game optimizations such as sata r_smp 1, cache, megs, mink, LOD, perf, text attrb, pre-loads, clamp, etc etc.


2nd. A friend of mine built a 16GB woodcrest and we benched it against the rev f. We found that if we ran the tests with 2 or 4 GB of ram, the woodcrest outperformed the rev F, by less than 2%. When we added video tests, 16gb of ram, and some general openGl games, the rev F was ahead by almost 11% in doom3, quake4, prey and Painkiller BOH. His build had dual pci-e slots but we don't think they go to 16x, and we could not get the 7950s to ever get recognized for Quad SLI. Using the 91.47 driver or the 91.31 driver.

In honesty, we ran the games at a resolution too high (2560x1600) to really point to cpu bottlenecks, the only real conclusion was that the a single 7950 ran games 11% faster than it did on Woodcrest.

As for professional apps that are not dependent on the 3d graphics cards. We did the photoshop test (same one in the multiprocessor forum at HardOCP) where an image is re rendered under the actions settings, the test is a time to complete evaluation.

The Opterons 285, same amount of ram (16), 24.9 seconds
Woodcrest, same amount of ram (16), 44 seconds
Rev F Opterons, same amount of ram (16), 21.1 seconds.

For that test, ram is relativly critical, so maybe that is not a fair test for Woodcrest. In addition, NUMA seems to shine on the rev F, but I have not seen it of benefit to the woodcrest and I'm not even sure if it is supported by woodcrest.

Last, all tests are performed with Windows 2003 Ent Srv 64-bit.

So, I'm sure that Woodcrests is a formidable competitor; I approached the project with the attitude of "1st, if money was an object, which platform will do high level computing, databases, and games better? ..and which would have the gratest upgradability without replacing the motherboard or reloading the OS? 2nd, which platform would run OpenGL better? Quad SLI? Quad cores? 3rd, which platform can run the quietest without invoking watercooling?

Wood crest was indeed attractive on many levels, but on my own personal score sheet, the ref F opterons seemed to win. That is only my humble opinion, it does not mean that the woodcrest is not a better choice for others.


Memory bandwith:

[MUYA]

MAn cheers for the quick summary..but boy do you have a lot of moolah to be throwing stuff on. Donate me a spare GX2 if u have one lying around

[Venturi]

Sorry Muya, the spare GX2 was in the prior rig I just gave away.... LOL

[Roadhog]

wow... nice system... I think I just wet myself a bit.

[Roadhog]

Originally Posted by XServer

even for AUTOCAD it a waste of money his machine is nice, just think it a waste. I am a Engineer myseft but this guy just throw away a lot of money, and is posting pic of this machine on the wrong and from reading his post and seeing what harddrive he using seagate 750 drives he using this mostly for gaming and those drive got to go go with SCSI Enterprise level drives, they are faster and last longer. And a large Enterprise machine in your home ? Occupation:Medical WHAT THE HELL WOULD YOU NEED TO DO TO USE THIS MACHINE.

what he does with the medical stuff really puts his machine to use. Plus, why do you seem to care so much? Its his money he can buy what he wants with it.

[Roadhog]

Originally Posted by XServer

A lot of people in this forums I know want a different built and think they need it because of this guy this it not the place to post a server on here a gaming machine yes, if I know we could post server on here I would have posted all 3 of mines on here, but I don't because of respect of everyone else machines and for medical stuff you don't need this at all, I know i setup offices all the time.

Uhh, I dont see anywhere where it says you cant post about your server? This is posted in the general hardware and he is clearly talking about the new opterons. But you are to busy ripping on him about his hd's to pay attention.

[XServer]

Originally Posted by Roadhog

he is clearly talking about the new opterons. But you are to busy ripping on him about his hd's to pay attention.

rev F Opteron are nice didn't complain about that but for the machine he sure have when with SCSI 320 drives instead.

[rflair]

Venturi I always love seeing your system, nice job and thanks for your little personal benchmarks.

[XServer]

Sorry for the ripping early, you do use this as a server saw it on 2cpu.com. but need to now where you got those Dual linked 750W power supplies, planning on builting a new rig soon with those Rev F Dual core Opteron and two 7950 GX2

[spoop]

Wow, thats an awesome rig.

[Roliath]

Wow, nice rig there. What are the volts and clocks on those optys?
And, personally I liked your lian li better but this one aint too bad either :-)

EDIT: And if i'm not mistaken, doesn't Venturi use this for radiology?

[XServer]

lian li was a better looking case, but last pic of his case second power supply wasn't screw into case.