Free CPU improvement!

[Hokiefyd]

I found a computer at work today that appeared to have an AMD processor, and when I popped off the heat sink and wiped the heat transfer paste away, I saw that it was a Windsor 5000+, just like mine at home, but 5000+ instead of 3800+ (2.6 GHz vs. 2.0 GHz).

Since both have the same TDP (89W), I assumed that either would run at about the same temperature, and they sort of do. Normal temps on the 3800+ where in the 25-35C range, and the 5000+ idles at least as cool (17 and 28C in the two cores right now), and spiked up to about 50C during the Windows Experience Index evaluation. In which, by the way, almost all numbers improved; notably, the processor rating went from 4.9 to 5.6.

Nice, especially for free! Now my humble little Dell Dimension E521 from 2006 sports 2.6 GHz of raw, dual core power, baby. And with 4 GB of DDR2, it runs Win 7 beautifully. MS Office apps open, quite literally, with a snap of a finger.

 

[PandaBear]

Same generation silicon usually are identical other than minor "fixes" over time, but even if they have the same TDP (worst case temperature) they will run at different temperature depends on the frequency (minor difference) and voltage (big difference).

I'd not brag about swapping work and home computer parts. If you get caught they can easily fire you.

 

[antiqueshell]

So did your employer give you permission to take that processor home or did you "steal" it?

 

[Hokiefyd]

Okay, I didn't steal this equipment (or swap anything).

I work in an office that processes all sorts of waste, including hazardous waste, non-hazardous waste, electronic waste, etc. These computers come in for disposal. That's what I mean when I say, "I got this from work".

I'm sure it would surprise nobody here to see what people throw out. The video card in my computer at home came from a machine thrown away, I've gotten a lot of DDR2 RAM, numerous HDDs, etc. The main reason I periodically peek out there is because our church's computers are old and I've been able to rebuild three different fairly good machines for near nothing.

 

[SLCraig]

All you need now is an SSD to make that machine feel like new. (If it has SATA ports)

 

[Nick R]

Originally Posted By: SLCraig
All you need now is an SSD to make that machine feel like new. (If it has SATA ports)


This is what I was going to say. Pick up a Crucial m4 64GB SSD. It's worth it.

 

[Rand]

samsung 830 or crucial m4.. seems to be the best right now.

I'm sure we will see something newer and better soon.

the new intel sandforce based ones seems interesting.. a year of testing to make sure it does not have firmware/bugs = better than the rest of the sandforce based ssd's with issues

 

[Hokiefyd]

It is fully SATA. No IDE at all on this board.

Crucial M4 seems to be the drive of choice. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks.

Edit: I should ask...are SSDs sensitive to temperature? Or maybe they're even less sensitive than mechanical drives? I ask because this is a BTX case with relatively little airflow over the drives (I have two right now). They typically run in the 30-45C range.

Edit2: it's not possible for a CPU to run cooler than ambient, is it? HWMonitor reports temperatures for Core #0 and Core #1. Right now, Core #0 is sitting at 16C and Core #1 is at 27C. Interior ambient is 22C. I have read about certain Brisbane chips having faulty thermisters, but I haven't read that about the Windsors.

 

[Nick R]

It's faulty sensors, indeed it is impossible for it to run cooler than ambient, without specialized cooling. You want to look at the Motherboard CPU temp reporter, not the individual CPU cores. Which can't be possible because pre-bulldozer AMD chips only have one temp snesor iirc.

Also no, SSD are actually more duable than Mechanical HDDs. They withstand a wider range of temps, better. Plus, they usually only draw a few watts max, so they barely put out any heat at all.

 

[Rick in PA]

Sweet, I like deals like that!

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
Edit: I should ask...are SSDs sensitive to temperature? Or maybe they're even less sensitive than mechanical drives? I ask because this is a BTX case with relatively little airflow over the drives (I have two right now). They typically run in the 30-45C range.


The NAND chips are usually designed to tolerate pretty high temperature. Not as high as 80C in the old days, but 60C should be no problem.

Mechanical drive is designed to tolerate up to 55C, 30-45C is nothing.

Quote:
Edit2: it's not possible for a CPU to run cooler than ambient, is it? HWMonitor reports temperatures for Core #0 and Core #1. Right now, Core #0 is sitting at 16C and Core #1 is at 27C. Interior ambient is 22C. I have read about certain Brisbane chips having faulty thermisters, but I haven't read that about the Windsors.


Not with passive cooling and the colder side being ambient air. If you water cool and use cooler than ambient water, or use heat pump / AC type cooling, yes it is possible, but you need more than just a heatsink and a fan.

 

[acceptablename]

This is a great idea. I should rip the AMD radeon 4550s off the computers at my university library and put them all in my pooter.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: acceptablename
This is a great idea. I should rip the AMD radeon 4550s off the computers at my university library and put them all in my pooter.


You may have missed this post.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: Nick R
You want to look at the Motherboard CPU temp reporter, not the individual CPU cores. Which can't be possible because pre-bulldozer AMD chips only have one temp snesor iirc.


Hi Nick. My motherboard either doesn't report it or Dell has some proprietary way of coding the information. HWMonitor doesn't see any temperature on the computer besides the two CPU cores, the two HD temps, and the GPU temp. The motherboard BIOS also doesn't report the temperature, as I've seen on some other BIOS programs. I've also used Speedfan before, and it doesn't seem to report a motherboard temperature either.

Is it likely that this 2006 Dell motherboard simply doesn't report the temperature to the user?

 

[acceptablename]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
Originally Posted By: acceptablename
This is a great idea. I should rip the AMD radeon 4550s off the computers at my university library and put them all in my pooter.


You may have missed this post.


No, I saw it. It's just fun to troll

 

[ProStreetCamaro]

You jumped up 600mhz but it is still slowwwwwww by todays standards. Just for example if it takes you 4 hours to render an HD video it will take me 30 minutes.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Most of we do is internet/email with it, and I track our home budget on Excel. Honestly, it has way more power than what we use, but it's still fun to tinker with it.

Our next computer will likely be a super small form factor with a light weight processor.

 

[Rand]

I'd suggest a cheap laptop. you can always hook a monitor keyboard and mouse to it.. and its also portable if that has any usefulness for you.

microcenter has a 279$ sandybrige celeron b815 thats fairly amazing. at that price point.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Rand, you're very right. In fact, our 5-year-old Compaq Presario C300 (Celeron M 1.7 GHz) already does what we need. Nice widescreen display (15.4" I think), large keyboard to type on, and a few USB ports for external drives/mice. And I've upgraded it to 32-bit Win7, and it runs very well on that laptop.

The only thing keeping me from buying a super cheap laptop is not the slow(er) processor, but the other components which are likely also cheaper (screen quality, hinge quality, etc).