A quiet AMD 64 X2 based PC (March 2007)

This is an upgrade to my previous PC, mostly a new processor and a new mobo. And it still had to be quiet !!

From surfing the web this processor/mobo looked good for Linux compatability, but it took some time to get the configuration just right. The following notes may help you !!

Reasons for the Upgrade

Old, plus new parts bought (March 2007)

I had already the quieter PSU and case.

Case Chieftek Dragon 601 Midi Server ATX (mATX/uATX also fits). (Quite a large case, but this is good for air circulation, and allows space for the acoustic padding inside.)
Case sound-dampening NB-EvolutionEQ Platinum ready-fitted to the case by supplier
PSU Seasonic S12 330 ATX / 330W / 12cm fan (variable speed) / ?dB / "up to" 80% efficient
Motherboard Asus M2NBP-VM CSM mATX / DVI/VGA / chipset: NVIDIA nForce 430B / sound: ADI AD1986A / Ethernet: NVIDIA nForce 430B / 2xIDE (i.e. 4 drives) / 4xSATA2 / USB2.0 / ...
CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core / 2 x 2.4GHz Model: 4600+ / Windsor core / "Thermal Power" 65W / Socket AM2
CPU heatsink Scythe Ninja Plus revision B heatsink *large* finned heatsink; run passively but the 12cm case fan and the PSU fan are very close to it
Rear case fan Smartcooler LFM1512E 120mm 120mm / 70 m3/h / 15 dbA / 1000rpm
Disk drives New main disk: Samsung SpinPoint T133 HD403LJ SATA2 (400Gb) / second disk: Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA (160Gb) / DVD/CD-R/RW: Samsung SH-S183A (SATA) and keep old floppy drive !
Started with stock AMD CPU aluminium finned heatsink and 70mm fan.

OS test

Booted first time into Gentoo Linux (2006.1) and Ubuntu live/install disks :-). Both installed to hard disk and work fine.

No software problems so far on Gentoo (but not exhaustively tested) (with current stable kernel 2.6.19-gentoo-r5):

CPU: AMD64 X2 SMP/64bits enabled in kernel
Onboard graphics: NVIDIA Quadro NVS 210S Xorg 7.1 / NVIDIA drivers 1.0.9755 works fine - only DVI tested
- Xorg 7.1 nv driver does not work (device not recognised) but NVIDIA drivers fine
Serial ATA (SATA) hard disk and DVD drive libata, sata_nv, IDE support disabled - harddisks: /dev/sdX, DVD drive: /dev/srX
- SATA CD/DVD burning: avg 7.1 for a full DVD (1385KBps, nearly max. SATA1 ?)
Onboard LAN: NVIDIA nForce 430B Gigabit forcedeth.ko Works fine, but only supports up to 100Mbit ? (I have no other 1Gbit devices so I can not verify this)
Temp / fan speed sensors: ITE 8716 and k8temp (Kernel config and lm_sensors 2.10.1) i2c_core.ko it87.ko i2c_isa.ko eeprom.ko i2c_nforce2.ko hwmon.ko k8temp.ko
update 17/12/09: now using new kernel module asus_atk0110 in 2.6.31
- Not sure yet what the different temperatures are (k8temp is measuring the "on-die" temps, it8716 gives "CPU" and "mobo" temps.)
- "sensors-detect" script worked fine (update 17/12/09: lm_sensors not required now)
- Cool n quiet: works fine: "ondemend" reduces idle power comsumption of the PC from 78 to 69 watts (reduces freq. from 2.4 to 1.0 GHz)
Onboard sound: ADI AD1986A hda-intel.ko / OSS support disabled / ALSA driver 1.0.14 Audio out works using hda-intel.ko, *not* the generic intel8x0.ko given on the ALSA Project supported card matrix when I looked (generic nVidia entry). Later kernels (eg 2.6.25) need CONFIG_SND_HDA_INTEL and CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_ANALOG. Later kernels again the modules are snd_hda_intel, snd_hda_codec, snd_hda_codec_analog.
USB ohci_hcd.ko / ehci_hcd.ko some problems 1.1 vs 2.0 (to expand) (OK now in 2.6.22 ?)

Detailed Linux kernel config file, lspci output etc here.

First Impressions

Temperatures / fan speed

Stock AMD CPU heatsink and fan and 12cm case fan: both fans controlled by the BIOS based Q-Fan 2. CPU core on-die temperatures measured by k8temp/lm_sensors, fan speeds measured by it8716/lm_sensors.

Measurement CPU fan Case fan Temperature (Core 0 / Core 1)
Room temperature - - 21 degrees
Low CPU usage: surfing, emails, editing 1500rpm (3/4 speed) 450rpm (1/2 speed) 43 / 38 degrees
Long compile or large rsync 2000rpm (?full speed) 450rpm (1/2 speed) 50 / 48 degrees

Scythe Ninja Plus revision B heatsink, 12cm case fan controlled as CPU fan by the BIOS based Q-Fan 2. CPU core on-die temperatures measured by k8temp/lm_sensors, fan speeds measured by it8716/lm_sensors.

Measurement Case fan (run as CPU fan) Temperature (Core 0 / Core 1) Power at wall socket
Room temperature - 22 degrees 0 watts
Low CPU usage: surfing, emails, editing 540rpm (1/2 speed) 45 / 42 degrees 78 watts
Low CPU usage, Cool n Quiet now enabled - - 69 watts
Long compile: both cores at 100% (3 compiler processes running) 903rpm (max? speed) 57 / 56 degrees 116 watts

Note: AMD specs for my CPU: "Tcase Max" 55-72C, "Tcontrol Max" 70C.
Power: for tower only (incl 2xSATA disk, USB external display, no Cool'n'Quiet yet), not including monitor or router power.

Links

Shops

I bought all the bits from these German web-shops (all gave very good service):

Review Sites


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