Opteron evaluation, part 1: Hardware selection

Juli 2003

Introduction

Some time ago I decided to build a new pc. This machine will be primarily used for software development, using Visual Studio 2003. In order to minimize compilation times, the machine should be as fast as possible.

It should have a 64-bit processor because I expect that software development will migrate to 64-bit systems in the very near future. During software development it is very easy to use 512MB to 1GB during debugging or profiling. We're getting so close to the usable limits of the 32-bit address space that the 64-bit era must be close. Of course, it would be an AMD Opteron machine. For Windows development, the only alternative is Itanium, and at this point in time Itanium is way to expensive for me.

Or maybe it was just the other way around: I just wanted an Opteron machine and concluded that it would be very well suited for software development.

Which processor?

Well, at this moment there isn't much choice. Athlon 64 hasn't been released yet, so obviously Opteron will be the processor of choice. Since there isn't much price difference between the 1.6 GHz and 1.8 GHz version it makes most sense to buy the fastest one.

Which motherboard?

Currently, only server motherboards (Extended ATX form factor 12"x13") are available. I can only buy a couple of boards locally. Basically I have to choose between the MSI K8D Master and the Tyan Thunder K8S. These boards have a nearly identical feature set, but I found one thing interesting about the Tyan board: It uses an Analog Devices ADM1027 hardware monitoring IC. In particular, I'd like to use the PWM feature to control the speed of the fans. This IC seems to have a rather sophisticated mechanism to minimize the fan noise. Since all my PC's are carefully optimized for minimal noise, I can't wait to try out this feature and examine how it compares to other fan control schemes.

Which case?

Normally, this shouldn't be an issue. But unfortunately, very few cases accept 12"x13" motherboards. I expect to use this system in a couple of places, so it should be easy (light) to transport. The best choise would be a small aluminium case but large enough to accept an Extended ATX motherboard. Most server cases are rather large, so I limited the choise to the following cases:

Lian-Li PC-62 

Coolermaster ATC-S4000

Chieftec AX-01-SL-D

Chieftec AH-01SL

The small Chieftec was the cheapest and was the most available one. There appear to be no local suppliers for the Lian-Li, and the Coolermaster was not in stock.

Which RAM?

PC2700 of course. I found no local supplier of PC2700 DDR ECC Registered modules, so I bought them at Mushkin. Delivery was very fast (most likely faster than if I'd bought it locally).

Which power supply?

I'm very sensitive to noise. The last few years I've equipped all my computers with silent and noise reducing components. Power supplies are amongst the biggest noise producers in a system, and it gets worse if you need more than 300 Watt.

The current Opteron boards are server boards, and as such require EPS12V power supplies. There aren't much models to choose from, and even less are available locally. I concluded that the Antec EPS12V would probably the most silent one. Unfortunately, my dealer told me that this power supply is not stocked in Belgium, and would have to order it in Germany. Even in Germany it wasn't in stock. So I settled for a Fortron power supply.

Building the system