Absolutely. Those first series AMD X2 64 class processors (socket 939) were the epitome of Lesson Number 1 of heat source to heat sink mating REQUIREMENTS.
You only get about 6 seconds before it fries. The earlier stuff (pre x64) was even worse, and the fail would also carry through and fry your MOBO too.
One of the really early AMD CPUs was shipped in a manner where the heat of the CPU was used to melt the heat sink compound. You build enough systems and it all becomes a blur, but I'm sure it predated the
939. That is the heat sink compound was supplied "dry" so to speak, and it got mushed when you fired up the CPU.
I think the 939s I built came with the heat sink, though I put Zalman's on the them rather than the free heat sink. I take that back. I originally use Gigabyte "rocket" fans, but one failed, so I went Zalman. It was a lot of work since the Zalman required the mobo to be pulled from the case.
I'm patiently waiting for the AMD bulldozers to come out.
Both mobos suffered from crappy Chinese cap syndrome, though it took a few years for the caps to pop. That leaves me with two 939 CPUs and not a mobo to be found.
I'll go look to see if it is being sold, but you have to wonder why bother. I built a quad core AMD for a server that still runs (used to be linux, but I had to put the win7 drives on it after the 939 mobo blew). At some point, running old PCs gets silly if you use them a lot.
I'm going to attempt to set up the bulldozer with Xen virtualization. Assuming the bulldozer has an IOMMU, I should be able to have full hardware control. You may bitch about AMD, but you need to buy a server grade CPU from intel to get an IOMMU, while some consumer grade mobos from AMD have this feature.
I'm told Xen is the most efficient virtualization scheme, but also the hardest to implement.
Regarding graphic frame rates, the GPU has the most influence. I use ATI cards mostly, which is also AMD. You may hate AMD, I like them. OK, I'm not particularly thrilled with the orange colored partitions they use (used?) at AMD HQ.
Service items for folks that have "dedicated" ROM programmers, etc., and want to replace the MOBO and MIRROR the HD so, the OS will want to see the same hardware.
Happens all the time.
Replace what is broke with the exact same item, and keep rolling.
Buy new, and there are program installs, license set-ups... all kinds of things to perhaps have concerns over.
ebay has quite a few of my Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe 939.
Many hot Socket 939 processors where sold and burned/killed motherboards.
Perhaps most Socket 939 had bad capacitators.
Perhaps many people in the world still have "ungrounded" power wall sockets which could lead to "motherboard shock death" when connecting other devices, thus needing new motherboards.
"I'll go look to see if it is being sold,"
All webstores in the Netherlands seem to have and sell them, so I would say they being sold like warm bread ;)
(Added benefit 7-in-1 flash card reader device seems to work just nicely, so perhaps better support for 2006 technology and beyond, perhaps also better drivers/support for operating systems via driver cd).
"but you have to wonder why bother. "
To save a lot of money on other components like processor, heatsink, memory, power supply, pretty much everything.
Also to have a somewhat older system to test backwards compatibility (Interesting for programmers I would think ;) perhaps other people too)
" I built a quad core AMD for a server that still runs (used to be linux, but I had to put the win7 drives on it after the 939 mobo blew). "
The mobo blew ?!? Well there ya go ?! How come ?! ;)
" At some point, running old PCs gets silly if you use them a lot. "
Socket 939 isn't that old, it's still pretty modern for desktop usage at least.
" I'm going to attempt to set up the bulldozer with Xen virtualization. "
I have no experience with xen virtualization.
I would guess it's something like VMWare or virtual PC.
Xen I think I have heard of it... perhaps it's for Linux which you mentioned.
" Assuming the bulldozer has an IOMMU, "
I don't know what this is... perhaps I will look it up ;)
Probably has something to do with I/O acceleration for virtualization ?
" I should be able to have full hardware control. "
Sounds like direct hardware access for virtualized environments ;)
Not really virtual is it then ?! ;) :)
" You may bitch about AMD, but you need to buy a server grade CPU from intel to get an IOMMU, while some consumer grade mobos from AMD have this feature. "
Hmmm could be interesting, perhaps I will look into it further ;)
" I'm told Xen is the most efficient virtualization scheme, but also the hardest to implement. "
Yeah why don't you simply stick with something easy like VMWare or VirtualPC or perhaps even "boot into vhd" a new windows 7 feature (still buggy perhaps but it's getting there !;)) (vhd=virtual harddisk)
" Regarding graphic frame rates, the GPU has the most influence. I use ATI cards mostly, which is also AMD. "
"You may hate AMD, I like them."
Hmm... I just hated them a little bit because of no specifications for either chip or fan ! That sucks... their manual only explains how to install it and nothing more ! BAH ! And there website might suck as well... hard to find this information on it... especially on a somewhat older system ! ;)
Their website search function is also not much help it seems.
It finds weird/crappy documents/articles or something.
Instead of nice PDF specs or something yeah.
" OK, I'm not particularly thrilled with the orange colored partitions they use (used?) at AMD HQ."
??? "file system partitions" "building/room partitions" ?
Who the fok gives a fok about their HQ ?!? LOL.
You work there ?! LOL. Or in the neighbourhood ?! ;) :)
Anyway show us a picture link... could be fun to look it ! ;)
The IOMMU supposedly let you use the stock drivers from the manufacturer rather than the drivers VMWare supplies. Since I have no first hand experience with one yet, all I can say is what it supposedly does. Reality is always another story.
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