[mythtv-users] New Computer Advice

Darryl Okahata darrylo at soco.agilent.com
Sun Jul 18 15:51:35 EDT 2004


Adrian Phillips <adrianp at broadpark.no> wrote:

> What do you use to cool the XP-M - do you know of a site that
> discusses cooling for these CPUs ? I've been looking for places to buy
> in Norway and they aren't particularly widespread.

     Sorry, I don't know of any review sites.  I'm using the Speeze
"Falconrock" 5F286B cooler.  It's inexpensive (in the US, at least),
cools well, and has a large fan for relatively quiet operation (but is
tricky to seat properly, and is east to install incorrectly):

	http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-150-023&depa=1

Sorry about the above link to a commercial site (this where I bought
mine), but I cannot find the manufacturer link for this cooler.

> I also didn't
> realise that you could plug an XP-M into a standard XP motherboard.

     Neither did I.  ;-)

     However, using an XP-M on a standard motherboard is not recommended
by AMD.  One of the reasons why is that the XP-M uses a different method
for signalling the CPU's core voltage to the motherboard, and so many
(all?)  motherboards cannot recognize and properly set the voltage.  On
my ABIT NF7-S motherboard, my XP-M isn't recognized, and initially set
the core voltage to 1.7V (together with a 100MHz bus speed and a 5X or
6X multiplier).  Unfortunately, there appears to be no technical
documentation available on AMD's website for the XP-M, and so I wasn't
sure what core voltage to use.  The place from which I bought the CPU
said "1.35V"; confusing all this is a press release (or somesuch) on
AMD's site which says that the XP-M's voltage can vary from 1.2-1.4V
during operation, as a power-saving method.  I'm now using 1.35V, and
everything appears to be working.

-- 
	Darryl Okahata
	darrylo at soco.agilent.com

DISCLAIMER: this message is the author's personal opinion and does not
constitute the support, opinion, or policy of Agilent Technologies, or
of the little green men that have been following him all day.


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