Pio's new (lol) projects

[UltraMega]

What's the CPUz score on that puppy? 

[pio]

5 hours ago, UltraMega said:

What's the CPUz score on that puppy? 

I don't think this is 110% accurate as I'm still under kinda heavy-ish (50%) load installing games on Steam and Epic still at the moment.  But.....here's what I got so far.  Memory / IMC performance isn't bad.  About what you'd expect.  For reference, my Ryzen setup I want to say was around 18,000MB/s read speeds out of the box untuned.  It hits just over 30,000 tuned up.  This Phenom rig is approximately "half" the performance in memory.  DDR2 vs DDR4.  Guess it makes sense.

So far, I see no reason I can't use this rig daily still.  It's just as usable as my Ryzen.  I dunno about gaming on it yet, but GTA V does play at low / 900p.  I only play old games as of lately anyway.  This....plus the other old crap in the mail coming my way, ought to keep me busy over the summer.

CPUz Benchmark Link:
https://valid.x86.fr/jh5js9

AIDA64 Memory Bench:

[pio]

Also, updated my sig rigs.  Little hint as to what's coming in the mail.

[pio]

Well, while waiting for my other junk to show up, some old junk arrived today.  The HD5870 I ordered.   I just finished dinking with it and getting it figured out with my new monitor.

Phenom + HD5870 isn't bad.  Plays GTA V at 3840x1080, Killing Floor 2 as well (both DX11 titles).  For shiggles, gonna try out Cyberpunk 2077 on it, after the hour and a half it'll probably take to install it.  It's odd since I have to use Eyefinity, but it does work.  The 4890 I was stuck using split screen on a single monitor.

[UltraMega]

58 minutes ago, pioneerisloud said:

Well, while waiting for my other junk to show up, some old junk arrived today.  The HD5870 I ordered.   I just finished dinking with it and getting it figured out with my new monitor.

Phenom + HD5870 isn't bad.  Plays GTA V at 3840x1080, Killing Floor 2 as well (both DX11 titles).  For shiggles, gonna try out Cyberpunk 2077 on it, after the hour and a half it'll probably take to install it.  It's odd since I have to use Eyefinity, but it does work.  The 4890 I was stuck using split screen on a single monitor.

I wonder if you could run fight sim on it. Would definitely be cool with that monitor setup if it worked at all. 

[BWG]

Yeah, I'm still trying to remember how to oc that fx 8320 properly. It's been so long lol. 

[pio]

11 hours ago, UltraMega said:

I wonder if you could run fight sim on it. Would definitely be cool with that monitor setup if it worked at all. 

Well Cyberpunk didn't want to even load, probably nowhere near enough VRAM.  Also I lack system RAM too, apparently that game requires 12GB RAM and I only have 8.  The couple racing games I've tried work fine (GRiD 2, DiRT 4, Project Cars 1 / 2).  Mafia - Definitive Edition was a no go.  So seems like absolutely cutting edge / modern games will not run on it.  But most everything else does.

Does it max out the games at 5120x1440 at 120Hz?  No.  Does it play the games at acceptable enough settings to have a good time?  Oh absolutely!  I was rocking out Killing Floor 2 last night on it lol.
 

6 hours ago, BWG said:

Yeah, I'm still trying to remember how to oc that fx 8320 properly. It's been so long lol. 

I only ever had one FX setup so far (and now I regret selling it lol).  From what I recall of it, it was a matter of CPU core speed, CPU-NB speed, and RAM speed combined all kind of mattered on FX.

[schuck6566]

I think the reason cyberpunk wouldn't load was probably the graphics or the extensions on the cpu. Yours is missing a few that the minimum amd has.(SSE4 / SSE4.1 + SSE4.2 / Streaming SIMD Extensions 4 just to name a few...) Also the minimum VRAM is 3GB with recommended at 6. I know it identifies the cpu,because they had an issue when it first released where it was screwing with the SMT on later (ryzen) cpu's because they weren't identified as bulldozer cpu's... (here's an article on it with a fix... https://www.tomshardware.com/news/cyberpunk-2077-amd-ryzen-performance-bug-fix-testing    )

Here's a screenshot of the system requirements for the game also. Edit: The amd cpu they have as minimum is 6 years newer than the 1 your running,if it's being detected that may be why it won't load.

Edited March 30, 2021 by schuck6566

[pio]

I haven't fully started trying to search yet for fixes but thank you, I'll check it out.  Very well could be since its a first gen Phenom.

I got a 6970, 5870, 3870, and HD2900XT all in over the last few days.  Some 939 gear arrived.  Been busy testing stuff, making sure its all functioning.  I've got a 3GHz Toledo again though, and the same (but better clocking) board I had in 2005.  This is gonna be good.
 

Still waiting for all the parts to finish arriving, but I should have enough stuff on hand to test Windows 10 and "modern" type stuff on a 939 rig and the Phenom both.  I also have RX 580's on standby to try out too (and my Ryzen 3600 rig as a whole for comparison).

Of course, the goal was for having different OS's too, so that'll eventually be what they retire to.  But I'm curious if 939, Phenom, Phenom II, Thuban, and FX are still relevant today.  Kinda curious if old cards are still relevant too.  So far, I've been impressed though even with the Phenom and 5870.

Edited April 1, 2021 by pioneerisloud

[BWG]

Yeah, I'm running 2600 CPU/NB/HT Link on it. I remember I was running 2800 before, but it's just folding 1 GPU and nothing else, so I'm not going to get to crazy until I get the custom loop installed. 

[GanjaSMK]

I would have donated you all my old stuff.  Should have kept it. Damnit.

[pio]

A little teaser on the next set of hardware.  I got bored installing games trying to make them "modern" so I'd have a wide variety to bench.  So figured I'd play with some of the new hardware that arrived.

 

Note:
I do have an Opteron 165 too I picked up.  But its a poor clocking CCBWE chip that struggled to pull 2.70GHz at 1.58v, and absolutely refused to run even DDR400 with 4 sticks of RAM regardless of timings set.  So settled on this 4200+ Toledo.

I also have a decent start to my GPU collection just sitting.  They've all tested out as functional, however a few do need some TLC from the 15 year old TIM that's probably crusted on them.  Once I get them cleaned up I'll line them all up for a photo shoot. ;)

[tictoc]

If you're looking for an AM3 board, I have an ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 that used to run my 1090t.  I also have an old ITX board with an APU and some DDR3 from my old HTPC, but I don't remember what the board and chip are.  I can dig them out if you are interested.

[pio]

On 4/2/2021 at 8:55 AM, tictoc said:

If you're looking for an AM3 board, I have an ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 that used to run my 1090t.  I also have an old ITX board with an APU and some DDR3 from my old HTPC, but I don't remember what the board and chip are.  I can dig them out if you are interested.

I am actually on the lookout for an 890FX and Thuban, yes.  And a 990FX and FX chip.  Planning on pairing with a 7970 and R9 290x respectively.

Little Update:
I was able to figure out a way to get the 939 rig to POST, bootup, and work with the HD5870 last night!  Apparently the 5870 doesn't like the PCIe 2.0 slot on my 939 board.  Works fine in the 1.1 slot at the bottom though.  Still dinking with that rig, got 8GB of RAM in for it today too (which 939'ers would know 8GB wasn't ever a thing).

Still having issues getting Windows 10 to even boot on it though.  So that's a huge bummer.  Still trying to figure it out though.

EDIT NEXT DAY:
 

Well......I couldn't resist for $29.99 free shipping.  Looks like 2GB is absolutely NOT the limit on Socket 939 as we once believed back in 2006.  Of course I was already running 4GB back in the day.  But 8GB?

Apparently one COULD in theory run 16GB of ECC RAM on the right boards.  Personally I think 8 is a little much already for a 939, so I'll happily stay put here lol.

Now I REALLY have to figure out why Windows 10 won't launch.  I've got a high clocked 939 dual core, near golden chip, 8GB DDR433+, and a DX11 Eyefinity card.  I'm almost positive I could make this thing a daily driver again if I could just get 10 to install to it.

I might actually settle in at 300x10 honestly with DDR400 speeds just to not stress the system TOO terribly badly.  It is 16 years old, I'd like to see it last another 16 years.

Edited April 4, 2021 by pioneerisloud

[pio]

Fixed editing above sorry for double post

While I'm here though, I really should tease you guys with a giant collage picture of vintage goodness.  My desk is messy though!!!!  A couple of the cards really need cleaned too.  Ahhhhhh......  I'll update this post if I decide to haul it all out here to my desk this evening for a photo shoot.   If I do, please excuse the mess.  Obviously have lots of projects going on here (my Jeep too lol).

Okay, talked myself into it.  Let's do a little triva.  THREE individual items in this picture are original single owner (me) items.  Well, not counting the newer junk that's obvious.

Item descriptions (left to right, starting with large items first):
1.  Apevia X-Plorer case
2.  Dell Dimension L600r case only (mATX modded)

3.  Ryzen 3600 rig (sig)
4.  DIYPC JI80-BL Case for the 939 rig

5.  Phenomenon (WIP here)
6.  Kiddo's gimped Ryzen 2600 rig
(back left again)
7.  Socket 939 rig I've been playing with on the bench
8.  G92 pile (1x eVGA 8800GTS 512MB KO / 2x eVGA GTS 250 1GB)
9.  ATI made / branded reference HD2900XT 1GB GDDR5
10.  Sapphire made / ATI branded reference HD3870 512MB-I think?
11.  Asus non-ref HD4890 1GB
12.  Sapphire Vapor X HD5870 1GB
13.  Sapphire Vapor X HD6970 2GB
14.  Asus RX580 8GB Armor-X
15/16 4x4GB Kingston HyperX DDR3-1600 that does DDR3-2200 / 4x1GB Corsair XMS DDR400 that does DDR500.

Edited April 4, 2021 by pioneerisloud

[Bastiaan_NL]

That's a lot of hardware to play with!

 

 

3 hours ago, pioneerisloud said:

THREE individual items in this picture are original single owner (me) items.

The curtains, the desk and the monitor on the right? 

[schuck6566]

Try a 32bit version of Windows 10 with the socket 939 cpu. see here for reasons....  https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-confirms-some-older-amd-processors-do-not-support-windows-81/

Same thing with 10 as 8.1

Devices that run Windows 10 for desktop editions require a 1 GHz or faster processor or SoC that meets the following requirements:

Compatible with the x86* or x64 instruction set.

Supports PAE, NX and SSE2.

Supports CMPXCHG16b, LAHF/SAHF, and PrefetchW for 64-bit OS installation

 

I think it's the exchange feature that may be causing your glitch.  3DNow! = CMPXCHG8B

Edited April 4, 2021 by schuck6566

[pio]

20 hours ago, Bastiaan_NL said:

That's a lot of hardware to play with!

 

 

The curtains, the desk and the monitor on the right? 

I know! I smile ear to ear looking at that picture everytime.

No, definitely hardware.  Monitor is definitely far too new.  The 939 rig shouldn't really be capable of using it but here we are.

17 hours ago, schuck6566 said:

Try a 32bit version of Windows 10 with the socket 939 cpu. see here for reasons....  https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-confirms-some-older-amd-processors-do-not-support-windows-81/

Same thing with 10 as 8.1

Devices that run Windows 10 for desktop editions require a 1 GHz or faster processor or SoC that meets the following requirements:

Compatible with the x86* or x64 instruction set.

Supports PAE, NX and SSE2.

Supports CMPXCHG16b, LAHF/SAHF, and PrefetchW for 64-bit OS installation

 

I think it's the exchange feature that may be causing your glitch.  3DNow! = CMPXCHG8B

It could be.  I'll give 32bit 10 a try here in a bit.  I've been reading similar when searching.  I did try 8.1 x64 a few days ago and it did the same problem, just random freeze and reboot mid loading screen.  7 has been rock solid but obviously old.  Just problems I should've expected but didn't stepping into this project.  I figured I'd start having issues running Windows 10 when I jumped down to Socket A, and then have to settle for 7 or XP.

 

Still dinking with the 8GB RAM kit, its hard to get stable, go figure.  Also trying out some preliminary Steam titles that interest me, just to see if this 939 is even worth trying to modernize. 

[UltraMega]

I was just thinking about something that could be really cool to add to anyone's list of retro tech projects... Anyone ever thought about getting an ageia physx card? As I understand it, there is a game called the cell, I think, that makes heavy use of ageia physx. It was more of a tech demo than a game but it did some really cool stuff that never came to any game after it, and it will only run on ageia. Even though Nvidia bought ageia, the game was never updated to support Nvidia physx.

[pio]

3 hours ago, UltraMega said:

I was just thinking about something that could be really cool to add to anyone's list of retro tech projects... Anyone ever thought about getting an ageia physx card? As I understand it, there is a game called the cell, I think, that makes heavy use of ageia physx. It was more of a tech demo than a game but it did some really cool stuff that never came to any game after it, and it will only run on ageia. Even though Nvidia bought ageia, the game was never updated to support Nvidia physx.

I already have 3 G92's though that are all very capable of PhysX.  Those Ageia cards were tempting in the day though.  Never tried that game or benchmark, never even heard of it before.  I do see other people referencing it when searching Ageia PhysX stuff though.

Update (minor win):
I did get Windows 10 x86 to install to the 939 rig.  It's functional, but of course.......32bit.  So I only have 2GB of useable RAM if I put in the SLI setup, or 3GB with the 5870.  But.....Windows 10 is now working on it kinda lol.  It's looking more and more like THIS particular rig might just get XP loaded to it and put in the closet.  I don't know if a 939 can be a daily driver in 2021 now without modern x64 OS support.

[pio]

Got some work done today, I present to you fine folks, "Tole-Hoe" (supposed to be a mix up between Toledo and tally-ho).  Decided to go against naming it "Burny", too many bad memories with that name (for obvious reasons).  I have FULLEST of faith this 939 rig WILL NOT catch on fire. 

 

Specs:

Athlon x2 4200+ Toledo @ 3.0GHz (300x10)
Currently 4x1GB Corsair XMS DDR400 @ 200Mhz, 2-3-2-5-2T (have 4x2GB ECC)
Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe
Xigmatek S1283 with 2 Yate Loon High Speeds
Yate Loon Low speeds all over case + 1 Medium across GPU's
DIYPC Cheapy Case
Deepcool RGB Strips (for white)
Cablemods (ebay) Cable Kit (blue)
eVGA GTS 250 1GB SLI (x2)
eVGA 700w PSU
1x 240GB Crucial BX500
1x HGST 2TB 7200 RPM HDD
1x 500GB Crucial BX200 (temporary for Linux / playing)
1x Samsung DVDRW Drive

1x Teac 3.5" 1.44MB Floppy Drive
Windows 10 32bit for now, but eventually this will have XP on it

 

Edited April 7, 2021 by pioneerisloud

[BWG]

How's that Windows 10 workin?

[pio]

On 4/7/2021 at 5:51 AM, BWG said:

How's that Windows 10 workin?

I actually gave up for a few days now lol.  I got the rig put into a case, and now it won't POST for some reason.  Was working, and just gradually quit wanting to POST.  Guessing its an old SATA cable or something, I hadn't planned on buying cables since I have a giant stash, but they're all the wrong kind lol.

I was able to get Windows 10 32bit to work, but that only gave me ~2.5GB of usable RAM left.  After I put it in the case, was going to go ahead and just retire the 939 to XP x64 and a Kubuntu dual boot to "modernize" it, but then it quit POST'ing lol.

I've got my main rig, my kid's rig, the Phenom, and my Broadwell server gaming rig all that need attention still too, especially if I'm going to participate in the fold-a-thon.  Me trying to modernize old crap might get put on the backburner for a little bit.

[damric]

You can work around the RAM limitation of 32Bit OS by creating a RAM Disk with the overflow RAM then assigning the drive to Ready Boost.

[pio]

On 4/10/2021 at 8:46 AM, damric said:

You can work around the RAM limitation of 32Bit OS by creating a RAM Disk with the overflow RAM then assigning the drive to Ready Boost.

This is true, however still can't launch 64 bit executables though.  I settled on a dual boot of 7 x64 and Kubuntu on it for now.  Sorted out the issues I was having, was a rogue SATA cable wreaking havoc.  Ordered new SATA cables, an SPDIF cable for the 8800's for audio over HDMI, and some jumpers so I can plug up the missing front panel audio since my case doesn't have AC-97, only HD Audio.

So I am making some progress on it, just a little slower than inititally lol.  Budget ran out, so now I'm back down to my normal just a few hundred monthly budget for fun lol.  I could finish all of this in one go, but then I'd have nothing to tinker with the rest of the year.

Currently, I'm stress testing....get this, 3.1GHz out of a 939 dual core!   And over DDR400 speeds with 4x2GB sticks (8GB).  Even back in the day when 939 was popular these speeds and RAM capacities were non existant.

Edited April 15, 2021 by pioneerisloud