From: T Roy troylinux@yahoo.com Subject: [ILUG-BOM]AMD processor ??

I want a AMD Athalon XP( 1.8Ghz) processor(with 256MB DDRAM) but there have been rumours that the processor gets heated up and could hang the system.

Yes, AMD's Athlons do heat up a lot, but I don't think its a major 'problem'. I use AthlonXP 2000+, with MSI's KT4V (Via KT400 chipset), 256 Mb DDR, nVIDIA GeForce4 64 Mb Display. (thank you to a good friend made here on LUG, who helped me out making the machine) I run Mandrake 9.1 currently, and moving quickly toward a Gentoo install on the same machine. [Visu, you'll be there, right? ;-) ]

I replaced the fan which came along with the processor, by a Thermaltake Volcano copper bottom fan with a higher RPM. Sure it works great man. Gave me 4-5 C less.

The idle temperature is around 50 C, and reaches around 57 C under some intensive tasks, maybe like playing Quake.

My room is not well ventilated, only cooling source is Fan. In such a case would AMD give me a problem?

Get a good fan if the fan from AMD isn't satisfactory. & yes, if you're too paranoid, then see if someone can get you a good thermal paste, like Arctic Silver's Ceramique or Shin Etsu's G751. They might help you with a degree or two. Add up all, a good fan, a good grease and keeping the cabinet un-congested and all grills clean, you should have a decent machine at some 4,000-5,000 Rupees less than Intel's Pentium.

Has anyone worked with XP series processors and how was your experience? The machine would be used solely for Linux( thats why I want to get a cheap processor ).

Athlon maybe 'cheap' but it is surely a good processor. If you want to go REALLY cheap consider VIA's C-3 at 667 Mhz at Rs. 475 /- and C-3 800 Mhz at Rs. 1075/- :-)))

I do face a heating problem. The temperature easily rises to 60+ oC without any process using CPU cycles.

Its not a problem, AMD's spec sheet says that AthlonXP is fine until you take it to furnace at somewhere around 90 C, so 60 C sounds tame. But I appreciate your concerns.

I use CPUIdle on Windows which does a very good job to keep the temperature down to 25 oC when CPU is not in use(even when the room temperature is 30+ oC).

CPUIdle and other such softwares might *not* be a good long-term solution. AFAIK IMHO, such software cooling solutions halt the FSB time & again, and this leads to some deterioration of the hardware over time. Nothing can substitute a good physical solution to thermal issues.

BTW is there any utility on Linux like "CPUIdle" which "cools" the CPU while not in use?

I believe there is a HOWTO especially for Athlon cooling under Linux. If you're the adventurous kind and are blessed with a decent 24/7365 internet connection, install Gentoo Linux. My dear friend reported to me that his fps count went up from 850-900 fps to 1700-1800 fps JUST by changing to Gentoo Linux, getting the one which is specifically optimized for AthlonXP processors. That is squeezing out the most out of the combination of a good processor and a good distribution. Extreme value for your money with the trade-off that you gotta rack your brains a little with the Gentoo offering!

...

I think linux kernel does internal cpu power management and does not

need any such utility...

Yes I guess, but I dont think its enough for Athlons... I still am trying to figure out an integral solution to spinning down hard-disks, clocking down the CPU, and turning off the display in a timed manner. ACPI doesnt seem too well supported atleast till 2.4.21. I believe 2.4.22 resolved many ACPI issues. with good ACPI support, Athlon + GNU-Linux combination rocks.

Vishal A. Belsare.