My CPU #1 - a 5400 rpm orb does the job of keeping the P3@1000 MHz, at an average temperature of less than 40C.
Plenty of gear - installed. The CPU #2 uses NOT an Orb, but a CoolMaster, which rotates slower, but does a *better* job (CPU #2 is usually cooler than CPU #1). The problem is inserting it on the motherboard (requires muscle!).
Detail of some gear - you can see the SCSI controller with NO cable attached. How clean.
After a terrible, terrible experience with the horrible motherboard MSI 694D, I had to find a decent platform for my hardware. I was really demoralized with the 694D events, as you can read on update 200501, so I simply would NOT bare the minimal glitch... after all, I was 80 GB shorter, and many days had been lost... damn MSI! I hope MSI goes bankrupt, the sooner, the better...
You might want to read my original post to 694d.com, minutes before realizing that the MSI crap was harming my data, but after many days & nights of hard tries to boot that shitty mb up.
The hardware I would like to install on a dual motherboard was:
- 4 x 256 MB PC133 Dimms (= 1 GB RAM)
- 2 x Intel Pentium 3 @ 1000 MHz (= dual CPU)
- 1 x Creative Labs NVidia GeForce 2 Ultra (VGA AGP 4x card)
- 1 x Adaptec ANA 69011 (10/100 Mbps LAN PCI card)
- 1 x Adaptec AHA-2940UW2 (UW-SCSI-2 PCI controller card)
- 1 x Creative Labs SB Live! (PCI sound card)
- 1 x Addtron AEF-380TXD (10/100 Mbps LAN PCI card)
- 1 x Pinnacle Studio PCTV Pro (TV/Radio tuner PCI card)
- 2 x Maxtor 96147U8 (60 GB UDMA 100 HD)
- 1 x Maxtor 98196H8 (80 GB UDMA 100 HD)
- 1 x Maxtor 54098U8 (40 GB UDMA 66 HD, 7200 rpm)
- 1 x Western Digital WDE18310 (18 GB UW2SCSI LVD HD, 10000 rpm)
- plenty of external SCSI2 devices (a total of 5 devices)
- plenty of USB devices (a total of 6 devices).
And the ASUS CUV4XD-DLS motherboard seemed to have everything I needed: dual cpu, 5 pci slots, 1 agp PRO 4x slot, dual USB, 1 GB RAM PC133 support, plus a realistic price.
Although, in practical terms, I now must praise the CUV4XD, things didn't happen as smoothly as I wanted, although nothing really serious happened - otherwise I would have ditched the Socket 370 CPUs and the GeForce card, and I would have reinstalled the remaining hardware on my *very* faithful Tyan S1834, with dual P3@733 (socket 1), plus a 3DFX Voodoo 5500.
The problem is that the Tyan motherboard is incompatible with the GeForce Ultra... My need for some decent OpenGL acceleration, was the main reason I decided to fork money, to jump "just" 533 Mhz (from 2x733 to 2x1000 MHz) and one VGA card.
What were the small problems I had with the CUV4XD?
#1) The CUV4XD positions the Floppy Disk (FD) connector at its lower
right corner. Because - as you might have guessed - I need a really
big tower to host all the gear, there was no chance I could stretch
a cable between the ASUS connector and the slot the case has for the
FD.
So I had to relocate the FD, hosting it lower (and requiring a 3 1/2
to 5 1/4 case adapter)... but this also forced me to reposition all the
*FIVE* HDs on the main case. Thankfully, my IDE80 cables were long enough.
But read below...
#2) The CUV4XD positions the IDE controllers right next to the PCI1
slot, forcing you to use a "small" PCI card there. The AGP
slot is also affected by the IDE controller position, and you WILL NOT
BE ABLE to use a really long VGA card. For example, the 3DFX Voodoo 5500
does NOT fit on the available space, because it collides with the IDE
cables.
Thankfully, the Adaptec ANA 69011 PCI card is *very* small, and I managed
to insert it there.
#3) The default bios for the CUV4XD is 1.004. Do yourself a favor and download version 1.007, because it fixes some boot time slowdowns.
#4) The CUV4XD is a *UNIQUE* motherboard: all motherboards now have
a "PnP system installed" option (check/uncheck), via the BIOS.
When you set this option ON, the board's BIOS will trust on the operating
system, to setup the PnP devices (after all, that is what "PnP system" means).
This is no novelty; what *is* new, is what follows...
Like no other motherboard I know of, the ASUS will NOT list the PCI resources
for the PnP devices it finds on boot, WHEN the PnP option is ON, because
the board will then trust the OS to set such resources... But because
I had never seen this behavior,
I got really confused, during my first CUV4XD boots...
Luckily, I decided to let the Windows 2000 installation go, and waited
to see what would happen...
What happened was A PERFECT INSTALL.
Nearly one month later, I can tell you that the CUV4XD is a superb motherboard. The only thing that matters to me, is its superior stability: my system can run for weeks, with no reboots, should I need it to. This is the best dual motherboard I have ever tried!
One final less ordinary thing with the CUV4XD is that it REQUIRES a CPU terminator, when you use it with a single CPU.
Click here for the official specs.
If benchmarks interest you, maybe I'll publish some, soon.
Strongly recommended, for all wanting to have dual CPUs.
CUV4X - Dual. The manual reports the board running only up to dual 933 Mhz, but I can assure you it has ZERO problems with dual 1000 Mhz.
The CPUs - prior to the Orb and the CoolMaster.
The CoolMaster (on CPU #2) - It is a shame its insertion mechanism, because its cooling performance is slightly better than Orb's. I managed to insert it, not breaking a thing :).