Who has a dothan rig

E

Exocet956

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 25, 2001
Messages
1,387
Now that more and more people are realizing that the dothan on the desktop is looking more and more attractive. Who actually took the plunge and built a dothan rig? I was just wondering how many people other than me are enjoying dothan goodness. I do admit the price is a bit steep at the moment. but seeing as people are willing to shell out $500 for a single graphics card nowadays and even more for a sli rig setup that paying a 250 for a motherboard is not so uncommon. While the cpu costs over 200 i dont see too many people on theses forums balking at the cost of other cpus. I was just wondering who has a dothan desktop system and how do you like it. i love how i paid 215 for a cpu yet get the equivalent performance of the flagship $700 cpu. i posted a review of my system but obviously no one really cared enough to read it. the hardocp review did not seem very excited about the dothans capability's. For one, this rig has knocked me on my ass its so much faster than my p4 3gig. Hell id like to find any cpu that play even the most modern of games at 600mhz. Well if anyone else has a dothan desktop system id like to know its specs and how you like it.

My Box

Dothan 1.6 @ 2.14 (16x133) 1:1 ratio
1gig pc3200
Dfi 855gme-mgf
AIW 9800 pro
sb live value
TDK 24x10x40
NEC ND-2500a
Toshiba 16x dvdrom
Sony Dru500a
Maxtor 120gig 7200rpm 8meg cache
Maxtor 120 gig 7200rpm 8meg cache
Dell 1800FP
 
I was this close |---| to building a doathan rig to put in my ARIA, but i went A64 instead. Hows the overclocking on that board? As easy as the 865/915 boards? I may buy one before i scoot off to college anything special as in temps etc youve been noticing? And last but not least, how would you compare it to an A64 rig, not just in benchies but in everyday use.
 
I'm waiting for a P-M mobo that has a bit more features, i.e. more SATA slots, dual-channel, etc.


And no proprietary HSF
 
Exocet 956... you might want to post that review in its own thread... it might spur some interest!

I'm seriously giving this a thought tho... only concern I have is the voltage on the dimms. I hope there is enough there to scale my xms3200 up without needing the extra voltage!
 
Intel Pentium M 735 1.7 GHz (soon to be overclocked)
Commell LV-671NSMA motherboard
1 GB Buffalo PC3200 DDR RAM
Commell MA-ATI Mobility Radeon 9600
Samsung MP0402H 40 GB hard drive
Panasonic CW-8123 DVD/CD-RW drive
E-Mu 1212M soundcard
Xterasys XN-2423G wireless card
Travla C137 case

Dell UltraSharp 2005FPW monitor
EV SonicXS 2.1 speakers

...I like it a lot.
 
TehQuick said:
what about graphix, u got AGP or PCI-e?
Click to expand...

The Dothan requires the 855M chipset which is AGP only. Also it's single channel DDR333 only. Feature wise the Dothan platform sucks, but when overclocked it STILL manages to whip that ass in performance.

Theres a 915Express chipset that will be released in the next few months or so and it will support dual channel and PCI-Express. It will be MUCH like the desktop 915P chipset for the LGA775 desktops. At that time I think Pentium M will become a much more attractive desktop solution. I know it will for me.

rayman2k2 said:
I'm waiting for a P-M mobo that has a bit more features, i.e. more SATA slots, dual-channel, etc.


And no proprietary HSF
Click to expand...

Again not going to happen until a new Dothan compatible chipset will come out.
 
Once again, I predict that dual-channel memory will have a minimal impact on performance, especially for a CPU like the Dothan, which already has most of the bandwidth it needs.
 
i can post my review in this thread or in its own thread. I would like to know how interested people might be. I saw no interest in my review last time so i would rather not waste my time posting it again if no one is going to read it. Tell me what you guys think. :)
 
Exocet956 said:
i can post my review in this thread or in its own thread. I would like to know how interested people might be. I saw no interest in my review last time so i would rather not waste my time posting it again if no one is going to read it. Tell me what you guys think. :)
Click to expand...

I'd like to see it. :D
 
First let me explain how I am going to conduct this review. I will keep the results in the same post so as to make a direct comparison fairly easy. I will first cover my testing methodology. I realize that my aged AIW 9800 pro is going to be the bottleneck in these benchmarks but I have accounted for this and in addition to modern games I have run older engine game sat a low resolution to remove this bottleneck. I ran my standard benchmark load out that I use to evaluate all systems that I own by.

First off let me say that between the two windows applications ClockGen and RightMark Cpu Clock rate Utility give you complete control of: FSB, multipliers, and vcore in windows. RightMark also allows notebook type power management by dynamically adjusting clock speed, multipliers and vcore. As the cpu needs more power it adjusts the clock speed to give additional power when needed. When power is not needed it clocks the processor down to save power. Unlike the notebook version, which does not work with these desktop motherboard it adjusts far faster than my notebook. Plus it has different profiles so you can choose your levels of performance. In automatic mode it functions without user intervention but for those who have to have complete control you can manually set different power states. Clockgen is pretty self explanatory it allows you to adjust the FSB in windows and yes the FSB does affect power savings. I.E. at 133fsb instead of idling at 600mhz my 1.6 Dothan idles at 800mhz. However be very careful it does not allow memory divider adjustment in windows so you are stuck with what you set in the bios. If I wanted to run a different divider at stock the instant I upped the FSB to where I knew it should be stable it crashed.

The testing setup is as follows:
Engine Demo Resolution Quality Sound

Quake 1 Bigass1 640x480
Quake 2 Crusher 640x480
Quake 2 Massive1 640x480
Serious Sam 1 MetroCoop 1280x1024 HQ NO
Serious Sam 1 MetroCoop 1280x1024 HQ YES
Serious Sam 1 MetroCoop 1024x768 HQ NO
Serious Sam 1 MetroCoop 1024x768 HQ YES
Serious Sam 2 Grand Cathedral 1280x1024 HQ NO
Serious Sam 2 Grand Cathedral 1280x1024 HQ YES
Serious Sam 2 Valley of the Jaguar 1280x1024 HQ NO
Serious Sam 2 Valley of the Jaguar 1280x1024 HQ YES
Serious Sam 2 Grand Cathedral 1024x768 HQ NO
Serious Sam 2 Grand Cathedral 1024x768 HQ YES
Serious Sam 2 Valley of the Jaguar 1024x768 HQ NO
Serious Sam 2 Valley of the Jaguar 1024x768 HQ YES

3Dmark2k1
3Dmark2k03

Subjective test: Half-life 2 Game play.
General windows experience

Benchmark results

Reference System
________________________________________________________________
P4 3.06 gig Northwood (23x133) 166 MHZ DDR single channel

AVG FPS Engine Demo Resolution Sound

445 Quake1 Bigass1 640x480
206.1 Quake2 Crusher 640x480
322 Quake2 Massive1 640x480
120.3 SS1 MetroCoop 1280x1024 NO
119.2 SS1 MetroCoop 1280x1024 YES
140.4 SS1 MetroCoop 1024x768 NO
137.9 SS1 MetroCoop 1024x768 YES
82.5 SS2 GrandCath 1280x1024 NO
80.4 SS2 GrandCath 1280x1024 YES
51.9 SS2 Valley 1280x1024 NO
52.2 SS2 Valley 1280x1024 YES
92.6 SS2 GrandCath 1024x768 NO
89.3 SS2 GrandCath 1024x768 YES
68.6 SS2 Valley 1024x768 NO
68.1 SS2 Valley 1024x768 YES

15253 3Dmark2k1
5550 3Dmark2k3
___________________________________________________________________



________________________________________________________________
PM 1.6 gig Dothan (16x100) 100 MHZ DDR single channel

AVG FPS Engine Demo Resolution Sound

579.7 Quake1 Bigass1 640x480
247.9 Quake2 Crusher 640x480
407.7 Quake2 Massive1 640x480
123 SS1 MetroCoop 1280x1024 NO
122.2 SS1 MetroCoop 1280x1024 YES
161.1 SS1 MetroCoop 1024x768 NO
160.9 SS1 MetroCoop 1024x768 YES
86 SS2 GrandCath 1280x1024 NO
85.1 SS2 GrandCath 1280x1024 YES
53.4 SS2 Valley 1280x1024 NO
53.3 SS2 Valley 1280x1024 YES
103.3 SS2 GrandCath 1024x768 NO
100.2 SS2 GrandCath 1024x768 YES
70.1 SS2 Valley 1024x768 NO
69.6 SS2 Valley 1024x768 YES

16597 3Dmark2k1
5794 3Dmark2k3
___________________________________________________________________



________________________________________________________________
PM 2.14 gig Dothan (16x133) 133 MHZ DDR single channel

AVG FPS Engine Demo Resolution Sound

775 Quake1 Bigass1 640x480
355 Quake2 Crusher 640x480
555 Quake2 Massive1 640x480
129.4 SS1 MetroCoop 1280x1024 NO
129.2 SS1 MetroCoop 1280x1024 YES
176.6 SS1 MetroCoop 1024x768 NO
175.7 SS1 MetroCoop 1024x768 YES
94.2 SS2 GrandCath 1280x1024 NO
90.5 SS2 GrandCath 1280x1024 YES
57.3 SS2 Valley 1280x1024 NO
55.4 SS2 Valley 1280x1024 YES
123.6 SS2 GrandCath 1024x768 NO
114.4 SS2 GrandCath 1024x768 YES
75.5 SS2 Valley 1024x768 NO
74.1 SS2 Valley 1024x768 YES

19445 3Dmark2k1
6031 3Dmark2k3
___________________________________________________________________



___________________________________________________________________
PM 600mhz gig Dothan (6x100) 100 MHZ DDR single channel

AVG FPS Engine Demo Resolution Sound

257.8 Quake1 Bigass1 640x480
100.2 Quake2 Crusher 640x480
173.9 Quake2 Massive1 640x480
70.4 SS1 MetroCoop 1280x1024 NO
65.2 SS1 MetroCoop 1280x1024 YES
73.1 SS1 MetroCoop 1024x768 NO
68 SS1 MetroCoop 1024x768 YES
41 SS2 GrandCath 1280x1024 NO
36.7 SS2 GrandCath 1280x1024 YES
39.8 SS2 Valley 1280x1024 NO
37.7 SS2 Valley 1280x1024 YES
41.8 SS2 GrandCath 1024x768 NO
37.7 SS2 GrandCath 1024x768 YES
43.6 SS2 Valley 1024x768 NO
40.8 SS2 Valley 1024x768 YES

8666 3Dmark2k1
5070 3Dmark2k3
___________________________________________________________________

Subjective Gaming:

The Dothan provides higher frame rates and smoother game play in Half-Life 2.



Overclocking is painless and as you can see, this chips overclocks well a 514 Mhz overclock is nothing to sneeze at. as you can see in the raw cpu numbers this chip is a p4 killer and should rival the athlon fx in gaming prowess. Hell if a 1.6 gig Pentium M can equal my 3.06 gig you can bet that when overclocked this chip is a hell of a desktop cpu let alone a mobile cpu. The only thing holding this cpu back is the lack of platform choices and lack of full size motherboards. If anything that is my biggest issue with this board I happen to love lots of expansion capabilities and while it may be adequate for some it leaves me wanting. The pci-x slot is an odd animal. Only newer pci cards will fit in the dual keyed slot although it is backwards compatible. A quirk I never could fix was my ata 133 controller would function properly but would refuse to detect any drive attached to it no matter its configuration. I moved it to a regular pci slot and viola it detects perfectly. The majority of all my pci cards are all older single keyed variety so essentially I'm limited to 2 pci slots. Another peculiarity of this board which even with the latest bios is not "fixed", is the fact that I cannot get any of the other memory dividers in the bios to be stable at overclocked speeds. Plus even though I have some corsair value select ddr 400 dimms in this board I cannot get it stable past 133 FSB. The chip I am pretty sure can go higher and the ram had better be able to so I guess it's a bios or chipset thing. One word about temps they are insane. The chip idles at 23-25c tops out at around 40c even overclocked. The chip has prime95ed for 17 hours straight so I know it will run all night and day at 2.14 at 133 FSB. I do kind of miss hyperthreading but the advanced power saving techniques and unlocked multipliers make up for it.

Yes every game i have tried plays fine even at 600mhz. Including halo, hl2, doom3, nfs underground. Most games i didn't even change visual quality settings at all. :eek: :eek:
 
what kind of cooling u have? yeah nice results... but I dont think dothans are ready for desktop primetime yet (lack of mobos, chipsets etc).
 
the one the board comes with. it looks like a northbridge hs. It has a little 40mm fan on top.
 
Some of your Serious Sam 1 & 2 benchmarks at 600Mhz are just a little bit lower than my Tualatin box @ 1.33Ghz. Pretty amazing for a CPU at less than 1/2 the speed. By the way does your 5/3 ratio for your memory not work properly? I noticed you're running your memory at 200Mhz instead of 333Mhz.
 
the 5:3 divder works at stock speed but the miniute i try to overclock it becomes unstable. Even at the speeds i know the processor is capable of.
 
Could you give some updated numbers using the 5/3 ratio at stock speed? I'd imagine it'd improve your numbers at 1.6Ghz a bit.
 
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