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Small Form Factor Dual Opteron

Posted by michael on from the toasty dept.

Psionicist writes "IWILL has announced a new barebone, the IWILL ZMAXdp. Based on the nVIDIA nForce3 Pro 250Gb chipset, the computer offers dual Opteron support in a SFF format. "Volume production is planned in September, with a suggested price of $499. IWILL plans to get attention in workstation market. ZMAXdp will include proprietary form factor motherboard, 300W power supply, up to 2x3.5" HDD bay, and 1xAGP; PCI and SI can offer various configurations for workstation market demand." according to IWILL's homepage. I will take one, please."

9 of 215 comments (clear)

  1. Heat management? by Radi-0-head · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm extremely curious how they figured out how to manage the heat generated by TWO processors while leaving room in that tiny box for anything else.

    Regardless, my boxers are wet. Must have one.

    1. Re:Heat management? by alienw · · Score: 5, Informative

      Opterons run very cool. Mine runs considerably cooler than the P3-800 it replaced.

    2. Re:Heat management? by SD-VI · · Score: 5, Informative

      Even the regular Opteron is no Xeon; typical heat output for a regular Opteron 244 is estimated at 58W (I believe Xbit Labs did the testing), and they've got Oversized Novelty Dies to spread that over as well (something like 193 square millimeters, courtesy of x86-64 and a 1MB L2 cache).

      I suspect they're looking into low-voltage Opterons, though, which would mean even lower heat consumption. Max heat dissipation for the entire line of .13u Opteron HEs (LV) is 55W; consider that max heat dissipation for the entire line of regular .13u Opterons is, what, 89W and as I said heat dissipation under load for a normal (old-stepping, actually) 1.8GHz/x44 Opteron is 58W, and you're getting some pretty chilly-running chips. Max heat spec for the .13u Opteron EE (ULV) line is 30W, which puts it in Tualatin territory.

      So yeah, reversing the trend towards hotter chips is a very very good thing.

  2. I have a Idea! by matlantis · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nice now I can fit more of these motherboards in my jacket and then run like crazy out of Fry's

  3. Re:I don't get it. by irokitt · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not only a cure for tiny cubicles, it doubles as a foot warmer!

    --
    If my answers frighten you, stop asking scary questions.
  4. open-source freindly != Nvidia... by James4765 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Hope they've got Linux/BSD drivers for it - since MS still doesn't have XP 64-bit ready, and we all know that Nvidia won't release the programming info on the (very, very proprietary) chipset.

    Guess the $499 is no memory, processors, drives, or whatnot - but it's still cheaper than the Tyan or MSI mobos. Just gotta save up the $2000 for the Opteron 250's...<grin>

  5. Re:UMMMMM... by ruiner5000 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Because there are two Opterons in it. I was talking to Iwill about it today. Yes, single chip solution as in the nForce 3 chipset, as is common knowledge, integrates northbridge and southbridge functions into one chip which reduces latency, and improves performance. Single chipset, two CPUs, less valuable PCB space since no separate southbridge is required, less traces required, easier to make a smaller design. nforce 3 info.

    --
    ignorance is bliss. googlefiberatx.com
  6. Opteron's may not produce so much heat by ahmetaa · · Score: 5, Informative

    AMD Opteron Processor Models 146/246/846 HE series produces only 50Waats and EE series produces 35 watts. this means even dual chips may produce less heat than a Intel Presscot P4. HE and EE series will be unveiled this year.

    http://www.amdboard.com/opteron_low_power.html

  7. Re:SMP Gaming, quit it already! by NerveGas · · Score: 5, Informative


    You're pretty much right, but soon won't be.

    Doom3, however, is fully multi-threaded in order to support SMP systems. That means that the games which license the Doom3 engine will be multithreaded. And it also means that anyone who wants to challenge Id will also have to step up to the plate.

    Earlier today, I heard someone moaning that the need to support multiple processers was useless baggage that would pull down the video game industry. Quite the contrary, increases in computing performance have always helped the video game industry, and the ability to tap into two processers instead of one is another way that they can increase their use of yoru CPU cycles.

    There are a *lot* of simultaneoush things happening in a video game - in addition to the rendering and sound, you've also got to handle AI for a good number of characters, and physics for a (usually) large number of objects, and those are two things that can chew up CPU cycles.

    Sure, it takes some work and intelligence to get all of the code to work together. But that's alright, that's how things have been improving for a long time now.

    steve

    --
    Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.