H3nrik V! wrote on 2020-10-21, 14:50:Well, given that you bring the 300A into the equation, I would say that the most "natural state" for that when it was new, was 4 […]
Show full quote
Tali wrote on 2020-10-21, 11:56:
Now there is a question of I should keep it OC, since it seems to run just fine, ON STOCK VOLTAGE!!!, as it is at 2.7, but the main idea is to keep my "museum rigs" as they would have been at the time. And while Q6600 was definitely factory-clocked at 2.4, almost nobody kept it at that. So what is "the more natural state" for it? It was almost like Celeron 300A of its time...
Well, given that you bring the 300A into the equation, I would say that the most "natural state" for that when it was new, was 450 ..
My own C2Q Q8200 was mounted, overclocked and never returned to 2.33.
And if the Q6600 has been running like that for +10 years, that IS it's natural state B-)
Well, I think by now I've decided to keep it at 2.7 as it is. It may not be the biggest powerhouse of S775, but it is probably the most iconic "People's Power" CPU, and yes, considering most would keep it at 3+ GHz, 2.7 is a "mild" overclock and probably represents the CPU quite well.
As said somewhere at the beginning of the thread, each system I'm building is not just a functionally period correct (or, at least, plausible - minus the SSDs, but I don't want to suffer old HDDs) setup, but also represents a specific feature or features that are most interesting about the era to me. 386 - "Seer", for example, is something special in and of itself, as it still harks back to the time when a PC was far from a household appliance. It is also on the border of when CPU began requiring heatsinks. This particular one also has a professional video editing card that happens to be ISA. I didn't even know such cards existed back then, but, on the other hand, how else did they put all those digital subtitles? Surely they didn't have Silicon Graphics workstations in every small TV station!
486 -"Bard", VESA, external cache, and probably last truly multi-vendor CPU. Also, to me this is like the golden age of DOS, and therefore is equipped with multiple sound cards. Plus, the machine I got is actually a DEC motherboard, which is another bonus. Kind of like "the last serious PC-as-an-industrial-device gen". Starting with Pentiums, those PCs really went further and further into consumer market! Though, of course, there were earlier attempts with PCJr and Tandy 1000...
Then there are other systems, each with their own "motif". "Crusader", a planned 6x86 machine with GUS, represents those that tried to challenge "powers that be" (and ultimately failed), while "Shaman", a dual P2/dual Voodoo 2 is like the epitome of "nineties brute power", but was also "obsolete before leaving the factory" as possibly the shortest-lived Intel CPU generation. Next machine, still nameless P3 Tualatin/S3 Delta Chrome, is the opposite - immense efficiency in the face of hot, power-hungry and inelegant P4 and GeForces.
A machine not even listed in the first page (and greatly inspired by The Troll PC), has to be an early P4 with RAMBUS, and would mark the first (mis?)steps towards modern day computing, while an almost complete (minus video card) Athlon XP build is a reminder of the times when Intel didn't dominate completely (glad those times are coming back and AMD is catching up, even if they still can't touch Intel's IPC, at least they can offer more cores to make up for it). It's rival, P4-3.8 "Emperor" is an "all about appearances" GHz game; yet, coupled with Vista and some fast memory, it actually is more than adequate despite what the forum stories would tell, questioning if that reputation was really deserved. So, perhaps, this emperor actually did have some clothes?
"Assasin", this C2Q machine, probably represents the first time that PC became "fast enough". So much so, that I still use it today when I'm at my other apartment, and it still does all it needs to do. And even now there is so much it can do that I sometimes even work from it, though, of course, it doesn't hold a candle to "Sorceress".
Speaking of her, that is my main machine, and the one I've put all my skill towards building, the goal being making the biggest powerhouse I could assemble out of reasonably affordable parts. Granted, now that Threadrippers are a thing, she's met her rivals. But that doesn't make her any less useful, especially considering modest power consumption at idle and a lot of on-demand power, while still whisper quiet. She's also my first water-cooled machine, first multi-processor machine (Shaman was built afterwards), and many other "firsts".
That all said, yes, I'll probably make an exception for C2Q and keep it OC'ed, as that's what the people would have done. Kind of interesting and fitting really, that it is coupled with an Abit Fatal1ty FP-IN9, which is nForce 650, not 680, "bang for the buck" proposition that is just as fast as a more expensive one. I've even coupled it with another Fatal1ty-themed product, SB X-FI, and the GPUs aren't the fastest, more like "the most reasonable of the competitive high end". Also, considering how good that Q6600 was, it wasn't unreasonable to expect it to be paired with newer video cards. All this together would probably make the system's theme: "how much performance could you get from a still affordable system around 2008".
brownk wrote on 2020-10-21, 15:05:
A Schiit fan notices the Mani on the turntable. 😉
And an ATI fan notices the logo in your avatar 😉
Seriously, for a VESA system you don't get much cooler than that!
As for the Schiit, I will probably also purchase their SYS if I get lucky with another purchase I intend to do shortly.