So, custom cooling solution for the OR840.

I've been saying I'd do something about it for a couple of years now, most likely design and print something. Well, today I finally started. The first step was modeling some Slot 1 CPU brackets, which were notoriously absent from thingiverse 🤷🏾

You should be able to find some now 😉

Please note that while all Slot1 CPUs will fit, only SECC CPUs (original Pentium2 cartridges, some heatsinks like mine) will be properly supported and locked. They are modeled after IBM brackets, which I will completely reproduce later on if no one remixes these.

nice!

i'd tell you to do slot-2, but every motherboard kinda did their own thing...

I always wanted to water cool my or840. Slot1 waterblocks are hard to come by tho.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/333389245014

use one of those. the metal heatspreader is removeable and you can modify that SAFELY. or you can MAYBE use something like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/132424207704 directly on the die.

be warned, on early slot-1 boards, the L2 cache was external to the cpu and benefits from active cooling overclocking. In fact, i'd say keeping the L2 cache cool is MORE important to overclocking than the cpu core.

luckybob wrote on 2020-12-16, 08:00:

...

be warned, on early slot-1 boards, the L2 cache was external to the cpu and benefits from active cooling overclocking. In fact, i'd say keeping the L2 cache cool is MORE important to overclocking than the cpu core.

For sure! Oveclocking Klamath, Deschutes, and Katmai, is basically an exercise in cooling the L2 cache.

Thanks LB. I have 2 SL4BS cpus. https://www.cpu-world.com/sspec/SL/SL4BS.html
those have on die cache,
theres doesn't seem to be overclocking options for or840, at least not on the Intel/IBM/reference motherboard.

The north bridge one might work with elbo fittings for the hoses.

Warlord wrote on 2020-12-16, 22:43:

Thanks LB. I have 2 SL4BS cpus. https://www.cpu-world.com/sspec/SL/SL4BS.html those have on die cache, theres doesn't seem t […]
Show full quote

Thanks LB. I have 2 SL4BS cpus. https://www.cpu-world.com/sspec/SL/SL4BS.html
those have on die cache,
theres doesn't seem to be overclocking options for or840, at least not on the Intel/IBM/reference motherboard.

The north bridge one might work with elbo fittings for the hoses.

I was talking in general, regarding overclocking.

If you want to overclock on the OR840, there's a debug header between the slots where you can feed a clock if memory serves me right. You can play with that and make a custom overclocking device using an arduino and a Si5351 clock generator. I gave it some thought a while back, but couldn't be bothered to actually do it.

problem I have is the space between CPUs is very small, smaller if I use slockets, even worst if its slockets + lin lin.
If I was good enough Id design some retention brackets, for some off the shelf coolers from cpu mounting. Heatpipes would work well too.
as it is i'm having to use some generic coolermaster secc1 coolers with 40mm fans wired to 5v instead of 12v becasue noise.
some 12v fans seem to tolerate that and they quiet down.

The only manufacturer of motherboards that would even possibly have overclocking would be asus. (without hacks)

i think there were like three motherboards that had the 840. the intel OR840, Supermicro P3DR3 and i think the tyan S2520

There was some motorola 840 with dual s370 with isa slots, and onboard scsi. No chance to ever find that. Looks pretty awesome tho.

Motorola PATX5000
http://mediaserver.voxtechnologies.com/FileCa … t-969840331.pdf

Also mentioned here, Compaq AP550 which is a bit customised version of OR840 (has onboard sound, LAN, SCSI).

oh, there is one of the motherbords on ebay for not a totally stupid price.

https://www.ebay.com/c/102546241

i840 Northbridge gets exceptionally hot, surprised theres no heatink. The slots are even closer together it seems than the reference board.

luckybob wrote on 2020-12-20, 09:46:

oh, there is one of the motherbords on ebay for not a totally stupid price.

https://www.ebay.com/c/102546241

That's an AP500 not an AP550. My spare AP550 looks as below and I also recall Compaq use a none standard PSU connection, notice it's a 24-pin rather than a 20-pin connector

Yes, it uses 24+10 pin PSu but standard 24pin PSU is adaptable by re-arranging pins and adding separate 10pin connector.

Paadam wrote on 2020-12-21, 10:00:

Yes, it uses 24+10 pin PSu but standard 24pin PSU is adaptable by re-arranging pins and adding separate 10pin connector.

No, it's 24-pin + 6-pin, see Weird Compaq Motherboard for the pinouts

Ah sorry my mistake. Did not bother to open up the case 😜 Anyway, it works well with Tualatins though obviously needs modified MSI slokets.

well, hello fellow kids OR840 owners, i've recently acquired an i intellistation m pro 6868, with this awesome but hard to setup board inside, so i m planning to put some resources to get it working
first of all, slivercr, big thanks for this thread, i've got so much info about this board here.
so, i've got the workstation in this config: single 933/133/256 slot1 cpu, dummy in the other slot, dual 128mb 40ns rimms with no crimms in the other 2 slots.
it was sold as 'broken (not starting)', but i have figured out it was just the battery so it's now starting, giving the error beeps about the absent memory modules.
i am about to buy some memory now (serial number is 750711-702, so i guess 512mb rims is the way to go), and need a piece of advice - i have read the Hannibal Ram Guide about rimms and basically it says that more rimm modules = more latency (cause rimm uses serial principle of data transfer).
my question is - will using crims in slots 2 and 4 improve latency? i know its a silly one but i dont want to spend extra money on another 2x512 set if dual channel mode does not require you to populate all the slots and there may be even performance hit. 1gb is plenty for win2k.
there is also 40ns vs 45ns performance difference, i could not find any benchmarks anywhere but im just curious if there is any (if or840 even supports 40n timings)

d4m3d wrote on 2021-07-01, 13:18:

well, hello fellow kids OR840 owners, i've recently acquired an i intellistation m pro 6868, with this awesome but hard to setup […]
Show full quote

well, hello fellow kids OR840 owners, i've recently acquired an i intellistation m pro 6868, with this awesome but hard to setup board inside, so i m planning to put some resources to get it working
first of all, slivercr, big thanks for this thread, i've got so much info about this board here.
so, i've got the workstation in this config: single 933/133/256 slot1 cpu, dummy in the other slot, dual 128mb 40ns rimms with no crimms in the other 2 slots.
it was sold as 'broken (not starting)', but i have figured out it was just the battery so it's now starting, giving the error beeps about the absent memory modules.
i am about to buy some memory now (serial number is 750711-702, so i guess 512mb rims is the way to go), and need a piece of advice - i have read the Hannibal Ram Guide about rimms and basically it says that more rimm modules = more latency (cause rimm uses serial principle of data transfer).
my question is - will using crims in slots 2 and 4 improve latency? i know its a silly one but i dont want to spend extra money on another 2x512 set if dual channel mode does not require you to populate all the slots and there may be even performance hit. 1gb is plenty for win2k.
there is also 40ns vs 45ns performance difference, i could not find any benchmarks anywhere but im just curious if there is any (if or840 even supports 40n timings)

Welcome to Vogons 😀

Just a note that many of the earlier BIOS versions didn't support 512MB RIMMs - if you're unsure then the latest version is vailable thru the file repository set up by slivercr at the start of the thread.

The OR840 supports dual-channel-Rambus. So you get a performance boost (in some cases for SMP), if you populate both channels. Rambus RAM is a serial Daisy Chain of Memory chips (chips, not modules!) with a Memory controller for each chip. As larger the Module Size, as longer the Daisy Chain. So the highest Memory performnce with your i840 Board should be a population with two small (64MB) and fast (800MHz, 40ns) Modules + Termination (CRIMMs). You should consider the correct population of both channels.