• Tag Archives AMD

  • Digital Archaeology: HP Pavilion p7-1012

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    The Hewlett Packard p7-1012 is a great example of why you don’t want to buy “big box” store computers off the shelf. On the one hand, it looks ok and while it has a fairly low-end CPU even for the time, there is at least a fairly substantial upgrade path. However, on the other hand, it only has a 250 watt power supply and while it can be upgraded from a dual-core cpu to a hexa-core CPU, the top of the range is off limits because of motherboard power restrictions. Worst of all, this computer has no PCI x16 slot. That limits you to something like the nVidia GT 710 if you are thinking about a video card upgrade. Given the pitiful power supply, you couldn’t do a whole lot better even if you did have an x16 slot.

    Nevertheless, even with its relatively low end dual-core Athlon II 220 CPU, with the RAM maxed out at 8 GB it still makes a useable Windows 10 or Linux box provided you don’t want to do anything too intensive (or anything resembling modern gaming…”modern” in this case being 2009 or later). Because of that, I’m not sure this really quite fits into the category of “vintage” or even “retro” but it’s getting close. Generally, I consider anything older than 10 years to be getting close to the “retro” category when it comes to computers. This one fits with that criteria but just barely. A better criteria might be anything with a single core CPU or anything with a 32-bit CPU, etc. I guess it is pretty subjective though.

    Some more detailed stats:

    • Motherboard – FOXCONN 2AB7 / H-Apricot-RS780L-uATX (Apricot) (Socket AM3)
    • Chipset – AMD 780G
    • CPU – AMD Athlon II X2 220
    • Graphics – AMD Radeon 3000 (RS780L) / Taurus (integrated)
    • RAM – 8 GB DDR3-1066
    • Hard Drive – Seagate ST3320413AS 7200 RPM, 320 GB
    • Optical Drive – hp DVD-RAM GH60L

    For more detailed specs, check out the full output of HWiNFO.

    The AMD 780G chipset was introduced in 2009 with an integrated graphics solution that was meant to provide low cost DirectX 10.1 graphics capabilities to value PCs. While the chipset itself supports one PCIe 2.0 x16 slot, apparently this low end AMD solution wasn’t cheap enough for HP so they didn’t even provide that on their implementation. Also, while the chipset itself was designed to support AM3+ CPUs (or at least able to support them), this motherboard will only accept AM3 CPUs with a max 95 watt TDP. This means the best processor you can put in it is a Phenom II X6 1065T. The 1075T and beyond have a TDP of 125 watts. Still, I suppose the 1065T would be a reasonably large upgrade over the Athlon II X2 220 that is in it.

    Speaking of which, The Athlon II X2 220 is an AM3 processor with a 65 watt TDP and 2 cores running at 2.8 GHz. This Athlon II is one of a few that have only 1 MB of L2 cache (most have 2 MB) so they pretty much picked near the lowest end for an already lower end CPU line. The Athlon II is essentially the same as the Phenom II but with less cache. The Phenom II has 6 MB of L3 cache whereas the Athlon II has none. However, the Athlon II did have 2 MB of L2 cache (well, most of them anyway) instead of the 1 MB of L2 cache that the Phenom II had. I guess it could have been worse…They could have put a single core Sempron in it. Generally speaking, I think the Athlon II would have been a direct competitor to the Core 2 Duo era Pentium which was essentially a Core 2 Duo with less cache. The Athlon II was somewhat slower per MHz but also cheaper.

    As far as the graphics capabilities go, I don’t think there has ever existed an integrated motherboard solution that has risen above absolute crap when it comes to gaming. I don’t know exactly what discrete solution the Radeon 3000 IGP would be closest to but at least according to Techpowerup, it is nearly 10x slower than the GeForce GT 430 and Radeon HD 5570. That combined with the aforementioned lack of PCI x16 slot and pitiful power supply made this pretty useless for gaming purposes even when it was brand new. I guess as a relatively low power office machine or for basic web browsing/e-mail/office tasks at home it would work well enough though.

    Like any computer I turn on, I installed BOINC on this one. Being a 64-bit CPU, this CPU is able to process work units from most projects, including the ones I participate in most including Einstein@home, MilkyWay@home, Rosetta@home, Universe@home and World Community Grid. Click on the links to see how it is doing in those projects. Sadly, most rosetta@home work units require VirtualBox and gobs of memory and “regular” work units are few and far between. World Community Grid has also been down longer than expected after a recent move. Check out BOINC Stats or Free-DC for overall BOINC statistics for this computer.


    📂This entry was posted in Computer Arcana 📎and tagged

  • Digital Archaeology: HP Pavilion DV6000 (GA456UA-ABA)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    The HP Pavilion dv6000 actually consisted of a number of different laptop models. In fact, other than to give you an idea of the laptop size, dv6000 isn’t very useful as a model number. This particular one is sub-modeled (is that a word?) GA456UA-ABA. The primary feature that differs between these different sub-models is the CPU and supporting chipset. In this case, the CPU is a Turion 64 x2 TL-56.

    The Turion 64 X2 line was AMD’s answer to the Core 2 Duo, however, their naming convention left something to be desired. AMD released mobile AMD 64 X2s and Turion 64 X2s during the same time period and they could be hard to differentiate. Generally speaking, Turion’s were lower power (though later mobile Athlon’s matched that) and generally Turion’s had more cache (though not in every single instance…it depended on the specific model). But generally speaking, you can think of a Turion 64 X2 as a mobile version of the Athlon 64 X2 (K8 generation). The TL-56 model runs at 1.8 GHz and has a total of 1 MB of L2 Cache. But to confuse matters further, there are two variants of the TL-56. One is the older “Trinidad” 90mm variant and the other is the newer “Tyler” 65nm variant but there isn’t much difference to speak of anyway.

    The dv6000 is labeled an “Entertainment PC” and includes a row of blue LED touch sensitive buttons above the keyboard for adjusting volume and controlling DVD play. It also has “Altec Lansing” branded speakers which were presumably a step above your typical unbranded laptop speakers. As far as graphics go, this dv6000 has the GeFore Go 6150. This nVidia chip was integrated with the motherboard chipset and was among the lowest end nVidia choices of the time. Having said that, it was good enough for some basic gaming and better than what was in a lot of other laptops of the time. It at least beat out the integrated solutions of ATI/AMD and Intel.

    However, the GeForce Go 6150 was one of a myriad of nVidia chips of that era that were faulty. A combination of the solder used along with the pad beneath led to heat expansion that cracked the solder joints. The solder could be reflowed but that was only a temporary fix. The fact that this laptop seems to work just fine may be a small miracle or maybe it was a later production model with the problem at least partially addressed.

    Some basic specs of this laptop include:

    • CPU: Turion 64 X2 TL56 @ 1.8 GHz
    • RAM: 2 GB of DDR2 @ 667 MHz
    • GPU: GeForce Go 6150 using up to 128 MB of system RAM
    • Screen Resolution: 1280×800
    • Hard Drive: ST320LT020-9YG14 (Seagate Momentus Thin 320 GB)
    • Optical Drive: TS-L632M 8x DVD±RW LightScribe Drive

    It also has the ports you would expect including a three USB ports, a memory card slot, an express card slot, as well as your typical wi-fi, and ethernet connections available. It looks like it also has VGA out, SVIDEO out, a modem (any dial-up ISPs still around?) and firewire.

    The “Lightscribe” drive is an interesting feature in that it lets you flip a disk over and laser etch a label. However, this required special disks and I don’t think these are widely available any longer. Alas, optical drives seem to be quickly going the way of the floppy anyway. I also like the handy button to turn off the trackpad. I like to rest my hands in the area below the keyboard while I am typing and if the trackpad is enabled, the pressure inevitably causes the cursor to move around and make me end up typing (or deleting) somewhere I didn’t want to.

    Currently I have Xubuntu 20.04 installed which it handles reasonably well. Another 2 GB of RAM would probably help a lot. With only 2 GB, your browsing capabilities are going to be limited. Firefox runs ok but I wouldn’t try more than one or two tabs. If I really wanted to upgrade it I would probably add that memory and an SSD and it would feel pretty zippy for a laptop that is approaching 15 years old.

    Overall, this seems like a pretty nice little laptop for AMD fans back in the day. A backlit keyboard would have been nice and if you were one of the unlucky many struck with the faulty GPU problem you no doubt would have hated it but otherwise it’s pretty decent as long as you weren’t looking for a gaming powerhouse.

    Check out the output of HardInfo for a more detailed inventory of the hardware.


    📂This entry was posted in Computer Arcana 📎and tagged

  • New AMD Zen Processors to Make BOINC Computing & Gridcoin Mining More Competitive?

    Posted on by Azrael 1 Comment

    AMD recently unveiled some key specs about its new “Zen” processor architecture at the Hot Chips 28 convention. The new Zen “Summit Ridge” desktop processor will feature 8 cores and 16 simultaneous threads, while the “Naples” enterprise server version will sport an impressive 32 cores, with a total of 64 threads of processing power.

    …

    The new Zen chips will be about 40% more efficient than previous generations, so 40% more instructions per clock cycle. A massive improvement compared to the FX line of processors. AMD’s current generation of processors have cores that are more akin to modules with a shared floating point core, but the Zen chips have standalone cores, much like Intel’s designs. AMD has stated that the Summit Ridge line will be available to consumers in the first quarter of 2017, with the behemoth 32-core Naples coming out by the middle of 2017.


    Electricity costs are a huge factor in the field of Boinc distributed computing, especially in European countries which some of the highest power costs in the entire world. Zen’s 40% efficiency boost over previous generations of processors will sound very appealing to the Boinc cruncher paying $100-200 in electricity costs on a monthly basis.

    CPU-only Boinc distributed computing projects like Universe@home, LHC@home and Rosetta@home will likely become more competitive as enthusiasts begin to upgrade their hardware.

    While AMD has not officially released any TDP specifications for the Zen line, or any estimates on retail pricing, it’s very unlikely that the Summit Ridge chips will have a significantly higher power draw than, say, FX-8350 Vishera-based chips. In fact, Digital Trends reports that AMD is aiming for a TDP of 95-100 watts for Zen. Given the whopping 40% hike in performance, many Boinc participants – even diehard Intel fans such as myself – may be tempted to upgrade their power-thirsty, aging rigs with AMD’s new workhorses.

    The temptation will be even higher for the thousands of miners on Gridcoin, a blockchain-based digital currency where miners mint coins by computing Boinc scientific work units. The Gridcoin network spits out 48,000 coins/day – about $250 at current exchange rates – with the largest slice of the daily pie going to the miners with the biggest Boinc contributions.

    Source: New AMD Zen Processors to Make BOINC Computing & Gridcoin Mining More Competitive? — Steemit


    📂This entry was posted in Computer Arcana 📎and tagged