Heart and Brains

Memory

The memory sweet spot right now is 1GB of RAM. In a previous review, we saw the Intel i875 Bonanza motherboard slow down significantly when 4 double-sided DIMMS were used. With the TYAN motherboard, we saw no significant slow down when 4 DIMM slots were used. We aren’t yet sure why we saw what we saw with the Intel motherboard, it is possible that it may have just gone to a more conservative memory timings with 4 DIMMs. If that wasn’t reason to build your own systems, I don’t know what is. Even though we aren’t overclocking the clock speed of the system, we can still use fast memory to gain performance with low latency modules (2-3-2) or CAS-2 (2-3-3). This compares to standard DDR400 which is CAS 3 (3-8-3)

When it comes to the best performing memory, the list is short. More often than not, Corsair RAM sits among the leaders in the high-end ram market. Corsair has impressed us with modules that always perform consistently and reliably.

The Corsair 512MB XMS Pro PC3200 Low Latency modules are a perfect match for the system. Without a window in the case the LEDS can’t be appreciated, but the PRO modules do have the better heatsink and are likely from Corsair’s best bins since it is their flagship line. Another advantage of the XMS Pro line is in debugging motherboard problems. If the lights do not turn on as they should during POST, then you can infer that your motherboard may not be giving the DIMM modules any power. According to Corsair the addition of the LEDs does not affect the integrity of the data nor does it add noise to the signal path. Given that the Tyan Trinity i875P can run the 8 banks reliably at full speed, we’ll have to agree.

Corsair XMS memory

Cost: ~$350 for low latency (2-3-2), ~$290 for CAS 2 (2-3-3). Save another ~$40 a pair with standard XMS modules. Limited availability of PRO modules.

CPU

Not much to say here. Following the recent price drops, the Pentium 4 3.0GHz (800 mhz bus) is the same price as the 2.8GHz last month. The marginal cost between a 2.8 and 3.0 is about $60, but to go from 3.0 to 3.2 is about $120. For a non-overclocked system, the 3.0GHz chip is a good choice. A single hyper-threaded CPU is sufficient for our purpose since the workgroup size will be small and the server will not need host a large number of simultaneous connections.

We used the stock heatsink and fan since we aren’t overclocking and don’t mind a little extra fan noise. The 3.0GHz Intel retail package includes a better heatsink than in their slower chips, this one has a copper core. We did remove the stock thermal pad to try out the new Arctic Silver 5, which is the newest and one of the best thermal compounds available. With this setup, our peak CPU temperature during prime95 testing was 50C with a system temp of 28C. This system temp was with all the case sides closed and reflects the great cooling of the case, but more on this later. The temp at the case intake was 22C.

Intel's stock heatsink w/ Arctic Silver

Cost: $300