[ExI] hot processors?

[Tomasz Rola]

On Wed, 3 Nov 2010, BillK wrote:

> On Tue, Nov 2, 2010 at 11:13 PM, spike wrote:
> > OK, I just got back from the local electronics merchant where I purchased a
> > notebook cooler.  Let's see if this helps.  If this machine fails to run all
> > night, I will need to rethink my strategy on using a laptop, and may cause
> > me to rethink the notion of the singularity.  We may be seeing what really
> > is an S-curve in computing technology, where we are approaching a limit of
> > calculations per watt of power input.  Or not, I confess I haven't followed
> > it in the past 5 yrs the way I did in my misspent youth.  Are we still
> > advancing in calculations per watt?

Yes, I would say so. Compare:

Pentium 1 @ 100MHz - about 15W (clock/wat = 6.67)
Athlon XP @ 1800MHz - about 70-80W (c/w = 22.5-25.7)
AthlonII 4x @ 2600MHz - about 170W (c/w = 61.2)

 (source: google, wikipedia, tomshardware, my memory)

This assumes there were no other advances than mere clock. But in fact c/w 
doesn't tell about memory & bus speeds, micro optimisations, out of order 
execution, etc etc. On the Intel side, it should look even better, 
especially if we forget the flaky Pentium4.

> Oh-oh.  I just did a search on 'HP Pavilion dv7 overheating' and it
> looks like you've bought a problem laptop.  Do the search and you'll
> see what I mean.

Just in case some other folks here "use their computahs for 
computaahsion". I'm no big hardware expert but I am a big fan of 
stability. There are two utilities, that can be used for testing one's 
machine and they are free.

1. Memtest86 - [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memtest86 ]

2. Prime95 - [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime95 ]

Since I only use Windows about twice a year or so, I cannot tell about 
Prime95, but Memtest is ok.

Once again, this is good moment to stress about monitoring a hardware. I 
don't know whether this is obvious, but to me, everybody running some 
nontrivial load on one's computer really wants to know how it is doing. I 
am for knowing my machine, knowing it's sounds, what is usual and what is 
a sign. It is analogous to racing: if you only drive to work or for some 
shopping, you don't need to understand how it is possible that you move. 
But once you enter racing, you could do better knowing at least some 
basics of your car's mechanics.

Also, for me stability has more value than speed, so I don't mind 
downclocking a bit. This is, IMHO, quite a good idea while running so 
called budget PCs (and which one is not budget nowadays?). A 100 MHz off 
your clock is just a few percent drop in performance but it can make you 
feel much better and cooler (and no more questions like, can I go for a 
walk or should I stay and wait for another mysterious beep).

Regards,
Tomasz Rola

--
** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature.      **
** As the answer, master did "rm -rif" on the programmer's home    **
** directory. And then the C programmer became enlightened...      **
**                                                                 **
** Tomasz Rola          mailto:tomasz_rola at bigfoot.com             **