PC Performance Maximization through the use of Overclocking and Active Cooling

Transcription

1 Progress Report #1 Project PC Performance Maximization through the use of Overclocking and Active Cooling Supervisor Warren Little, Electrical Engineering Department Team Members Dale Gagne, EE, ID# Jason Vath, EE, ID# Problem With the advent of rising clock rates in personal computers, the requirement for improved thermal management of the microprocessor and other components becomes a necessity. Through improved thermal management, we strive to extend the boundaries of PC performance. Objective To understand the operational characteristics and limitations of an Intel based PC. Once limitations are understood the team will strive to maximize performance through active cooling methods on the microprocessor and chipset. Scope 1. The relationship between computational performance and front side bus speed will be analyzed. 2. The correlation between increased front side bus speed and processor heat dissipation will be examined. 3. The relationship between processor temperature and operational stability will be characterized. 4. Alternative methods for active cooling of the processor and chipset will be studied and employed to further extend thermal stability limitations. 5. Temperature regulation of the processor and its feasibility will be investigated. 6. All designs will minimize the probability of condensation occurring within the PC. Timetable Jan 22 First Progress Report: -With the processor cooled using stock heat sink and fan, the first three items in the scope will be documented. -Plans for active cooling of the processor and chipset will be finalized.

2 Timetable cont. Feb 14 Second Progress Report: -Active cooling methods will have been employed with performance and stability tests completed. -Plans for temperature regulation will have been finalized with the goal of implementation and testing before the end of February. End of Feb -Complete testing of temperature regulation using thermoelectric device. -Begin final report and web presentation. The PC Specifications Processor Motherboard Hard drive Memory Video card IDE controller Power Supply Intel, PIII 600E, 256 KB L2 ECC Cache, 100MHz FSB ABIT, BX6 w/ Intel 440BX chipset Maxtor, DiamandMax Plus 40, 40GB, 7200 RPM, ATA66 256MB PC133 SDRAM ATI, Rage Fury, 32MB, AGP2X Promise Technology, Ultra66 IDE controller 300W The Intel PIII 600E processor operates with a 100MHz front side bus (FSB) and a 6 times multiplier which clocks internally at 600MHz. The 256kB of L2 cache on the PIII run at 600MHz as well. The Intel PIII 600E comes in an FC-PGA370 package. The following chart is taken from the PIII datasheet. The datasheet shows increased thermal requirements with increasing processor core frequency. If the FSB speed of the processor is increased we can extrapolate from this chart that an increased temperature will be experienced within the processor. The increased processor temperature is due to the required temperature differential, from processor to heatsink, required to dissipate the increased thermal power being generated.

3 The PC Specifications cont. The ABIT motherboard being used in this PC is capable of setting the front side bus speed through software in the BIOS. The FSB can also be changed by communicating directly to the clock generator IC through a piece of software called SoftFSB. Below is a screen capture of the SoftFSB interface. You can see the selection of motherboard or clock generator type in the upper portion of the GUI. The slider in the lower part of the GUI allows the user to select a new FSB speed. When the Set FSB is pressed the FSB speed is then increased without interfering with running processes. The current CPU freq is then displayed in the window below the Set FSB button. The motherboard is also capable of changing the regulated core voltage to the CPU from within the BIOS. The Testing Done to Date The FSB speed on this PC was tested at 5 different frequencies (100, 117, 129, 133 and 138 MHz). The stock processor heatsink and fan were used and the core voltage was changed from 1.45V to 1.8V. The specified core voltage for this PC is 1.65V. We found the PC to be stable up to 133MHz at all 3 voltage levels. The PC locked up or went unstable when switched to 138MHz FSB at all 3 voltage levels. Stability was determined by running a piece of software called CPU Stability Test, Copyright , Jouni Vuorio, for over an hour at each frequency. These stability tests showed no computational errors and no other anomalies were observed up to 133 MHz FSB.

4 Benchmarks SiSoft Sandra 2001 benchmarks were used to measure computational performance at the different clock speeds. The CPU benchmarks were as follows and are compared to an AMD Duron 600. This screen capture is a combination of multiple screen captures in order to compare the results from the four separate results. SiSoft Sandra normally compares the result of the current configuration against known results from four other processors.

5 Benchmarks cont. SiSoft Sandra 2001 benchmarks were used to measure multimedia instruction performance at the different clock speeds. The MMX benchmarks were as follows and are compared to an AMD Duron 600. This screen capture is also the result of a combination of multiple captures at the different clock speeds for direct comparison.

6 Benchmarks cont. SiSoft Sandra 2001 benchmarks were used to measure the memory system performance at the different clock speeds. The memory benchmarks were as follows and are compared to an AMD Duron 600. This screen capture is also the result of a combination of multiple captures at the different clock speeds for direct comparison.

7 Temperature Monitors Temperatures internal to the CPU, external to the 440BX chipset and on the motherboard were all monitored. The temperature transition from CPU idle to 100% processor usage is presented in the following graphs. PIII Internal Temp Temperature (deg C) Time (min) 440BX Chipset Temp Temperature (deg C) Time (min) Motherboard Temp Temperature (deg C) Time (min)