Windows XP x64 Edition with VMware WS 6.5

So I maxed out my K9N2GM motherboard with 8GB of RAM, and noticed that VMware Workstation 5.5 wouldn't see past 4GB even when it was running under XP x64 Edition SP2.

I upgraded to VMware WS 6.5 and now my virtual machines can use over 7GB if I need it. The only issue I had was that my PC would suddenly reboot the first time I ran workstation and player.

If you're looking for an affordable and stable system to run VMware, I suggest reading my upgrade thread here:
http://purefinity.blogspot.com/2009/01/amd-athlon-x2-upgrade.html

I originally bought it more for gaming, but VMware runs great too!

AMD Athlon X2 upgrade

In a previous post, I described the Pentium 4 architecture I was using and how it appeared to be nearing obsolescence.
http://purefinity.blogspot.com/2008/12/pentium-4-architecture-becoming.html

Well with the incredibly cheap prices in 2009 (ie: $35 for 4GB of RAM) , I thought it was a good time to upgrade.

Performance testing:

AMD Athlon X2 5000, MSI K9N2GM, Powercolor Radeon HD 3850 PCI-E (688mhz clock, 747mhz RAM), 4GB DDR2 800 RAM
Left4Dead 1024x768 + low settings - 66FPS (19FPS with 8200 on-board video)
LAME MP3 Encoding w/ defaults - 22sec
7zip ultra comp + AES256 encryption - 1m15s
Doom 3 (1280x1024, Ultra Quality, 4x AA, 8x AF) - 118FPS

The Doom 3 score actually exceeded my expectations. :-)
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-q1-2008/Doom-3,560.html

Old P4 / 6600 GT AGP
Left4Dead 1024x768 + low settings - 30FPS
LAME MP3 Encoding w/ defaults - 30sec
7zip ultra compression + AES256 encryption - 1m55s

Torture testing:
System temp was 44 deg C during torture testing.

AMD Athlon X2 5000 (Highest observed temp 53 deg C - 100% util @ 2600mhz for 1 hour)
Max Temp 55-68 Deg C
http://products.amd.com/en-us/DesktopCPUDetail.aspx?id=40&f1=&f2=&f3=&f4=&f5=&f6=&f7=&f8=&f9=&f10=

ATI Radeon HD 3850 (Highest observed temp 68 deg C - 100% util @ 688mhz for 1 hour)
Max Temp Unknown, but 75 Deg C is known to be stable according to some reports
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd3870-hd3850_13.html

The motherboard chipset is on par with similar chipsets from other vendors
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-nvidia-chipset,1972-16.html

AGP lives! The ATI 3850 AGP performs about the same speed as the 3850 PCI-E
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ati-agp-3850-agp,1939-4.html

The shader seems to have issues in certain games like Left 4 Dead where reflective surfaces look magenta or oddly reflective. Hopefully this will be fixed with future drivers from ATI.

Update:
The K9N2GM motherboard (AKA K9N2GM-FD) does not support Linux when using the SATA controller. This is a shame, but thankfully I was able to run Windows XP x64 with VMware Workstation 5.5 to use my Linux applications.

I've since bought 2 more sticks of Crucial RAM, and now have 8GB of memory running in dual channel mode. So far I have not run into the 7GB limit the user manual mentions.

The processor is now running at about 2.95Ghz and is cool and stable. (226x13)

The video card was overclocked in the BIOS to run a 695Mhz GPU clock and 828Mhz memory.