Mobo suggestions for dual Opteron 940

nickcarr said:
I got my parts today and hit a few minor build-issues, which I'll post later. There are some "gotchas" to the SuperMicro motherboard, so you'll want to read my notes *before* you buy this motherboard.

Here's a photo for you guys, just so you can see my setup. This is a real photo and what you see is real - Windows XP 64 Retail. I've just hooked up the debugger so I can find out what's going on.

Ironically, Windows Vista installed just fine -- but I can't use it due to a lack of ethernet driver support.

xp64.jpg
Click to expand...

Ahh the mighty CM Stacker. :cool:
 
Sir Frag,

This case saved my butt. That 2-in-1, 24-pin ATX splitter was great. I was able to use my 2nd PSU for the lame mobo issue. (See my post in the AMD Mobo section.)

My only complaint is that the case is so friggin big, it's hard to move around and work in! :D :cool:


-Nick
 
nickcarr said:
Sir Frag,

This case saved my butt. That 2-in-1, 24-pin ATX splitter was great. I was able to use my 2nd PSU for the lame mobo issue. (See my post in the AMD Mobo section.)

My only complaint is that the case is so friggin big, it's hard to move around and work in! :D :cool:


-Nick
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Working in mine is great. Except for the rare occasions when I have to move it. I hear you though, it's a big bastard.
 
hehe, yeah, the stacker would be much better with some handy, dandy carrying handles. Unfortunately, the wife liked mine so much I ended up with one of those Giant ass Cube cases and she got my stacker. Try moving those cube cases around or getting power/sata cable long enough for them.
 
Sir-Fragalot said:
Working in mine is great. Except for the rare occasions when I have to move it. I hear you though, it's a big bastard.
Click to expand...

Hehe at least my Lian Li has castors (not that it really moves much).
 
Volkum said:
Hehe at least my Lian Li has castors (not that it really moves much).
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The CM Stacker actually comes with excellent casters. However, I don't really like the idea of using them. I don't want wheels on my machine as I have them both on my desk. I hate putting my boxen under the desk on the floor. :)
 
Well, except for the minor issue with the addtional ATX power connector, my system is up and running. I've installed XP64 on my SATA drive with no issues. The install seemed smoother with SATA and its drivers installed. The first install was on IDE only -- strictly a sanity test to see how it works.

So far the benchmarks are exactly what I've expected. Compared to my old system, this is a huge improvement. I only wish I made the jump sooner and didn't waste money buying a 6800GT AGP card.

I was happy to find Audigy 2 ZS 64-bit drivers -- they seem to work well.
 
I enjoyed reading this article. I was looking at the same exact two motherboards that you were looking at originally and reading through this entire post I decided not to go dual cpu. Its wayy too much power that I need--its just a computer Im going to have sitting at home so I dont need to truck mine back and forth from school to home. Dont need dual cpus, quad cores for that right? =)

Im going to stick with Socket 939 with single core and then can be upgraded to dual core later. How is x64 windows?
 
Compuwiz,

So far, I'm really happy with XP64. It's much more stable than I thought. I really never had access to an 64-bit desktop machine at work, so I never had much time to play with it. Earlier in the year, I read how there was little driver support -- but it seems like the major players have got their acts together. All I'll hear about now is the 64-bit revolution, so I think a lot of applications (and even games) will be moving forward as well. I think 2006 will be the year of 64-bit. :cool:

My only non-working component is my film scanner (KM DiImage 5400 Elite II)
doesn't seem to play nice. (It uses a small crappy driver to sync it to USB. That driver isn't supported -- yet.) I'm not too concerned -- I can run it on my Thinkpad.
 
Oh, man. I also read this post, and it frightened me. I just built my first computer, and I think I totally messed it up. If someone could kindly look at what I've got and tell me what's wrong, I'd most appreciate it.

My parts are as follows:

MSI K8N Master2-FAR Socket 940 NVIDIA nForce4 Professional ATX Server Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130523

(2) AMD Opteron 248 SledgeHammer 800MHz FSB Socket 940 Processor Model OSA248AUBOX - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103428

pqi 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model MD441GUOE-X2 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820141212

eVGA 128-P2-N352-TX Geforce 6600LE 128MB DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130252

Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3808110AS 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148107

I also have a couple of optical drives, a floppy, and a Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 from my old computer.


My current issue is that my PSU doesn't work. The case I purchased came with a 400W power supply that has the following specs:
+3.3V@24A, +5V@33A, [email protected], +12V@16A, [email protected], +5VSB@2A

Since that didn't have an 8pin connector for my board, I purchased an ULTRA X-FINITY 600W ATX Power Supply that has the following specs:
+5V@30A, +3.3V@25A, +12V1@18A, +12V2@20A, [email protected], +5VSB@2A

Oddly, my motherboard manual says the following:
"Power supply of 600watts and above is highly recommended for system stability."
"SSI 12V power connection should be greater than 18A"
->"For this model, you MUST use a power supply that comes with a -5V pin supply."

(the manual can be downloaded here: http://66.96.84.4/support/mnu_exe/mbd_mnu/E9620v1.0.zip )

The odd thing is that none of the Pin Definitions even mention a -5V signal! What the hell? However, the 400W -5V-including PSU that I bought works, and the 600W Ultra doesn't.

Also, is my RAM going to be an issue? It's non-ECC.

This is hard stuff for me, and I'd really appreciate some help.

Thanks a lot, and have a happy new year!

-Matt

(added)
I dont' know if this is at all correct, but would the following PSU work?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817181108

(Thanks again!)
 
You must period run buffered/registered memory. It will not work without it. It is possible not use ECC there is some buffered memory that doesn't have ECC but it is rare.


I would also really recomend getting an actual EPS power supply. That board is supposed to a 4 aux and a 8 pin aux power connector. It might run without the 4 pin connectted but without the 8 pin. I us an Antec TruePower550 EPS.
 
spitzanator said:
Thanks for the RAM advice. Whoo, RMAs.

What about the PSU? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817181108

Is this not EPS12V?

Do you also have an MSI K8N Master? It doesn't say on NewEgg that the Antec TruePower550 has that -5V rail.

I'm really sick of having parts that don't work.

Thanks!

-Matt
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That PSU looks good almost too good. The price seems a little low for what you are getting. I would give it a try though. I doubt you will have problems with it. Dual opteron boards tend to be much more picky about power then most others.

Also that MSI K8N Master tends not to be a very popular board because of MSI's stupid persistence to use propriotiry heatsinks. Also the heatsinks include don't work well at all and you void your processor warranty using them. If you don't need SLI then the Asus K8N-DL is a better option and it is cheaper.
 
draksia said:
That PSU looks good almost too good. The price seems a little low for what you are getting. I would give it a try though. I doubt you will have problems with it. Dual opteron boards tend to be much more picky about power then most others.

Also that MSI K8N Master tends not to be a very popular board because of MSI's stupid persistence to use propriotiry heatsinks. Also the heatsinks include don't work well at all and you void your processor warranty using them. If you don't need SLI then the Asus K8N-DL is a better option and it is cheaper.
Click to expand...

I just use a P4 => P8 adapter with an OCZ modstream on my Asus K8N-DL and it works perfectly. Not too picky about it there.
 
draksia said:
That PSU looks good almost too good. The price seems a little low for what you are getting. I would give it a try though. I doubt you will have problems with it. Dual opteron boards tend to be much more picky about power then most others.

Also that MSI K8N Master tends not to be a very popular board because of MSI's stupid persistence to use propriotiry heatsinks. Also the heatsinks include don't work well at all and you void your processor warranty using them. If you don't need SLI then the Asus K8N-DL is a better option and it is cheaper.
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You're right about the heatsinks. I couldn't put the AMD heatsinks in, either. At this point, I don't want to RMA the motherboard, but is there any way to get a converter for the heatsink to make them work? Some sort of little bar or whatever so I can use the AMD heatsinks? I don't understand what P8->P4 means.

Are the heatsinks really all that bad? I dont' do a lot of intense computing, and I've got a couple other fans inside the motherboard. I still don't want to fry my machine, though...

About the PSU, the reviews on NewEgg.com are all 5 stars, so it can't be that bad (as far as I can tell). Perhaps I'll give it a shot. This stupid -5V wire sucks, though. Dammit.

Again, thanks a lot, folks. It's encouraging to have such a supportive group of folks when I'm trying to build this shit all by myself.

-Matt
 
I also looked at the MSI board as well. It caught my eye because it was an ATX board (and not EATX.) Given how much heat my machine puts out though, I'm glad the heatsinks have space to breath a bit. Plus, with a bigger case, I can get more cooling options.

That power issue is really strange. I looked at my PSU(s) and it doesn't say anything about a -5v option either. I think it might be a typo..? Perhaps someone else knows what it means.

My only suggestion about the system: since you're building a nice system, why keep it to a 6600LE? You can get a 7800 GT card for a decent price nowadays.
 
I don't really play video games. The most graphics-intensive thing I do is Google Earth.

-Ma"that's what the terrorists use"tt
 
Hmm, rather than start a new thread, I'll piggyback on this one a bit, as its related.

This thread here has Opteron 240s at an awesome price, so I was thinking a perfect time to build a dual-proc rig. I saw this K8WE, seems to be a sweet motherboard, but afaik they don't OC at all. I heard the Asus K8N-DL bandied about as well, wondering about its OC capabilites, and dual-core support (looking to make it dual dual-cores in the future, like thread starter). However, I suppose this all depends on the value of Opteron 240s. 1.4Ghz is pretty low, and I have no idea how much of an OC I could get out of them. (2Ghz is wishing too much?) Clarification greatly appreciated. ^_^
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movax,

Depending how much you want to spend, I'd really recommend the SuperMicro H8DCE. It has just about every setting in the BIOS -- which as I understand it, is what you need to OC any processor. Plus, it's dual-core ready out of the box.
 
Wow...its like the Tyan, except as you say, OC'ble. Now the question remains, what kind of OC can I get out of the Opteron 240? Seeing as it runs 1.4Ghz, 800FSB thats what, 1.75 multiplier. I've only OCed Intel stuff so far, so assuming Opterons are locked multipier, would take quite a FSB increase to get it waay up to 2ghz. But the performance should still be sweet.
 
movax said:
Hmm, rather than start a new thread, I'll piggyback on this one a bit, as its related.

This thread here has Opteron 240s at an awesome price, so I was thinking a perfect time to build a dual-proc rig. I saw this K8WE, seems to be a sweet motherboard, but afaik they don't OC at all. I heard the Asus K8N-DL bandied about as well, wondering about its OC capabilites, and dual-core support (looking to make it dual dual-cores in the future, like thread starter). However, I suppose this all depends on the value of Opteron 240s. 1.4Ghz is pretty low, and I have no idea how much of an OC I could get out of them. (2Ghz is wishing too much?) Clarification greatly appreciated. ^_^
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The K8N-DL supports dual core and NUMA with the newer BIOSes.
 
Eh, sorry to revive somewhat stale thread, but anyone owning a Supermicro H8DCE or familiar with it know if it supports NUMA? Seems like the fact it has memory banks would make it so, but the manufacturer page doesn't mention it.
 
movax said:
Eh, sorry to revive somewhat stale thread, but anyone owning a Supermicro H8DCE or familiar with it know if it supports NUMA? Seems like the fact it has memory banks would make it so, but the manufacturer page doesn't mention it.
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It does infact support NUMA. I am running 4 1GB sticks.
 
You can overclock on the K8WE. I've had my 254's up to 3GHz and some change. The issue is I prefer Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, and I've had issues with the overclocking utilities and that OS. So I don't typically run it that way.
 
Sir-Fragalot said:
You can overclock on the K8WE. I've had my 254's up to 3GHz and some change. The issue is I prefer Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, and I've had issues with the overclocking utilities and that OS. So I don't typically run it that way.
Click to expand...

Try OCing in Linux...it's less fun lol ;)
 
Hmm, well I found a 60 page thread on that board at 2cpu.com (it's like watching a child grow...people being wary because Supermicro didn't acknowledge its existence at the start to full support :p), and seems like its a pretty good board. I'll have to do some more research and compare it with the K8WE though I think the H8DCE is a bit cheaper.

Detailed desc. of the OCing on both boards would be sweet though, since some posts about using Clockgen or whatnot seem a bit wishy-washy.
 
Does anyone have a review or comparison of the Tyan K8WE and the Gigabyte GA-2CEWH? I think those are the top two dual opteron boards.
 
movax said:
Hmm, well I found a 60 page thread on that board at 2cpu.com (it's like watching a child grow...people being wary because Supermicro didn't acknowledge its existence at the start to full support :p), and seems like its a pretty good board. I'll have to do some more research and compare it with the K8WE though I think the H8DCE is a bit cheaper.

Detailed desc. of the OCing on both boards would be sweet though, since some posts about using Clockgen or whatnot seem a bit wishy-washy.
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The K8WE and the H8DCE have very different features. There are more PCI-E slots on the H8DCE and no PCI-X if I remember correctly. The K8WE on the other hand has the PCI-X slots. The Tyan also has fewer SATA ports. But optionally comes with a decent SCSI controller, though no hardware RAID support.

The Tyan board is more expensive, but if you need some of it's features it's really the best choice. Either one would be excellent depending on your needs.
 
Are there any dual 940 mobo's out there that support the full 1000mhz HT link? Seems like they're all only 800...
 
Holy thread revival batman...the K8WE and Supermicro boards all support either 800mhz or 1ghz Optys AFAIK.
 
movax said:
Holy thread revival batman...the K8WE and Supermicro boards all support either 800mhz or 1ghz Optys AFAIK.
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Yeah that way my understading, but they would still only operate at 800mhz right?

(Serious revival I know :) but I'm in the early stages of planning a dual 265 and found this thread very useful)
 
You can change the multiplier of the HTT to go to 1000MHz if you use a tool like nTune or ClockGen.

The Tyan K8WE does in fact support NUMA and 1000MHz HTT.
 
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