OCNG5: OC firmware for Supermicro AMD G34 platforms

4x6172 ~= $210; 4xES 61xx~=$500.
Sounds like a lot of money until one realizes after expending $650 on a mobo, $200 on PSU, $300 on case; $150 on memory and $200 on cooling, the end system price is almost in line with end system performance.
 
Tear, does this support the dual-socket boards (such as the H8DGi-F) as well?

Thanks!
 
<snip>
I'd generally avoid 6180 SE chips, getting them to run at 230 required hand-picked chips.
OTOH, tjmagneto's "random" set of 6176 SE chips runs at 230 with no hassle whatsoever.

I too am running a random set of 6176 SE at 230 for almost two years without much hassle.
 
Where is the option to cap NB to 2000? I'm not seeing it in the advanced options.
 
Maybe it's posted and I just missed it, is there and advantage to of OCNG5 over OCNG4 on quad-socket boards with 61XX series CPUs?

Tear, thanks for your continued support of these systems.
 
Where is the option to cap NB to 2000? I'm not seeing it in the advanced options.
DooKey,

I took a little break off the forum, sorry. In case you still have the board, it should be under advanced northbridge options. If you don't see it, your configuration utility may be outdated.
Go about installing ocng-utils-5 or, for best experience, upgrade everything to 5.2 (http://area51dev.blogspot.com/p/ocng5-installation.html).
 
Maybe it's posted and I just missed it, is there and advantage to of OCNG5 over OCNG4 on quad-socket boards with 61XX series CPUs?

Probably very little; I can think of two items off the top of my head:
- memory setup has been improved a bit.
- PowerNow should now be functional (which is of little consequence to DC boxes)
 
&#8194;
OCNG 5.2 has been released

Highlights:
  • supports H8SGL series boards (with fine-grained clock control)
  • ocng-cu (configuration utility) now runs on Windows (no need to boot Linux to reconfigure OCNG any more)
  • based on SM BIOS version 3.5
  • resolves configuration loss issue when using SATA ports 4/5

For installation instructions, see: http://area51dev.blogspot.com/p/ocng5-installation.html

Note: you'll need ocng-utils-5.2 to configure it, older utils will not be able to configure it at all.
 
DooKey,

I took a little break off the forum, sorry. In case you still have the board, it should be under advanced northbridge options. If you don't see it, your configuration utility may be outdated.
Go about installing ocng-utils-5 or, for best experience, upgrade everything to 5.2 (http://area51dev.blogspot.com/p/ocng5-installation.html).

I sold the board to ChelseaOilman. Anyway, welcome back! You deserved a break.

Now if we could only get some overclocking out of these SM i2p boards........
 
Is this tread/project still active?

Was thinking about building a system with a SuperMicro H8QGL-6F or H8QGL-iF (what is the difference between these two?) motherboard and possibly four Opteron 6276 processors.
What about 6200 vs 6300 on performance and overclock? For example, Four 16 core 6200 series Opteron vs Four 12 core 6300 series Opteron?
Looking over this thread, it seems that is best to avoid the SE (140w) processors? And what about Retail vs Engineering Samples?

Thanks
 
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Is this tread/project still active?
Given it's fairly mature project it's as active as its users :)

Was thinking about building a system with a SuperMicro H8QGL-6F or H8QGL-iF (what is the difference between these two?) motherboard and possibly four Opteron 6276 processors.
Check vendor's page. The difference is SAS controller which is not present in the iF board.

What about 6200 vs 6300 on performance and overclock?
6300 series are easier to OC and (clock-for-clock) draw less power than 6200 series so they are a better experience.
6200 and 6300 are almost identical (~2% difference) as far as IPC goes.

For example, Four 16 core 6200 series Opteron vs Four 12 core 6300 series Opteron?
I don't understand the question. You'll need to be more specific.

Looking over this thread, it seems that is best to avoid the SE (140w) processors?
SE processors require extra care (wrt cooling) so you need to know what you're doing when dealing with them.

And what about Retail vs Engineering Samples?
I don't understand the question. You'll need to be more specific :)


Cheers,
tear
 
anyone try this on the h8qg7+-ln4f?
All LN4F boards are currently not supported.
It should, however, be possible to port the changes to H8QG7 with your help and little risk of things going awry. PM me if you're interested.
 
Thanks Tear. I'll think on it as I just got my setup and paid quite a bit for them.
 
Any future plans to bring this to the H8QG7 series boards?
 
To elaborate on explanation few posts back -- if you have such board and can spare some
time to examine it (per my instructions) and test the firmware, then supporting LN4F boards
(including H8QG7) should be possible.

Porting the changes is relatively simple and low-risk process. If something goes wrong
(firmware doesn't boot -- unlikely scenario) you will experience downtime as I'll need to ship
you a (non-invasive) recovery tool.

The benefit for you is early access to the firmware
 
tear, i'll bite. If I understand this bios would allow bios level overclocking or at least for me with retail chips the ability to force boost states?
 
To elaborate on explanation few posts back -- if you have such board and can spare some
time to examine it (per my instructions) and test the firmware, then supporting LN4F boards
(including H8QG7) should be possible.

Porting the changes is relatively simple and low-risk process. If something goes wrong
(firmware doesn't boot -- unlikely scenario) you will experience downtime as I'll need to ship
you a (non-invasive) recovery tool.

The benefit for you is early access to the firmware

Interested. Can you tell me more?
 
W/retail chips it would allow you to do both or either (at your discretion) of:
1. Forcing all-core turbo (P-state Pb1)
2. Overclocking by means of reference clock (aka BCLK in intel nomenclature)

EDIT: for instance, here are retail CPUs with 20% OC: http://hwbot.org/submission/2921243_tiborrr_hwbot_prime_4x_opteron_6344_12414.34_pps

that's awesome news.

think I could get away with corsair h80s AIO coolers or would I need a custom loop? I'm most interested in just the turbo fixing unless I can fix the pci clock rates to 100mhz independent of the memory when doing bclk bumps.

speaking out loud: I would need a 1k+ psu and new cooling for sure.
 
that's awesome news.

think I could get away with corsair h80s AIO coolers or would I need a custom loop? I'm most interested in just the turbo fixing unless I can fix the pci clock rates to 100mhz independent of the memory when doing bclk bumps.

speaking out loud: I would need a 1k+ psu and new cooling for sure.
I have no experience with H80s but if they're as good as Hyper 212+ or 120mm Noctuas,
you should be just fine. All my 4Ps only ran on air. Grandpa ran a 1000W+ (AC) setup
on air as well. Custom loop definitely is not a requirement.

PCI-E clock is completely decoupled from reference clock. No issue there.

PSU choice will depend on your chips, add-in cards and amount of OC...

W/o add-in cards, 850W (DC) is fine unless you're planning to go nuts on OC (go beyond
3 GHz w/6200 series or 3.2 GHz w/6300 series).
 
I have no experience with H80s but if they're as good as Hyper 212+ or 120mm Noctuas,
you should be just fine. All my 4Ps only ran on air. Grandpa ran a 1000W+ (AC) setup
on air as well. Custom loop definitely is not a requirement.

PCI-E clock is completely decoupled from reference clock. No issue there.

PSU choice will depend on your chips, add-in cards and amount of OC...

W/o add-in cards, 850W (DC) is fine unless you're planning to go nuts on OC (go beyond
3 GHz w/6200 series or 3.2 GHz w/6300 series).

3ghz would be all that I would be targeting. Heck 2.8 would be nice.

I'll bite. A few posts earlier I think you alluded to being able to go back to a stock bios should things get hairy.

I'll offer my setup as a test rig.
 
3ghz would be all that I would be targeting. Heck 2.8 would be nice.

I'll bite. A few posts earlier I think you alluded to being able to go back to a stock bios should things get hairy.

I'll offer my setup as a test rig.

Nice. I'm offering up mine too, so we ought to be in a good position :)
 
@[Ion] and @gigatexal, tear is the man and you guys are in good hands. He's done some amazing things over the years for the DC overclocking community and I continue to be impressed with his skill. :D
 
@[Ion] and @gigatexal, tear is the man and you guys are in good hands. He's done some amazing things over the years for the DC overclocking community and I continue to be impressed with his skill. :D

Glad to hear it! Gonna give my system a few more days to make sure that all is well (had some weird issues Friday) but I look forward to it!
 
picked up a 1300 psu - going to read up on how to get this thing flashed and go to town
 
picked up a 1300 psu - going to read up on how to get this thing flashed and go to town

What were you running it with? Mine has the 80+ Gold 1400w Supermicro PSU so I suspect I'm good to go as far as temps will allow.
 
It's an EVGA gold rated 1300 G2.

Got my G34s at 3ghz with a reflock @ 231.

Tear is the man btw. Props to him and the crew that put that bios together.

Going to see if I can push for 3.2ghz with a reflock of 247.
 
It's an EVGA gold rated 1300 G2.

Got my G34s at 3ghz with a reflock @ 231.
Most excellent!

Side note: this level of power requires at least some airflow across the motherboard
to reduce heat stress on its components, esp. front-side VRMs, e.g. sth like:

img_2115_4.jpg
 
i have a 2 140mm fans blowing air on top of the HSFs onto the board and another 120 blowing air onto the board on the other side. i'll look into buying copper sinks for the vrms too

cpu-z validation for 3.2 ghz at 245

http://valid.x86.fr/u11t3l
 
he's really the man, he didn't have to support my board but he did. props to him and his team of bios hackers
 
i have a 2 140mm fans blowing air on top of the HSFs onto the board and another 120 blowing air onto the board on the other side. i'll look into buying copper sinks for the vrms too

cpu-z validation for 3.2 ghz at 245

http://valid.x86.fr/u11t3l
Nice :)

I think air should be enough. Incidentally, catastrophic VRM failures have been reported with
sinked boards, too. While sinking theoretically shouldn't have contributed to failures, personally,
I'm wary of throwing sinks at VRM components.

My most heat-generating system was pulling 900W AC (~760W DC) and ran continuously
for many months (air, no sinks).

Perhaps other folks could share their experiences as well.
 
i will hook up a kill-a-watt meter to the system and see how many watts we're at

again kings to you tear
 
Nice :)

I think air should be enough. Incidentally, catastrophic VRM failures have been reported with
sinked boards, too. While sinking theoretically shouldn't have contributed to failures, personally,
I'm wary of throwing sinks at VRM components.

My most heat-generating system was pulling 900W AC (~760W DC) and ran continuously
for many months (air, no sinks).

Perhaps other folks could share their experiences as well.

Yeah, I ran a 4p with the tear bios (61xx and 63xx at 230 fsb) for almost 2 years and just had a couple of 120mm fans blowing across the board in addition to the musky mod 212+ HSFs. My board is still running strong in another owners hands.
 
gigatexal, well done! Tear, you continue to be a champ.

With respect to hot VRMs: If the board is positioned vertically, as inside a case or hanging on a wall, it will dissipate the heat better. If if it's horizontal, a LOT of heat builds up underneath the VRMs. If you can, position the 120mm fans so that they blow across both the top side of the board and the underside.

Looking at your picture, it does appear that you have air passing under the board. OH, sorry, that pic is in Tear's post.
 
Properly cooled those boards are as tough as nails. I personally ran several of them using tears handy work using extra spicy chips with musky modded air cooling at 1000+ watts. The only ones I ever borked were due to my own screw up's like dropping a cpu on a socket on a Gi board and breaking several pins. The nice part about it was that SM replaced the socket on the board for me for $50. I do not know of any other place that will do it for that reasonable of a price for something that I screwed up.
 
Yeah, the Supermicro 4-P boards are definitely in a different quality class than consumer boards.
 
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