Supermicro H8QGi/6 and H8QGL Next Generation OC BIOS

Discussion in 'DC Guides' started by tear, Mar 3, 2012.

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  1. tear

    tear [H]ard|DCer of the Year 2011

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    If you don't care about extra PCI-E slots or SAS, get the cheapest one
    from the series: H8QGi+-F (<$660: Provantage, Wiredzone).
     
  2. 402blownstroker

    402blownstroker [H]ard|DCer of the Month - Nov. 2012

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    I am moving back to stock BIOS. 4 crashes in 4 days with 4 lost WU.
     
  3. tear

    tear [H]ard|DCer of the Year 2011

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    *exhales deeply*

    1. You don't need to return to stock ROM, just set the refclock to 200.
    2. What is your cooling?
    3. What OC did you run with?
    4. What were the temps?
    5. What were the symptoms of crashes?
    6. What memory are you running (make and _full_ model)?

    I wish you reported your issues earlier too; if a machine crashes once
    in a given setup, letting it go is the worst possible idea -- another
    crash is only a matter of time.

    Hop on IRC in the evening if you're interested, we can try to diagnose
    your rig.

    P.S.
    THIS WEEK ONLY! NW metro house calls at discounted rate!
     
  4. DooKey

    DooKey [H]ard DCOTM x4

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    tear, I know this has probably been answered before, but what RAM do you recommend for these boards?
     
  5. 402blownstroker

    402blownstroker [H]ard|DCer of the Month - Nov. 2012

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    2) Dynatron A6 Heatsinks set in Server Mode for fan speed.
    3) Used a 220 value for a 10% OC.
    4) lm_sensors was reporting temps in the mid to high 40s
    5) System completely lock with the keyboard LEDs blinking.
    6) The G.SKILL DDR3-1333 CL7-21 recommended in the build tread.

    I will not be able to hop the IRC channel until 9:00pm MST. I do not know if that is too late.
     
  6. tear

    tear [H]ard|DCer of the Year 2011

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    9p MDT (or later) works :)
    Query me if I don't respond in the main channel.
     
  7. ChelseaOilman

    ChelseaOilman [H]ard|Gawd

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    What is the checkpoint interval in your F@H client? Did you leave it at the default 15 minutes? I've had a few crashes but I've yet to lose a WU.
     
  8. tear

    tear [H]ard|DCer of the Year 2011

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    General recommendation is any RAM with XMP profile that's rated at 1.5V (or less).
    Non-XMP Vdd=1.5V-or-less RAM will work too but will be tad slower.

    G.Skill F3-10666CL7D-4GBXH (2x2GB) and F3-10666CL7Q-8GBXH (4x2GB)
    have been folks' DIMMs of choice due to very good price/performance ratio.

    Naturally, faster is better. For refclocks above 225 getting 1600/CL7 memory
    will allow even tighter timings (all tuned automatically by the BIOS ==
    no SPD flashing involved).
     
  9. Core32

    Core32 [H]ard|Gawd

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    Is there any provision in the BIOS to allow or prevent mixed CPUs in a system?
    Or is that adding too much complexity?
    The new 4p will start out with 2 x 6166HEs and possibly 2 x 6128s until I can buy 2 more 6166HEs.
     
  10. theGryphon

    theGryphon [H]ard|Gawd

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    AFAIK, 6128's would be downclocked to 1.8GHz, and from what I understand about tear's OC'ing method, it'd be as if you're overclocking 40 cores from 1.8GHz to whatever GHz the refclock you entered corresponds to.
     
  11. Schro

    Schro [H]ardness Supreme

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    -smp 40 doesn't work with folding. You've got to do 32 or 48, so you'd have to do some ninja work to get the modified kraken working and run two instances, a -32 and a -8. As usual, the IRC crew can assist in setting up if you go that way.
     
  12. musky

    musky [H]ard|DCer of the Year 2012

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    Are you sure about -smp 40? I thought it was increments of 8 - i.e. smp 24, smp 32, smp 40, smp 48 were all good. I can confirm smp 36 doesn't work, but I never tried smp 40.
     
  13. Schro

    Schro [H]ardness Supreme

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    No, I'm not entirely certain.

    I just did a quick google and it appears -40 will work.
     
  14. Core32

    Core32 [H]ard|Gawd

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    Thanks for the answers and help.
    This would probably only apply for about a month. Long enough for the bank to recover and sell two 6128s. ;)
     
  15. Posidon42

    Posidon42 Limp Gawd

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    Where do I get the flash utility to do this? The disk that came with my motherboard only had a txt file that said to go to the website... And I can't find anything on the website. Little help?
     
  16. Grandpa_01

    Grandpa_01 [H]ard|DCer of the Year 2013

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    Umm I think Posidon42 was talking about a tool to flash tears bios to the board ChelseaOilman. If you were Posidon42 you just need to make a bootable usb stick and use it to flash the bios.
     
  17. tear

    tear [H]ard|DCer of the Year 2011

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    And flash utility is in original BIOS' package... :)
     
  18. ChelseaOilman

    ChelseaOilman [H]ard|Gawd

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  19. tjmagneto

    tjmagneto [H]ard DCOTM x2

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    The zip file that ChelseaOilman linked to contains a BIOS ROM, the Flash utility, AFUDOS.SMC and Readme instructions. The files you need from this download are the flash utility batch file and the AFUDOS.SMC file.

    So:
    Create a bootable USB stick
    Copy the flash utility batch file, AFUDOS.SMC and the G60NG2.A11 BIOS ROM file to the flash drive.
    Boot the computer from the USB drive. You might need to change the boot device priority.
    At the command prompt type
    Code:
    FLASH G60NG2.A11
    to start flashing the new ROM.
     
    Last edited: Mar 17, 2012
  20. ChelseaOilman

    ChelseaOilman [H]ard|Gawd

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    Actually he also needs AFUDOS.exe in addition to the flash.bat file.
     
  21. tear

    tear [H]ard|DCer of the Year 2011

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  22. kweechy

    kweechy n00bie

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    Hi Tear,

    I'm looking at building a 4P rig for some folding, but mainly for 3D rendering...unfortunately all of my software licenses and the rest of my render nodes run on Windows.

    Is it possible to apply the BIOS tweaks through a Linux VM inside Windows, or does it require a full Linux environment? Is Windows support for the BIOS tweak anything you've considered? I know it's not really a worthwhile venture for so many reasons...mainly that folding is better in Linux and that you need Window's Server Enterprise OS to properly use a 4P.
     
    Last edited: Mar 17, 2012
  23. phoenicis

    phoenicis [H]ard|DCer of the Month - December 2011

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    With a 15% OC applied to 6174s, I'm getting an improvement of over 100K ppd (6903) for an additional 60w. Non too shabby.

    My sincere thanks to all involved in creating the BIOS and the associated guides.
     
  24. tear

    tear [H]ard|DCer of the Year 2011

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    Hai kweechy,

    Nope.

    I wouldn't say full Linux environment. Any bootable Linux should do, even Ubuntu
    Desktop installer.

    smocng.sh is merely a configuration utility and configuration persists across reboots;
    once system is configured and tested I don't expect the need to run the script...

    I gave it some thoughts. Windows version could be written with use of WinRing0
    or Windows NVRAM API (I know it must exist but was unable to find it).

    It's not _that_ bad. Feature is on the list but carries pretty low priority at this time.

    Hope this helps :)
     
  25. 402blownstroker

    402blownstroker [H]ard|DCer of the Month - Nov. 2012

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    Update. Flashed the [H] BIOS again and got things things working with the help of the IRC channel. Turns out I has having memory issues.

    With the 220 value used, it was producing memory timings of 6-6-6-17 which was too much for the G.Skills. Running memtest( got spoiled and have not run it much from using ECC memory the last 8 years ) about 60 errors where generated in about 60 minutes. The errors would coming in goups over the entire 32GB range.

    I next used a value 210 and that produced timings of 6-6-6-18 which memtest ran errors free for over 2 hours. tear and the other guys on the IRC gave me some other options to run a value 220 and produced timings of 8-8-8-24. This was also another stable variant.

    On 6901 WUs the 210 and 6-6-6-18 ran about 30s TPF faster than the 220 8-8-8-24 vesion. Also temps where about 3C cooler on with the 210 version. The 210 version with a 6903 WU is getting about 17m10s TPF.

    Overall I am happy with things.
     
  26. theGryphon

    theGryphon [H]ard|Gawd

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    402, I'm happy everything is working out for you now! :)
    I hope my Crucial's will give me an easier time...
     
  27. 402blownstroker

    402blownstroker [H]ard|DCer of the Month - Nov. 2012

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    Definitely now. Next free time I want to hop back IRC and do some more tweaks.... and if needed a couple extra investment units, to get it to the next level.

    There are a couple of people on the IRC channel will be get six pack or the equivalent version ;)
     
  28. tear

    tear [H]ard|DCer of the Year 2011

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    Good to hear that non-XMP (JEDEC) timings are working for you, 402 c.i.

    Just so you know, there are reasons for concern -- suspicion is that memory
    is not holding advertised specs (hence suggestion of testing XMP timings
    in an enthusiast board, such as SR-2).

    If it turns out that few of your DIMMs are bad perhaps RMA wouldn't
    be a bad idea? Not sure if you're interested in pursuing that.

    Alternatively, I could pay you a visit and bring few DIMMs (same model)
    along with me (for a quick test).

    In any way, disabling use of XMP timings is realized by adding second
    parameter (with the value of 8) to smocng's command line, e.g.
    Code:
    sudo ./smocng.sh 220 8

    Re performance variations, musky's FAQ entry describes that best:
    In other words, be cautious when drawing conclusions...
     
  29. Posidon42

    Posidon42 Limp Gawd

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  30. Posidon42

    Posidon42 Limp Gawd

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    Success! Thanks guys, my 2.0ghz 6128's are now running at 2.2ghz. Will probably increase slowly from here, but I wanted to start at 10% and see how it goes. Thanks all!
     
  31. kweechy

    kweechy n00bie

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    Well Tear if you ever do end up deciding to port it over to Windows, I would be eager to donate to the cause with either cash, folding for [H] or both!

    It's unfortunate that Windows decided to limit their OS to dual CPU machines as their maximum. With a 5 machine limit on outside connections to your drives, it's not like you can use a 4P as a server anyway without server software.

    Anyway cheers man and thanks for all your hard work with the BIOS hacks. I'll hopefully have my 4P up and running soon, I just won't be able to OC it for the bulk of my work while in Windows unfortunately.
     
  32. R-Type

    R-Type [H]ard|DCer of the Month - October 2011

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    As I understand the mod, couldn't you apply the tweak and perform stability testing in Linux and then switch over to a Windows install to do your other work since the blk configuration persists across boots? Am I missing something elementary here?
     
  33. tear

    tear [H]ard|DCer of the Year 2011

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    You're not missing anything, R-Type. Was I ambiguous up there?

    One wouldn't even need to test stability under Linux.
    Boot Linux, set OC, power-off, boot-to-Windows, run your target app, IBT et al.
     
  34. theGryphon

    theGryphon [H]ard|Gawd

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    I thought it was clear that only thing about Linux in this is the config script (smocng.sh), which communicates with the BIOS. Other than that, this BIOS is just like any other BIOS; it has nothing to do with the OS.
     
  35. Vaulter98c

    Vaulter98c [H]ard|DCer of the Month - October 2009

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    Is it partial to a certain linux build? Or can any linux build run it... Maybe I missed this but I think this was mentioned, just make a live CD boot image with it already on there, boot linux from that image, run it and bam, youre done

    thats pretty much what I got from tear. Am I right? Sorry, its late and im wicked tired lol
     
  36. tear

    tear [H]ard|DCer of the Year 2011

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    Simpler:
    1. Boot Ubuntu installer CD
    2. Pick 'Try Ubuntu'
    3. Open terminal
    4. wget the script
    5. chmod +x ./smocng.sh
    6. sudo ./smocng.sh ...
    7. Power-off
     
  37. kweechy

    kweechy n00bie

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    That's great news then!

    I'll hop on IRC once I've got the machine set up in case I need any help so I can join in and fold with [H] to support all the awesome work you guys do for the community.

    I've got a small film vfx shop that I run from home with a little farm, so I can add in a few OC'd 3930K boxes, a couple 2600K and soon my new Opty. It would be pretty hilarious to get the farm over at the office up and running on F@H though, they've got some odd 600+ i7 2700K nodes there. If you figure roughly 31K PPD from those chips, they could fold close to 20,000,000 PPD if they felt like it.
     
    Last edited: Mar 19, 2012
  38. R-Type

    R-Type [H]ard|DCer of the Month - October 2011

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    Kweechy, ladies and gentlemen, does not fuck around!

    Welcome aboard :)
     
  39. 402blownstroker

    402blownstroker [H]ard|DCer of the Month - Nov. 2012

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    Server 2008 R2 Web Edition allows 4 sockets and up to 32GB of memory. You can pick up a copy off of crapBay for about $350.
     
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