My dual Opteron system

[pointreyes]

I got my Tyan Thunder K8W today. The board is beautiful. Since it's a serverboard, it is green but still it's beautiful with all the heat sinks on the chips. I was amazed at the lack of big caps and number of coils. My IWill MPX2 has big caps and coils all over the place. Makes me wonder how much less demand is put on the board with the Opteron procs. Each proc has 3-phase power regulation. I was a little concerned about there not being a manual with the board and thought that they must have left it on the CD. Upon viewing the CD I realized that they might not have had time to print the manual. The CD had the Tyan label but it had hand written on it S2885 09/05/03 Drivers CD. I guess I really do have a bleedin' edge motherboard here. :rolleyes:

I should be getting the procs tomorrow - 2 240s. However, I will only be using PC2100 RAM until I can figure what will be the best RAM to use for the board.

Sorry for no pictures but I don't have a digital camera.

[pointreyes]

I now know why the Opteron packaging is in gold tones. Because it weighs like a bar of gold! :D

It is so strange to have processors from AMD that look a little like P4 procs due to the heat spreader.

[ThugsRook]

neato ~ we want pics ;)

[pointreyes]

Originally posted by ThugsRook
neato ~ we want pics ;)

Sorry. I have spent so much money on this system and the LCD monitor last month that I'm out of money to get a digital camera to take pics. :(

[pointreyes]

The HSF on these retail procs are interesting. The thin fins are similar to what I have on my MP2400 procs; however, the base is a very heavy solid piece of copper. The proc itself has a little bit of weight to. It's not wonder that you make sure to bolt the HSF through serverboard. The fans measure 8cm and have 9 fins.

[pointreyes]

OK, well the first problem has finally occurred. The SOHO Antec 1040 can hold the board but due to one of the procs, there is no room for the drive cages. :(

Good thing I have room on the top part of the case. Guess there will be more room for air flow. :rolleyes:

[pointreyes]

OK, something can't be right. I pressed the power button and everything worked. What did I do wrong? :confused: :cool:

[Schneider]

Originally posted by pointreyes
OK, something can't be right. I pressed the power button and everything worked. What did I do wrong? :confused: :cool:

If you turned it on and it worked...then wats the problem??

[pointreyes]

Originally posted by Schneider
If you turned it on and it worked...then wats the problem??

It was a joke. With bleedin' edge technology you almost expect the hardware setup to have some type of problem. :)

[XJ.]

Originally posted by pointreyes
OK, something can't be right. I pressed the power button and everything worked. What did I do wrong? :confused: :cool:

:lol: :rotflmao: :rock:

[RotorHead]

Originally posted by pointreyes
Sorry. I have spent so much money on this system and the LCD monitor last month that I'm out of money to get a digital camera to take pics. :(

hehe....No problem, just send it all to me and I'll take all the pictures you want. :deviltail

I'll even pay for shiping :D

RH

[pointreyes]

Originally posted by RotorHead
hehe....No problem, just send it all to me and I'll take all the pictures you want. :deviltail

I'll even pay for shiping :D

RH

:lol: I'm obviously nuts to build a system that I know is probably only a slightly bit more powerful than my MP2400 but I'm not that nuts with your suggestion. :p :D

[RotorHead]

What do you plan on doing with this beaste? Its got to have some serious capabilities!

RH

[pointreyes]

Originally posted by RotorHead
What do you plan on doing with this beaste? Its got to have some serious capabilities!

RH

I 'play' with Enterprise level databases with enterprise level OSes. However, I'm still waiting for MS to provide an OS that is 64-bit to play with. They will only allow the MSDN subscribers to obtain the AMD64 Windows version. :(

I normally play around with Oracle 9i EE; however, by the sounds of things, I should also consider SQL Server 2000. I only have XP Pro on the system for now but w2k3 Enterprise Server will be the next OS.

Other purposes will be programming in 32/64-bit.

And I think it's about time that I start playing Flight Sims. Good grief, my joystick has been collecting dust for years with the intent to play FS. I think it's time to get serious with that. This system happens to have the ATi 9800 Pro on it and for sound I'm using the Audigy 2. :)

[DAPUNISHER]

:cool: I want one!

[eva2000]

Originally posted by pointreyes
Sorry. I have spent so much money on this system and the LCD monitor last month that I'm out of money to get a digital camera to take pics. :( i have a digi cam.. sent the cpus and board to me and i'll take some pics ;) :D :)

[eva2000]

Originally posted by pointreyes
OK, well the first problem has finally occurred. The SOHO Antec 1040 can hold the board but due to one of the procs, there is no room for the drive cages. :(

Good thing I have room on the top part of the case. Guess there will be more room for air flow. :rolleyes:

you need a GMC X-21 Trinity case which has 510mm depth

http://pccasegear.com/prod979.htm

http://pccasegear.com/images/x21_1.gifhttp://pccasegear.com/images/nneo_in_ex7.gif

[pointreyes]

Well, shopping for this system is very easy.

RAM: $330
The case I would like: $330
The LSI U320 SCSI PCI-X controller I would like: $330
U320 SCSI Drive: $330

Do ya see a pattern here? :rolleyes:

:lol: See how easy shopping will be for me.
PR: Will it cost me $330?
Response: Yes.
PR: Ok then. It's for my system. :D

:lol:

[pointreyes]

While waiting for a certain type of RAM that I happen to know about that you don't :na: :p , I decided to look for another case since the 1040 SOHO is rather useless for me to use with the motherboard.

Here's what I finally decided to get:
http://www.gigacase.com/Product_Detail.asp?product_id=39

http://www.gigacase.com/Big/yy-w201.jpg

Better than spending $330 for the Lian-Li that I like. With the bTX platforms coming out next year, it's hard for me to justify spending over $150 for a case that will never be used for another upgrade. This YY-W201 looks like a serious server case.

Now, where can I get some quiet 60mm fans. I already have the 120mm fan for it.

[dbwillis]

I like that case pointreyes, wish they had bigger pics, close ups of the insides.

Ive got a Thermaltake Xaser case, I like it, but wish it had even more room.
debating making my own.....but I like that one

[pointreyes]

Thanks, dbwillis. Here's a review I found on the case: http://people.tamu.edu/~jah7676/w201.html

There is a pdf on gigacase's web site that shows a little more. From what I can tell it even supports scsi and ide backplanes and you can convert the case into a 5U rack mount.

[pointreyes]

The new RAM I knew about has finally been released.

http://www.mushkin.com/epages/Mushkin.storefront/3f70aaaf09a9b536273fc0a801050684/Product/View/991125

Tight PC3200 Registered ECC RAM from Mushkin.

[XJ.]

Very Nice - those folks at Muskin are awesome :)

[pointreyes]

Two sticks of that Mushkin RAM is coming to me today. :)

[pointreyes]

I think I love Mushkin. :p :D

Remember that I have a board that must rely on SPD, I cannot tweak the memory at all. Also, this board will be conservative in order to maintain stability. People have been wondering if PC3200 will work on a PC2700 only board. Will the PC3200 just be PC2700? Well for the AMD chipset I'm using that is still on the very first bios release here's what the computer thinks it has. :)
http://www.abxzone.com/forums/attachment.php?postid=553324

[pointreyes]

And the unbuffered results:
http://www.abxzone.com/forums/attachment.php?postid=553321

[XJ.]

Hmm, I wonder how those compare with Granite Bay server boards.

[pointreyes]

Originally posted by XJ.
Hmm, I wonder how those compare with Granite Bay server boards.

http://www.abxzone.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=321692#post321692

I had the Supermicro P4SAA. :)

[XJ.]

Cool, what speed was the DDR running at on that board?

[pointreyes]

Originally posted by XJ.
Cool, what speed was the DDR running at on that board?

I can't remember. I suspect 333 because of the proc being oc'ed by 600Mhz and the ram without oc would be 266fsb. Sorry, I wish I could remember. :(

[XJ.]

Well in that case, your results are pretty good, don't know how well GB scales at 400Mzh - would take one heck of an overclock.

[guru]

Originally posted by pointreyes
I 'play' with Enterprise level databases with enterprise level OSes. However, I'm still waiting for MS to provide an OS that is 64-bit to play with. They will only allow the MSDN subscribers to obtain the AMD64 Windows version. :(

I normally play around with Oracle 9i EE; however, by the sounds of things, I should also consider SQL Server 2000. I only have XP Pro on the system for now but w2k3 Enterprise Server will be the next OS.

Other purposes will be programming in 32/64-bit.

And I think it's about time that I start playing Flight Sims. Good grief, my joystick has been collecting dust for years with the intent to play FS. I think it's time to get serious with that. This system happens to have the ATi 9800 Pro on it and for sound I'm using the Audigy 2. :)

I just bagged a copy of WinXP-AMD64 from the Regional ATEC Director who didn't have a box to run it on.

Will give a report on my site (see profile).

[pointreyes]

Welcome to BE, guru! :wave: I'm anixous to see your review compared to gamepc's. Thanks for the invite. I'm always looking for more Opteron sites. :)

[Ghostrider]

Originally posted by pointreyes
Two sticks of that Mushkin RAM is coming to me today. :)

Why "only" two sticks? To run the board at dual-channel you need four of them, don't you?

AND: What happened to the multiplyers for the CPUs? Did they change or are the CPUs now automatically OC'ed?


Greetingz,
Ghostrider

[pointreyes]

Originally posted by Ghostrider
Why "only" two sticks? To run the board at dual-channel you need four of them, don't you?

AND: What happened to the multiplyers for the CPUs? Did they change or are the CPUs now automatically OC'ed?


Greetingz,
Ghostrider

If ya have $1,000 for the RAM, go for it. I did try two sticks of PC2700 and two sticks of PC2100 combined making it 4 sticks of PC2100, very little change in the benches, nothing like what I got with the two sticks I have now. I'm hoping that guru has better luck than me with 4 sticks. Based on Tyan's manual, you get 128-bit by having one stick each on the higher and lower memory addressed slots, they did not mention that 4 sticks was a requirement for 128-bit (i.e. dual channel).

Do you mean that you don't understand how the processors can be working at 400ddr if they are 333ddr procs? Well, do any of us truly know if the Opterons are running at 400ddr? The memory in the slots can be running at 400ddr but that does not mean that the proc's L2 cache is running at 400ddr.

[Ghostrider]

If ya have $1,000 for the RAM, go for it. I did try two sticks of PC2700 and two sticks of PC2100 combined making it 4 sticks of PC2100, very little change in the benches, nothing like what I got with the two sticks I have now.


Ok - I got the point of that. So you have 1 stick for each processor and quite good results at the benches.



I'm hoping that guru has better luck than me with 4 sticks. Based on Tyan's manual, you get 128-bit by having one stick each on the higher and lower memory addressed slots, they did not mention that 4 sticks was a requirement for 128-bit (i.e. dual channel).

No, 4 sticks are not required for 128Bit. As I understood the Manual from Tyan you can use 2 Sticks for 128bit as well - but only with one processor. MAYBE the other (2nd CPU) will be able to access the RAM of the 1st via the HT-Link (AMD calls it "cross-fire") - but it is not recommend by Tyan.
The manual says on page 20:


.Configure memory symmetrically for each CPU for best performance
.AMD Opteron TM processors support 64bit (non_interleaved) or 128bit (interleaved) memory configurations (See chart on next page)
.At least ONE Registered DDR SDRAM module must be installed for the system to turn on and POST (power on self test)

Well... Your configuration with 1 stick per CPU is the best possible with a total of 2 sticks. [According to the manual and logical-thinking ;) ]

-------------------------------
Something about 30 days left for me until I have the money for my Opteron-system... :-)

Greetings,
Ghostrider

[guru]

My 242's and RAM have arrived! The benching begins this weekend! (Of course I will have to take time out to celebrate my 9th wedding anniversary - Going to the Ottmar Liebert concert.)
:D

[dbwillis]

Enjoy! (all 3 that is)

[guru]

When can I put up an avatar? I went to my profile and the only choice I had for avatar was "no".
:confused:

[guru]

I found it: after 50 posts.

[pointreyes]

Congrats guru on all 3 good things. :beer: I wanted 242 procs but simply too much at this time. :( Oh well, I'm pretty sure I will find a good use for the 240s I have late next year. :)

[guru]

I just posted an interesting article over at my site, PlanetAMD64.com. Super Computers Inc., makers of America's Army, have released a CD that turns an Opteron/Athlon64 into a 64-bit Linux "gaming console on steroids".

The 64-bit goodies are starting to flow...

Read the whole thing here (http://forums.planetamd64.com/viewtopic.php?p=59#59).

[Ghostrider]

Who needs this "extra-speed" for Americas Army? IF you buy such a powerful Computer there is no need for it.
But it's a nice idea. I read the whole article: nVidia helped to build the CD.
My first two questions:
1. Will it be useable for ATI-Cards, too?
2. Will it allow to play other games?
If these two points are NOT supported they can keep the CDs for their own.
------------------------------

This is an Opteron-System-Thread... This seems to be off-topic.

[guru]

You're right Ghost, it is a little off-topic. The thread can be followed at my site. But the GameStorm CD is more than just America's Army. it's the basis for an entire new level of gaming.

[Ghostrider]

Do you mean that you don't understand how the processors can be working at 400ddr if they are 333ddr procs? Well, do any of us truly know if the Opterons are running at 400ddr? The memory in the slots can be running at 400ddr but that does not mean that the proc's L2 cache is running at 400ddr.

@pointreyes:
You can try to run a cache-benchmark wich will reveal if your Opterons 2nd level cache is at DDR400.

How it should function: Try the very small "CTCM" (NOT CTMC!!!) benchmarktool from this url http://www.heise.de/ct/ftp/
at first with your Mushkin-RAM and after that replace the two mushkins with two PC2700 sticks and run the same benchmark again.
The timinings (2-3-2 or 2.5-3-3) should not make any differece because this test tests the CACHE and not the RAM itself. It does only run under DOS in realmode- so you will need a clean boot Disk without EMM.
To change the output language to english use the /C=US option.

So... if you get two times the same score there is no difference inside the CPU. If the score is higher with the mushkin sticks the CPU 2nd level cache will run faster than it does with PC2700.

(20:04)
I will now "test" it myself on my System with PC2100. If I get any trouble I will correct this posting.

Regards,
Ghostrider

[Ghostrider]

Hi!

First results... I have an AMD Athlon XP1700+ on a Tyan Tiger S2466N. Normally nothing is overclocked.

@133MHz (RAM-clock / FSB=266DDR)
@140MHz FSB (140MHz results are italic...)

Page1:
- 1467,310MHZ 1542,1MHz
- 1st level cache 64KB
- 2nd level cache 256KB
- Main Memory 1024MB
no memory holes
no uncacheable areas
-----------------------------------
Page2:
best rate - page hit: 4353,4MB/s 4576,1
medium rate - miss + hit: 1451,0 MB/s 1534,8
medium rate - L2 clean: 1466,6 MB/s 1551,1
medium rate - L2 dirty: 383,5 MB/s 404,1
worst rate - misses: 383,6 MB/s 403,2
FPU : 504,6 MB/s 531,0
MMX : 512,8 MB/s 539,2
Blocktransfer: 286,2 MB/s 300,6

averaged at 256K L2 /DOS 1082,1 MB/s 1142,2
averaged at 256K L2 /Win 739,3 MB/s 778,8


Well - this is no Opteron... this is no PC2700 or PC3200 RAM.
Just an XP 1700+ with PC2100 ECC REG.
Go an beat it! ;)

Greetings,
Ghostrider

[pointreyes]

I check for the utility Saturday but it was not available for download at that time. I might have a chance to check later this week. I have a very busy week ahead of me. Two computer builds with the potential for two more. Oh, and I have a U320 SCSI drive to install in this system. :smokin:

[Ghostrider]

Hi!

If the link will be broken try this one...
http://www.derghostrider.de/ctcm17a.zip
I uploaded it to my domain for you.

U320 SCSI... 15k Seagate Cheetas???

Greetingz,
Ghostrider

[pointreyes]

Thanks, I will download the utility tonight.

Yes, a 15.3k drive-here's what I ordered: http://www.abxzone.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=56129

I did not go for the RAID, figured that I could do that later as I start to sell off EIDE drives. Plus, the 64-bit 133Mhz RAID controllers are expensive. I have found the 64-bit 66Mhz RAID controllers to be around $300.

[guru]

Sweet board. I have to flash the BIOS, though. Tyan sent me a missive about it so it must be important. I'm only running WinXP-IA32 on it for now. I have to get Adaptec to cough up a driver for the 2120 RAID controller I'm using so I can install WinXP-AMD64.

BTW, Sisoft Sandra 2004 now has AMD64 modules fro 64-bit testing. I will post on my site when I get the drivers from Adaptec.

[Ghostrider]

Originally posted by guru
Sweet board. I have to flash the BIOS, though. Tyan sent me a missive about it so it must be important. I'm only running WinXP-IA32 on it for now. I have to get Adaptec to cough up a driver for the 2120 RAID controller I'm using so I can install WinXP-AMD64.

BTW, Sisoft Sandra 2004 now has AMD64 modules fro 64-bit testing. I will post on my site when I get the drivers from Adaptec.

GREAT! Please reveal the whole systemspecs! ... Which RAM, which Opteron(s), PSU, ...
Does the AGP-Bug still exist?

Regards,
Ghostrider

[pointreyes]

Wow, Sandra 2004 and a new bios (finally, been waiting a month). I will hopefully get a chance sometime this week to get to it. I never even had a chance to play with the box yesterday. :(

[Ghostrider]

Originally posted by pointreyes
Wow, Sandra 2004 and a new bios (finally, been waiting a month). I will hopefully get a chance sometime this week to get to it. I never even had a chance to play with the box yesterday. :(

TYAN says that it is the first Bios release - is it REALLY newer than yours? I know you had the board VERY early... Even with a non-final Bios-Version?

[pointreyes]

Originally posted by Ghostrider
TYAN says that it is the first Bios release - is it REALLY newer than yours? I know you had the board VERY early... Even with a non-final Bios-Version?

My bios states it's a evaluation copy. For the past month I have been waiting for a bios to be on the web site. This is the first time that they have actually provided such a thing. I suspect that the bios is probably newer than what I currently have.

[Ghostrider]

Befor you update the BIOS-version backup the version you are currently using! The flash-prog should be able to do it.

Until now the BIOS reports DDR400 ... I will hope that this won't change with the new version ;-)

Check your RAM-bandwith after updating the BIOS!


Greetings,
Ghostrider

[pointreyes]

Originally posted by Ghostrider
Befor you update the BIOS-version backup the version you are currently using! The flash-prog should be able to do it.

Until now the BIOS reports DDR400 ... I will hope that this won't change with the new version ;-)

Check your RAM-bandwith after updating the BIOS!


Greetings,
Ghostrider

Pretty much what I was thinking as well. :)

[Ghostrider]

Originally posted by pointreyes
Pretty much what I was thinking as well. :)

And that's not the first time:

3Ware RAID-Controller... No Adaptec... Enermax-PSU... K8W... Opteron... *g*

----------

I still don't know which Enermax you are using...
I'm going to buy this one:
http://www.enermax.com.tw/product-01.htm
The EG651AX-VH(W) FM. I don't need the EG851... .
Please tell me if it is the same. It has 4 seperated 12V-lines...

Greetings,
Ghostriderl

[Ghostrider]

Hi!

Be carefull which Version you choose!
I'd suggest this one:

"Sandra Win64 IA64 & AMD64 2004"


Here you can purchase the full version of Sandra. This version requires Windows 64-bit and a 64-bit system (IA64 Itanium or AMD64 Athlon 64/Athlon FX/Opteron)! Also includes Win32 version, so you can compare 32-bit performance on Windows 64-bit. source: http://jaggedonline.co.uk/index.html?lang=euro&a=site_&location=buy

As you can see it also includes the Sandra 2004 for 32Bit!
The "Sandra Professional 2004" won't be the right choice to compare your Opteron using a 64bit OS.

Greetings,
Ghostrider