Dual Opteron Board w/ AGP that DOESN'T SUCK???

airspirit · 09-19-2003, 09:51 AM

Okay, the Tyan is a POS (both the K8S and K8W) and the MSI board has a 4+0 RAM setup (meaning that one processor has no local ram ... teh sux). Are there any dual opteron boards out there that have AGP, local memory for each chip, a giganic, and a BIOS that allows you to mess with timings and OC settings at all? If the Tyan board used an ATX PSU and had the MSI BIOS settings I'd be all over that like a bum on cheap stank wine (or a geek on WINE). Any help here would be greatly appreciated, folks.

(Yes, I'm considering putting together a dual 246 system ... rowr).

iroc409 · 09-19-2003, 03:45 PM

not that i've found. i did find one nice _single_ opteron board... it was either an asus or abit, i'm pretty sure asus. other than that, they're all built for servers that i've found.

airspirit · 09-20-2003, 10:04 AM

You know, I think I'm going to put this on hold until December or January. If I'm going to dump 3 G's on a computer, I'd better wait until I can also dump PCI Express on it ... besides, they'll probably be up to 2.6 Ghz Opterons by then. :o

Dr. Strangelove · 09-20-2003, 11:21 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by airspirit
You know, I think I'm going to put this on hold until December or January. If I'm going to dump 3 G's on a computer, I'd better wait until I can also dump PCI Express on it ... besides, they'll probably be up to 2.6 Ghz Opterons by then. :o

Yep and if you wait a little longer it will be running at some higher speed. That is just the way it goes... :shrug:

If I were you I would also try posting this question at 2cpu.com (if you haven't allready)

airspirit · 09-20-2003, 12:53 PM

I've been everywhere. There is nothing that is acceptable at the time, so I will wait. Understandably, processors will get faster as time goes on ... I'm quite aware of that. The thing that is stopping me from jumping is the availability of a board platform that doesn't suck. If I'm going to shell out that much I don't want to make sacrifices due to my impatience.

Dr. Strangelove · 09-20-2003, 01:10 PM

I'm with ya all the way and I did not mean to insinuate that you didn't know that CPU get faster all the time, lets just say is was a cry of desperation from a guy who wished he had more money so that he could buy the fastest all the time. BTW have you seen the benches on the x46 opterons running at 2GHz, very nice indeed!!

But as I understand your posts only MSI and Tyan have dual opteron MB's... that will change soon I'm sure of it. Asus must be coming with one soon and hopefully they will not make the same mistake that MSI has made with their board. It's a bit strange the way that MSI has setup their memory handling, also you would expect that a server board might have more ram slots.. I mean if you want to go past the famous 4Gb barrier you need to buy 1+ Gb ram blocks :-( (but that might be a space related problem). They must have known that it would influence performance and talk about missing redundancy if CPU0 goes so does everything because CPU1 accesses memory through CPU0, not an optimal situation for a so called server board!!!

superart · 09-20-2003, 01:12 PM

If your going to wait, and dish out 3 G's, you might as well just wait for Athlon64 to come out.

Dr. Strangelove · 09-20-2003, 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by superart
If your going to wait, and dish out 3 G's, you might as well just wait for Athlon64 to come out.

hmmm, but will they run in dual config??

Dr. Strangelove · 09-20-2003, 01:23 PM

Just found these two boards don't know about OC'ing but from just looking at the pictures I would say that they don't suffer from the memory problem that the MSI board does!
Rioworks and Iwill

Edit: Looked through the manual for the Iwill MB the bios does not contain any settings that will allow OC'ing

superart · 09-20-2003, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dr. Strangelove
hmmm, but will they run in dual config??

Hmmm.... I haven't heard anything that says they can't. Then again, AMD always bitches about how AthlonXP chips are not meant to be run in dual setups and they run in dual setups just fine.

Dr. Strangelove · 09-20-2003, 01:38 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by superart
AMD always bitches about how AthlonXP chips are not meant to be run in dual setups and they run in dual setups just fine.

Quit true, lets hope that they will. This faq at 2cpu.com says it's not likely but who knows?

Tempus · 09-20-2003, 02:12 PM

The A64 (non FX) are definately NOT supposed to run in dual (or more) mode.

The new design of the chip (hypertransport based instead of FSB) means that a little bridge mod won't solve this. The only other hope is that the FX chips (since they are 940 pin just like the Opterons) have all 3 hypertransports still intact.

There is a possibility that you could get Opteron 1XX chips (cheaper than 2XX) and mod them to work in 2P or 8P modes. That would save alot of money.

Dr. Strangelove · 09-20-2003, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Tempus
There is a possibility that you could get Opteron 1XX chips (cheaper than 2XX) and mod them to work in 2P or 8P modes. That would save alot of money.

LOL imaging a 8-way gaming system... not that it would help you get better FPS though (propably worse), but the thought is sweet

besides that I have no idea what I would seriously use a 8-way computer for!! (Don't say folding or Seti.....)

superart · 09-20-2003, 03:18 PM

BeOS has native support for up to 8 CPUs. You can make an 8 chip Opteron BeBox !!!!!!! All hail the late great BeOS!!!!

Dr. Strangelove · 09-20-2003, 03:21 PM

I thought that BeOS was gone, dead, down the drain.... but I guess that you can still get their OS

Tempus · 09-20-2003, 04:07 PM

Actually, I'd be willing to be that most future games will be multi-thread friendly now that p4 HT is a 'common' platform.

So I could definately see an 8P box helping a LITTLE (and since you use teamspeak it could put a whole cpu on that. lol)

An BE isn't dead. Most of the assets were sold off and now its more of an embedded product thing. Maybe you next dvd player / home theater will be BE-powered =)

BeOS was great. I loved using it but never got an original BeBOX (the custom one on powerpc)

airspirit · 09-20-2003, 06:23 PM

The FX chips are rebadged 1XX Opterons that have don't have their hypertransport connections arranged for SMP. That wouldn't work. Really, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this right. I want SMP, I want 128 bit local memory bandwidth for each chip, I want a giganic, I want good SATA, and I want good OC support. Oh, and a monkey. You know I always wanted a mong-kee.

I'm hoping that the A64 release and computex will bring the unveiling of both the 248 chips and some NForce3 dually boards or some such goodness.

Zhentar · 09-20-2003, 06:49 PM

I personally would wait for the 90 nanometer process.

And how about 90 nanometer athlon xps. Probably a stupid idea on AMDs part but I'd love it anyways.

superart · 09-20-2003, 08:46 PM

Quote:

An BE isn't dead. Most of the assets were sold off and now its more of an embedded product thing. Maybe you next dvd player / home theater will be BE-powered =)

Actually Palm bought Be. And rumors have it that PalmOS6 will have a lot of Be components in it.

You can still get the BeOS, but there are practicly no drivers for it.

airspirit · 09-23-2003, 09:22 AM

http://www.techbits.ca/modules.php?n...&pid=11&page=2

This is what I'll wait for. It is a NForce3 Pro 250 dual opteron board wityh 4+4 dimm layout. If the overclockability of the NForce3 Pro 150 is any indication, this will be THE board to get. I will have to find a deep case though due to the length of this SOB ... I don't even think it would fit in the big Chieftec cases ....

superart · 09-23-2003, 02:29 PM

heheeh I wonder if that board will be compatable with the new BTX standard??

airspirit · 09-23-2003, 02:56 PM

Fsck that. Honestly ... how many of us here will concern ourselves with that when we can design better thermal flow ourselves?

As for the proper answer: absolutely not. Duallies are going to be difficult to fit into that POS standard.

superart · 09-23-2003, 09:46 PM

well dualies are more of a server type thing. BTX is a standard for gramma's Email checking box. But then again, they manage to fit 4-CPU boards into 1U cases, so it's not COMPLETELY impossible, although highly improbable. But with some modding I'm sure you can do it, but then again, why would you want to?

airspirit · 09-24-2003, 08:37 AM

Exactly. Besides, people that are worried about performance so much as to get a dually probably aren't that worried about stuffing it in a SFF case or some nonsense also, hehe.

superart · 09-24-2003, 09:03 AM

SFF?

09-19-2003, 09:51 AM	#1
airspirit Been /.'d... have you? Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Moscow, ID Posts: 1,986	Dual Opteron Board w/ AGP that DOESN'T SUCK??? Okay, the Tyan is a POS (both the K8S and K8W) and the MSI board has a 4+0 RAM setup (meaning that one processor has no local ram ... teh sux). Are there any dual opteron boards out there that have AGP, local memory for each chip, a giganic, and a BIOS that allows you to mess with timings and OC settings at all? If the Tyan board used an ATX PSU and had the MSI BIOS settings I'd be all over that like a bum on cheap stank wine (or a geek on WINE). Any help here would be greatly appreciated, folks. (Yes, I'm considering putting together a dual 246 system ... rowr). __________________ #!/bin/sh {who;} {last;} {pause;} {grep;} {touch;} {unzip;} mount /dev/girl -t {wet;} {fsck;} {fsck;} {fsck;} {fsck;} echo yes yes yes {yes;} umount {/dev/girl;zip;} rm -rf {wet.spot;} {sleep;} finger: permission denied

09-19-2003, 03:45 PM	#2
iroc409 Cooling Savant Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: midwest side, yo Posts: 596	not that i've found. i did find one nice _single_ opteron board... it was either an asus or abit, i'm pretty sure asus. other than that, they're all built for servers that i've found. __________________ :shrug:

09-20-2003, 10:04 AM	#3
airspirit Been /.'d... have you? Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Moscow, ID Posts: 1,986	You know, I think I'm going to put this on hold until December or January. If I'm going to dump 3 G's on a computer, I'd better wait until I can also dump PCI Express on it ... besides, they'll probably be up to 2.6 Ghz Opterons by then. :o __________________ #!/bin/sh {who;} {last;} {pause;} {grep;} {touch;} {unzip;} mount /dev/girl -t {wet;} {fsck;} {fsck;} {fsck;} {fsck;} echo yes yes yes {yes;} umount {/dev/girl;zip;} rm -rf {wet.spot;} {sleep;} finger: permission denied

09-20-2003, 12:53 PM	#5
airspirit Been /.'d... have you? Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Moscow, ID Posts: 1,986	I've been everywhere. There is nothing that is acceptable at the time, so I will wait. Understandably, processors will get faster as time goes on ... I'm quite aware of that. The thing that is stopping me from jumping is the availability of a board platform that doesn't suck. If I'm going to shell out that much I don't want to make sacrifices due to my impatience. __________________ #!/bin/sh {who;} {last;} {pause;} {grep;} {touch;} {unzip;} mount /dev/girl -t {wet;} {fsck;} {fsck;} {fsck;} {fsck;} echo yes yes yes {yes;} umount {/dev/girl;zip;} rm -rf {wet.spot;} {sleep;} finger: permission denied

09-20-2003, 01:12 PM	#7
superart Cooling Savant Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: FL Posts: 787	If your going to wait, and dish out 3 G's, you might as well just wait for Athlon64 to come out. __________________ When you do things right, people won't be sure youv'e done anything at all. Looking to buy/trade for used Deep Fryer and Vacume Pack Sealer.

09-20-2003, 01:10 PM	#6
Dr. Strangelove Cooling Neophyte Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Denmark Posts: 14	I'm with ya all the way and I did not mean to insinuate that you didn't know that CPU get faster all the time, lets just say is was a cry of desperation from a guy who wished he had more money so that he could buy the fastest all the time. BTW have you seen the benches on the x46 opterons running at 2GHz, very nice indeed!! But as I understand your posts only MSI and Tyan have dual opteron MB's... that will change soon I'm sure of it. Asus must be coming with one soon and hopefully they will not make the same mistake that MSI has made with their board. It's a bit strange the way that MSI has setup their memory handling, also you would expect that a server board might have more ram slots.. I mean if you want to go past the famous 4Gb barrier you need to buy 1+ Gb ram blocks :-( (but that might be a space related problem). They must have known that it would influence performance and talk about missing redundancy if CPU0 goes so does everything because CPU1 accesses memory through CPU0, not an optimal situation for a so called server board!!!

09-20-2003, 01:23 PM	#9
Dr. Strangelove Cooling Neophyte Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Denmark Posts: 14	Just found these two boards don't know about OC'ing but from just looking at the pictures I would say that they don't suffer from the memory problem that the MSI board does! Rioworks and Iwill Edit: Looked through the manual for the Iwill MB the bios does not contain any settings that will allow OC'ing Last edited by Dr. Strangelove; 09-20-2003 at 01:35 PM.

09-20-2003, 02:12 PM	#12
Tempus Cooling Savant Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Michigan, USA Posts: 456	The A64 (non FX) are definately NOT supposed to run in dual (or more) mode. The new design of the chip (hypertransport based instead of FSB) means that a little bridge mod won't solve this. The only other hope is that the FX chips (since they are 940 pin just like the Opterons) have all 3 hypertransports still intact. There is a possibility that you could get Opteron 1XX chips (cheaper than 2XX) and mod them to work in 2P or 8P modes. That would save alot of money. __________________ Thou art God.

09-20-2003, 03:18 PM	#14
superart Cooling Savant Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: FL Posts: 787	BeOS has native support for up to 8 CPUs. You can make an 8 chip Opteron BeBox !!!!!!! All hail the late great BeOS!!!! __________________ When you do things right, people won't be sure youv'e done anything at all. Looking to buy/trade for used Deep Fryer and Vacume Pack Sealer.

09-20-2003, 03:21 PM	#15
Dr. Strangelove Cooling Neophyte Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Denmark Posts: 14	I thought that BeOS was gone, dead, down the drain.... but I guess that you can still get their OS

09-20-2003, 04:07 PM	#16
Tempus Cooling Savant Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Michigan, USA Posts: 456	Actually, I'd be willing to be that most future games will be multi-thread friendly now that p4 HT is a 'common' platform. So I could definately see an 8P box helping a LITTLE (and since you use teamspeak it could put a whole cpu on that. lol) An BE isn't dead. Most of the assets were sold off and now its more of an embedded product thing. Maybe you next dvd player / home theater will be BE-powered =) BeOS was great. I loved using it but never got an original BeBOX (the custom one on powerpc) __________________ Thou art God.

09-20-2003, 06:23 PM	#17
airspirit Been /.'d... have you? Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Moscow, ID Posts: 1,986	The FX chips are rebadged 1XX Opterons that have don't have their hypertransport connections arranged for SMP. That wouldn't work. Really, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this right. I want SMP, I want 128 bit local memory bandwidth for each chip, I want a giganic, I want good SATA, and I want good OC support. Oh, and a monkey. You know I always wanted a mong-kee. I'm hoping that the A64 release and computex will bring the unveiling of both the 248 chips and some NForce3 dually boards or some such goodness. __________________ #!/bin/sh {who;} {last;} {pause;} {grep;} {touch;} {unzip;} mount /dev/girl -t {wet;} {fsck;} {fsck;} {fsck;} {fsck;} echo yes yes yes {yes;} umount {/dev/girl;zip;} rm -rf {wet.spot;} {sleep;} finger: permission denied

09-20-2003, 06:49 PM	#18
Zhentar Cooling Savant Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Madison, WI Posts: 225	I personally would wait for the 90 nanometer process. And how about 90 nanometer athlon xps. Probably a stupid idea on AMDs part but I'd love it anyways.

09-23-2003, 09:22 AM	#20
airspirit Been /.'d... have you? Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Moscow, ID Posts: 1,986	NEWSFLASH!!! http://www.techbits.ca/modules.php?n...&pid=11&page=2 This is what I'll wait for. It is a NForce3 Pro 250 dual opteron board wityh 4+4 dimm layout. If the overclockability of the NForce3 Pro 150 is any indication, this will be THE board to get. I will have to find a deep case though due to the length of this SOB ... I don't even think it would fit in the big Chieftec cases .... __________________ #!/bin/sh {who;} {last;} {pause;} {grep;} {touch;} {unzip;} mount /dev/girl -t {wet;} {fsck;} {fsck;} {fsck;} {fsck;} echo yes yes yes {yes;} umount {/dev/girl;zip;} rm -rf {wet.spot;} {sleep;} finger: permission denied

09-23-2003, 02:29 PM	#21
superart Cooling Savant Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: FL Posts: 787	heheeh I wonder if that board will be compatable with the new BTX standard?? __________________ When you do things right, people won't be sure youv'e done anything at all. Looking to buy/trade for used Deep Fryer and Vacume Pack Sealer.

09-23-2003, 02:56 PM	#22
airspirit Been /.'d... have you? Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Moscow, ID Posts: 1,986	Fsck that. Honestly ... how many of us here will concern ourselves with that when we can design better thermal flow ourselves? As for the proper answer: absolutely not. Duallies are going to be difficult to fit into that POS standard. __________________ #!/bin/sh {who;} {last;} {pause;} {grep;} {touch;} {unzip;} mount /dev/girl -t {wet;} {fsck;} {fsck;} {fsck;} {fsck;} echo yes yes yes {yes;} umount {/dev/girl;zip;} rm -rf {wet.spot;} {sleep;} finger: permission denied

09-23-2003, 09:46 PM	#23
superart Cooling Savant Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: FL Posts: 787	well dualies are more of a server type thing. BTX is a standard for gramma's Email checking box. But then again, they manage to fit 4-CPU boards into 1U cases, so it's not COMPLETELY impossible, although highly improbable. But with some modding I'm sure you can do it, but then again, why would you want to? __________________ When you do things right, people won't be sure youv'e done anything at all. Looking to buy/trade for used Deep Fryer and Vacume Pack Sealer.

09-24-2003, 08:37 AM	#24
airspirit Been /.'d... have you? Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Moscow, ID Posts: 1,986	Exactly. Besides, people that are worried about performance so much as to get a dually probably aren't that worried about stuffing it in a SFF case or some nonsense also, hehe. __________________ #!/bin/sh {who;} {last;} {pause;} {grep;} {touch;} {unzip;} mount /dev/girl -t {wet;} {fsck;} {fsck;} {fsck;} {fsck;} echo yes yes yes {yes;} umount {/dev/girl;zip;} rm -rf {wet.spot;} {sleep;} finger: permission denied

09-24-2003, 09:03 AM	#25
superart Cooling Savant Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: FL Posts: 787	SFF? __________________ When you do things right, people won't be sure youv'e done anything at all. Looking to buy/trade for used Deep Fryer and Vacume Pack Sealer.

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