Lets talk breaking the HTT 230 limit on k10 here

[KTE]

OK.

BTW, +2GHz is the kind of magic number in terms of NB perf/latency IME. I managed above 2GHz NB/HT on an EVEREST run lately and the EVEREST latency was 49.7s: http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/6357/asaui7.png

And my old NB/cache latency tests:

240HT x 11 = 4 cores 2640MHz, NB=3120MHz, HT=2160MHz, RAM=480 5-5-5-5 2T:


220HT x 11 = 4 cores 2420MHz, NB=1980MHz, HT=1100MHz, RAM=440 4-4-4-4 2T:


All L1/L2/L3 cache latencies fall nicely. Pity that was before, not doable anymore.

[KTE]

Found either the K9A2 Platinum's or the 5000+ BE's HT ref. limit to be 396MHz.

And also, AOD and oc is far far easier using the BE on the same system/OS than when Phenom is installed. I've seen that it's actually just a problem with Phenom, slower windows loadup, slower AOD functioning, random lockups and so on. And for the clocks to change after pressing "apply" takes far less time with X2 than with Phenom.

[Jimmer411]

Is there any performance benefit to running HTT at 1500 or 2000??

[mAJORD]

lol 3ghz Nb, how did I miss that one :O

[KTE]

Is there any performance benefit to running HTT at 1500 or 2000??

No idea. Not benched it yet but I was in the middle of it. There's definitely a benefit to run higher than 1x HT. 200HT ref. 4x is much better perf than 1x in XP 32-bit across the board.

[Brother Esau]

Not on HTT topic here but whats the disk performance on you guys boards like with the SB600 in Raid 0?

[EvilBellyLint]

Not on HTT topic here but whats the disk performance on you guys boards like with the SB600 in Raid 0?

excellent question. I'd like to know that as well



EBL

[Brother Esau]

Yes I think its a relevant question.

[Ricey20]

No clue, I'm using the Promise T3 controller on my K9A2 for Raid 1. I have my main 150gb Raptor on the SB600 controller and i cant access it if i switch the controller to raid. Also the Promise T3 controller is a tad buggy in x64 so dont trust my main drive to be on it.

[Brother Esau]

The ATI SB600 is a Promise Controller! Are you using a dedicated controller card?

[Ricey20]

Nope no dedicated card, the MSI comes with 4 sata connectors that the SB600 controls and another 2 thats controlled by a Promise T3 controller which is a modified version of a promise fastrak controller with 2 sata and 2 esata. Its basically a full retail $150 dollar controller they slapped onto the board. Supposed to be good but slightly buggy compared to the one used on say the gigabyte. I had to request a hotfix for my vista x64 for it to stop bsoding my comp everytime i booted up.

[Brother Esau]

Whats you're speeds like?

[EvilBellyLint]

No clue, I'm using the Promise T3 controller on my K9A2 for Raid 1. I have my main 150gb Raptor on the SB600 controller and i cant access it if i switch the controller to raid. Also the Promise T3 controller is a tad buggy in x64 so dont trust my main drive to be on it.

Sounds like an old bug that hasn't been fixed. When the RD600 Northbridge
was introduced along with a (different, non-SAS) Promise controller on the
DFI LanParty ICFX3200, and both the SB600 RAID and the Promise RAID
were configured, the Promise Boot ROM would prevent the ATI Boot ROM
from enabling.

Apparently the workaround was to configure each RAID separately.
But you had to disable one controller's ROM, configure the other
controller for RAID, then reverse the process, then re-enable both
controller ROMs, and you could then run both the ATI and Promise
RAIDs at the same time.

I would have thought ATI and/or Promise would have fixed this by now.



EBL

[EvilBellyLint]

When I finally get my board I'm gonna run a test to see if
using the SB600 for SATA RAID and the Promise controller
for single, Non-RAID SAS drives will exhibit any similar bug.

EBL

[EvilBellyLint]

Whats you're speeds like?

Curious to know here as well. But what I do think is that the
SB600's RAID controller, from everything I've read about it,
is one of the better on-board RAID solutions, and keeps up
pretty well with most third-party RAID cards, so I'm expecting
it will be okay to use w/o the need for a third-party controller.

I'm more curious about how both the ATI and Promise controllers
will act together once this next crop of MSI boards hits the
streets, and also to see just how this Promise T3 performs.

Lots of unanswered questions though, until this current run
starts shipping on the 14th. Since there are a variety of ways
to combine drive configuration between these two controllers,
it seems to me it merits some testing... similar to the variables
we encounter in overclocking

I mean, do you run two RAIDS, one on each controller? Or do
you run RAID on the SB600 and non-RAID on the Promise? Or
the other way around? etc... etc....


EBL

[EvilBellyLint]

No clue, I'm using the Promise T3 controller on my K9A2 for Raid 1. I have my main 150gb Raptor on the SB600 controller and i cant access it if i switch the controller to raid. Also the Promise T3 controller is a tad buggy in x64 so dont trust my main drive to be on it.

Not to belabor the point, but something else just occurred to me.
I'm not certain now where I saw this, but I seem to recall reading
something (in my research on this board) that the Promise controller
might be limited to a 250MB/s throughput. Again, this is not verified,
(by me, at least) but just tossing it out there because it bears
looking into.

Now that I think about it, I think that was the reason I had initially
decided I was going to use the Promise controller for non-RAID
15K SAS drives, and rely on the SB600 to control a SATA RAID.

Anyway... something for others to test perhaps?

EBL

EDITED To ADD:

If this 250 MB/s bandwith limit does indeed exist, it still may be a
non-issue. It's most likely the bandwith per SATA/SAS port, so in
2-disk RAID the Promise T3 bandwith should be double this figure.

[Ricey20]

Sounds like an old bug that hasn't been fixed. When the RD600 Northbridge
was introduced along with a (different, non-SAS) Promise controller on the
DFI LanParty ICFX3200, and both the SB600 RAID and the Promise RAID
were configured, the Promise Boot ROM would prevent the ATI Boot ROM
from enabling.

Apparently the workaround was to configure each RAID separately.
But you had to disable one controller's ROM, configure the other
controller for RAID, then reverse the process, then re-enable both
controller ROMs, and you could then run both the ATI and Promise
RAIDs at the same time.

I would have thought ATI and/or Promise would have fixed this by now.



EBL

Yah, most companies just decided to not use the promise controller and switched to the JMB controller or something since its way less buggy. It took me 3 days to figure out wth was going on with my comp before i finally narrowed it down to the promise controller

[macci]

KTE, is your Trfc at 195ns when pushing the HTT limits w/ 5000+ BE? and MaxAsyncLatency at 9ns or 10n (or just enable "Perform DQS")

[KTE]

KTE, is your Trfc at 195ns when pushing the HTT limits w/ 5000+ BE? and MaxAsyncLatency at 9ns or 10n (or just enable "Perform DQS")

Both 75ns. RAMs were low yet compared to what they've benched 32M/3D at the same setting. Tried 105ns too but no more.

Don't recall an option of MaxAsyncLatency anywhere macci. (?)

[macci]

Both 75ns. RAMs were low yet compared to what they've benched 32M/3D at the same setting. Tried 105ns too but no more.

Don't recall an option of MaxAsyncLatency anywhere macci. (?)

well make sure you set all Trfcs to 195ns otherwise that can hold your HT ref clock back. Same goes to MaxAsyncLatency (AOD should have it with K8 CPUs).

If DQS training is enabled that should take care of MaxAsyncLatency value (among other things) if you are booting up at a high HT ref. clock (350+).

[duploxxx]

well make sure you set all Trfcs to 195ns otherwise that can hold your HT ref clock back. Same goes to MaxAsyncLatency (AOD should have it with K8 CPUs).

If DQS training is enabled that should take care of MaxAsyncLatency value (among other things) if you are booting up at a high HT ref. clock (350+).

thx macci for the hints, just installed my msi 790 platinum with 5000+BE, lets see what it can do before i put it into my daily rig (gigabyte sh3 690 chipset) to compare and after that get the phenom as new toy.

[KTE]

Thanks. I sold the X2 BE yesterday about the time I was posting. Let's hope some unlocked editions X4's are out fast.

[tictac]

Thanks. I sold the X2 BE yesterday about the time I was posting. Let's hope some unlocked editions X4's are out fast.

Phenom ME would be better... (Macci Edition)

[KTE]

They need to get him working in a department where they sell a few hundred ME CPU's that he oc'd stable.

So macci, is yours running a TLB patch aswell?

[macci]

I use AMD OVerDrive to enable TLB caching (and something else too ) - its the magic button in AOD right hand side corner (in 2.0.11 version, that will be out soon!).
it will not be an issue I will ever see in daily use (games, benchmarks, web-browsing, email etc).

as I mentioned earlier its not an issue that has anything to do with Overclocking, its not like you OVCK your NB/L3/CPU and then you suddenly get this issue. It happens in very specific conditions and regardless of clocks.

If your system hang when overclocking it just means that you reached the limit (need more cooling, better settings, more volts etc to go higher).

btw, as far as NB clocks (and L3 clocks) go: more cooling, more volts - thats how it goes higher.

KTE, do you remember what settings you used (in the BIOS) to get that "3.1GHz NB clock"? I strongly believe that its a misreading in CPU-Z