FINALLY! Barcelona(s) + Asus L1N64......

[yankeex86x]

Hi guys!
In these days I'm selling out my "old" FXs and at the end of this week i'll receve reg ram (DDR2-800) and 2350 opty...
I'm planning to flash the barcelona bios before selling the FXs and simply place the new processor when it arrives....
Is it correct or not?
Do I have to use some old opty to place the new ones on my board, or simply place them (the new ones after flashing)?
thanks guys....

for msimax
I don't think that you'll be able to overclock so much, the main difference between the 8XXX and 2XXX is inside the HT Links, but the main fabrication tecnology is the same (90nm), and will make overclocking really hard.
Take a look at an old AMD quadFX processor that we've never seen:
http://www.techpowerup.com/cpudb/408..._64_FX-76.html
this is the 90nm max frequency never sold....
However I hope me to be wrong...

[LIKMARK]

Yes, you'll have to flash with your FX's so that you can drop in the quads when they arrive. They won't boot with FX bios.

Msimax is using a waterchiller, probably will be able to overclock them to about 3,6GHz benchable (maybe even 3,7GHz) is my guess.

[msimax]

my cpus came today ,cant flash fx bios in windows, im using normal ram probable due to using a k8 server chip, no mem timings in bios server bios has option for 1066, it came with bios 0401 but im afraid to 0501 for fear of losing my ability to boot with my ram for now

and im using ntune to up clock in windows

using stock cooling and volts for now

[msimax]

both chips are acbcf 0716 tpmw

[msimax]

i have been trying to edit the bios model info with no success yet does anyone know how to edit the model name of the bios??

[Super Nade]

Never use the Windows BIOS flash program for ASUS. It is utter crap.

[LIKMARK]

Looks like you'll need to force it in dos

Edit:
Looking nice BTW. Waiting for some nice clocks. Tell us how high clocks you get on air before moving on to the cold stuff.

Do you need new bios and reg/ecc ram for K8 opterons?

[yankeex86x]

Hi guys...
Do i'll have any problems about the processor stepping?
I read on asus support site that the ws/B model will support Barcelona B1 (all) & B2 (2354) since bios 0.401** , but there was no mention about the B3 stepping processors.
I'm wondering if my mobo will recognise the new stepped optys...

**: I think that here there is someone that has full access to asus develop team....
asus website mentioned the 0.401 bios that have never been officially released... (xtremesystems users officially released it )
I suppose that the 0.401 isn't an hacked bios, it's simply a pre-release bios for the WS/B motherboard to give barcelona support.
Maybe neither asus was able to give barcelona socketF support without reg ddr, so they dropped the idea (risky idea for noobs) to show a barcelona bios which will request to change not only the processors.. and "made" (rebrand) the WS as WS/B motherboard, in order to not to have problems....
So guys, check yourself if i'm right or wrong... this is the link where asus mention the 0.401 bios.... the one that someone (i'll say again: thanks alot) posted....
http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/c...N64-SLI%20WS/B

....i'm still worried about cpu stepping.... will b3 run on my mobo???

PS: congratulations for you system MSIMAX!!!! I hope you'll clock high and high....

[LIKMARK]

Well, both s7e9h3n and Dave Graham seems to have quite good connections (understament intended), so it's no suprise if one of them (or someone else) got it from Asus engineers/bios writers.

@revision question: Only one way to find out

I've asked Asus support a few questions, but I'm only getting half assed answers from them. lol (I'll post them when they are done answering me)

[yankeex86x]

Hi..
I just receved the 2350 B3 opteron, and next week i'll receve registered ram.
I tried to boot the motherboard with old non reg memories, but i wasn't lucky...
Lixmark, did you tried to boot the mobo without the memory dimms?
If no dimms are detected the motherboard should alert with some beeps...... but this time my mobo don't tell me anything.....
maybe i've not to be worried and happily wait for the reg rams.....
still waiting.....

[yankeex86x]

@ LixMark
How do I overclock the opteron (when ram arrives)?
I mean, will we only have to increase the FSB (and adjust HTT, RAM ratio, Vcore.. etc), or do we have to modify some resisters in the mcp?
From what I've seen s7e9h3n overclocked the BA opteron by changing some motherboard registers, and i'm not capable of... How do will we proceed? any idea?

[LIKMARK]

You probably need to use ntune as I don't think there is much overclocking options in bios, though I'm not sure. I have not seen the bios myself.
You might have to change nb-fid (multiplier) with msr editors, if your opteron clocks well, but it is not as hard as it seem I know earlier versions of _AOD works with nforce, but you'll have to test

[wascrash]

Howdy. New here. Been waiting to see if anyone gets the new Quad Opterons going on our boards as thats the main reason i got this board to have a kickass folding rig. Ive had it running well over a year With the 2210HE's @ 2500 ghz. Folding the whole time and its never had a problem. Even with the heat the board chipset puts off. ( I do have a fan mounted on the main heatsink) Looking forward to see how the new quads work... Hope it works out.

[msimax]

little update my board is rma p.s. dont flash bios @ 3in da morning

before died i updated to the 0501 bios from the website thats not the cause of death btw. but it had mem div for 1066 and also nothing with stick oc wise only multis i dont know if because the cpu im using or what, you guys gotta check and see if they work with barcys.

i flashed 4x4 bios using afudos but it was the wrong file so while im waiting on my rma ima pick up another one , and been doing some research and going to see if i can get some ecs tophats that should work as i have spare 4x4 bios laying around then it will be much safer playing with bios

[msimax]

one other thing these chips were stable for 3 hrs @3.450 stock volt and cooling so i have high hopes about what they can do with a little cold

[yankeex86x]

@msimax
Did you have problems with the barcelona bios or no?
I mean did you flash the WS/B bios over WS board and it not worked?
Or had a bad flash?

[msimax]

i had a bad flash
this is what i need
if i can find or buy one ill cancel my rma does some have one???

[msimax]

anyone has there systems up yet??

[yankeex86x]

@msimax
If you have a socketed bios you may send your bios chip to a reflashing company which will reflash back your one.
If you have a socketed bios.... mmm boh....
You may look for an old motherboard with the same bios chip pin count, detach it and use for parallel connection of the bioses.......
The options you showed before used the same solution by connecting an external bios socket pin-to-pin with the bad-flashed chip, than using it to boot and recover the old flash.
However, about quad core, i've an 2350 B3, and my rams should arrive tomorrow or wednesday, so I'll have some news in 2 days.....
the only thing which scares me is stepping... as i've already mentioned the L1N64 WS/B has support for barcelona B1&B2 stepping, but there are no info about B3 stepping
Good work with overclock... maybe some well cooled FXs will clock to 3.6GHz.....

[yankeex86x]

Good news guys...
The system booted up succesfully with 2x2Gb reg Ram DDR2-800 and an Opteron 2350 B3....
Now the problems growed up....
None of the systems already installed i able to boot up, (VistaX64, XP x64) and I think that the error is the ACPI table allocation...... maybe the non mature Bios...
Now i'll try to flash the official WS/B bios (0.501) downloaded from asus website....
PS: In bios post messages the mobo is recognized as an L1N64-SLI WS/B
plus i was able to boot with PCLinuxOS 2007 and i discovered a strange detail:
the processor stepping reported in bios screen is indicated as B2, but when i check the bios revision via harddrake tool (Linux) it says revision B3... blah...
I'll flash the 0.501 bios... crossed fingers!!!

[msimax]

you need a clean install or try to uninstall prev. chipset drivers

[yankeex86x]

I just flashed the 0.501 official WS/B bios and my motherboard booted correctly...
Now I'm sure that WS and WS/B are exact the same board....
Clearly good that memories runs at 800MHz (reg DDR2).
For Now i'm still not able to boot any OS except Linux,
I'm trying a clean install of Vista x64....
The error which blocks me at OS boot is:
blue screen with Machine_exception_debug
I noted that while loading XP64 the loading sequence locks up on the ACPItable module loading.... mmm
Clean install on the way...
Problem solved.... DDR2 memory divider st to 333...
everything going right.... clean install on the way

[yankeex86x]

Now the problem is overclocking these chips....
from what i could see there is a lock in the bios which prevents rising up the FSB value.
In the cpu information menu (bios) there is a "able to change freq: no" option which is bad to see.........
However I've enough moneys to buy some other stuff....
What would be better?
a) buying another Opteron 2350
b) buying another 2x2Gb Kit
??? thanks!

[msimax]

install ntune

[yankeex86x]

WooW!
seems that ntune is fully supported by this motherboard...
I could reach 230FSB........
-----
edited....
the main problem is the bios locking....
I would be able to reach 2.5GHz very easy only if i have the way to change the vCore....
Plus I've my northbridge temp at 50 celsius.... I'm fearing to burn my chipset.... any idea about better cooling it without modifyng the mobo?
(overclock continues... when i'll have my PC ok I'll try to post some pict....)