I search a good dual opteron motherboard for high end SMP workstation

  • Thread starter Thread starter Gilles Vollant
  • Start date Start date
G

Gilles Vollant

I love both AMD 64 and dual processor (SMP)

I'm software developper, and having a SMP computer to test multithread
developement is useful. And my main computeur has a near 5 year old Asus
P2B-DS... (with two Pentium 3 - 1GHz)

I plan made a Dual opteron system (with 2 opteron 240 or 242), but not a
very expensive system if possible.

I want a motherboard just like Asus K8V SE Deluxe for feature, (by example)
: Raid, firewire, gigabyte ethernet, more than 2 sata connector, no video on
motherbord (but AGP connector), PCI slot (no need PCI Express), more than 4
USB2 connector, cool & quiet. The only thing is I need two 940 socket for
the two opteron.

What is the better choice?

Thank you for all idea ! :-)
 
I love both AMD 64 and dual processor (SMP)

I'm software developper, and having a SMP computer to test multithread
developement is useful. And my main computeur has a near 5 year old Asus
P2B-DS... (with two Pentium 3 - 1GHz)

I plan made a Dual opteron system (with 2 opteron 240 or 242), but not a
very expensive system if possible.

I want a motherboard just like Asus K8V SE Deluxe for feature, (by example)
: Raid, firewire, gigabyte ethernet, more than 2 sata connector, no video on
motherbord (but AGP connector), PCI slot (no need PCI Express), more than 4
USB2 connector, cool & quiet. The only thing is I need two 940 socket for
the two opteron.

What is the better choice?

Thank you for all idea ! :-)
Click to expand...

I just bought one of these:

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=K8T_Master2_FAR&class=mb

It meets most of you're specs except firewire, and it only has two SATA
connectors.

I'm very pleased with it. Note that on the web site it states (in
small print): "For Single or Dual AMD® Opteron Series, it will support
Registered Memory up to DDR 333."

That little bit of important information is nowhere to be found in the
printed manual. The manual leads one to believe that DDR 400 will work
when in fact it won't, because there is no way to limit the memory clock.
There is a description of a BIOS setting that supposedly allows one to set
a max memory speed, but I never could get it to show up.

The only other anomaly I haven't figured out yet is a weird memory count
during post. With any two 1G sticks installed the post counts to
something like 2096064K, can't remember the exact number but it seems
about right for 2G of memory. However when all four 1G sticks are
installed, the post memory count is 3668294K. The memory isn't bad
because the machine boots and runs perfectly with any valid DIMM/slot
combination, ECC on or off works as well, plus I've seen the same
count with any *four* of about eight different sticks of five different
brands. The same count also occurred on an identical board of the
same model. I'm thinking maybe BIOS bug, but can't think of a way to
verify it.

Other than that I'm really happy with the board, it's extremely fast and
very smooth.

--
*****New System Specs*************************************************
MotherBoard: MSI MS-9130 DUAL SOCKET 940 800MHZ FSB
CPUs: AMD Opterons 246 at 2.0GHz 1MB 64 Bit Qty: 2
Memory:
Bank0: 2GB Kit Reg ECC DDR 333MHz
Bank1: 2GB Kit Reg ECC DDR 333Mhz
Video Card: GeForce FX 5600 Personal Cinema / 128MB / AGP 8X
Sound Card: Creative Labs SB Audigy2
HD: 2 Maxtor 120 GB - SATA-150 - 7200 rpm in a RAID0 array
*****************Reaper_At_Debug1 Dot. Com *************************
 
I would recommend the same one. I have one and I am extremely happy with it. The
support is also excelent.

I'd give it a 10 out of 10 rating.
 
Gilles Vollant said:
I want a motherboard just like Asus K8V SE Deluxe for feature, (by example)
: Raid, firewire, gigabyte ethernet, more than 2 sata connector, no video on
motherbord (but AGP connector), PCI slot (no need PCI Express), more than 4
USB2 connector, cool & quiet. The only thing is I need two 940 socket for
the two opteron.
Click to expand...

For everything except "more than 2 sata connector", the Arima Rioworks HDAMB
fits the bill. It has SATA RAID 0/1 (2 connectors), firewire, gigabit
Ethernet, 8X AGP, 5x PCI, 2x USB 1.1, 4x USB 2.0. ATX form factor; choose
your own case/PS/fan setup for cool & quiet.
 
Gilles said:
Thank you for all suggestion
Iwill DK8N seem also good.

http://www.iwill.net/products/ProductDetail.asp?vID=227
Click to expand...

I was about to choose it, than I opted for the Tyan Tiger K8W instead. As far as
I was told, iWill's support is not as good as one could expect, but I can
assure, from my experience, that Tyan's support is. The Tiger K8W seems to be a
better choice for workstations due to the fact that it is and ATX form factor
which would fit into any ATX box, and the DK8N is EATX, which may get you into
having to buy an 19" box.
 
Back
Top