A8N-SLI Premium and RevE3 vs Rev E6 CPUs

[milleron]

There are some authoritative folks on the Corsair forum stating that
there are two kinds of Venice-core Athlon 64s -- Rev E3 and Rev E6.
They are further stating that the A8N-SLI Premium, perhaps the entire
A8N line, is not certified compatible with Rev E3 chips and that if
one has a Rev-E CPU, it must be E6, not E3.

Has anyone here heard this?

Does anyone know of a utility that could tell me which type of Rev-E
CPU I have?

Is there a minimum BIOS version for the A8N-SLI Premium that should be
installed to be compatible with Venice-core (Rev E) Athlon 64 CPUs?

Ron

 

[Ken']

There are some authoritative folks on the Corsair forum stating that
there are two kinds of Venice-core Athlon 64s -- Rev E3 and Rev E6.
They are further stating that the A8N-SLI Premium, perhaps the entire
A8N line, is not certified compatible with Rev E3 chips and that if
one has a Rev-E CPU, it must be E6, not E3.

Has anyone here heard this?

Does anyone know of a utility that could tell me which type of Rev-E
CPU I have?

Is there a minimum BIOS version for the A8N-SLI Premium that should be
installed to be compatible with Venice-core (Rev E) Athlon 64 CPUs?

Ron

Ron
Your Everest Home or CPUZ will give you that info.
You can get CPUZ here.........
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php
I see the replies that you have received, it sounds very logical that a bios
upgrade just might do the trick.
Ken'

 

[Roy Coorne]

Ron
Your Everest Home or CPUZ will give you that info.
You can get CPUZ here.........
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php
I see the replies that you have received, it sounds very logical that a bios
upgrade just might do the trick.

Exactly - and it is advisable to strictly follow the BIOS flashing
instructions,
<http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us>

Roy

 

[Peter Finney]

Ron
Your Everest Home or CPUZ will give you that info.

I could not find that info with Everst Home Edition, but found it with
Sisoft Sandra. It showed stepping mask 'JH-E6' - On my X2 4400+,
which is running OK with bios Rev 1007 (SLI-Premium).
Peter Finney
Liphook
Hampshire
England

 

[Razor]

There are some authoritative folks on the Corsair forum stating that
there are two kinds of Venice-core Athlon 64s -- Rev E3 and Rev E6.

yes.E3 single core,E6 Dual Core

They are further stating that the A8N-SLI Premium, perhaps the entire
A8N line, is not certified compatible with Rev E3 chips and that if
one has a Rev-E CPU, it must be E6, not E3.
Bullshit.


Is there a minimum BIOS version for the A8N-SLI Premium that should be
installed to be compatible with Venice-core (Rev E) Athlon 64 CPUs?

1007and above.

 

[Mercury]

Thaks for the info...

Does this apply to A8N-E too?
What is the impact of whatever is claimed?
Could this be related to a supplier saying to be 'make sure you get this
(3500+ single core) chip with a part number suffix of B? - forget what he
said? It was something like BK or BJ...

 

[Razor]

Thaks for the info...

Does this apply to A8N-E too?

A8N-E,A8N-SLI(like mine) and deluxe are older boards than premium.That means
more bios revisions were released already before Venice cores came out.In my
case i had to flash to 1008 in order to see correctly my DH-E3 venice
3200+.The system is rock solid from day 1(10x250,2.5Ghz 1.5V).If you have
the newest bios release there should be no problem.

What is the impact of whatever is claimed?
Could this be related to a supplier saying to be 'make sure you get this
(3500+ single core) chip with a part number suffix of B? - forget what he
said? It was something like BK or BJ...

I don't think there is a compatibility problem any more.At first there was
definately a prob with some NF3/NF4 boards and it seems that some board
makers suffered more than others.With new bioses this has been resolved.For
more info about A64 Revisions/steppings go here:
http://www.amdboard.com/amd64_opn.html

 

[Mercury]

Thanks again.Prevention is better than cure.

A8N-E,A8N-SLI(like mine) and deluxe are older boards than premium.That
means more bios revisions were released already before Venice cores came
out.In my case i had to flash to 1008 in order to see correctly my DH-E3
venice 3200+.The system is rock solid from day 1(10x250,2.5Ghz 1.5V).If
you have the newest bios release there should be no problem.


I don't think there is a compatibility problem any more.At first there was
definately a prob with some NF3/NF4 boards and it seems that some board
makers suffered more than others.With new bioses this has been
resolved.For more info about A64 Revisions/steppings go here:
http://www.amdboard.com/amd64_opn.html

 

[Christian Berger]

Hi Ron,

There are some authoritative folks on the Corsair forum stating that
there are two kinds of Venice-core Athlon 64s -- Rev E3 and Rev E6.
They are further stating that the A8N-SLI Premium, perhaps the entire
A8N line, is not certified compatible with Rev E3 chips and that if
one has a Rev-E CPU, it must be E6, not E3.

Has anyone here heard this?

Up to now (up to BIOS 1011-001) the A8N-SLI Premium does not support the E3
revision, so for me Cool 'n' Quiet doesn't work at all.

You can check that on the Asus Website yourself.

The A8N-SLI or the A8N-SLI Deluxe do support the E3 revision.

Hopefully they will fix this in one of the next BIOS version.

Does anyone know of a utility that could tell me which type of Rev-E
CPU I have?

CPU-Z will do the job.

Is there a minimum BIOS version for the A8N-SLI Premium that should be
installed to be compatible with Venice-core (Rev E) Athlon 64 CPUs?

Ron

Also the actual beta BIOS Version 1011-001 does not support the E3 revision.
8-((

Deutscher Wald wird sterben! (FGTH)

 

[milleron]

Hi Ron,


Up to now (up to BIOS 1011-001) the A8N-SLI Premium does not support the E3
revision, so for me Cool 'n' Quiet doesn't work at all.

I'm the original poster -- this thread was started months ago, I have
an A8N-SLI Premium with an Athlon 64 3500+ Venice-core Rev. E3 CPU. It
has performed perfectly with all BIOS versions from 1004 through 1009.
Cool and Quiet works perfectly. It is necessary to install the AMD
CPU driver in Windows, of course, but I've never had any problem with
CnQ once the CPU driver was installed.

It's true that the Asus Web page doesn't list the E3 as compatible (at
least, the last time I checked there), but I must deduce that it's
just an oversight since the E6 revisions hadn't even been released
when this motherboard hit the market. All the original Venice-core
CPUs installed on this board, probably hundreds of thousands of them
worldwide during the summer and fall of 2005, seem to work without a
hitch.

You can check that on the Asus Website yourself.

The A8N-SLI or the A8N-SLI Deluxe do support the E3 revision.

Hopefully they will fix this in one of the next BIOS version.
snip

Also the actual beta BIOS Version 1011-001 does not support the E3 revision.
8-((

What's the documentation for this statement?



Ron

 

[Christian Berger]

I'm the original poster -- this thread was started months ago, I have
an A8N-SLI Premium with an Athlon 64 3500+ Venice-core Rev. E3 CPU. It
has performed perfectly with all BIOS versions from 1004 through 1009.
Cool and Quiet works perfectly. It is necessary to install the AMD
CPU driver in Windows, of course, but I've never had any problem with
CnQ once the CPU driver was installed.

It's true that the Asus Web page doesn't list the E3 as compatible (at
least, the last time I checked there), but I must deduce that it's
just an oversight since the E6 revisions hadn't even been released
when this motherboard hit the market. All the original Venice-core
CPUs installed on this board, probably hundreds of thousands of them
worldwide during the summer and fall of 2005, seem to work without a
hitch.

I had called the german service hotline of Asus. They told me to check why
the A8N-SLI Premium is not listed to support the E3 revision. Now they have
changed the list and the E3 revision should be suppored since BIOS 1004.

My A8N-SLI Premium was delivered with BIOS 1005, now its flashed with
1011-001, but cool 'n' quiet doesn't work at all.

I have activated the cool 'n' quiet in the BIOS and installed the AMD
1.2.2.2 CPU driver, also the Power scheme is set to "Minimal Power
Management".

But if i set all to "auto" in the BIOS cool 'n' quiet doesn't work. Because
i use some DDR 600 RAM i set normaly several parameters in the BIOS like the
multiplicator of the CPU to 9 and the HT to 272.

Does Cool 'n' Quiet also work for you if you change the multi or the HT
manualy?

How could i check if the AMD CPU driver is realy loaded?

What's the documentation for this statement?

It's my own check, maybe i'm wrong. In the mean time they have changed the
list, so they state that from BIOS 1004 the E3 revision should be supported.
If it's working on your machine, you could tell me how did you do that?

 

[Christian Berger]

I'm the original poster -- this thread was started months ago, I have
an A8N-SLI Premium with an Athlon 64 3500+ Venice-core Rev. E3 CPU. It
has performed perfectly with all BIOS versions from 1004 through 1009.
Cool and Quiet works perfectly. It is necessary to install the AMD
CPU driver in Windows, of course, but I've never had any problem with
CnQ once the CPU driver was installed.

I have now deinstalled the AMD CPU driver and removed all amdk8.sys entries
in the registry and rebooted the comp to install the AMD CPU driver from
scratch. After installing the AMD CPU driver and rebooting......cool 'n'
quiet does work!!! )

I have then searched again for amdk8.sys in the registry and found more than
the three entries for it, as it was before. Seems the AMD CPU driver was not
correctly installed before.

Now the CPU changes from 5 x 272.7 = 1363.4 MHz to 9 x 272.7 = 2454.3 MHz.
Never seen before. Also the CPU Voltage changes from 1.504 Volt down to
1.216 Volt according to CPU-Z 1.31.1.

I know that the Voltages are too high, but in the .ini File of CPU-Z you
change the way the voltage is read.

What's the documentation for this statement?

I'm glad that i was wrong. I had tried to reinstall the AMD CPU driver, but
i hadn't removed the amdk8.sys entries in the registry.

Maybe that's why i hadn't worked up to now.

Now i'm happy!