K7S8XE+ and XP 2900+ ???

[Jess Fertudei]

I finally got around to dropping that XP 2900+ @ 400 FSB with 512 cache in
my ASRock K7S8XE+ today. Of course there seems to be a glitch.

During POST it shows as AMD 2600 200 FSB 10 X 200 CPUID 06A0 BIOS P 1.6

Everest shows it in CPU Properties like this:
CPU Type: AMD Athlon XP-A, 2000 MHz (10 x 200) 2900+
Alias: Barton
CPU Stepping A2
and so forth,

*But* in Everest CPUID it shows as AMD Athlon XP 2600+, Revision 000006A0h,
Extended revision 000007A0h, Platform CBh, Serial Number Unknown

**But** If I click on Everest's 'Overclock' branch it shows AMD Athlon XP-A
2900+ under Type, but shows 2600+ under Name! It shows the clock speed as
1999 and CPU FSB as 199.98.


Now... I bought the CPU billed as an OEM 2900+ 2.08 G @ 400 FSB, so I am
only getting half the oomph out of it at 200FSB even though it's still 2000,
Right?

I looked over the CPU and BIOS pages at ASRock and nowhere does it ever
mention adding support for this chip (I know... fine time to check) even
though it does support 3000+ and 3200+ both @ 400. I would do the BIOS
upgrade, but don't see that it will cure my situation. I set the jumpers to
400 during installation, but left the multipiers automatic as there isn't a
5.2 or whatever it would be to get 2.08 Gigs.

If I jumped it to 5X multipier would this force it to run at 400FSB or would
I do any damage trying?

Has ASRock ever put out BIOS revisions on request and how is their support?
Any other 'Honey' type BIOSes that are safe and that will get this thing up
to speed?

I have 512 of 333 RAM in it now (that I need to pull for another machine
here), and have two 512s of 400 ready to put in, but the manual has a large
colored warning to not use 400RAM with the CPU at 200 <SIGH> Does that only
apply to the jumper at 200 or is it OK if the jumper is at 400 but the BIOS
is slowing it to 200?

I took it for a spin with Paint Shop Pro 7 and opened about 5 medium sized
items and did maybe two or three layers of plugin work to them minimizing
them while I worked on others and it seemed OK although it's nothing the
load I usually put it under.

Now what?




Thanks as usual.

 

[David Maynard]

I finally got around to dropping that XP 2900+ @ 400 FSB with 512 cache in
my ASRock K7S8XE+ today. Of course there seems to be a glitch.

You have a potential problem right off as that is not a 'standard' desktop
processor. It's made for OEMs only.

Got it from Tiger Direct, I'll wager.

During POST it shows as AMD 2600 200 FSB 10 X 200 CPUID 06A0 BIOS P 1.6

The BIOS doesn't have that processor in it's listings, which wouldn't be
surprising if that isn't the motherboard it was OEM'd for. A BIOS update
might include it but with that not being a 'standard' unit who knows?

Everest shows it in CPU Properties like this:
CPU Type: AMD Athlon XP-A, 2000 MHz (10 x 200) 2900+
Alias: Barton
CPU Stepping A2
and so forth,

*But* in Everest CPUID it shows as AMD Athlon XP 2600+, Revision 000006A0h,
Extended revision 000007A0h, Platform CBh, Serial Number Unknown

**But** If I click on Everest's 'Overclock' branch it shows AMD Athlon XP-A
2900+ under Type, but shows 2600+ under Name! It shows the clock speed as
1999 and CPU FSB as 199.98.

It's probably getting 'real' data from the chip in one place and going by
it's CPU tables, or the BIOS, in another.

Now... I bought the CPU billed as an OEM 2900+ 2.08 G @ 400 FSB,

aUUUga, aUUUga, enemy aircraft, dive, dive.

No such thing as 2.08 Gig on 400 FSB as there's no multiplier that can
produce it. 10 x 200 for 2 gig, yes. 10.5 x 200 for 2.1 gig, yes. But there
ain't nothing in between.

so I am
only getting half the oomph out of it at 200FSB even though it's still 2000,
Right?

200 Mhz clock *is* 400 FSB (DDR)

I looked over the CPU and BIOS pages at ASRock and nowhere does it ever
mention adding support for this chip (I know... fine time to check) even
though it does support 3000+ and 3200+ both @ 400.

Well, they support 3000+ and 3200+ because those are general issue to the
public CPUs. The 2900+ isn't.

I would do the BIOS
upgrade, but don't see that it will cure my situation. I set the jumpers to
400 during installation, but left the multipiers automatic as there isn't a
5.2 or whatever it would be to get 2.08 Gigs.

It can't do 2.8 gig no matter what. Well, unless you unlocked it and ran a
333 FSB. 2.08 gig is 12.5 x 166.66.... I.E. a 333 FSB 2800+

If I jumped it to 5X multipier would this force it to run at 400FSB or would
I do any damage trying?

That would run it 5 x 200 for 1 gig.

Has ASRock ever put out BIOS revisions on request and how is their support?
Any other 'Honey' type BIOSes that are safe and that will get this thing up
to speed?

It's already running at 'speed'.

I have 512 of 333 RAM in it now (that I need to pull for another machine
here), and have two 512s of 400 ready to put in, but the manual has a large
colored warning to not use 400RAM with the CPU at 200 <SIGH> Does that only
apply to the jumper at 200 or is it OK if the jumper is at 400 but the BIOS
is slowing it to 200?

The BIOS is not slowing it to '200'. 200 MHz *IS* the clock speed for 400
FSB. If you put in the 200 jumper the clock would be 100 MHz.

It's a DDR bus .. Double Data Rate.

I took it for a spin with Paint Shop Pro 7 and opened about 5 medium sized
items and did maybe two or three layers of plugin work to them minimizing
them while I worked on others and it seemed OK although it's nothing the
load I usually put it under.

Now what?

Avoid Tiger Direct in the future.

 

[Jess Fertudei]

errrrrrrrrr... oops.


I guess then that since the jumper is at 400 I can go ahead and put in the
RAM tonight, then. Who cares what it reports as long as it runs right. I'll
look the BIOS info over better and see if there is any real benefit to the
risk.

 

[Timbertea]

I finally got around to dropping that XP 2900+ @ 400 FSB with 512 cache in
my ASRock K7S8XE+ today. Of course there seems to be a glitch.

During POST it shows as AMD 2600 200 FSB 10 X 200 CPUID 06A0 BIOS P 1.6

Everest shows it in CPU Properties like this:
CPU Type: AMD Athlon XP-A, 2000 MHz (10 x 200) 2900+
Alias: Barton
CPU Stepping A2
and so forth,

*But* in Everest CPUID it shows as AMD Athlon XP 2600+, Revision 000006A0h,
Extended revision 000007A0h, Platform CBh, Serial Number Unknown

**But** If I click on Everest's 'Overclock' branch it shows AMD Athlon XP-A
2900+ under Type, but shows 2600+ under Name! It shows the clock speed as
1999 and CPU FSB as 199.98.


Now... I bought the CPU billed as an OEM 2900+ 2.08 G @ 400 FSB, so I am
only getting half the oomph out of it at 200FSB even though it's still 2000,
Right?

I looked over the CPU and BIOS pages at ASRock and nowhere does it ever
mention adding support for this chip (I know... fine time to check) even
though it does support 3000+ and 3200+ both @ 400. I would do the BIOS
upgrade, but don't see that it will cure my situation. I set the jumpers to
400 during installation, but left the multipiers automatic as there isn't a
5.2 or whatever it would be to get 2.08 Gigs.

If I jumped it to 5X multipier would this force it to run at 400FSB or would
I do any damage trying?

Has ASRock ever put out BIOS revisions on request and how is their support?
Any other 'Honey' type BIOSes that are safe and that will get this thing up
to speed?

I have 512 of 333 RAM in it now (that I need to pull for another machine
here), and have two 512s of 400 ready to put in, but the manual has a large
colored warning to not use 400RAM with the CPU at 200 <SIGH> Does that only
apply to the jumper at 200 or is it OK if the jumper is at 400 but the BIOS
is slowing it to 200?

I took it for a spin with Paint Shop Pro 7 and opened about 5 medium sized
items and did maybe two or three layers of plugin work to them minimizing
them while I worked on others and it seemed OK although it's nothing the
load I usually put it under.

Now what?

The XP 2900 is an OEM Barton chip (Made for SystemMax).

The correct multiplier is 10x200, which gives you 2000Mhz. Your 1999 and
199.8 figures are close enough to target "199.8*10=1999.8Mhz". Nothing
is wrong here other than the chip name it displays. It's running at what
it's supposed to, no real need for a BIOS update. 200Mhz = 400FSB, this
is the 'effective' rate of data transfer and it achieves this because it
can send data on both the rising and descending edge of the clock cycle.
In the dark ages (4 years ago or so) data only was sent on the rising
clock cycle.

As to your memory... Your board allows you to run it in synchronous and
asynchronous modes. Synchronous mode means your system clock(CPU clock)
is running the same as your memory clock, asynchonous mode means your
system clock is runing at a different rate than your memory clock. Right
now your memory is probably set at DDR333/166Mhz as the default is most
likely autodetect, this is normal for PC2700. When you put the new ram
in, it should* autodetect it and adjust it's speed up to DDR400/200Mhz
without any intervention, but if it doesn't, you go into a setting
called DRAM Frequency under the advanced section of the BIOS and set it
to DDR400/200Mhz. This setting is different than the jumpers on the
motherboard that you set for the processor!

The warning in your motherboard manual refers to a particular limitation
in SiS chipsets where they can not work with a system clock that is
twice the rate of the memory clock & vice versa. Older ram & older
processors exist that used a 100Mhz (200FSB/DDR200) clock rate. The
system doesn't support fast memory with slower bus rate processors and
it doesn't support faster bus rate processors with very slow memory.
None of this applies to your current situation so you can disregard this.

If any of this is confusing, blame marketing.


As to the chip, I've delt with that chip before...

"Global Computer" (Tiger Direct's B2B division) had a built it yourself
kit & a friend of mine bought it thinking you just open the box and
everything is already mounted & ready to go. I think he misunderstood
the term build it yourself. He took one look at that pile of stuff and
decided he didn't want to do it himself afterall. (Not before losing
several screws and a cable though...)

I hope you didn't get your power supply bundled in a case with that
deal! If you did it's most likely already running on borrowed time. The
one that came with his kit mercifully died before it even got to me.


--Timbertea

 

[Jess Fertudei]

The XP 2900 is an OEM Barton chip (Made for SystemMax).

The correct multiplier is 10x200, which gives you 2000Mhz. Your 1999 and
199.8 figures are close enough to target "199.8*10=1999.8Mhz". Nothing
is wrong here other than the chip name it displays. It's running at what
it's supposed to, no real need for a BIOS update. 200Mhz = 400FSB, this
is the 'effective' rate of data transfer and it achieves this because it
can send data on both the rising and descending edge of the clock cycle.
In the dark ages (4 years ago or so) data only was sent on the rising
clock cycle.

As to your memory... Your board allows you to run it in synchronous and
asynchronous modes. Synchronous mode means your system clock(CPU clock)
is running the same as your memory clock, asynchonous mode means your
system clock is runing at a different rate than your memory clock. Right
now your memory is probably set at DDR333/166Mhz as the default is most
likely autodetect, this is normal for PC2700. When you put the new ram
in, it should* autodetect it and adjust it's speed up to DDR400/200Mhz
without any intervention, but if it doesn't, you go into a setting
called DRAM Frequency under the advanced section of the BIOS and set it
to DDR400/200Mhz. This setting is different than the jumpers on the
motherboard that you set for the processor!

The warning in your motherboard manual refers to a particular limitation
in SiS chipsets where they can not work with a system clock that is
twice the rate of the memory clock & vice versa. Older ram & older
processors exist that used a 100Mhz (200FSB/DDR200) clock rate. The
system doesn't support fast memory with slower bus rate processors and
it doesn't support faster bus rate processors with very slow memory.
None of this applies to your current situation so you can disregard this.

If any of this is confusing, blame marketing.


As to the chip, I've delt with that chip before...

"Global Computer" (Tiger Direct's B2B division) had a built it yourself
kit & a friend of mine bought it thinking you just open the box and
everything is already mounted & ready to go. I think he misunderstood
the term build it yourself. He took one look at that pile of stuff and
decided he didn't want to do it himself afterall. (Not before losing
several screws and a cable though...)

I hope you didn't get your power supply bundled in a case with that
deal! If you did it's most likely already running on borrowed time. The
one that came with his kit mercifully died before it even got to me.

Thanks.

I got this CPU from TD as a combo with an ASUS A7V600-X that I put in
another machine with a Sempron. I am replacing my Duron 1.3 in my ASRock
with the XP, so I knew that I had to be careful about the asynchronous mode.
I just wasn't thinking about the double rate... thanks for taking the time
to remind me of how that works.

I don't usually do major builds... I just keep passing stuff around the
family and upgrade boards with ones that have lots of room to improve in a
year or two... so I'm usually behind the times a bit. I'll likely be
spreading the parts around for another month or so.



Thanks again.