An announcement for the SL-K8TPro-939 review by Mr. Fink

[punkitup]

Originally posted by: punkitup
What I would like to see is people report their exact Ambient (RT1) temperatures and CPU temperatures, along with what CPU and HSF you are using, this includes stock AMD HSF.

To be exact that is temps with cool-n-quiet disabled, or not installed at all, and no overclocking!

Peace
James

 

[Zero1]

Bios: REV 1.2

SoltekHM V 1.26d

CPU Die: 37

RT1: 23

Fan 1: 2280

^in soltek HM

Using a Venus 12 cooler
All my voltage readouts are normal my -5 is working properly.

 

[X2C]

Originally posted by: rocketman14
X2C, you said the board has too many faults. What are the problems you are having and would you recommend this board over the asus?

Well they aint so much as faults but I'm getting some new things to see if I cant get it running nice.
Changing CPU's to a 3500+ and was going to get a OCZ DDR Booster but nobody can tell me if they work on this board or not.
New PSU is going in as well, 680w
I'm hoping then it will run nice Will let you know/up to date

**EDIT** Sorry I have not used the ASUS board. Well not there 939 one anyway

 

[X2C]

Bios: REV 1.3

Using SiSoftware Sandra Professional 2005 to get the readout

CPU Die Idle: 44c
Fan 1: 1300RPM

CPU Full Load: 51c
Fan 1: 1600RPM

Using a Thermalright XP-120 with Evercool 120mm Fan
All my voltage readouts are normal as well

**EDIT** Sorry my 3200+ is at 230x10 default vcore

 

[punkitup]

Actually I was hoping for readings from within the BIOS setup. Let the computer warm up at idle and then reboot and enter BIOS. Windows based HW monitoring software can be inaccurate.

Peace
James

 

[LydiAtSoltek]

Hi Unaimed,
I am sorry that you didn't receive any reply from our NL branch. It may relate to the malfunction of our mail server.
Could you please email to wendell@soltek.nl to ask about the cable and availability of SL-K8TPro-939 in Sweden. I believe my colleague Wendell will reply to you soon.


C3p0,
I am afriad that we didn't get the emails from you. Would you please describe the problem in detail? Then we can check it further for you.


Punkitup,
We are sorry that the "-5V" issue makes you feel so bad. As it does not affect the system working, that's why our R&D engineers don't set it to the first priority in the revise list. Anyway, if you like to have a fix now, please email me at lydia@soltek.com.tw. I will send you the BETA BIOS and HM in which the "-5V" item is removed.

Thanks and regards,

 

[imported_slipperypete]

I apologize for butting in here with my own question but I really need to know and hope that someone can help me out.

I have now RMA'd 2 Neo2 boards. I can't say exactly what the problem is other than the symptom is that they wouldn't POST at all. I have a 90nm AMD 3500+ which I want to use in a 939 motherboard. I would like to know if right out of the box the K8TPro will allow me to use my CPU or if I need to flash the BIOS first.

I will be putting together 10 to 15 PCs for a small office and now am hoping that they all can have the K8TPros in them.

Somebody please help. I'm tired of fighting with boards to get them to POST.

Pete

 

[grooge]

Originally posted by: slipperypete
I apologize for butting in here with my own question but I really need to know and hope that someone can help me out.

I have now RMA'd 2 Neo2 boards. I can't say exactly what the problem is other than the symptom is that they wouldn't POST at all. I have a 90nm AMD 3500+ which I want to use in a 939 motherboard. I would like to know if right out of the box the K8TPro will allow me to use my CPU or if I need to flash the BIOS first.

I will be putting together 10 to 15 PCs for a small office and now am hoping that they all can have the K8TPros in them.

Somebody please help. I'm tired of fighting with boards to get them to POST.

Pete

I think that you do something wrong and no matter which board you'll be using, you'll have problem. List you list of component as power supply, and what you did, didnt do.

 

[imported_slipperypete]

Here's what I've got (except the Neo2):
ANTEC SONATA 380W PS
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
AMD Socket 939 Athlon 64 3500+, 90nm
Kingston 512MB DDR PC-3200 (2)
Hitachi 160GB 7200RPM
ROSEWILL ATI RADEON 9600
Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu

I don't think I'm doing anything wrong. The MB is on the risers and no apparent shorts. I plugged in the power, 1 stick of RAM, the video card, and the cpu and cooler and the floppy drive. It wouldn't POST at all.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Zero1]

You may HAVE to update bios just to post. Some AMD 64 board co.s state so. --I dont know how this would prevent post, but DDR ram requires 2 (Matching) sticks to run DDR. I had to play around with my ram to get a post.- had to use slots 1&3 not 1&2 untill I updated bios.

simply you might have a bad cpu or moboard.

1 last thing some single HDD's require NO jumper to be able to boot.
^ I hate that jumper


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Under a full load i hit 49c -highest i ever got @ 2200 RPM

205x10 just lil OC

 

[grooge]

Originally posted by: Zero1
"You may HAVE to update bios just to post. Some AMD 64 board co.s state so."

How can you update the BIOS if the computer doesnt post???? you have to at least be able to acces the floppy drive to do that. Or you'll have to get a new BIOS chip to exchange it for the one you have...


"--I dont know how this would prevent post, but DDR ram requires 2 (Matching) sticks to run DDR. I had to play around with my ram to get a post.- had to use slots 1&3 not 1&2 untill I updated bios. "

False.. Dont mix DDR and dual channel. You can use 1 stick of DDR (double data rate)ram in single channel system or in dual channel. using 1 stick in dual channel will just (supposely)make it running single channel.

"simply you might have a bad cpu or moboard."

yes, but 2 in a row...

"1 last thing some single HDD's require NO jumper to be able to boot.
^ I hate that jumper"
You're right on that one


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Under a full load i hit 49c -highest i ever got @ 2200 RPM

205x10 just lil OC

 

[grooge]

Ok...first, remove the zalman and put the stock cooler on the chip.
disconnect any HDD and/or cd drive.
Put just one memory stick in alterning slot from startup to startup

Make sur the 4 pins square power connector is plugged as well as the normal one. you could remove the motherboard from the case and put it on a non conductive surface. locate where the power button plug on the board and use a screw driver to short the pins. just touch it, dont hold the contact, maybe the power button is defective and prevent it to work correctly.

 

[Zero1]

to clear that up:
DDR stands for Double Data Rate dimm= x2
SD single sided dimm= x1
u can use DDR as single channle if you want poor profoarmance, but i know of NO way to-run as DDR not SD on a single ram chip. look this up if you want, but to run in true DDR mode you need a pair of ram sticks. if you have any idea of how Rambus ram works(SAME as DDR) then you might know why it is NOT posiable to run on both peak and low clock pionts with one ram stick.

that said: I have no idea how to flash bios without post, but when i purchased my setup both places of purchace(1cpu 2mobo) warened me i may have to flash bios prior to getting my cpu/mobo to post

 

[rocketman14]

grooge and zero1, how are you liking this board? have you guys had any problems with setup or anything else? thanks.

 

[grooge]

Originally posted by: Zero1
to clear that up:
DDR stands for Double Data Rate dimm= x2
SD single sided dimm= x1
u can use DDR as single channle if you want poor profoarmance, but i know of NO way to-run as DDR not SD on a single ram chip. look this up if you want, but to run in true DDR mode you need a pair of ram sticks. if you have any idea of how Rambus ram works(SAME as DDR) then you might know why it is NOT posiable to run on both peak and low clock pionts with one ram stick.

that said: I have no idea how to flash bios without post, but when i purchased my setup both places of purchace(1cpu 2mobo) warened me i may have to flash bios prior to getting my cpu/mobo to post

You're wrong again...

DDR is double data rate, which mean that for each clock cycle, data is transfered at the rising part and the falling part on the clock cycle. which mean that when the signal rise from 0 to 1, that one bit is transfered and when the signal fall from 1 to 0 another bits of data is transfered. 2 bit for 1 clock cycle...DDR. SDR need an entire clock cycle to transfer 1 bit. RAMBUS is serial RAM which works as QDR, quad data rate. 1 bit of data is transfered when the clock start to rise, 1 bit when it stop to rise, 1 bit when it start to fall and 1 bit when it stop to fall ...and the cycle goes on. 4 bits for each clock cycle. That was the bandwidth needed for the P4 to perform, as it is bandwidth ungry... in order to acheive the same performance with DDR, dual channel was created. 2 x DDR channel= 1 qdr channel. This could accomodate well the 800 fsb need by modern P4. DDR appears around 2000 with the nforce1 chipset, the SIS735 and VIA kt 266. At this time, dual channel memory did not exist. The Athlon bus was running at 100 MHS, 200DDR on the first athlon thunderbird and at 133 MHz, 266 DDR on the trhunderbird "c" and newer Athlon XP. Before DDR, the fsb was running 2 times faster than the memory, creating latency, which was hurting performance. With DDR memory, that changed because the memory could work in sync with the FSB allowing much better performance. The P4 northwood "c" has a FSB of 800 MHZ while fastest official RAM available is pc 3200 (ddr 400, 200MHz clock). By doubling the bandwidth of the ram, and not its speed, the memory was able to perform on par with the P4's fsbm and that what put th northwood in front of the Athlon XP. Dual channel on AMD was not helping that much because the FSB is still 400 DDR so what that mean is that the bus was saturated and it give about 5-7% speed increase. What happended with AMD64, is that the memory controller is on the CPU's dye, which can be operated efficiently with lower latency than memory controller on the chipset. Plus, the short pipeline on the A64 make the need for bandwidth less important than the long pipeline on the P4, because, in case of branch misprediction, the entire pipeline has to be flushed and fill back again. When that happen on A64, since the pipeline is shorter, less data is needed to fill it back, but the data need to be sent fast, so the need for lower latency.

I have the Soltek k8an2e-gr which use the single channel socket 754. That doenst mean that it perform half of the socket 939, maybe only 5-7% slower. Remember, the fsb, on A64 is DDR400, which mean that the memory works in sync with the cpu.

So Zero1, before commenting on that, I suggest that you research a bit more about the intern of A64 CPU and P4 and about DDR memory. You will learn that DDR2, even if faster in term of datarate, will not works good as of yet on A64 because of its higher latency. When the DDR2 speed reach up to DDR667 or with latency down to resonable level for AMD 64, then it may become a viable option.


But stop saying that DDR memory cannot be run at its peak efficiency with only one stick..It can as it has been doing that since 2000. If you dont know "of NO way to-run as DDR not SD on a single ram chip" then you have a lot to learn and internet is a good place for that.

And "if you have any idea of how Rambus ram works(SAME as DDR) then you might know why it is NOT posiable to run on both peak and low clock pionts with one ram stick." yes I know how RAMBUS work, I did a fast explanation higher, and it is not the same as DDR...you appear to dont know, so a bit of researsh of your part could give you some clue

I dont means to be rude or impolite, but when peole says that I dont know something that I know, and keep giving misleading information, I just make sure that I put the thing straight back


I forgot to write that in order to acheive dual channel, you need 2 DDR memory stick performing the same(that why dual channel kit are available), as opposed to one or 2 mixed size for single channel

 

[imported_slipperypete]

Thanks for your input. I have already done all the things you suggest. MSI is supposedly sending me another BIOS with 1.3 or something. I hope that works and that my Sonata's PSU doesn't cause me further problems.

 

[Unaimed]

Hello everyone. I got my board yesterday and I got it running and everything after some small problems. However there is a problem which i haven't been able to solve. It's about the memory timings not being set to what I set them to.

This is what i set in bios:
http://0xd2160.com/~unaimed/memory-timing-bios.jpg
And this is what everest home edition (among others) report in windows:
http://0xd2160.com/~unaimed/memory-timing-windows.png

The Command Rate (1T/2T) and Cas Latency (2.0/2.5/3.0) are the only 2 values that are changeable. Anyone have any idea on how to fix this? Is there an option I've missed?

EDIT: Specs:
Athlon 64 3200+ Winchester
Kingston 2x512 MB Ultra Low Latency (2.0-2-2-5)
SL-K8TPro-939
Bios: W1.3
Raden 9600xt 256mb

EDIT: Temperature:
It seems as if the temperatures reading is not working as it should neither. The only program that reports it okay is SiSoftware Sandra. Everest reports it randomly from 2 up to 61 centigrade degrees. They might go lower/higher but these are the min/max i've seen.

 

[rocketman14]

unaimed, can you post the small problems you had? thanks

 

[Unaimed]

The problem was that it didn't wanna boot with 2 memory sticks in dual channel. The "Diagnostics LED" showed C1 which didn't tell me what was wrong. I though it could be the DVD-RW because it was trying to read so i tried different Jumper settings as cables. I also though it could've been the HD which had been soldered. The problem persisted after i had disconnected both of them. So i tried to remove one stick of memory and voila. Upgraded bois to latest and here I am.

 

[LydiAtSoltek]

Hi Unaimed,
Which DIMM slots did you install the 2 memory sticks?

Thanks and regards,

 

[ScrapSilicon]

LydiAtSoltek
..will the SL-K8TPro-939 be supporting the A64 dual core 939 Toledo once its released..?

 

[LydiAtSoltek]

Hi ScrapSilicon,
Our R&D engineer will check it with VIA FAE.
I will inform you soon.

Thanks and regards,

 

[Unaimed]

Slot 1 & 2. The ones closest to the processor. Gonna try 3 & 4 when i get home.

 

[Zero1]

I forgot to write that in order to acheive dual channel, you need 2 DDR memory stick performing the same(that why dual channel kit are available), as opposed to one or 2 mixed size for single channel[/quote]
see that^ right there... thats what i was getting at. Rambus ram requires 2 paired sticks to run as dose DDR hmm thats so odd, ya think? and i know u can run it single sided, but it is still slower.

so grooge if your soo cool what are your pc specs? seriously just wondering man.?
_______________________________________________________________________________________

I like the Soltek K8TPRO mobo: nice indeed.

speed is great I also like the upgrade ability of the mobo, heck you can OC in bios too.

few things that were nice of soltek was to pre equip the mobo with a decent sound setup and 10/100/1000network (on-board) card. the only card i had to put in it was a video card, thanks SOLTEK!

3Dmark03: 3090 3Dmarks

Sandra 2005: Dhrystone ALU 9603MIPS
Whetstone FPU/iSSE2 3446/4401 MFLOPS

 

[grooge]

see that^ right there... thats what i was getting at. Rambus ram requires 2 paired sticks to run as dose DDR hmm thats so odd, ya think? and i know u can run it single sided, but it is still slower.

so grooge if your soo cool what are your pc specs? seriously just wondering man.?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
The memory is not slower, it just has half the bandwidth of a dual channel system;
See, let say you have a hose that pour water in your mouth at 3200 ml par minute and you can swallow it all without a drop wasted. you add another hose with the same 3200 ml of water flowing at your mouth. the water dont go faster, you just have twice the water you would get with a single hose. AMD CPU cannot swallow as much water as Intel when used in dual channel..that all!

As from being single sided or dual sided, it doesnt really affect ddr speed, as there is 3200 sd and dd... dd is often more problematics with timing, especially in dual channel operation.. well, I think, because I'm not sure on that...

And old pc 133 SDRAM is not single side ram it is So Dimm RAM


[/quote]

As for my system, well.. simple A64 3000+ socket 754 on a Soltek k8an2e-gr with 1 gigs of ram (2 x 512 megs of expensive twinX corsair memory from my last system) running a bit OCed at 10x 210 (2.1 GHz), ATI All in Wonder 9600XT, 2 x seagate 160 Gigs in RAID0 on nvidia sata raid (320 gigs separated in 5 partitions), one 40 gigs WD HDD, one Maxtor 200 gigs on Promise controller, one CD burner and one DVD burner and one floppy, I kept the case and 3 fans with the fan controller (running the fans half speed to keep the noise down) from my last system and all that powererd by a thermaltake 420 Watts PSU.

My last system was all of above but with a Soltek sl-75frn2-rl and a mobile 2500+ OC to 2.4 GHz and 2 WD 120 gigs in RAID0 instead of the 2 SATA seagate. And the 200 gigs Maxtor wasnt there too...