Athlon64 Revision E/Venice and nForce4

[Quadriflax]

I've read quite a bit about the new Venice/Rev E chips that AMD is scheduled to release in the coming weeks. I've also read that there might be some issues getting the new chips to work in nForce4 boards. From what I can tell it's all likely to be fixed with a simple BIOS flash. I'm planning on building a new rig with the MSI K8N Neo4-F and a 3200+ Venice chip. If what some people are saying about the BIOS is true, will I be able to flash the BIOS with a Venice chip installed? Or would I need to make sure that the new BIOS is already installed to get it to work? I'm just concerned that if I buy a new board and a new Venice chip that I won't even be able to flash the BIOS. I don't know anyone with an older chip either, so I couldn't have them flash it for me. If this is a potential problem for me, are retailers like NewEgg/ZZF etc. able to flash a BIOS for me should I request it? Or am I just totally mislead in believing there's a problem at all? Thanks for any info.

 

[ChineseDemocracyGNR]

There's no answer yet. When the Winchester came out some boards could not even boot with it (you couldn't flash a BIOS) and others could.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

From early indications from the guys over at Extreme who have been testing a couple of Venice samples, no flash is required for the chips to work. It looks like the bios is only necessary for proper reporting of the CPU model and core information.

But we wont know for sure about all boards until more chips come out.

I think the main problem with the early Winchesters was they were the first chips released from the new 90nm process

 

[sxr7171]

^^^ But apparently some of the earlier Winchesters were better overclockers than some of the later ones. Maybe they started binning them better?

 

[Quadriflax]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
From early indications from the guys over at Extreme who have been testing a couple of Venice samples, no flash is required for the chips to work. It looks like the bios is only necessary for proper reporting of the CPU model and core information.

But we wont know for sure about all boards until more chips come out.

I think the main problem with the early Winchesters was they were the first chips released from the new 90nm process

Do you have a link so I can follow their progress? And, for argument's sake, let's say I order the MSI board I want and the Venice as soon as it hits shelves. If it doesn't even let me flash the BIOS, what do my options become? Can I have the retailer I buy the board/CPU from flash the BIOS for me? That might be dependent on who I order from, but are there companies that fill special requests like this for no charge? Just curious. Thanks.

 

[imported_Opsman]

Originally posted by: Quadriflax

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
From early indications from the guys over at Extreme who have been testing a couple of Venice samples, no flash is required for the chips to work. It looks like the bios is only necessary for proper reporting of the CPU model and core information.

But we wont know for sure about all boards until more chips come out.

I think the main problem with the early Winchesters was they were the first chips released from the new 90nm process

Do you have a link so I can follow their progress? And, for argument's sake, let's say I order the MSI board I want and the Venice as soon as it hits shelves. If it doesn't even let me flash the BIOS, what do my options become? Can I have the retailer I buy the board/CPU from flash the BIOS for me? That might be dependent on who I order from, but are there companies that fill special requests like this for no charge? Just curious. Thanks.

I think what they are saying (and has been my experience with new CPUs/chipsets) is that the processer will boot, but it will report the wrong specs (e.g. a 3200+ Venice core may show up as a 1600+ or something weird like that). Even though it shows the wrong specs in the BIOS, you should still be able to flash the BIOS. With the new BIOS, it will read the processor correctly and life will return to normal.

 

[ohnnyj]

Originally posted by: Quadriflax

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
From early indications from the guys over at Extreme who have been testing a couple of Venice samples, no flash is required for the chips to work. It looks like the bios is only necessary for proper reporting of the CPU model and core information.

But we wont know for sure about all boards until more chips come out.

I think the main problem with the early Winchesters was they were the first chips released from the new 90nm process

Do you have a link so I can follow their progress? And, for argument's sake, let's say I order the MSI board I want and the Venice as soon as it hits shelves. If it doesn't even let me flash the BIOS, what do my options become? Can I have the retailer I buy the board/CPU from flash the BIOS for me? That might be dependent on who I order from, but are there companies that fill special requests like this for no charge? Just curious. Thanks.

Determine who you are going to purchase from and call them up and ask them what they would do for you.

 

[crucibelle]

Here's something worth a read, I think:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mainboards/display/20050322045553.html

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: Quadriflax

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
From early indications from the guys over at Extreme who have been testing a couple of Venice samples, no flash is required for the chips to work. It looks like the bios is only necessary for proper reporting of the CPU model and core information.

But we wont know for sure about all boards until more chips come out.

I think the main problem with the early Winchesters was they were the first chips released from the new 90nm process

Do you have a link so I can follow their progress? And, for argument's sake, let's say I order the MSI board I want and the Venice as soon as it hits shelves. If it doesn't even let me flash the BIOS, what do my options become? Can I have the retailer I buy the board/CPU from flash the BIOS for me? That might be dependent on who I order from, but are there companies that fill special requests like this for no charge? Just curious. Thanks.

3500+ venice
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=57291

3800+ venice
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=56313

 

[imported_Kensai]

Mmm. Venice..