Dual Opteron 250 board, advice needed.

[SpokeLee]

My MSI K8T Master2-FAR crapped out and I am looking for a new mobo, and not the same one, those proprietary heatsinks blew.

Here are the components I have:

2x Opteron 250

2 gigs of PQI Turbo registered ECC ram

BFG 6800 Ultra OC

Matrox RT.X100 Extreme Pro PCI video editing card

Audigy2 ZS sound card

74 gig raptor

300 gig 16mb maxtor

Pioneer 108 DVD burner



And I have these heatsinks:

http://www.micforg.co.jp/en/cat_opterone.html

I have a PC Power & Cooling 510w Turbo Cool ATX supply, but am willing to get an EPS.

I need the board to support Opteron 250's right out of the box, or at least post. The Master2 board wouldn't post probably because I needed a bios update to run the 250's. Since I didn't have an older Opteron to plug in to update the bios I had to have MSI send me a new bios chip. After I installed the new chip, I hit power, heard a pop, and the board wouldn't turn on again, which brings me to this point.

Thanks in advance.

 

[mechBgon]

If you still have the manual, what does it say about power-supply requirements? Is it capable of running on just an ATX power supply or does it require EPS?

 

[mechBgon]

Also, if you're looking at Alphas, I think the PAL8150 might be just the ticket (those other ones need ducting and a blower). Pics of my PAL8150, third link down

 

[SpokeLee]

It supports both ATX and EPS. And I have the exact same heatsinks as you, I ordered them before I realised that the Master2 used proprietary heatsinks only.

 

[mechBgon]

I can't say as I blame you for not wanting to use those MSI heatsinks I heard they're noisy, for one thing, and proprietary anything makes me :|. You might hit Monarchcomputer.com and ask them if they'll sell you a Tyan Thunder K8W with a guaranteed Opteron250-ready BIOS already flashed for you.

If you run a Thunder K8W then four 512MB modules would perform higher than two 1GB modules. On this board, each CPU gets to use its own two memory controllers if you have four (or eight) modules. With only one module per CPU, they've got to run in single-channel mode. Not optimal.

edit: or there's the Tiger K8W here: http://www.monarchcomputer.com...&Category_Code=OMB That one uses the memory controllers on just one CPU, and costs a lot less. No yummy PCI-X slots, though.

 

[SpokeLee]

I posted on Monarchs forums to see if they will sell me the board with updated bios, hopefully everything will work out.