The mobile Athlon 64 and motherboards

[xenolith]

Originally posted by: jkresh
just got off the phone with asus they say it wont be supporting dtr's but i am not entirely sure that they even new what a dtr was, so i dont know. I want to buy the board, and I want it to work, and since their other boards do, i would guess it will. Anyone want to try it out first as I would prefer not to be first this time (the k8n-neo platinum was enough for that for this summer).

Are you talking about official support? It's my understanding that no manufacturer claims support for any mobile cpu for their desktop mobos. That was true for the Athlon XP mobiles as well. So we shouldn't be a bit surprised by thier answer.

I'm afraid we're going to have to wait for a brave, adventurous sole to try it and report back.

As you posted earlier jkresh, Zipzoomfly indeed has the K8N-E available for $159 shipped. Ddtcomputer too has it for $138 + shipping. Not bad, I would've thought it would have been a little higher $$$. Newegg should have it any day now too, and maybe by then someone will post back here with some [hopefully good] results. :beer:

 

[jkresh]

Not looking for official support as much as unofficail support (ie dont need anything in writing or on their page just a confirmation over the phone that it might work).

Second the asrock k8sx, just got a bios update, i wonder if it will add more voltage support (will try tomorrow), going to give the asus a few days, hopefully by then someone will have had success.

 

[Bar81]

Nobody's even going to admit to unofficial support. It costs money for support and no company will tie it up in mobiles on a desktop mobo. Well whoever sucks it up first I'll be eager to hear the results.

 

[jkresh]

didnt asrock admit support of dtr's/mobiles to you, or am i mistaken?

also msi did admit support (before later revoking it), though i agree unless i find an enthusiast in tech support who is willing to admit that it would work (even if it isnt supported) i wont hear anything from them.

 

[Arkangyl]

Hmm, alright... if I decide to go for the A64 before someone else tests it I'll probably go for the 3000+ mobile and K8N-E dlx (as the 3200+ DTR is out of stock ....)

 

[Bar81]

Originally posted by: jkresh
didnt asrock admit support of dtr's/mobiles to you, or am i mistaken?

also msi did admit support (before later revoking it), though i agree unless i find an enthusiast in tech support who is willing to admit that it would work (even if it isnt supported) i wont hear anything from them.

ASRock doesn't officially support mobiles, they've been very clear on that from the start. They've been nice enough however to add microcode support at user request as that's a simple task and they're very good to their customers. However, support doesn't extend beyond that act. They won't troubleshoot for you or modify the BIOS in other ways for us.

I would be shocked if any mobo manufacturer ever officially supports mobiles even if they do support them in the BIOS.

 

[jkresh]

ok, would still be nice if they were willing to say whether or not they had the microcode for the mobiles/dtr's in the bios. As it would make this process much simpler, without putting them under pressure to help people having problems with their moibles/dtr's.

 

[Bar81]

Yeah, I agree but them admitting the microcode is in there is tantamount to supporting mobiles in their opinion so they don't say to avoid all the headaches with endusers trying to use mobiles. This way they can just simply state that the board doesn't support mobiles and leave it at that.

 

[mad3d]

Even if the Asus board works, isn't 250 max fsb/htt a little low? At least it would be for the 2800 mobile I'm running (8x multi) on a gigabyte board (300 htt).

 

[jkresh]

250 is low, but i would be shocked if they dont have a bios out in a week that can go to 300.

 

[Arkangyl]

what about the Albatron situation where the BIOS was 250 but clockgen hit 350? I think it was an Anand review of the board that I got this from...

waiting on my Friday paycheck

 

[jkresh]

might verry well be that clockgen will let you go over the 250 bios limit.

THink i am about to bite the bullet so to speak, think i am ordering today so it will be in on friday.

 

[jkresh]

ordered

 

[xenolith]

Let us know how things go. If I were a betting man, I bet it works with your DTR out of the box. :thumbsup:

 

[jkresh]

hopefully will post with positive news on friday.

 

[Bar81]

Originally posted by: jkresh
ordered

woohoo, guinea pig

 

[Arkangyl]

yay! waiting eagarly

 

[gregheitz]

Hey , just joined this forum because it gave a lot of helpful information. I am going to buy the ASRock K8S8X, x800 pro, and A64 3000+ 1.4v 1mb cache refurb from newegg for $199, I hope that the refurb is just someone not getting it to work in their mobo, but I'm gonna take the chance. Bar81, I noticed you bought cheaper pc3200 noting that you don't need good ram b/c it is not bandwidth starved like previous processors from AMD. I am currently buying 1gb of pc4000 ram, but Im not sure that the money is worth it. How are you all able to hit 300mhz fsb without amazingly good ram? Are you all just lowering the RATIO to 5/6 so that the ram runs at a slower speed? Also, since this processor runs with quite a bit less power consumption, would a 350 watt standard psupply still oc good? I was thinking of saving $70 and going with the cheap ps instead of getting a good true 480 from thermaltake. Thanks for all your organized information.

 

[jkresh]

buying a cheap powersupply is the best way to cause problems with your new build. Especialy with the a high end graphics card. You probably dont need a 480wat, but even if you go to a 400 or 350 get one from a solid brand (antec, enermax, pc power and cooling..) and make sure you have solid amperage on the 12volt line (20 or up is good).

 

[gregheitz]

Yeah, you are probably right on that. I decided to go with my true 480watt from thermaltake. I have that one in my current system and it is rock solid at 12.2v all the time. Its actually a 550watt max, and only $70. I hope this system goes together without any problems!

 

[Bar81]

Originally posted by: gregheitz
Hey , just joined this forum because it gave a lot of helpful information. I am going to buy the ASRock K8S8X, x800 pro, and A64 3000+ 1.4v 1mb cache refurb from newegg for $199, I hope that the refurb is just someone not getting it to work in their mobo, but I'm gonna take the chance. Bar81, I noticed you bought cheaper pc3200 noting that you don't need good ram b/c it is not bandwidth starved like previous processors from AMD. I am currently buying 1gb of pc4000 ram, but Im not sure that the money is worth it. How are you all able to hit 300mhz fsb without amazingly good ram? Are you all just lowering the RATIO to 5/6 so that the ram runs at a slower speed? Also, since this processor runs with quite a bit less power consumption, would a 350 watt standard psupply still oc good? I was thinking of saving $70 and going with the cheap ps instead of getting a good true 480 from thermaltake. Thanks for all your organized information.

I've done my own research and I have seen little or no difference in performance using highly clocked RAM. IIRC, the difference was 0-3% every 40mhz so running memory at 275 versus 200 yields a 0-6% performance gain. Given the price delta between DDR550 and DDR400 it doesn't make much if any sense to buy the more expensive RAM unless you're one of those winners who likes to compare 3dmark scores all day. In everyday gaming and usage there will be no difference, other than a lighter wallet. These results are a consequence of the Athlon64 architecture itself. There will always be those who claim otherwise, much like the RAID proponents. They continue to waste their money; it's your choice whether you want to waste yours.

I run my rig at 10x230 with a 166 memory setting. My memory is thus running at 191.7Mhz. With the superior performance of the SiS755 chipset I'm just as fast if not faster than other chipsets at the same CPU speed even with much lower clocked RAM.

I'm not quite sure where you are getting the idea that buying PC4000 is a good idea for the K8S8X. PLEASE PEOPLE READ THE FIRST POST CLOSELY. I lay out the details re all the motherboards. I'm not hiding the ball. The K8S8X has no vdimm control, you get 2.65v, that's it. Good enough with 2x512MB to 210mhz with 1T timings and 217 with 2T timings.

If you plan on overclocking it is my understanding that cool n quiet will not work with an overclocked processor. I haven't tried so take that with a grain of salt.

As has been stated above, you *need* a quality power supply. I would recommend nothing under a 400W brand name PSU if you're going to be overclocking. If not a brand name 350W should suffice.

 

[gregheitz]

Bar81, you say you have yours running at 10x230 = 2300 with 166 memory setting which implies cpu speed/12. That would leave me to believe they derive the divisor by the speed of the processor STOCK , IE 2000mhz/12 = 166, 2000mhz/10 = 200mhz. So, given that reasoning an 1833mhz/11 = 166 and 1833/9 = 203mhz. Is that how the divisor settings work? Or does the ram divisor stay at 12 for all processors regardless of stock speed? Sorry if that got a bit confusing.

 

[Bar81]

That looks right. It's a divisor off the CPU and it's different based on the stock speed of the CPU.

 

[jkresh]

he said 166 which is running at 192, so it is 5/6 of fsb (if at stock it is 166, if at 230 is 5/6 * 230)

 

[Bar81]

On the Athlon 64 the proper way to state it is a 12 divisor as in 2300/12 = 191.666666666 = ~191.7 However it's easier to think of it the way you are as that's the way we've been trained.