Adventures of the 939 build

[eidairaman1]

Check for leaky capacitors. 939 were the days of the Great Capacitor Plague. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

I believe even skt A, 478, 423 were affected too

 

[Toothless]

I'm bringing this thread back because we have more adventures!

I've got not a clue on how to overclock this thing but Win10 is going on it tonight and we'll see how much of a mistake that is. Also excuse the mess; I've been room cleaning and put one desktop together, another one needs PSU extentions, and then this thing came to being.

 

[eidairaman1]

Heres a manual. It also appears to have turbo functionality (AI NOS)

https://www.asus.com/supportonly/A8N32-SLI Deluxe/HelpDesk_Manual/

4GB is absolute minimum for any 64bit Windows. Id put 6-8GBs in

 

[Toothless]

Heres a manual. It also appears to have turbo functionality (AI NOS)

https://www.asus.com/supportonly/A8N32-SLI Deluxe/HelpDesk_Manual/

4GB is absolute minimum for any 64bit Windows. Id put 6-8GBs in

Only if I can stick a quad core in it.

 

[eidairaman1]

Only if I can stick a quad core in it.

Just find the fastest Dual Core FX or opteron 165

 

[Bones]

Heres a manual. It also appears to have turbo functionality (AI NOS)

https://www.asus.com/supportonly/A8N32-SLI Deluxe/HelpDesk_Manual/

4GB is absolute minimum for any 64bit Windows. Id put 6-8GBs in

4GB is also the absolute maximum you'll ever use with it - The largest DDR sticks you can get are 1GB per stick and 4GB's is the max amount of RAM it supports anyway: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131568
Check the specs tab.

There is no such thing as a quad core for a 939, just singles and dual cores only.
The advice to get a cheap X2 or Opteron chip is right on, the board will thrive if it's going to at all with one of those. Be aware that Opteron chips came in single and dual cores variants, the numerical naming scheme is how you can tell the difference.

Anything that's a 165 or numerically higher by name is a dual core, anything lower than a 165 is a single core...... But fun to mess with, those being about the baddest clocking chips Socket 939 has ever had.

 

[Xpect]

32Bit is limited to 4GB though

Not necessarily. In the paßt with A64 and XP there were workarounds with PAE.

Misspellings are always germany autocorrect

 

[eidairaman1]

4GB is also the absolute maximum you'll ever use with it - The largest DDR sticks you can get are 1GB per stick and 4GB's is the max amount of RAM it supports anyway: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131568
Check the specs tab.

There is no such thing as a quad core for a 939, just singles and dual cores only.
The advice to get a cheap X2 or Opteron chip is right on, the board will thrive if it's going to at all with one of those. Be aware that Opteron chips came in single and dual cores variants, the numerical naming scheme is how you can tell the difference.

Anything that's a 165 or numerically higher by name is a dual core, anything lower than a 165 is a single core...... But fun to mess with, those being about the baddest clocking chips Socket 939 has ever had.

2GB ECC

 

[Toothless]

If it helps, the board is an Asus A8N32-SLI and says 3/4GB usable in the BIOS.

 

[Fouquin]

The largest DDR sticks you can get are 1GB per stick and 4GB's is the max amount of RAM it supports anyway:

2GB and 4GB PC3200R ECC DIMMs exist and there are some boards that indeed can run them. Paging @agent_x007 who has some and can confirm.

 

[eidairaman1]

I realize that, but as @Fouquin said some boards can run more than whats specified unofficially, sometimes modded bios allow for it. My motherboard supports 64GB unofficially... so I'd research it because there is MTRR or something in your bios and also in the manual

If it helps, the board is an Asus A8N32-SLI and says 3/4GB usable in the BIOS.

.

W10 runs like crap on this Asus notebook. Id stick to W7, 32bit ran great on my XPS Gen1/Inspiron 9100 Laptop. There are Vista drivers but who knows you may be able to find Chipset drivers from Nvidia for that board.

@agent_x007

 

[Chloe Price]

2GB and 4GB PC3200R ECC DIMMs exist and there are some boards that indeed can run them. Paging @agent_x007 who has some and can confirm.

Overclocking RAM with ECC is usually a no-go.

 

[agent_x007]

@Toothless @Bones
1) 8GB/16GB RAM support is possible :
It requires specific chips and ECC capable board (Registered memory support is NOT official on anything). It's by no means 100% guaranteed to work all the time (sometimes BIOS is dumb and sets wrong settings or ECC memory won't POST without ECC enabled in BIOS, which can be done only on low capacity ECC memory).
Video of my OC'ed FX-60 with 8GB RAM :

R15 test :

2) If you don't get full RAM : Enable Software/Hardware Memory Hole in BIOS.
DO NOT enable it on 32-bit OS.
You will get less available RAM with it enabled.

3) Older A64s only support Single Channel ECC

4) Socket 939 doesn't officially support 64-bit versions of Windows 10 and 8.1 (A64 E revision and earlier lack CMPXCHG16B instruction support).

5) 8GB 500MHz CL3 (NOT best performance/stability, but they can do it)

3DMark 06 valid on above settings : LINK.

 

[eidairaman1]

@Toothless @Bones
1) 8GB/16GB RAM support is possible :
It requires specific chips and ECC capable board (Registered memory support is NOT official on anything). It's by no means 100% guaranteed to work all the time (sometimes BIOS is dumb and sets wrong settings or ECC memory won't POST without ECC enabled in BIOS, which can be done only on low capacity ECC memory).
Video of my OC'ed FX-60 with 8GB RAM :

R15 test :

2) If you don't get full RAM : Enable Software/Hardware Memory Hole in BIOS.
DO NOT enable it on 32-bit OS.
You will get less available RAM with it enabled.

3) Older A64s only support Single Channel ECC

4) Socket 939 doesn't officially support 64-bit versions of Windows 10 and 8.1 (A64 E revision and earlier lack CMPXCHG16B instruction support).

5) 8GB 500MHz CL3 (NOT best performance/stability, but they can do it)

3DMark 06 valid on above settings : LINK.

I believe through the manual Toothless board supports ECC

 

[Splinterdog]

A PSU with female Molex? Never seen that before.

 

[agent_x007]

I believe through the manual Toothless board supports ECC

Well he does use the same board I used in those screenshots
I meant you probably won't find ZCCC/UCCC or CF-5 2GB/4GB memory stick on official QVL on any board.

 

[eidairaman1]

Well he does use the same board I used in those screenshots
I meant you probably won't find ZCCC/UCCC or CF-5 2GB/4GB memory stick on official QVL on any board.

Just like mine beyond 32GB

A PSU with female Molex? Never seen that before.

Ultra x connect

 

[Chloe Price]

But the sense of using a S939 platform with over 4GB RAM... pointless. Costs af compared to the benefits.

Didn't see any difference between 4GB and 8GB with Athlon 64 X2 6000+.

 

[agent_x007]

But the sense of using a S939 platform with over 4GB RAM... pointless. Costs af compared to the benefits.

Didn't see any difference between 4GB and 8GB with Athlon 64 X2 6000+.

Not everyone is brave enough to play Crysis at 4k using S939
8GB is usefull in Win 7 64-bit OS (to help with having multiple programs launched at once and ease load on HDD a bit).

 

[Bones]

2GB ECC

I don't doubt (In fact it's been done before) it but was speaking in terms of what is normally available per DDR specs.
ECC of the type mentioned can be found, I don't know how available it is, how much it would cost or anything else about it that way. Unless you have a readily available source for it at a price that's right it's probrably not worth pursuing.

 

[eidairaman1]

I don't doubt (In fact it's been done before) it but was speaking in terms of what is normally available per DDR specs.
ECC of the type mentioned can be found, I don't know how available it is, how much it would cost or anything else about it that way. Unless you have a readily available source for it at a price that's right it's probrably not worth pursuing.

Old rigs are projects for sure, check out my comment on W9

 

[Chloe Price]

Not everyone is brave enough to play Crysis at 4k using S939
8GB is usefull in Win 7 64-bit OS (to help with having multiple programs launched at once and ease load on HDD a bit).

But is that worth it...? I doubt that.

When my X99 mobo broke, I used an AM2+ platform as a temporary solution with Phenom II X4 and 4GB DDR2, no problems there even with streaming.

 

[Toothless]

The adventures might be over, as I smelled something burn.

I was testing a GTX750Ti and something on my table moved. With a "tink" and whiff there may have been death. One PSU gives a solid green light on the board, but another PSU has its light and the board light strobe and keeps going even after unplugged from the wall. Now it may be the power cable? I'm not quite sure. Visual inspection shows no damage but that's not to count it out.

 

[agent_x007]

I "killed" my first A8N32 Dlx by bridging power LED pins instead of Power Button pins on front panel header with screwdriver
It was simple and deadly, but luckily nothing else died.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I'm disappointed you're not going to get Asiahorse upHere. :C