Last year I set out on a journey to build a quad socket server for running rendering engines. The cost was into the 4000 to 5000 range. I just came across two 8347(B1) pulls for around $250 so I ordered the board, ram and a PSU. Other hardware was ready since EOY 2007.

I did make one mistake, I ordered Unbuffered ECC DIMMs since I thought all Optis ran on them. From what I've seen, that is not the case. I stretched my plastic a little more and ordered 2 more pairs of Reg'd ECC. I don't have the hardware yet but will a Barc work with this RAM as long as I only have 2 dimms per CPU?

I'll post more process as I proceed.

Build Specs;
2x8347BCEs
Tyan S4980G2NR 4 socket mobo with digital regulation.
2 sets of 2x1G Kingston DDR-667.
PC-PNC Silencer 610 with adaptor (no plan for more than 2 drives and one optical. Not other heavy power draining periphs).
onboard video will do or a low end ATI card.
Armour case.

Will Shanghais work with Barcs and at different speeds?

I think dreamworks dump hundreds of these little darlings with they defected to I****. I should be able to snag two more of them until I can get Shangs for a good price.
Let me know what you all find, I'm still looking.

Ah, those might have the TLB bug. The B3 units are the ones that are immune- BA and B2 ones have the bug. Don't worry, you'll not run into it if you run Linux (the kernel has been patched) and if you don't use VMs on Windows.



Nope, only the single-CPU-only 100-series Socket 939 and 1200/1300-series AM2/AM2+ use unbuffered RAM. All of the multi-socket ones use registered memory.



Yes. They will work optimally with each CPU having two sticks of RAM and registered ECC DDR2-667 is the right RAM to use. Technically you can run the board with just one stick of RAM in one of the CPU's slots but performance would be atrocious. An optimal setup is two or multiples of two sticks of RAM per CPU for dual-channel operation, which is exactly what you have.

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Yes, they are the buggy B3s but in the Phenoms, the BIOS was patched.
And yes, I have DC 667, 4 sticks or 2 per socket. Newegg said they will take the RAM back unopened.

The B3s were the fixed versions and the BAs and B2s were buggy.

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My bad, these are labeled BGE which I looked up and found it to be a BA. This TLB was fairly uncommon and I don't think I'll hit the big page swaps that cause it byte you. I'll be running it as a server with an app that spawns a pile of small threads which cause very little paging.

Edited: 08/11/2008 at 09:26 PM by AlabamaCajun

What OS are you using, by the way?

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Win Server 2003 if it works with 16 cores, else I load up a Linux.

Happy to report Quadra-Barcelona up and running. Quite a machine for a development server. Now does in 2 mins what it took 15mins on my 2.8Ghz DC. Scaling on Opterons is totally awesome. I now plan to start working on multiscalar program development.

Glad to hear that AlabamaCajun.

Which OS did you decide to use then?

Scaling is one important benefit of the Family 10h architecture, agreed.

Hi: Nice system build..

I have lots of pesky questions here...

It seems you put two 8300 series in a 4 way board?
How does that work?

Do you happen to know if 8300's will work in a two way board?

Will Vista Ultimate run a four way system, or would I have to use MS Server 2003?

Thanks, any and all help appreciated..

Mike

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If you know you need to do something in the future, do it now, so when you have to do it in the future, you won't have to do it...

Yes, they will but only one of the inter-socket HT links will be active, just like if he got two 2300-series processors. You can put two 8300-series chips in a two-way board, but you cannot put 2300-series processors in a 4- or 8-way setup.

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Thank you for the quick reply... It is great to have the answer...
I look forward to being a member of a forum where there really are people who know and will share answers...
Mike

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If you know you need to do something in the future, do it now, so when you have to do it in the future, you won't have to do it...

Question: I've decided to go with a two way 2347 setup.. I plan on buying pulls.. Is there any way to tell from the cpu id numbers..ie last three digits or so..as in BCE..BCD...etc...which chips are the ones where the bugs have been fixed?

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If you know you need to do something in the future, do it now, so when you have to do it in the future, you won't have to do it...

You can. The ones that end in "GE" are stepping BA and the ones that end in "GH" are stepping B3. (See products.amd.com for more info.)

By the way, the only 2347s are stepping BAs (OPN: OS2347WAL4BGE). The units with the fixed TLB bug are 2347HEs with a lower TDP than the standard 2347s. The B3-stepping 2347HEs have a part number of OS2347PAL4BGH.

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