so the new bios is out...
http://www.tyan.com/support/html/b_s2885.html' ">http://www.tyan.com/support/html/b_s2885.html
you can see the updates there as well...

also note... BEFORE YOU FLASH! if you are using the SATA in a RAID setup to backup all data... this bios update afftects the Silicone Image onboard bios and if for some reason the flash fails, we don't want to lose antything...

for those of us using the 2.03beta... i have yet to actually pick through it and find differences...

please use caution when flashing!

edit:
haha... just saw his post.. (sorry Raymond)
http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=39464' ">http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=39464

lets keep troubleshooting stuff here tho...

-------------------------
SYSTEM-1: 2x Viewsonic VX900-2 19"| Tyan S2885ANRF (Rev.A, bios v2.07) | 1x ATI Radeon X800 Pro 256MB | 2x AMD Opteron 248-HE Single-Core CPU | 8x 512mb PC3200 Corsair XMS Series ECC Reg. (CMX512RE-3200LL) | 2x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 10,000rpm RAID0 (ST336607LW) | 1x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 1

ARGH... I started a new thread, too.

Maybe I found the first bug:

---------------------
EDIT: Moved the content from my thread to this thread.


Hi!

I just flashed the new 2.04 BIOS available on the Tyan-homepage for the Tyan Thunder K8W S2885ANRF.

I am a little bit disappointed because my memory is no longer detected as 200MHz (PC3200 / 400MHz DDR) but as 166MHz memory (PC2700 / 333MHz DDR).
Could anyone test this, please?

After the flash I had the effect that during the very first boot-up 4600MB memory were displayed. A little bit strange, isn't it? The last time I saw this effect was with a beta-version (2.02f?).

Right now I'd say: It's nice to see the detailed memory specifications in the memory screen but it's crap to see 166MHz instead of 200MHz.

The 2.03 pre-release seems to be still the best version out there.
( -- if others won't get the decreased memory speed it seems to be OK -- )

----------------
Edit2:
I reported the memory-speed problem to the support.

-------------------------
Regards,
  Ghostrider

·CPUs - 2*Opteron 246
·Mainboard - Tyan Thunder K8W S2885ANRF
·RAM - 4*Corsair TwinX1024RE-3200LL (4GB, 8*512MB, DDR400, 2-3-2)
·Graphics - HIS IceQ-II X800Pro
·HDD - Western Digital Raptor WD740GD, 74GB, 10k
·RAID - 3Ware 7850, 64bit PCI, 8chn hardware RAID
·RAID-HDDs - 5*WD800JB
·Optical - 1*SlimSize CD-ROM; 1*NEC7441 DVD-RW
·Sound - Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro

sisoft sandra dropped from 5700's to 4300's for me on the memory benchmark. i didnt check if it was being seen as 200mhz or not, i'll try that tonight.

if i cant resolve the ram speeds... i'm going back to 2.03beta...

-------------------------
SYSTEM-1: 2x Viewsonic VX900-2 19"| Tyan S2885ANRF (Rev.A, bios v2.07) | 1x ATI Radeon X800 Pro 256MB | 2x AMD Opteron 248-HE Single-Core CPU | 8x 512mb PC3200 Corsair XMS Series ECC Reg. (CMX512RE-3200LL) | 2x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 10,000rpm RAID0 (ST336607LW) | 1x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 1

No trouble here (flashed from 2.03 beta)

At first reboot just got 5200 Mb DDR instead of 4096....
Have to reset BIOS settings

No trouble with DDR400
No trouble with memory bandwith - SiSoft Sandra 11485 MB/s with EEC disabled, few less with ECC enabled
No trouble with SATA Raid 0

Don't forget to reset your CMOS first.

-------------------------
Tyan S2885 Bios 2.05 / 2x Opteron 250 / 4x Corsair CM72SD1024RLP-3200 (3-3-3-8) = 4Gb DDR400 / HyperTransport 1000,800,800 / Antec True Power550 EPS / XP Pro SP2 NUMA

I've recieved a Version "2.03g" but it showed the same behaviour as the 2.04 - the memory is detected as 166MHz.
I flashed back to the pre-release 2.03 and everything is OK again - so it can't be the way how I flash the BIOS. I always load the BIOS-Setup defaults after a flash, reboot and enter the BIOS again to set all values. During the very first reboot after a flash there are still values that are not "final".

@Tilion: Nice to hear that it seems to function for you. Did you already reboot your system?
Maybe your memory (no low-latency! is detected better than ours. I'm already working with the Tyan-support to solve the issue.

------------
EDIT:
P.S.: I get 4608MB during the very first boot instead of 4096MB after flashing the BIOS with these BIOS versions: 2.03 (pre-release), 2.03g, 2.04 (final)

-------------------------
Regards,
  Ghostrider

·CPUs - 2*Opteron 246
·Mainboard - Tyan Thunder K8W S2885ANRF
·RAM - 4*Corsair TwinX1024RE-3200LL (4GB, 8*512MB, DDR400, 2-3-2)
·Graphics - HIS IceQ-II X800Pro
·HDD - Western Digital Raptor WD740GD, 74GB, 10k
·RAID - 3Ware 7850, 64bit PCI, 8chn hardware RAID
·RAID-HDDs - 5*WD800JB
·Optical - 1*SlimSize CD-ROM; 1*NEC7441 DVD-RW
·Sound - Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro

@Ghostrider
Yes, I reboot several times without issue - including cold boot. Up to now everything seems OK with 2.04

Sounds like strange to me that your memory sticks are no more properly recognized - don't know how BIOS proceeds to detect DDR modules. Hope you'll get some answers from Tyan's support. As usual keep us informed.

Cheers,
Tilion

-------------------------
Tyan S2885 Bios 2.05 / 2x Opteron 250 / 4x Corsair CM72SD1024RLP-3200 (3-3-3-8) = 4Gb DDR400 / HyperTransport 1000,800,800 / Antec True Power550 EPS / XP Pro SP2 NUMA

hmmm.... my system 'seems' to run normal... a slight bit o' hesitation on program launch... hmmm... i'm gonna play with the bios again and see what happens

edit:
i'm posting back-to-back here for ease of quoting...

-------------------------
SYSTEM-1: 2x Viewsonic VX900-2 19"| Tyan S2885ANRF (Rev.A, bios v2.07) | 1x ATI Radeon X800 Pro 256MB | 2x AMD Opteron 248-HE Single-Core CPU | 8x 512mb PC3200 Corsair XMS Series ECC Reg. (CMX512RE-3200LL) | 2x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 10,000rpm RAID0 (ST336607LW) | 1x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 1

sisoftsandra w/ bios 2.04 results...
----------------------------------------
SiSoftware Sandra

Benchmark Results
RAM Bandwidth Int Buff'd iSSE2 : 4636MB/s
RAM Bandwidth Float Buff'd iSSE2 : 4641MB/s

Int Buff'd iSSE2 (Integer STREAM) Results Breakdown
Assignment : 4630MB/s
Scaling : 4636MB/s
Addition : 4644MB/s
Triad : 4637MB/s
Data Item Size : 16-bytes
Buffering Used : Yes
Offset Displacement Used : Yes
Bandwidth Efficiency : 93% (estimated)

Float Buff'd iSSE2 (Float STREAM) Results Breakdown
Assignment : 4639MB/s
Scaling : 4646MB/s
Addition : 4645MB/s
Triad : 4636MB/s
Data Item Size : 16-bytes
Buffering Used : Yes
Offset Displacement Used : Yes
Bandwidth Efficiency : 93% (estimated)

Performance Test Status
Run ID : MEIS on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 at 6:01:37 PM
Memory Used by Test : 512MB
NUMA Support : No
SMP Test : No
Total Test Threads : 1
SMT Test : No
Dynamic MP/MT Load Balance : No
Processor Affinity : P0
Page Size : 4kB
Use Large Memory Pages : No

Chipset 1
Model : Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Athlon 64 / Opteron HyperTransport Technology Configuration
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 796MHz (1592MHz data rate)
In/Out Width : 16-bit / 16-bit
Maximum Bus Bandwidth : 6368MB/s (estimated)

Logical/Chipset 1 Memory Banks
Bank 0 : 512MB ECC DDR-SDRAM Registered 2.0-3-2-2CL 1CMD
Bank 1 : 512MB ECC DDR-SDRAM Registered 2.0-3-2-2CL 1CMD
Bank 2 : 512MB ECC DDR-SDRAM Registered 2.0-3-2-2CL 1CMD
Bank 3 : 512MB ECC DDR-SDRAM Registered 2.0-3-2-2CL 1CMD
Channels : 1
Bank Interleave : 4-way
Speed : 2x 156MHz (312MHz data rate)
Width : 128-bit
Maximum Memory Bus Bandwidth : 4992MB/s (estimated)

Chipset 2
Model : Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) AMD-8151 AGP Device (System Controller)
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 796MHz (1592MHz data rate)
In/Out Width : 16-bit / 16-bit
Maximum Bus Bandwidth : 6368MB/s (estimated)

Logical/Chipset 2 Memory Banks

Features
(W)MMX Technology : Yes
SSE Technology : Yes
SSE2 Technology : Yes
SSE3 Technology : No
EMMX - Extended MMX Technology : Yes
HTT - Hyper-Threading Technology : No

Performance Tips
Notice 5008 : To change benchmarks, click Options.
Notice 5004 : Synthetic benchmark. May not tally with 'real-life' performance.
Notice 5006 : Only compare the results with ones obtained using the same version!
Tip 233 : Consider using the Win64 x64 version of Sandra.
Tip 2 : Double-click tip or press Enter while a tip is selected for more information about the tip.


-------------------------
SYSTEM-1: 2x Viewsonic VX900-2 19"| Tyan S2885ANRF (Rev.A, bios v2.07) | 1x ATI Radeon X800 Pro 256MB | 2x AMD Opteron 248-HE Single-Core CPU | 8x 512mb PC3200 Corsair XMS Series ECC Reg. (CMX512RE-3200LL) | 2x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 10,000rpm RAID0 (ST336607LW) | 1x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 1

gimme a sec while i reflash to 2.03beta...
edit: ok below are the results of sisoftsandra... same bios settings as above just using bios 2.03 beta...
------------------------------------------------------
SiSoftware Sandra

Benchmark Results
RAM Bandwidth Int Buff'd iSSE2 : 5782MB/s
RAM Bandwidth Float Buff'd iSSE2 : 5727MB/s

Int Buff'd iSSE2 (Integer STREAM) Results Breakdown
Assignment : 5861MB/s
Scaling : 5852MB/s
Addition : 5708MB/s
Triad : 5709MB/s
Data Item Size : 16-bytes
Buffering Used : Yes
Offset Displacement Used : Yes
Bandwidth Efficiency : 91% (estimated)

Float Buff'd iSSE2 (Float STREAM) Results Breakdown
Assignment : 5876MB/s
Scaling : 5855MB/s
Addition : 5610MB/s
Triad : 5568MB/s
Data Item Size : 16-bytes
Buffering Used : Yes
Offset Displacement Used : Yes
Bandwidth Efficiency : 90% (estimated)

Performance Test Status
Run ID : MEIS on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 at 6:18:25 PM
Memory Used by Test : 512MB
NUMA Support : No
SMP Test : No
Total Test Threads : 1
SMT Test : No
Dynamic MP/MT Load Balance : No
Processor Affinity : P0
Page Size : 4kB
Use Large Memory Pages : No

Chipset 1
Model : Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Athlon 64 / Opteron HyperTransport Technology Configuration
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 796MHz (1592MHz data rate)
In/Out Width : 16-bit / 16-bit
Maximum Bus Bandwidth : 6368MB/s (estimated)

Logical/Chipset 1 Memory Banks
Bank 0 : 512MB ECC DDR-SDRAM Registered 2.0-3-2-2CL 2CMD
Bank 1 : 512MB ECC DDR-SDRAM Registered 2.0-3-2-2CL 2CMD
Bank 2 : 512MB ECC DDR-SDRAM Registered 2.0-3-2-2CL 2CMD
Bank 3 : 512MB ECC DDR-SDRAM Registered 2.0-3-2-2CL 2CMD
Channels : 1
Speed : 2x 199MHz (398MHz data rate)
Width : 128-bit
Maximum Memory Bus Bandwidth : 6368MB/s (estimated)

Chipset 2
Model : Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) AMD-8151 AGP Device (System Controller)
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 796MHz (1592MHz data rate)
In/Out Width : 16-bit / 16-bit
Maximum Bus Bandwidth : 6368MB/s (estimated)

Logical/Chipset 2 Memory Banks

Features
(W)MMX Technology : Yes
SSE Technology : Yes
SSE2 Technology : Yes
SSE3 Technology : No
EMMX - Extended MMX Technology : Yes
HTT - Hyper-Threading Technology : No

Performance Tips
Notice 5008 : To change benchmarks, click Options.
Notice 5004 : Synthetic benchmark. May not tally with 'real-life' performance.
Notice 5006 : Only compare the results with ones obtained using the same version!
Tip 233 : Consider using the Win64 x64 version of Sandra.
Tip 2 : Double-click tip or press Enter while a tip is selected for more information about the tip.

-------------------------
SYSTEM-1: 2x Viewsonic VX900-2 19"| Tyan S2885ANRF (Rev.A, bios v2.07) | 1x ATI Radeon X800 Pro 256MB | 2x AMD Opteron 248-HE Single-Core CPU | 8x 512mb PC3200 Corsair XMS Series ECC Reg. (CMX512RE-3200LL) | 2x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 10,000rpm RAID0 (ST336607LW) | 1x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 1

sorry for quadruple posting but... to make quoting easier for anyone who wishes to...

i did fully clear the cmos on both flashes.. jumper n' all

i change the HT settings to 800MHz in both...
also, set the pci scan porder to 'desend'
changed 'boot priority' as required

that's it.... the results are posted above... EVERYTHING ELSE is default

edit:
since my system only has 2gigs o' ram....
i see the full 2048mb at boot in either bios...
yet... 2.03beta vs 2.04 release... i have 200mhz vs 166mhz ram sticks

-------------------------
SYSTEM-1: 2x Viewsonic VX900-2 19"| Tyan S2885ANRF (Rev.A, bios v2.07) | 1x ATI Radeon X800 Pro 256MB | 2x AMD Opteron 248-HE Single-Core CPU | 8x 512mb PC3200 Corsair XMS Series ECC Reg. (CMX512RE-3200LL) | 2x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 10,000rpm RAID0 (ST336607LW) | 1x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 1

@redclawkefar

Maybe BIOS v2.04 has a problem with low latency DDR. Seems to me that you have the same trouble as Ghostrider. According to your signatures, both of you are using LL DDR400 banks.

Even it has worked with previous BIOS releases, are you sure that DDR400 LL banks are certified to be compatible with the 2885 by Tyan. The only ones recommended LL I've found are DDR 333 only.... That's the reason why I choose DDR400 banks with higher timings but recommended by Tyan and fortunately I've not this issue with BIOS 2.04 on my system.

In the mean time seems to be better for you to stay in v2.03 beta and wait for a fix by Tyan.

Cheers,
Tilion
------------------------------------------

Here is the complete memory benchmark results on my system with BIOS 2.04:

SiSoftware Sandra

Benchmark Results
RAM Bandwidth Int Buff'd iSSE2 : 11469 MB/s
RAM Bandwidth Float Buff'd iSSE2 : 11392 MB/s

Int Buff'd iSSE2 (Integer STREAM) Results Breakdown
Assignment : 11600MB/s
Scaling : 11619MB/s
Addition : 11327MB/s
Triad : 11330MB/s
Data Item Size : 16 byte(s)
Buffering Used : Yes
Offset Displacement Used : Yes
Bandwidth Efficiency : 60% (estimated)

Float Buff'd iSSE2 (Float STREAM) Results Breakdown
Assignment : 11535MB/s
Scaling : 11572MB/s
Addition : 11252MB/s
Triad : 11211MB/s
Data Item Size : 16 byte(s)
Buffering Used : Yes
Offset Displacement Used : Yes
Bandwidth Efficiency : 60% (estimated)

Performance Test Status
Run ID : OPTERON250 on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 at 9:00:25 PM
Memory Used by Test : 512MB
NUMA Support : Yes
Number of NUMA Nodes : 3
SMP Test : Yes
Total Test Threads : 2
SMT Test : No
Dynamic MP/MT Load Balance : No
Processor Affinity : P0 P1
Page Size : 4kB
Use Large Memory Pages : No

NUMA Information
Number of NUMA Nodes : 3
Node 0 - Free Memory : 1.7GB
Node 1 - Free Memory : 1.3GB

Chipset 1
Model : Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Athlon 64 / Opteron HyperTransport Technology Configuration
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 995MHz (1990MHz data rate)
In/Out Width : 16-bit / 16-bit
Maximum Bus Bandwidth : 7960MB/s (estimated)

Logical/Chipset 1 Memory Banks
Bank 0 : 1GB DDR-SDRAM Registered 3.0-3-3-3CL 2CMD
Bank 1 : 1GB DDR-SDRAM Registered 3.0-3-3-3CL 2CMD
Channels : 1
Bank Interleave : 2-way
Speed : 2x 199MHz (398MHz data rate)
Width : 128-bit
Maximum Memory Bus Bandwidth : 6368MB/s (estimated)

Chipset 2
Model : Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Athlon 64 / Opteron HyperTransport Technology Configuration
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 995MHz (1990MHz data rate)
In/Out Width : 16-bit / 16-bit
Maximum Bus Bandwidth : 7960MB/s (estimated)

Logical/Chipset 2 Memory Banks
Bank 0 : 1GB DDR-SDRAM Registered 3.0-3-3-3CL 2CMD
Bank 1 : 1GB DDR-SDRAM Registered 3.0-3-3-3CL 2CMD
Channels : 1
Bank Interleave : 2-way
Speed : 2x 199MHz (398MHz data rate)
Width : 128-bit
Maximum Memory Bus Bandwidth : 6368MB/s (estimated)

Chipset 3
Model : Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) AMD-8151 AGP Device (System Controller)
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 796MHz (1592MHz data rate)
In/Out Width : 16-bit / 16-bit
Maximum Bus Bandwidth : 6368MB/s (estimated)

Logical/Chipset 3 Memory Banks

Features
(W)MMX Technology : Yes
SSE Technology : Yes
SSE2 Technology : Yes
SSE3 Technology : No
EMMX - Extended MMX Technology : Yes
HTT - Hyper-Threading Technology : No

Performance Tips
Notice 5008 : To change benchmarks, click Options.
Notice 5004 : Synthetic benchmark. May not tally with 'real-life' performance.
Notice 5006 : Only compare the results with ones obtained using the same version!
Tip 233 : Consider using the Win64 x64 version of SiSoftware Sandra.
Tip 2 : Double-click tip or press Enter while a tip is selected for more information about the tip.


-------------------------
Tyan S2885 Bios 2.05 / 2x Opteron 250 / 4x Corsair CM72SD1024RLP-3200 (3-3-3-8) = 4Gb DDR400 / HyperTransport 1000,800,800 / Antec True Power550 EPS / XP Pro SP2 NUMA

redclawkefar:

QUOTE Single AMD Opteron 248
Tyan Thunder K8W S2885ANRF (Rev.A)
4x 512 PC3200 (Corsair XMS Series ECC Reg, CMX512RE-3200LL

Problem might be that those CMX512RE-3200LL are double-row DIMMs and so only two of them can be used per CPU at 400Mhz. 2.04 BIOS might force speed to 333Mhz when
four double-row DIMMs are installed. Just see what happens if you try to boot with only two of those DIMMs installed.

QUOTE (jamse101 @ Feb 16 2005, 11:39 AM) redclawkefar:

QUOTE Single AMD Opteron 248
Tyan Thunder K8W S2885ANRF (Rev.A)
4x 512 PC3200 (Corsair XMS Series ECC Reg, CMX512RE-3200LL

Problem might be that those CMX512RE-3200LL are double-row DIMMs and so only two of them can be used per CPU at 400Mhz. 2.04 BIOS might force speed to 333Mhz when
four double-row DIMMs are installed. Just see what happens if you try to boot with only two of those DIMMs installed.
Well, I have the same modules redclaw uses, just eight sticks of them. They worked at every BIOS revision from 1.0r up to the pre-release beta 2.03 without any problems at their rated speed and timings.
I'd find it very strange that the newest BIOS available suddenly stops the support for a known good memory.
And I think that the support would have told me this instead of sending me another beta-revision to test it as well.
I just hope that they will fix this soon - there quiet some people who have this memory on the K8W and won't like to see the memory clock at 166MHz.

-------------------------
Regards,
  Ghostrider

·CPUs - 2*Opteron 246
·Mainboard - Tyan Thunder K8W S2885ANRF
·RAM - 4*Corsair TwinX1024RE-3200LL (4GB, 8*512MB, DDR400, 2-3-2)
·Graphics - HIS IceQ-II X800Pro
·HDD - Western Digital Raptor WD740GD, 74GB, 10k
·RAID - 3Ware 7850, 64bit PCI, 8chn hardware RAID
·RAID-HDDs - 5*WD800JB
·Optical - 1*SlimSize CD-ROM; 1*NEC7441 DVD-RW
·Sound - Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro

QUOTE (jamse101 @ Feb 16 2005, 04:39 AM) Problem might be that those CMX512RE-3200LL are double-row DIMMs and so only two of them can be used per CPU at 400Mhz. 2.04 BIOS might force speed to 333Mhz when
four double-row DIMMs are installed. Just see what happens if you try to boot with only two of those DIMMs installed.
well i did try it w/ 1gig using earlier boios rev. seems they all worked fine. i forget exactly when i got the second pair of sticks but i know i've been running at ddr400 for some time now through various bios rev.

but, i'll try the single pair of sticks tonight..

-------------------------
SYSTEM-1: 2x Viewsonic VX900-2 19"| Tyan S2885ANRF (Rev.A, bios v2.07) | 1x ATI Radeon X800 Pro 256MB | 2x AMD Opteron 248-HE Single-Core CPU | 8x 512mb PC3200 Corsair XMS Series ECC Reg. (CMX512RE-3200LL) | 2x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 10,000rpm RAID0 (ST336607LW) | 1x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 1

Well, it might depend on luck too if four double-row DIMMs happen to work at DDR400 speed. In "BIOS and Kernel Developer's Guide for AMD Athlon™ 64 and AMD Opteron™ Processors" there's table on page 162 that has maximum speed of DDR333 for four double-rank DIMMs. But it is also said there that those tables are like recommendations based on tests.

QUOTE (jamse101 @ Feb 16 2005, 05:13 PM) Well, it might depend on luck too if four double-row DIMMs happen to work at DDR400 speed. In "BIOS and Kernel Developer's Guide for AMD Athlon™ 64 and AMD Opteron™ Processors" there's table on page 162 that has maximum speed of DDR333 for four double-rank DIMMs. But it is also said there that those tables are like recommendations based on tests.
I understand what you are saying but it is not the case that we have this stuff new and wonder why it isn't working as it should - these parts are already working since end of 2003 and there has never been a problem with this kind of configuration.
No matter what the "BIOS and Kernel Developer's Guide for AMD Athlon™ 64 and AMD Opteron™ Processors" says (which is already some days old...) it definately worked AND works if we use the old BIOS-versions.
So it's not a hardware related problem but something that came with the newest BIOS revision.
I won't remove 4 sticks of my memory just to reach DDR400 memory speeds again even if it would be the solution. This memory has cost a little fortune and I expect that it will work as it did before all the time.
The manual does not mention anything about double-row (aka double-sided) dimms. I know many manuals that have disclaimers saying "You are limited to TWO dimms if using double-row dimms" and I think that Tyan would have mentioned this two if the board would be designed like this.

I checked also the Corsair website for the specifications of the AMD-certified 1GB PC3200 dimms. The datasheet just does not reveal if these models are double sided or not.
Can SiSoft Sandra check this? (I'm not at my Opteron at the moment so I can't look it up)... If there is ONE double sided module on the "recommend memory" chart at the Tyan website the discussion ends. But I don't have the time to check them all.

-------------------------
Regards,
  Ghostrider

·CPUs - 2*Opteron 246
·Mainboard - Tyan Thunder K8W S2885ANRF
·RAM - 4*Corsair TwinX1024RE-3200LL (4GB, 8*512MB, DDR400, 2-3-2)
·Graphics - HIS IceQ-II X800Pro
·HDD - Western Digital Raptor WD740GD, 74GB, 10k
·RAID - 3Ware 7850, 64bit PCI, 8chn hardware RAID
·RAID-HDDs - 5*WD800JB
·Optical - 1*SlimSize CD-ROM; 1*NEC7441 DVD-RW
·Sound - Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro

QUOTE it definately worked AND works if we use the old BIOS-versions.
So it's not a hardware related problem but something that came with the newest BIOS revision.

That is what I was trying to say. The thing that might have come with 2.04 is that it now forces DDR333 speed if it detects that four dual-rank DIMMs are installed even if those DIMMs would have worked perfectly stable with DDR400 speed.

Looking at Kingston's list of memory modules for S2885:

Kingstons modules for S2885' ">http://www.ec.kingston.com/eco...butor=0&submit1=Search

Most modules in that list are clearly marked as "Dual Rank" or "Single Rank" and then there's "Using DDR400, this system supports only four ranks of memory per CPU." in comments at the end of the list.

you'tre limiting your scope by only commenting on Kingston sticks... kinston is listed as only having a single type of module as being compatible under ddr400...
http://www.tyan.com/support/html/memory_s2885.html' ">http://www.tyan.com/support/html/memory_s2885.html

as its been pointed out... our sticks are low-latency but still work... even in older configurations. (bios's, etc)

edit:
the manual... on pages 20-22... does not give any limiting factor to ram size, in kingstons terms of rank for instance. if the 4 sticks were incompatible by kingstons standards BEFORE this bios, then you would have a point. but then again.. these are corsair chips/sticks not kingston. i had kingston hyper-x series at first but didnt like their performance so i switched.

the only stipulation TYAN gives about the ram is that it have 'at least one REG stick in there... ECC is not required but recommended.

-------------------------
SYSTEM-1: 2x Viewsonic VX900-2 19"| Tyan S2885ANRF (Rev.A, bios v2.07) | 1x ATI Radeon X800 Pro 256MB | 2x AMD Opteron 248-HE Single-Core CPU | 8x 512mb PC3200 Corsair XMS Series ECC Reg. (CMX512RE-3200LL) | 2x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 10,000rpm RAID0 (ST336607LW) | 1x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 1

Well, the ""BIOS and Kernel Developer's Guide for AMD Athlon™ 64 and AMD Opteron™ Processors" was rev. 3.24 with issue date January 2005. And Information found on Kingstons site was similar.

And now I even tested what will happen with Kingstons Dual-Rank modules.

I have four of these:

KVR400X72RC3A/512D - "512MB 400MHz DDR PC3200 Reg ECC DIMM x8 Dual Rank".

Board is Tyan S2885ANRF with one Opteron 246.

I flashed 2.02b into it and with all four sticks installed I got DDR400.

I flashed 2.04 into it and with all four sticks I got DDR333.

I took two sticks out and booted it again with 2.04 and got DDR400.

So, I'm pretty sure that situation with you guys is that you have dual-rank modules.

I'm new here but guide me if I'm doing something wrong. There is something wrong with the new bios 2.04.
From a cold boot, Sisoft gave me a very low score. (see further postings)
But when I restart after the first boot, well wow.
Try this if you are having the same problem.


-------------------------
2 x AMD Opteron 248
Tyan Thunder K8W BIOS 2.04i
4 x Samsung PC-3200 512 MB ECC Reg. DDR SDRAM
SATA Raid0 2 x WD Raptor 74GB (System)
Sata Maxtor 120 mB (Data)
Mitsumi 7-in-1 Black Memory Reader / Floppy Drive
Samsung SM-352BENB 52x32x52x16 CD RW/DVD Combo
Sapphire Radeon X800 Pro VIVO 256MB
Enermax CS-800TA-B Black EATX Mid-Tower
Antec TruePower True 550W EPS12V PSU
Windows XP Pro X64 v1433