Dual Xeon (Nocana) Mobo Questions

TimP · Dec 3, 2004

I'm trying to find a dual Xeon ATX mobo for around $300 that supports the 800 Mhz FSB and EM64T capabilities of the Xeon. I'm also looking for a mobo with PCI-Express and at least four PC3200 slots. Currently I've been unable to find one that satisfies all those requirements. The Supermicro X6DAL-XG looks good, but it only supports PC2700 RAM. I'm also a bit concerned that it says "DDR333/266 registered ECC SDRAM 72-bit, 184-pin gold-plated DIMMs" for memory type. Does that mean it requires registered/ECC RAM? Are there any new mobos in development that will be released in the next 6 months?

9mmCensor · Dec 3, 2004

asus ncch-dl is for noccas

man_utd · Dec 3, 2004

Another vote for the NCCH-DL

TimP · Dec 3, 2004

From what I can tell, the NCCH-DL doesn't support PCI Express. Is this true?

Albigger · Dec 3, 2004

It does not support PCI-e, that's the only reason I'm hesitating to buy it.

hkh · Dec 4, 2004

From the looks of it I would not get a board with AGP it is a dead end Nvidia,intel,AMD and ATI are pushing PCIE pretty hard I dont think there will be many new cards coming out for it.

Albigger · Dec 4, 2004

Even so, it seems like a lot of people (at least around 2cpu) are looking toward the ncch-dl. Given this, does ASUS have any current plans or might they consider plans for a PCIe version of the ncch-dl??

What are the other options for Noconas WITH PCIe? The more expensive IWill board, others?

TimP · Dec 4, 2004

Albigger,

The Supermicro mobo link I posted above supports PCI-Express and dual Noconas.

To the experienced,

Would the difference between PC2700 and PC3200 be very noticeable? Right now I'm still leaning towards the Supermicro mobo because it has six RAM slots, PCI-Express support, and integrated sound (I wasn't planning on buying a separate sound card).

Duke3d87 · Dec 4, 2004

Personally, i would wait a year, Intel is going to get rid of the shared bus for the Xeon s (http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2265) which will boost performance imo alot cause you have DDRxxx/2 and thats the memory bandwith/processor. With the multiple FSB implementation, you should get a really big performance boost

TimP · Dec 4, 2004

Thanks for the link, Duke3d87. I'll need to have this computer by July 2005, though. If I understand correctly, I would be able to just buy a new mobo once the Greencreek chipset comes out and keep my procs. Is this true? I assume the Greencreek will also dump AGP in favor of PCI-Express which would render any card I would buy for the PCCH-DL useless.

Maybe I should invest in a cheap AGP card for now and buy a more expensive PCI Express card down the road when I get a Greencreek mobo. Any word on PC3200 support on the Greencreek?

A follow-up on the Supermicro mobo: I went through their FAQ and it turns out that it ONLY supports registered/ECC RAM, so it's out of the running for me at least.

Duke3d87 · Dec 4, 2004

i dont know. I doubt it. When reading an article about the NetBurst architecture at anandtech last year, they said that Intel implemented the type of bus. So, maybe its within the processor itself. I honestly dont know.

TimP · Dec 4, 2004

I didn't see the second page of that article initially and the more I read the less likely it seems that Noconas will work with it.

hkfeet · Dec 10, 2004

I love my ncch-dl and server support rocks. I had to rma a board and I was able to get my replacement board the next day! Anyways, it doesnt support pci-e, but I am happy with my 6800gt agp and the 2 pci-x slots are great.

TimP · Dec 10, 2004

Are there any new dual Xeon mobos in the pipeline that support unregistered RAM and PCI-Express?

Duke3d87 · Dec 11, 2004

I have no idea what you just asked.

TimP · Dec 11, 2004

Sorry, I used pipeline as a figure of speech if that's what you're confused about.

To my knowledge, there are no mobos to date that support PCI Express AND unregistered non-ECC PC3200. The NCCH-DL supports unregistered non-ECC PC3200, but limits you to an AGP video card. The E7525 chipset used by Supermicro has PCI Express support, but will only take PC2700/PC2100 registered, ECC RAM. Are there any standard ATX mobos in the works that support unregistered, non-ECC PC3200 AND PCI Express?

Albigger · Dec 11, 2004

^^ I'd also like to know about this, like I asked earlier - any possibility for a "PCIe version of the NCCH-DL?" or any other motherboard for that matter?

jamesavery22 · Dec 13, 2004

Only PCI-Express Xeons boards are the e752* boards. Maybe Serverworks has one but I havent seen it.

If you are asking for SLI, the only Xeon SLI board Ive heard of is the dn800-sli, which isnt out yet.

GamePC did a review of the only OCable e7525 workstation board that I know of that you can actually buy, NCT-D
http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=asusnctd&page=1

406$ at monarchcomputer.com though

Supermicro has a few e7525 boards out for 300$ or more. Just search for e7525 on pricewatch. Dont know of their availability though.

If you have to buy NOW just get an AGP board. Let it last you till the good stuff comes out, mid-late next year Im guessin =(

edit---

man Im losing it. The review I was thinking of at game-pc was the NCCH-DL, not the NCT-D. The NCCH-DL is a 875p board... Game-pc said the nct-d had OCing features advertised but none of them worked =\ I have yet to hear of anyone on the 2cpu.com forums having a e7525 board to play with. So if you want to OC e7525 boards are a no go right now.

maxvamp · Feb 6, 2005

quick question

Has anyone with a ncch-dl boad and some noconas tried to load up a 64-bit OS?

I keep seeing hints that in order for the EM64T stuff to work, the board must support the technologies with the Bios, and Northbridge. The Nocona itself is not enough.

To make things more confusing, ASUS does not specifically specify EM64T compatability with this board. I know that the true 64-Bit value of this board can never be achieved due to the 4 GB limit, but that makes it no dfferent than most sempron boards out there.

Any thoughts?

Thank you,

Max.

dustybyrd · Feb 6, 2005

maxvamp said:
Has anyone with a ncch-dl boad and some noconas tried to load up a 64-bit OS?

I keep seeing hints that in order for the EM64T stuff to work, the board must support the technologies with the Bios, and Northbridge. The Nocona itself is not enough.

To make things more confusing, ASUS does not specifically specify EM64T compatability with this board. I know that the true 64-Bit value of this board can never be achieved due to the 4 GB limit, but that makes it no dfferent than most sempron boards out there.

Any thoughts?

Thank you,

Max.

i haven't used the EMT64 bit noconas yet (though i have a 3ghz one just sitting here

)

in any case, many people at www.2cpu.com have successfully used 64bit OS's with this board and the *correct* chips...

AFAIK, there are noconas that are not EMT64 capable, like certain 2.8ghz ES (engineering samples)...what is the stepping of your chips? i can check into that...and it's a good thing to post in the "how to build a 3ghz+ xeon system" sticky

Dual Xeon (Nocana) Mobo Questions

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