Quote pulled from the 'cheap/free scores' thread: https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...postcount=5695
There's been some discoveries & updates, so time to break it off into its own thread. I don't have any kind of build in mind yet, I have to find a case for it; it's an eATX.....but as I 'got to know' this board, it turns out that it was a quite unique transitional for the slot-2.....so lets get into this one!!
The board; just as I received it....
The CPU's included are a pair of 'Drake' core Xeons @ 450MHz, the fastest of the core. These are the Pentium2 equivalent of the Deschutes core....but had L2 cache sizes up to 2MB.
Time to light this candle.....and well...BIOS password....
Intel's lovely 'maintenance menu'; which is activated by a jumper.
No more password!
I tracked down the last release BIOS for this, which fixed a ton of stuff compared to the revision that was on the board and added official P3 Xeon support.....which we'll get back to later.....but for now:
This for some reason always makes me nervous on such old hardware, even though 'the oven' is on a UPS....
...but no problems....BIOS updated.
Tossed a little more RAM in it, which slows the POST screen to a crawl checking/addressing all this...
Now for some CPU experimenting.....but first, the fasteners that hold the brackets to the board were missing....maybe they were attached to a backplane in the original case (most likely).....but these fasteners needed to be replaced.
Hardware from the stash.
...and done!!
This board does not support Cascades cores; which are the equivalent of a Coppermine. The VRM won't allow it, it maxes @ 2v VCORE, the Cascades is a 2.8v chip. It would POST with Cascades, but it would not run right.....so the only pentium3 Xeons this can run are Tanner cores, which are 2v VCORE; the equivalent of a Katmai P3 with a big (1M) full speed L2.....and that's where this is at. I can up this to a pair of Tanner 550/100 with a 1M L2 or a pair of Drake 450/100 with a 2MB Half speed L2....and that's all. This is why I say transitional, boards that support Cascades won't have a socket for a VRM, they'll always be onboard.
The choice of CPU is obvious. The bigger but half speed cache of the 450MHz Drake would definitely be a step down from the full speed 1M cache of the 550MHz Tanner. I found a pair of them for $36 shipped; not a huge demand for them.....but for now, the originals reinstalled.
Just some testing....this board is 3.3v heavy, which increased of course when I went from 1x 128mb module to 4x 512mb modules....
Back in the maintenance menu, which is where CPU speeds are set. The original BIOS I had did not go above 450MHz.....but since the update, I now have the full range to the max Tanner core.
This one is still a work in progress. This would be a nice voodoo3 retro gamer with its AGP; an unusual feature for any slot-2 board....they pretty much all were proprietary server boards with no AGP and onboard video (ick)....but this one was intended as a workstation in its day with the AGP and onboard audio.....more to come.
Originally posted by Topcat
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The board; just as I received it....
The CPU's included are a pair of 'Drake' core Xeons @ 450MHz, the fastest of the core. These are the Pentium2 equivalent of the Deschutes core....but had L2 cache sizes up to 2MB.
Time to light this candle.....and well...BIOS password....
Intel's lovely 'maintenance menu'; which is activated by a jumper.
No more password!
I tracked down the last release BIOS for this, which fixed a ton of stuff compared to the revision that was on the board and added official P3 Xeon support.....which we'll get back to later.....but for now:
This for some reason always makes me nervous on such old hardware, even though 'the oven' is on a UPS....
...but no problems....BIOS updated.
Tossed a little more RAM in it, which slows the POST screen to a crawl checking/addressing all this...
Now for some CPU experimenting.....but first, the fasteners that hold the brackets to the board were missing....maybe they were attached to a backplane in the original case (most likely).....but these fasteners needed to be replaced.
Hardware from the stash.
...and done!!
This board does not support Cascades cores; which are the equivalent of a Coppermine. The VRM won't allow it, it maxes @ 2v VCORE, the Cascades is a 2.8v chip. It would POST with Cascades, but it would not run right.....so the only pentium3 Xeons this can run are Tanner cores, which are 2v VCORE; the equivalent of a Katmai P3 with a big (1M) full speed L2.....and that's where this is at. I can up this to a pair of Tanner 550/100 with a 1M L2 or a pair of Drake 450/100 with a 2MB Half speed L2....and that's all. This is why I say transitional, boards that support Cascades won't have a socket for a VRM, they'll always be onboard.
The choice of CPU is obvious. The bigger but half speed cache of the 450MHz Drake would definitely be a step down from the full speed 1M cache of the 550MHz Tanner. I found a pair of them for $36 shipped; not a huge demand for them.....but for now, the originals reinstalled.
Just some testing....this board is 3.3v heavy, which increased of course when I went from 1x 128mb module to 4x 512mb modules....
Back in the maintenance menu, which is where CPU speeds are set. The original BIOS I had did not go above 450MHz.....but since the update, I now have the full range to the max Tanner core.
This one is still a work in progress. This would be a nice voodoo3 retro gamer with its AGP; an unusual feature for any slot-2 board....they pretty much all were proprietary server boards with no AGP and onboard video (ick)....but this one was intended as a workstation in its day with the AGP and onboard audio.....more to come.
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