2 issues and one question...

[pheoniXfury]

Issue #1: Boot sector?

 

This has happened twice now. Once about 1 month after I built the system with an A64-3200+ @2.7Ghz, now again, about 1 month after I put in my Opty 170.

 

The system refused to boot as if there's no OS installed...but does not give me any errors saying no boot loader found. The BIOS is perfectly fine...and no red LEDs on. This just randomly happened both times (ie. I come home, turn it on, and it starts doing this when the system has been fine the previous day).

 

The second time this happened was yesterday. I found a workaround yesterday when I was reinstalling windows. If you say install without formating to the current install partition...the setup did a maintenace on the drive...system reboots...letting it boot from HD brings back windows xp. Almost as if the master boot record got messed up...but when I used the command to recover mbr from WinXP CD in rescue mode...it didn't help.

 

My 2 drives are on ports 0 and 1 on the Sil3114 controller in raid 0.

 

 

Issue #2: Weird shutdown.

 

This started after I installed the Opty 170. Sometimes after I shutdown the system...power goes off for a few seconds (this time is random)...and then the system starts up again!!! I'm out of ideas on this one here. :confused:

 

 

Question: Power regulation heat.

 

So after my opty 170, I've been getting some high numbers on the PWM temp readings. The opty has a stock power rating of 110Watts. Temps are fine at stock [email protected], but once I get to [email protected] the PWM goes to 70C on load. I recall my Venice was at [email protected] and the PWM never went over 55C.

 

At this point I can't go higher with the voltage. This is a limitation of my water cooling system. Anything higher than 1.43v I get load CPU temp of 60+ (a 10C jump). But I'm thinking of going for a new watercooling system that could dissipate that extra heat and shoot for 3.0Ghz.

 

My question is...How much power (in Watts, or any other type of data) can this board provide to the CPU? The Opty @stock means a 84.6Amp current. Now when we overclock, this number will go higher as we up the voltage. For all I know I could be pushing close to 100Amps! :eek2: (in comparison I think the Venice has a power rating of [email protected]h translates to 58.6Amps at stock) But of course, I don't think 84.6Amps is going through 1 wire as that would burn it in a split second. I don't wana go too far into the power design of the CPU.

 

 

Thanks in advance to everyone and the DFI ppl!

[Cerberus42]

wow, you REALLY need a better WCing system if you are getting those temps

[pheoniXfury]

Yeah...I know...the same cooling system kept my venice 3200+ @2.7, 1.63v at 38C load.

 

This dual core opty is one power sucker...lol...but is damn fast!

[Daedalus]

Also baffled by the weird shutdown, that happens to me also, as to a few other ppl as well i think, and i do not have a clue why it does it either, sometimes it powers off and stays off, sometimes it goes off, then about 2 secs later starts back up, all i do now is shutdown, and quickly turn the PSU off, that way if it is a time when its going to start back up, all i get is a quick spin up of everything, and the whole thing lights up for a split second, would love to know how to stop it, as its really annoying when i forget, and im heading out.

[Cerberus42]

well it sounds almost like your WCing stup either needs a better radiator OR it isnt seated properly, because there is no way you should be getting that high on water, i would expect that temp on air

[pheoniXfury]

Yes, this weird shut down thing is kinda anoying. funny thing is that it never happened when I had my Venice @2.7, 1.63v. It started happening after the Opteron dual core.

 

Yes, my water cooling solution is at fault. I'm thinking that it can only put away 200Watts of heat. I have 2 radiators, one copper and one aluminum. The X1800XL is also in the loop...so together with the opty...we're looking at a lot of heat. I'm thinking of something around 400 bucks...a 2x12cm rad and a 1x12cm rad...for CPU and graphics. That should bring my load temps to around 40-45C even if I bump up the voltage even more.

 

My main concern here is that what can this board take in terms of power supplied to the CPU? I'm already hitting 70C on my PWMs. I'm gona look around...maybe get my finger burnt a little...but I'm gona see if I can improve the cooling solution on it.

 

http://ericxw.isa-geek.com/cRyObLaZe/

 

This is my previous system...I'm using the same case and same cooling for the current one. I'll bring an update to that a little later with my new setup.