AMD Opteron Tyan Combo PCI/PCI-X

[milkrocks]

Hey,

I am hoping someone with an Opteron Board might be able to help. I have searched the net and seem to be getting some conflicting messages.

The board is the K8SD Pro (I think its the same as the K8S Pro but supports dual core out of the box). It has 1 PCI slot and 4 PCI-X Slots on 2 seperate buses.

I am hoping to run several expansion cards in the box but i cant get a clear answer as to which cards will work in the PCI-X slots. I dont have any board with PCI-X to use as a test bed. I understand they will need to be clocked down to 33mhz and run at 32-bit to run a standard PCI card.

Will any PCI card with the notch at the front of the card run in a PCI-X Slot? I read somewhere that this slot means the card is a 3.3V card and will therefor run in the slot. Is this true?

I have a Promise TX4000 Raid Card, an Adaptec 29160 (64 bit) and an Adaptec USB 2.0 card (it has the 3.3V notch) that i would like to use in the server. Can i put one of the two 32 bit cards in the PCI slot, clock one of the PCI-X buses down for the other, and put the 29160 in the other PCI-X bus running 64-bit?

It looks like if this config works that i can have my PIII 550 server upgraded for about $750 using my existing peripherals and case. This is appealing. If i can't run those cards i may have to think twice about buying the combo.

This would be the config:

K8SD Pro $500 for the board and opterons
Dual Opteron 246 chips
1 gig (256mbX4) dual channel DDR ECC Registered RAM PC3200 $137
Power Supply $80ish
2 CPU Coolers $50ish
Adaptec 29160 - Own
IBM 18.2gig 10K Ultra 160 drive - Own
TX4000 - Own
4X180gig PATA in 512GB Raid 5 array - Own
SuperMicro Case - Own (Supports E-ATX)


Thanks for all the help.

 

[Peter]

The PCI-X slots are backwards compatible to plain PCI. The only thing your PCI cards need to support is 3.3V signalling. The slots and cards are keyed to fit into compatible slots only.

Also, putting a plain PCI card into a PCI-X slot will kick this bus segment back to 33 MHz operation. You want to avoid this on segments that have PCI-X devices on already. Tyan documents where they put their onboard LAN and SCSI controllers, so it's up to you to plug your cards somewhere they don't harm performance of other stuff.

 

[The Pentium Guy]

There's no AGP/PCIe slot? Would that mean you'd have to get a PCIX card??? jeez

 

[milkrocks]

Thanks Peter,

That was how i read the documentation as well. Tyan gives some misleading info in one of their manuals that implies that PCI card wont work in the PCI-X Slots but i think they are attempting to imply that 5V PCI cards wont work (which is true).

The manual for the board also says that an ATX power supply will harm the board - guess i wll definitly have to buy an EPS unit.

 

[Peter]

Originally posted by: The Pentium Guy
There's no AGP/PCIe slot? Would that mean you'd have to get a PCIX card??? jeez

Choice. If you want AGP, buy a Thunder K8W; if you want PCIE, get a K8WE. These still have PCI-X and PCI slots just as well.

 

[Chode Messiah]

What about an nForce4 professional? U probably don't need it for your server. I did hear that the nForce4s are very stable though.

 

[milkrocks]

The only reason I'll be buying the K8SD is the deal through AMD and the fact that ti will only be used as a file server and media encoder. I wont need to do anything that requires a good graphics card. I will likely use the onboard video.