Opteron OSP Variants (as opposed to OSA, OSB, OSK OPNs)

So,

Like a lot of folks I decided to purchase an Opteron off of EBay. I got a 252 series unit to add to the 848 one that I already had. (2.6Ghz and 2.2Ghz respectively)

Anyway, I had 8 GB of ram laying around in 2Gb ECC Registered DIMMs and decided to build a good game box and a home server. So I picked up a FoxConn NFPIK8AA motherboard based on the nForce 4 Pro chipset, and it's got 2 (effectively) southbridges allowing for a really nice computer. This thing is so fully loaded its not even funny.

However, there is a rub. With one system I had a HP server CPU card laying around, so I used the Opteron 848 and 4GB of RAM for the box. Works like a champ... and it's damn fast.

So I decided I'd build another unit just like the first. However, this time I had picked up an Opteron on the EBay and it's not properly detected by motherboard. "UNKOWN AMD PROCESSOR" at the POST screen.

It IS an Opteron 252. However, the part number is OSP252FAA5BL, not OSA252FAA5BL or OSB252FAA5BL... which are typical for retail boxed versions of the Opteron.

The issue is that FoxConn has been VERY difficult about supporting the OSP variants of the Opteron. They have initally refused to write a BIOS to support the CPU, and then, once pressed with the fact that the manual clearly states that it supports ALL Opteron 1xx and 2xx processors, indicated that the CPU isn't available in China.

Of course, that's can't be true... as almost all of the OEMS ARE IN CHINA and East/Southeast Asia... and HP, the largest AMD OEM Opteron server vendor, makes thier servers there...

Anyway... does anyone on the board have any specific information on the OSP 2xx series processors? AMD is incrediably quite on the subject, to the point of not printing or providing any information about these processors...

...and they are starting to flood the market as server admins replace their Opteron (OSP) 252's with the dual core variants as it's the best upgrade bang for the buck, as opposed to replacing the entire server or another CPU card.

Gerhard


PS:

My opinion is out on FoxConn right now... but they clearly are not really standing by their product. Whereas, other vendors appear to have taken the OSP 2xx Opterons into account during product development and support them. (Tyan as an example...) [I'll update this thread with the final outcome so that it doen't seem like I'm just giving them a hard time...]

I've done so... there are a few operational issues with VMWare so far...