Asus P6T WS boards, XEON, and ECC memory

[DougMorgan]

Hello,
Does anyone have a xeon W3500 or W3600 running ECC memory on a P6T WS PRo, P6T6 WS Revolution, or P6T7 Supercomputer board?

If so what processor number do you have? Is there a bios option to enable/disable ECC? Have you been able to verify that ECC is functional? If so how?

Thanks in advance.

 

[jaquith]

The ECC is a function of the CPU, and I am not aware of any Xeon that doesn't support ECC. The ASUS P6T6 WS Revolution doesn't have the ECC 'Parity' option. Therefore, both the 3500 & 3600 series will support ECC or non-ECC, if the CPU detects ECC then you've got ECC. It's up to the RAM you select. I certainly would go the ECC route with a WS...

 

[DougMorgan]

Thanks for the response.

So if I can re-phrase your answer:

There is no bios setting and if the motherboards has the ECC connections between memory and processor it should function if both mem & proc support ECC?

Is there a way to verify that ECC is active?

Thanks for the reply

 

[jaquith]

Do one better, test it also - use Memtest it displays the ECC status - http://www.memtest.org/#screen in the screen shots you can see how ECC is displayed. I have a habit of ALWAYS testing new RAM from day 1.

 

[DougMorgan]

Thanks again.

I've already got the ECC memory which Kingston says is compatible with the motherboard. A W3680 and P6T6 are en route. Asus doesn't specifically say that ECC works with this particular processor but does list the W3500. The problem is that there are so many conflicting answers floating around (some from Asus) I'm not sure what to expect and I am starting to 2nd guess my board choice.

 

[jaquith]

Take everyone out of the loop and contact ASUS directly via a ticket or phone call. ECC is listed per spec, but why not know 100%.

Post what ASUS says directly...

 

[DougMorgan]

So far all I've got from Asus is an exact quote from the website, shown below. As a follow up I've asked specifically if they tested the W3680(or the W3600 series) and it will NOT work at all or just the ECC doesn't work. I guess I was thinking (hoping) that they either haven't tested it or haven't updated the website. In earlier quotes from Asus on the web I've found that they were basically saying in 2009 that only the supercomputer board had functioning ECC and with the others it would only accept the modules but this is not what they are saying now.

If I return this board the only choices I'm aware of that might fit the bill are from ASRock. I assumed the "WS" meant workstation to Asus but maybe not so much.

Workstation boards are not very common compared to server or gaming boards. I've got a tyan server board now and I'm trying to get some more performance with the next go-around particularly cheaper lower-latency memory (compared to FB-dimms) and substantially better graphics/PCI-e capabilities.

Thanks
Doug

From asus support....
Dear Valued Customer

** ECC Un-buffered memory support requires Intel® Nehalem-WS 1S W3500 series or Nehalem-EP E5500 series processors

The motherboard supports 6 x DIMM, Max. 24 GB, DDR3 2000(O.C.)*/1866(O.C.)*/1800(O.C.)*/1600(O.C.)/1333/1066 ECC,Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory
Triple channel memory architecture
Support Intel Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)
*Hyper DIMM (DDR3 1800MHz or above) support is subject to the physical characteristics of individual CPUs.
**Refer to www.asus.com. Or user manual for the Memory QVL (Qualified Vendor Lists.)

Thank you,

 

[jaquith]

I agree with using QVL listed RAM as opposed to "just any ECC" RAM. if your RAM is not listed the I would first try raising both the DRAM Voltage and QPI/DRAM Voltage, and don't run as XMP.

Yes, those are referring to Xeon series CPUs; W35XX etc.

How do you know ECC is not working?

 

[jaquith]

BTW I prefer SuperMicro MOBOs for WS. I like ASUS but not their Xeon WS MOBOs

 

[DougMorgan]

Thanks again....

Not overclocking anything, just using Kingston value ram 1333 as listed on Kingston's website. It is qualified on many other x58 boards so I'm not really worried that asus hasn't qualified it. The qualified list is from last July so I think they've closed development on this board over 6 months ago.

Not a supermicro fan -- last opteron board lasted almost exactly a year before death while the current tyan has lasted 3 years without a hitch. The bigger problem though is that none of the supermicro's support the minimum pci-e configuration I'm looking for (2@ x16 + 1@x8) many don't even have a single x16 slot since like most server products video isn't a priority. PCI-X is definitely 2008 and I want to ditch the cards I have for pci-e.

Doug

 

[DougMorgan]

Sorry can't seem to edit a post and I missed a key point...

I don't know if ECC will work or not which is the problem.

The processor and board are en route while the memory is already here. The memory and processor are only returnable for replacement if defective and It's going to be much easier to return the motherboard unopened.

If I can just find a single individual in this hemisphere that has a similar system working I'll give it a whirl but unfortunately it seems that either very few W3680's were sold or none are being used in this type of board.

Doug

 

[jaquith]

Q - What Kingston set? i.e. part-number. You can reverse this around, IF Kingston says the modules will work 'as ECC' per your ASUS MOBO then you've gotten nothing to worry about. Therefore, start a ticket or call Kingston http://www.kingston.com/company/contact.asp

My assumption is that you're not Googling what you want to know because it hasn't been a problem nor concern. People bitch all day but seldom say "yes it is great."

QVL Guaranteed to work - I didn't see any ECC Kingston listed.

These are the only Kingston ECC that are Tested per Kingston:
KVR1333D3E9S/1G
KVR1333D3E9S/2G
KVR1333D3E9S/4G
KVR1333D3E9SK2/2G
KVR1333D3E9SK2/4G
KVR1333D3E9SK2/8G
KVR1333D3E9SK3/3G
KVR1333D3E9SK3/6G
KVR1333D3E9SK3/12G

 

[DougMorgan]

I've got 2 sets of the last one, KVR1333D3E9SK3/12G. According to Kingston they are good for a long list of boards including this one of course. Nowhere in the memory finder-thingy did it say anything about the ECC being non-functional but it also never asked which processor was being used and AFAIK none of the I7's support ECC. I've used Kingston memory exclusively on the last 4 builds and never had a problem


What has me concerned with this motherboard/processor/memory combo is one major item: Asus does not list the W3600 or X5600 series of processors as compatible with ECC memory and I don't know if that is an over-sight or if they actually tested the combination and it didn't work. The relavent section of the website I quoted above.

I spent many hours google-ing various combinations hoping to either find some people with problems or folks having a list of equipment that included the key components and no complaints. I found a bunch of questions (like my own) regarding asus's compatibility tables but no real answers and those with problems were early adopters in 2009 who either found a solution or gave up.

I also have a minor concern in that the same asus web information puts the QPI of my particular processor at 3.2 Gt/s instead of 6.4 but since there is no Intel processor with this spec I think they transposed the memory figure (32GB/s) to the bus speed.

I do appreciate the help and if nothing else you've had me re-examining several assumptions. I guess the problem is I have a hard time accepting that no news is good news. I've got another email in to Asus support and they were quick last time so maybe I'll get an answer before everything arrives.

Thanks
Doug

 

[DougMorgan]

Guess I should check stuff before I post rather than after....
Kingston has the same disclaimer about ECC requires the W3500 processor but nothing about the W3600. BUT, it looks like it might have been copied verbatim from the asus site.

The ASRock X58 Extreme 3 and the Supermicro C7X58 both take the same memory part number with no qualifications other than a xeon for a supermicro.

Doug

 

[jaquith]

The i7's don't support ECC; only currently the Xeon CPU lines support ECC. {Obviously AMD's server CPUs}.

Yes, I read the caveat "*** ECC Un-buffered memory support requires Intel® Nehalem-WS 1S W3500 series or Nehalem-EP E5500 series processors" and I read the same caveat dependencies with the Xeon W3680 http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=47917

So as I said only ASUS can know for certain, technically 'it could' go either way. Yeah, I tend to confirm before buying...

Let me know how it turns-out.

 

[DougMorgan]

The intel caveat is identical on the W3500 and X5500 series as well, both of which are acceptable to Asus.

I live in a small town so everything has to be ordered. I wanted to get the order in before the end of the year for tax purposes and by the time I had sifted through enough information to configure a new system the footnote on the asus board regarding ECC must have got lost in the background noise.

One way or another I'll post the result here.... Thanks

 

[jaquith]

I hear you the one place that use to sell MOBO/CPU/ETC went out of business I buy mostly from newegg and sometimes Amazon...

Good luck Mr. Guinea Pig I truly hope it works as ECC. Keep in mind if it doesn't recognize the ECC it might act erratic or fail to post.

 

[DougMorgan]

We'll the Asus is out. I think the answer is that the W3600/X5600 don't work with ECC or maybe it might, or maybe it's the memory, or maybe not. It's hard to tell if Asus has actually tested any part of this combination or not. At any rate I couldn't get a clear confirmation that ECC would work and it's an essential criteria for me so the asus was returned unopened and the w-series processor will either get turned around in shipping or returned as well.

Plan B (or maybe it's C now) is the supermicro X8DAH+ and a single X5680 with the 24gb Kingston I already have. Additional components are Lian Li case (that I've got to modify for the X8DAH's ++ size), Corsair ax850, HD5950, LSI sas, Cheetah's and WDBlacks, and I'm going to give an ssd a try for the OS.

I asked supermicro support every question I could possibly think of and each time the answer was quick, concise, and best yet I'm confident in the answers.

The cost is almost a grand more but in the end I've got an improved pci-e setup (for my purposes), and the option to double the processing power and memory in the near future if this turns out to be a decent year business-wise. It would have been cheaper both for the board and processor to use one of the X58 boards but none of this series had the PCI-e capability I need.

While the previous supermicro board I had only lasted a year I should note that IIRC this was an odd-ball board that I think was meant to be rebranded and was supposed to be support by the retailer. Mine went out of business a few months after purchase unfortunately. Pre-sales support has been excellent.

Thanks again for the help......

 

[jaquith]

I find it really 'odd' that ASUS couldn't answer a simple yet fundamental question, apparently tier-1 simply copy/pasted the specs.

As I said, WS = SuperMicro. I guess the mystery still stands as unknown.

Good Luck!

 

[DougMorgan]

Best answer selected by DougMorgan.