emu34b wrote on 2025-03-15, 04:46:

So, while this is my first time posting here, I'm not exactly new to this retro computing space. I also have a liking of weird c […]
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So, while this is my first time posting here, I'm not exactly new to this retro computing space. I also have a liking of weird computing hardware.

I recently purchased an odd motherboard, one which has dual Socket 479, taking Sossaman Xeons (these are basically Core Duos, with SMP support, ECC, etc).

This is a Tyan S5365G3NR board. It contains an Intel i7520 chipset, with the aforementioned Socket 479 instead of 604 like usually would be paired with this. It's actually running very nicely, with 2x Xeon LV 2.00 (CPU-Z identifies them as T2500). SB Live for the sound card, this weird Syba PCI card with 4x CF card slots (loaded with 4x 6GB Microdrives in RAID 0), Quadro 600 for the video card (temporarily, have a K1200 on the way, and some other stuff to try as well) and a USB 2.0 and 3.0 card in a PCI and PCIe slot respectively. Currently running 8 GB of DDR2 ECC (PC2-5300P) 667. XP Integral Edition as the OS, with the PAE patch. Also have an AR9220 WiFi card in there. Pretty well set with networking. Power supply is the Rosewill 750W one I had in my main PC for like 7 years. Overkill, but it does the job.

The main issue I'm having with this thing is that half the RAM slots don't work. Putting anything in them causes 1 short beep, 2 sets of 3 short beeps and then one more short beep. Indicates a memory error. The first 4 slots work fine, but put anything in the bottom 4 slots and no POST. Populating 6 slots also causes the issue. Populating 5 slots, it just ignores the 5th stick. I've read in the manual and online that it's supposed to support up to 16 GB of RAM, which I thought was supposed to be spread across 2 GB sticks. Recently I also bought 4x 1 GB sticks, but the issue persists with these as well. I'm wondering if I need to get some 4 GB sticks at this point. Still, I would rather be able to use all my RAM slots... I'm just not sure what I'm doing wrong here, is all.

Also, I've been trying to find a BIOS update for this board, but I really can't find anything for it. Just a bunch of old spec listings.

The other issue is that USB is a little wonky. Not really plug and play, per say. Windows is happy with the USB devices plugged in at boot, but it doesn't recognize anything I plug in afterwards, shows the the little balloon popup and all. Might be a BIOS setting, considering this is a server board.

And the other thing, currently running the 2 Ghz Xeons, like I said. Code SL8WT. No problems with them, but there's apparently a 2.16 Ghz version out there, SL9HM. Probably a big shot in the dark, but if anybody could hook me up with a pair that would be wonderful. Little bit lower priority though. Also looking for more interesting things to fill the slots than just... USB cards, haha. Also looking for fun PCI stuff for a dual Tualatin build...

Attached is a shot of the board when I got it. Shortly before I installed the coolers and started the build proper. Using an x8 to x16 hard riser (btw, 2 of these stacked makes a low profile card fit perfectly!)

Welcome to Vogons 😀

Nice board...another dual cpu system to drool over!

Only thing that comes to mind re. the memory is that the E7520 chipset is limited to 8 memory ranks s0 either 8 x 1R or 4 x 2R DIMMs (see Re: A Kick-Ass Dual 3.8GHz NetBurst Xeon Build ). Do you know what rank your DIMMs are, as it's possible trying using 6 or 8 2R DIMMs may be the cause of the issue (5 DIMMs 'work' as, whatever the rank, the memory must be installed in matching pairs so the fifth is simply ignored during POST).

A memory rank is defined as an area or block of 64-bits (72-bits for ECC) created by using some or all of the DRAM chips on a DIMM. A single-rank ECC DIMM (x4 or x8) uses all of its DRAM chips to create a single block of 72 bits, and all the chips are activated by one chip-select signal from the memory controller chipset. A dual-rank ECC DIMM produces two 72-bit blocks from two sets of DRAM chips on the DIMM, requiring two chip-select signals. The chip-select signals are staggered so that both sets of DRAM chips do not contend for the memory bus at the same time. (source: Kingston Technology)

Looks like you may already have the latest BIOS in v1.01 (attached)

TYAN TIGER i7520SD (S5365) BIOS V1.01
New features and Fixes :
* Updated CPU micro code
* Fixed an issue with the power LED so it will turn off when
the power button is set to instant off
* Added to support LCM M1000.
* Added to support CMP PPM function
* Fixed an issue where it would not install Linux OS via
USB CDROM

I have this mainboard running non-stop as my "Server 2003 R2" Domain Controller since 2007 with 2 x 2GHz and 8GB RAM.
It´s a very silent and power-efficient system. There´s a nice "Mini-PCI"-like add on card (Tyan TARO) with 4x SAS ports available.
Most (RAID-) drives are hooked to an Adaptec PCI-X SATA controller since the onboard SATA ports are SATA 1.5 only.

Supermicro sold a nearly identical Mainboard at the time and I managed to get hold of 5 of them as "spares" but of course never needed them.
First there were only 1.6 Ghz Sossamans available so I upgraded to 2 GHz one year later, but although I kept my eyes open for faster Sossamans all the time I never saw any 2.16 GHz for sale anywhere.

A couple of years ago I had to clean the RAM slots after some sticks didn´t get detected anymore.

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2025-03-15, 07:38:

Welcome to Vogons :) […]
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emu34b wrote on 2025-03-15, 04:46:

So, while this is my first time posting here, I'm not exactly new to this retro computing space. I also have a liking of weird c […]
Show full quote

So, while this is my first time posting here, I'm not exactly new to this retro computing space. I also have a liking of weird computing hardware.

I recently purchased an odd motherboard, one which has dual Socket 479, taking Sossaman Xeons (these are basically Core Duos, with SMP support, ECC, etc).

This is a Tyan S5365G3NR board. It contains an Intel i7520 chipset, with the aforementioned Socket 479 instead of 604 like usually would be paired with this. It's actually running very nicely, with 2x Xeon LV 2.00 (CPU-Z identifies them as T2500). SB Live for the sound card, this weird Syba PCI card with 4x CF card slots (loaded with 4x 6GB Microdrives in RAID 0), Quadro 600 for the video card (temporarily, have a K1200 on the way, and some other stuff to try as well) and a USB 2.0 and 3.0 card in a PCI and PCIe slot respectively. Currently running 8 GB of DDR2 ECC (PC2-5300P) 667. XP Integral Edition as the OS, with the PAE patch. Also have an AR9220 WiFi card in there. Pretty well set with networking. Power supply is the Rosewill 750W one I had in my main PC for like 7 years. Overkill, but it does the job.

The main issue I'm having with this thing is that half the RAM slots don't work. Putting anything in them causes 1 short beep, 2 sets of 3 short beeps and then one more short beep. Indicates a memory error. The first 4 slots work fine, but put anything in the bottom 4 slots and no POST. Populating 6 slots also causes the issue. Populating 5 slots, it just ignores the 5th stick. I've read in the manual and online that it's supposed to support up to 16 GB of RAM, which I thought was supposed to be spread across 2 GB sticks. Recently I also bought 4x 1 GB sticks, but the issue persists with these as well. I'm wondering if I need to get some 4 GB sticks at this point. Still, I would rather be able to use all my RAM slots... I'm just not sure what I'm doing wrong here, is all.

Also, I've been trying to find a BIOS update for this board, but I really can't find anything for it. Just a bunch of old spec listings.

The other issue is that USB is a little wonky. Not really plug and play, per say. Windows is happy with the USB devices plugged in at boot, but it doesn't recognize anything I plug in afterwards, shows the the little balloon popup and all. Might be a BIOS setting, considering this is a server board.

And the other thing, currently running the 2 Ghz Xeons, like I said. Code SL8WT. No problems with them, but there's apparently a 2.16 Ghz version out there, SL9HM. Probably a big shot in the dark, but if anybody could hook me up with a pair that would be wonderful. Little bit lower priority though. Also looking for more interesting things to fill the slots than just... USB cards, haha. Also looking for fun PCI stuff for a dual Tualatin build...

Attached is a shot of the board when I got it. Shortly before I installed the coolers and started the build proper. Using an x8 to x16 hard riser (btw, 2 of these stacked makes a low profile card fit perfectly!)

Welcome to Vogons 😀

Nice board...another dual cpu system to drool over!

Only thing that comes to mind re. the memory is that the E7520 chipset is limited to 8 memory ranks s0 either 8 x 1R or 4 x 2R DIMMs (see Re: A Kick-Ass Dual 3.8GHz NetBurst Xeon Build ). Do you know what rank your DIMMs are, as it's possible trying using 6 or 8 2R DIMMs may be the cause of the issue (5 DIMMs 'work' as, whatever the rank, the memory must be installed in matching pairs so the fifth is simply ignored during POST).

A memory rank is defined as an area or block of 64-bits (72-bits for ECC) created by using some or all of the DRAM chips on a DIMM. A single-rank ECC DIMM (x4 or x8) uses all of its DRAM chips to create a single block of 72 bits, and all the chips are activated by one chip-select signal from the memory controller chipset. A dual-rank ECC DIMM produces two 72-bit blocks from two sets of DRAM chips on the DIMM, requiring two chip-select signals. The chip-select signals are staggered so that both sets of DRAM chips do not contend for the memory bus at the same time. (source: Kingston Technology)

Looks like you may already have the latest BIOS in v1.01 (attached)

TYAN TIGER i7520SD (S5365) BIOS V1.01
New features and Fixes :
* Updated CPU micro code
* Fixed an issue with the power LED so it will turn off when
the power button is set to instant off
* Added to support LCM M1000.
* Added to support CMP PPM function
* Fixed an issue where it would not install Linux OS via
USB CDROM

The attachment 5365_101.zip is no longer available

Ahhh... that might be it. I believe my 2 GB sticks are actually 2 rank, but not my 1 GB sticks. Thanks for the bios, btw. I'll get some 1 rank 2 gb sticks.

majestyk wrote on 2025-03-15, 08:35:

I have this mainboard running non-stop as my "Server 2003 R2" Domain Controller since 2007 with 2 x 2GHz and 8GB RAM. It´s a ve […]
Show full quote

I have this mainboard running non-stop as my "Server 2003 R2" Domain Controller since 2007 with 2 x 2GHz and 8GB RAM.
It´s a very silent and power-efficient system. There´s a nice "Mini-PCI"-like add on card (Tyan TARO) with 4x SAS ports available.
Most (RAID-) drives are hooked to an Adaptec PCI-X SATA controller since the onboard SATA ports are SATA 1.5 only.

Supermicro sold a nearly identical Mainboard at the time and I managed to get hold of 5 of them as "spares" but of course never needed them.
First there were only 1.6 Ghz Sossamans available so I upgraded to 2 GHz one year later, but although I kept my eyes open for faster Sossamans all the time I never saw any 2.16 GHz for sale anywhere.

A couple of years ago I had to clean the RAM slots after some sticks didn´t get detected anymore.

I did see some SL9HM on a few websites a few days ago. Priceblaze and Servers4Less. Sent in a request for quote on both, I'll report back if I hear from them.
nt
Otherwise, funnily enough I was thinking about getting a PCI-X sata card. Hard to search for on ebay though (and I live in Wyoming, so local isn't an option usually). The one I was looking at was the Adaptec AAR-1420. Only SATA 2 though. The onboard SATA is good enough for my use though.

Lastly, for the onboard mini-PCI, I wasn't really planning on doing much with it. Ebay wants to only bring up pci-e stuff, but if I were to do something with it, it would be storage related.