there is a SL4XY on ebay for months now, but expensive. Running this board single cpu make no sense for me. It may work well but when you go for win98se there are no board drivers.
So im stuck on NT.
Was there another Slot2 board i can locking for? ATX and maybe 5/12V? Did intel another slot2 board?

feipoa wrote on 2025-05-23, 11:12:

Was the Cascades a Coppermine with a lot more cache?

There are two types of Cascades the ones with a 133MHz FSB such as SL3BJ are Coppermines in a Slot 2 package, they even have the same CPUIDs as Coppermines, then there are the 700 + 900 MHz ones that are Coppermines with 1 or 2MB of L2 cache and a 100 MHz FSB.

Jackhead wrote on 2025-05-23, 11:27:

With both CPUs installed bootet into win2k HWinfo show no L2 on second CPU.

W2K disables both the CPU-1 L1 + L2 cache on one of my systems, but NT4 does not, see Windows 2000 Disablded the CPU-1 Cache, does anyone know how to fix this please?, what happens with NT4 on your system

luckybob wrote on 2025-05-23, 13:09:

The 900mhz chips are unobtanium... sadly. I haven't seen a hit on my ebay saved searches in years.

I see I paid $10 for mine, back in 2018, but that's an SL4XZ, 5/12V so probably not as attractive ?

im not tryed nt4 .
I have two SL4XZ, yes its because 5/12V.
Found some more information about slot2 mainboards : https://www.bnv-bamberg.de/home/ba3294/smp/html/sl_2.htm
The Asus XG-DLS looks really interesting: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asus-xg-dls
But looking on manuals they all offical support only 2x 550MHz PIII.

Jackhead wrote on 2025-05-23, 14:54:

But looking on manuals they all offical support only 2x 550MHz PIII.

Is there CPU µCode for Cascades in the BIOS? My SIV utility may list this on Menu->Machine->BIOS Tables->BIOS Tables, it does for my Intel MS440GX.

red-ray wrote on 2025-05-23, 15:07:

Jackhead wrote on 2025-05-23, 14:54:

But looking on manuals they all offical support only 2x 550MHz PIII.

Is there CPU µCode for Cascades in the BIOS? My SIV utility may list this on Menu->Machine->BIOS Tables->BIOS Tables, it does for my Intel MS440GX.

i will check!

looks like a user here is running the XG-DLS with 2 SL4XZ (i see no external VRMs so i guess 5/12V) : Re: My Ongoing Retro Rig Project - Xeon Prime
Bios support are better on Asus.

edit:
checked with SIV here the bios microcode, its there!

Jackhead wrote on 2025-05-23, 15:09:

checked with SIV here the bios microcode, its there!

That looks like Menu->Hardware->BIOS Tables->Microcode which lists the µCode in update.sys, not the Menu->Hardware->BIOS Tables->BIOS Tables I specified, so does not tell us if the BIOS has the µCode.

BTW .PNG gives much crisper images than .JPG.

H3nrik V! wrote on 2025-05-23, 14:46:

I see I paid $10 for mine, back in 2018, but that's an SL4XZ, 5/12V so probably not as attractive ?

you are correct sir - the 5/12v cpus have a built-in voltage regulator, suitiable for 99% of the OEM rack servers out there.

Jackhead wrote on 2025-05-23, 14:54:

im not tryed nt4 . I have two SL4XZ, yes its because 5/12V. Found some more information about slot2 mainboards : https://www.b […]
Show full quote

im not tryed nt4 .
I have two SL4XZ, yes its because 5/12V.
Found some more information about slot2 mainboards : https://www.bnv-bamberg.de/home/ba3294/smp/html/sl_2.htm
The Asus XG-DLS looks really interesting: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asus-xg-dls
But looking on manuals they all offical support only 2x 550MHz PIII.

Jackhead wrote on 2025-05-23, 15:09:

i will check! […]
Show full quote

i will check!

looks like a user here is running the XG-DLS with 2 SL4XZ (i see no external VRMs so i guess 5/12V) : Re: My Ongoing Retro Rig Project - Xeon Prime
Bios support are better on Asus.

edit:
checked with SIV here the bios microcode, its there!

You would be incorrect, in this instance. The Asus XG-DLS uses 2.8V xeons. I still have that board. ^.^ the voltage regulator is between the cpu slots and is non-replaceable. As for that single SL4XZ on the ebay.de... I'd buy a PAIR for that price, but not a single. They just got super rare, super quick. I don't see myself ever selling the pair I have.

But that 2013 vogons thread is a trip. remember when 50/3 internet was fast?

luckybob wrote on 2025-05-23, 16:35:

H3nrik V! wrote on 2025-05-23, 14:46:

I see I paid $10 for mine, back in 2018, but that's an SL4XZ, 5/12V so probably not as attractive ?

you are correct sir - the 5/12v cpus have a built-in voltage regulator, suitiable for 99% of the OEM rack servers out there.

Wonder if it would be possible to feed the cpu directly from a 5/12 V HDD Molex connector and cut the internal connectors to the motherboard, thus being able to use a 5/12V cpu in a 2.8V motherboard 🤔

I'll be digging into some pin-outs. If anyone has some documents, please let me know ...

I dont see anything on that bios table 😀 and sorry for the quality,
That 2V cpu core is not reading correctly? This is single core with dummy cpu.

H3nrik V! wrote on 2025-05-23, 16:47:

luckybob wrote on 2025-05-23, 16:35:

H3nrik V! wrote on 2025-05-23, 14:46:

I see I paid $10 for mine, back in 2018, but that's an SL4XZ, 5/12V so probably not as attractive ?

you are correct sir - the 5/12v cpus have a built-in voltage regulator, suitiable for 99% of the OEM rack servers out there.

Wonder if it would be possible to feed the cpu directly from a 5/12 V HDD Molex connector and cut the internal connectors to the motherboard, thus being able to use a 5/12V cpu in a 2.8V motherboard 🤔

I'll be digging into some pin-outs. If anyone has some documents, please let me know ...

I'd wager is possible. It would be easier with a board that has a removeable VRM. Do like those old socket 7 VRMs and just short the cpu pins straight to the 5v rail. I'd also wager there is some sort of power-good signal that would hopefully prevent mixing 5/12 cpus and the 2.8, so there may be other pins that need grounded/pulled high.

Jackhead wrote on 2025-05-23, 16:54:

I dont see anything on that bios table 😀 and sorry for the quality,
That 2V cpu core is not reading correctly? This is single core with dummy cpu.

On some motherboards SIV fails to find the CPU µCode and your board seems to be one of them. As there is no CPU µCode I can't tell anything, when Tanner is there and not Cascades it's likely the board does not support Cascades as is the case with my Intel MS440GX.

Save screen shots as a .PNG and the quality will be way better.

From the screen shot I can't tell where the 2.00 volts came from, it could be the SMBIOS data, to tell I would need to see what [Machine] reports, it may also be from the PIR.

One of your DIMMs is reported as 504 rather than 512 MB, I wonder if the SPD is corrupt. Do Menu->File->Save Local and post the two save files if you would like to to check. I could also use these to know more about the 2.00 volts. You can see what's in the .TXT file, the .DMI is basically a dump of the BIOS and when I have it SIV runs better in test mode.

It's better to use the Unicode SIV32X.exe on Windows 2000, SIV32L is an ASCII build mainly for Windows 9x/Me.

Sure, here the file

Jackhead wrote on 2025-05-23, 20:11:

Sure, here the file

Thank you, all is now clear to me.

Both the 2.00 Volts and the 504MB came from the SMBIOS. What's really strange is that both 256MB + 504MB were reported for the same DIMM ! Should all the DIMMs be 512MB?

If you look at [ SPD ] you should see that SIV did not find a SMBus controller so I will fix this and post a SIV32X.zip test SIV later. With this SIV should be able to read the SPD and PIRs.

Please find attached the SIV32X V5.82 PIIX-02 test SIV. Please use this to generate a new save file and then post it. Also post SIV_JACKHEAD-D667E5.dmi, either ZIP both files or rename it to SIV_JACKHEAD-D667E5.dmi.txt

This test SIV should report the SPD and PIRs, see Menu->Hardware->MSRs->Xeon PIRs.

Is there is reason the date is 1996-02-02? If not please set the correct date so I will know when the save files were generated should I look at them in a few years time.

The RAM is shown correctly now.

Jackhead wrote on 2025-05-24, 09:25:

The RAM is shown correctly now.

Thank you, I guess with the previous boot the BIOS had issues reading the SPD. I feel it would be wise to "keep an eye" on this.

I was and am hoping for a new SIV_JACKHEAD-D667E5.txt generated by SIV32X V5.82 PIIX-02 so I can check the SPD and PIR information. I suspect the 2.00 volts may get replaced with 2.80 volts once SIV reads the PIR (processor information rom).

Oh, I just figured out SIV_JACKHEAD-D667E5.dmi.txt is a .ZIP file, there is no need to rename .ZIP files, you can just attach them.

SIV read the SPD OK which is why 4 x 512MB was reported, the SMBIOS still reports 256MB/504MB for one of the DIMMs, see [Machine].

The PIR does not show up on the SMBus, I wonder if there is an SMBus MUX so will try and find out.

I managed to find http://cwcyrix.nsupdate.info/intel-legacy-fil … /c440gx_tps.pdf and it seems that the PIROMs are connected to the BMC and there doesn't seem to be a way to disable the BMC, is this possible? Unless the BMC is disabled I doubt it's possible to read the PIROMs and all the motherboard temperatures, fan speeds and voltages from a Windows program.

I think there is no way to deactivate the BMC. No jumper or bios settings at least.

Its hard but i decided to skip the board. There is no more i can try to run two cascades CPUs.
Running it with two 550er Tanner or single core is no option for me. A shame intel did no cascades support for it..

But thanks for all the information guys! Learned a alot about slot2.

Eyes open for the Asus XG-DLS..

Jackhead wrote on 2025-05-25, 10:59:

Eyes open for the Asus XG-DLS.

I suspect a Supermicro S2DG2 would also be a good option, SIV reported as below on some time ago, I am not sure when as the dates in the save file are 1996.

It seems to work with mixed stepping and even different speeds + L2 Cache sizes!

Does anyone know where I might get a S2DG2 please?, ideally from England.