ABit AN8 Ultra MoBo with AMD-64 3000+ vs. Ubuntu 64-bit

I am slowly piecing together a “new” desktop system.  Decent by my standards of waiting until the sweet spot of the price-performance curve before upgrading.

Components

• Lian-Li Case $90 via ebay with local pickup
• Abit AN8 Ultra Socket 939 Motherboard $40 with the CPU below (and 2×512 memory)
• AMD Athlon 64 3000+ CPU
  • AMD Documentation
  • AMD Athlon 64 microprocessor (via CPU World)
  • AMD’s Athlon 64 3000+ processor – Finally, a Hammer without Pentagon pricing (via TechReport)
  • CDRInfo Review
• Antec Earthwatts Power Supply $50
• 2x1GB Memory $35

Built the system out fairly quickly.  A bit baffled by the Lian Li’s drive mounting rails until I realized that the funny looking screws were specialty items meant to mount the HDs snugly into the rails’ grooves.

Initially, I was seeing memtest86+ errors combining the two memory types.  The first sinking thought I had was that I’d gotten bad memory from the craigslist seller but he was kind enough to suggest I tweak my memory timings on the mother board.  Sure enough, the settings from the previous owner weren’t playing nicely with my memory arrangement and a reset to factory defaults had me back in business with no memtest errors.

My next area of interest was loading the 64-bit version of Ubuntu 9.10 desktop.  I was stymied by kernel panics when I ran on the live CD and the odd error message that indicated “this is not a 64-bit CPU” when I tried a full  install.

Perplexed, I reset the BIOS to factory defaults but still saw similar problems loading Ubuntu.

Bad/incompatible memory?  Motherboard issues? CPU issues?

I stumbled down the path of altering BIOS settings and multiple reboots with no positive outcomes.

The handy site at CPU-upgrade.com lists the 3000+ as supported on the Abit AN8 Ultra (alternatively, via Abit).  It also shows the BIOS rev necessary to support the CPU!  I hadn’t considered a BIOS upgrade for the Abit AN8 Ultra board.  Turns out my board was 5 revs behind!  A bootable USB key and flash of the BIOS later, I was in business!  The system boots fine with 64-bit Ubuntu.  Even installed Windows 7, too.

Other notes, discoveries and things to consider if there are further quirks.

• General Protection Faults – Power Supply related?

10a on the 12v rail is not going to allow that system to run. Sorry but you need a new Power Supply that is built to be usable with an A64 system. You must get one that is 18a or higher on the 12v rail. Whoever built that computer should have known better and they should fix it now before it burns up.

• CPU Identification
  • CPU-Z is a freeware that gathers information on some of the main devices of your system.
  • AMD CPU Info Linux Version 3.0.7.118 (64-bit distributions)
  • AMD CPUID
• Other useful AMD utilities