Gradinko SMP 2003, a new SMP build from the 2002 to 2004 era.

Hey all

it has been some time I posted anything new.
As this project goes, well I have been hunting some of these parts for a long time now, so far it's all going well.

The mainboard I buy from a dear friend from here at VA which is masterj85

Furthermore this is just a build log of this system, every time I obtain new arts for it I'll add them in this post, just one post for everything.
around May 24th, with the CPU's & CPU coolers I will try and find some ram as well, but the graphics cards & the sound card are ready as is he case, and needed stand offs many thanks to Karre calling out for that and sending me the needed stand offs, they have not arrived yet, but I will let ya know for sure

first off the name & specs:

Gradinko SMP 2003

Dual AMD AthlonMP 2800+ Barton CPU's @ 2x 2133Mhz, 2x 512KBB L2
4x 512MB PC-2100 ECC Reg HP/Hynix
Gigabyte GA-7DPXDW-P AMD 760MPX chipset
Sapphire Atlantis Radeon X800 XT AGP 256MB 256Bit GDDR3 0448 (Year 2004 - Week 48)
3dfx Voodoo5 5500 PCI Macintosh 64MB Rev.A1 2900 + PC Bios 1.18_DVI
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS
Intel 120GB SATA II SSD Windisk with Sata to ATA-133 Convertor
Samsung 250GB SSD Game disk with Sata to ATA-133 Convertor
Enermax Modu 82+ EG525VE 525Watt PSU with EPS 12V + 24V.
Addtronics 7896A Server Tower from 1999
Compaq S710 CRT monitor , yea it's all I have for now.

Here some pics, things might change here and there but I think this config can work.
Ram wise 2x 1GB or 4x 512MB does that really matter?
PSU wise, if I can find a similar PSU that has enough molex power connectors but SATA as well which one to get and where.
And an Audigy2 ZS Platinum Front panel drive ++ needed data & power cables? this is just optional for now.

Here the Addftronics 7896A Server Tower from 1999 and yes I painted it like this back then as well, 2nd pic shows the Dual P3/EB 1Ghz in it:

Here the mainboard that masterj85 reserved for me, I will buy this on May 245th with the AthlonMP 2800+ CPU's I am very thankful for his help and support this means a lot.
It seems it was recapped with KEMET Low ESR type capacitors as well, it's just beautiful all ways round

Gigabyte GA-7DPXDW-P AMD 760MPX chipset, Masterj85 also made the photo for me, 2nd pic shows the nice spacious area around the sockets, it's friendly for larger type coolers, always a welcoming thing to have around.

Here the main graphics card that I received yesterday:

Sapphire Atlantis Radeon X800 XT AGP 256MB 256Bit GDDR3 0448 (Year 2004 - Week 48)

Here the card after I cleaned it


And here the card after Cleaning it's like new again

3dfx Voodoo5 5500 PCI Macintosh 64MB Rev.A1 2900 + PC Bios 1.18_DVI

Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS

And that is it for now

hmm afaik the X800 XT should work, these cards run very well with WinXP Pro + SP3 butt hey I'll see and will post anything strange too if that happens.

Option B is to swap the X800 XT with the Parhelia and the Parhelia with the X800 XT, there are plenty of options, I think it will all work out just fine.

Well I'll see how it goes I do know thatt he R481 you card and an on die PCI-E Bridge connector as where the R420 does not, so this may explain why it gave you issues, as drivers go I plan to use Omega Drivers 7.12 I ran these with R420's before and things went very well, once the system is running I do get it working I will gaudy update this post and also aid otters that ran in to similar issues.

Finally parts have been arriving, so I decided to start building!

Here all the main parts that arrived the past 2 weeks, ex the graphics cards, USB 2.0 card + front panel, sound card & HDD's

most of these ex the HDD's and the USB 2 card + Front panel I have posted before, but those will be added in this log once the construction of the build takes place.

So I took the 1999 Addtronics 7896A case apart and cleaned every it of it made it like new again!

Here I cleaned the fans as well, left one is before cleaning right one is after cleaning

Here the Gigabyte GA-7DPZDW-P with it'stwo AMD AthlonMP 2800+ Barton CPU's installed as well as it's system ram in the following config:

1024 - 512 - 1024 - 512

So it's neatly divided, also note that it's North bridge look like an AMD K6-2 CPU

Here the rear view of the mainboard, as you can seer there are no CPU Support brackets which later Dual Opteron mainboards did use
2nd pic shows the PCB date & Batch number, 0335D, this mainboard was made in year 2003, during week 35, the letter D seems to describe it's Batch number, which I would think this board was made during it's 4th batch, also this board was made in Taiwan of course as most high end boards came from there.


Here the NB Cooler applied with Noctua NH-1 thermal compound: and some nice shots I took of the GA-7DPXDW-P mainboard:

Here the stand offs I used from Karre to it's mainboard tray, I had to bend a few outwards with my Facom pliers and that worked out nicely, now they fit firmly as well:

Here the mainboard mounted firmly to the maionboard tray's stand offs, it was a perfect fit too, just nice!

Many thanks for helping out finding those Karre

Here the CPU's applied with Noctua NH-1 thermal Compound as well and it's two Acrtic Cooling Silent 2000 Coolers applied:

And here the mainboard in the system, I also added in some expansion cards as well:

Here some nice closeups of this lovely 2CPU build

And here the case neatly together

Here a closeup of the rear view showing it's expansion cards, the PSU is missing as seen in the second shot:

And all what remains now is a PSU that has a 20+ 4 main connector with the 20 pin connector being a separate piece and a 4pin 24V connector pretty much what P4's use.

As for Storage a Seagate Barracuda V 120GB 7200 rpm HDD as main drive and 2x WD Velociraptor 300GB HDD"s using UATA 133 to Sata II 300 convertors or something like that, I'd also need 90 a 100cm UATA-133 flat data cables and if going the Sata II route they would need to be very long as well, just no idea where to find those.

But yea I would like to thank masterj85 for allowing me to reserve the parts I was going to buy from him, I'm glad that worked out greatly
So now I need to save up and find the missing parts and get this system completed.

many thanks for reading

Seeking the PSU & HDD"s now.

Many thanks to tyrannus for helping me out by letting me buuy over two Seagate Barracuda V 250GB 7200.10 rpm HDD's!

Here the system with the two HDD's up tops

The PSU did arrive as well after taking it apart, it all checked out neatly really:

Antec Classic True Power 550:

It seems to be a SeaSonic PSU as well, just branded by Antec as it's product number code matches the info on this page:
https://web.archive.org/web/2019053023…psudb.com/antec

Currently I am just waiting for my package from the UK to arrive with the 2x 90cm Rounded UATA-133 rounded Cables by Akasa, which are these:

Once they arrive I can finally complete the build, so stay tuned for more updates on this build log

Yaaay these arrived fresh from the UK today:

2x Akasa 90cm rounded UATA 133 cables


Now I can finally complete my Dual AthlonMP 2800+ build, once my pains have lessened.

Well after testing the system the X800 XT PE didn't boot even if the power was connected but the Leadtek A400 AGP 128MB DDR works fine as does the V5 PCI Mac.

But the main issue now is that the fan of the second CPU aka CPU1 in this case won't spin even it's connected correctly.

CPU 0 aka the main CPU fan spins fine.
Both CPU's are also detected as well as all the system ram 3072MB of aka 3GB.

m14radu & masterj85 IS there anything I should do to fix this?

thanks.

Here the power cables connects when the Radeon was the main GPU:

And here with the GeForce:

I resetted the bios even did a clear CMOS no go

AWARD Preboot Agent failed also during bootup

I also replaced the CMOS and still no change, if anyone has any idea's would be great..

could be the board, it could bw CPU1 aka 2nd CPU but it does get detected and temps are read from it correctly as well.
Also I removed all ram sticks and the USB card as well as the V5 no go I tested with a Matrox G550 instead of the 6800 AGP and no go either, wonder if it's the board not sure if the PSU might be an issue everything doses get power but yea very weird
in a situation like this I am just questioned.

And the CPU fan does work if plugged in a different fan connector so okay this works I guess

Reinstalling the system without an AGP Card and just he V5 PCI mac, not much hope left for it sadly

Award Preboot Agent Installation Failed

This message also keeps happening after XP install and I Installed the VGA cards black screens appear, either the PSU is the issue or it's the Mainboard Hopefully there will be an answer someday.

Thanks for all the efforts tho

But sadly I don't have any other board where these CPU's will work in, the Header is tightly connected to the board, it's hard to reach as well with my arthritis hands I can't do much with that, building PC's is as painful as it is tbh.

The PSU is surely one of the issues, yet both CPU's were detected in bootup, Bios & WinXP, but every time I reinstall the system it locks up, I don't have money to keep replacing parts, I am 100% disabled so cash flow is extremely low, I collect as well, yet I don't have dupes like most do have here.

So due to anxiety and this unreliable mess, I have stopped working on it, I may even take it apart and ask for a refund, as the mainboard + CPU's + Coolers set goes, it's all too stressful for me in the end, just something I should never of taken part on losing 300 Eur on parts is a 4 month loss for me or even more all depending what else will bother me heh,

Sigh, I never paid for an unreliable non working part, I was told the parts were in good working order, there are times I wish I never went on with this since in the end it's just a waste of coin & time imo.

There are even times that question me that maybe the seller did know this set would be troublesome, but never mentioned it to me before I bought it.... Anxiety & PTSD does that to me, it constantly questions me those things and other probable things, just an other failure in the end on my part.

As for this,:

Second, this error is caused by enabling "Console Redirection" inside BIOS but serial cable is missing. Please reconnect the cable if you intend to use this function or disable it if you don't.

Hmm I didn't see anything related to this in the Bios, it doesn't let me change much sadly.

And no I never tested with 1 CPU, as being a 2CPU board every 2CPU system I built always ran fine with 2CPU's,, but yea I guess I would have to put the slave CPU in the Main Socket see what it does then again if it gets detected I am sure the CPU is fine,a dead CPU will never get detected in the first place so there is that as well.

Also the manual on this mainboard is poor not every part is described in it take J8 for example it is noted in the manual but it can even be switched of 1-2 position to 2-3 for example but no where in the manual explains what J8 Really does and what it is for, Supermicro on the other hand never left any details out.

J8 can be found just under the CPU1 fan header.