More on CPU specs of the ReadyNAS Pro

I’m not sure how far down the voiding your warranty slippery slope this is as it’s only plugging in a cable and viewing, but I’m lucky it that I have multiple ReadyNAS units at my disposal (and my personal one isn’t getting opened up at all!)

So on the ‘new’ Pro 6 (RNDP6000-200) the motherboard VGA header is in fact a 15pin connector, not a 12pin connector like the old one had. A suitable cable is something like the XFX 15-Pin VGA Ribbon (VGA 15-Pin Female to 15-Pin Female Board Interface) that XFX did as part of their Low-Profile bracket kit.

When you plug in the cable and boot the ReadyNAS up you’ll see it do the BIOS POST check and then load the Linux kernel.

American Megatrends
AMI BIOS(C) 2006 American Megatrends, Inc.
07/26/10 FLAME6-MB V2.0
CPU : Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU E5300 @ 2.60GHz	Speed : 2.60GHz

Press DEL to run Setup (F4 on Remote Keyboard)
Press F11 for BBS POPUP (F3 on Remote Keyboard)
The MCH Is operating with DDR2 800/CL6/Trcd6/Trp6/Tras18
Initializing USB Controllers .. Done.
1023MB OK
USB Device(s): 1 Storage Device
Auto-Detecting AHCI Port 0..Not Detected
Auto-Detecting AHCI Port 1..Not Detected
Auto-Detecting AHCI Port 2..IDE Hard Disk
Auto-Detecting AHCI Port 3..IDE Hard Disk
SATA Port2 <Hard drive model> S.M.A.R.T. Capable and Status OK
SATA Port3 <Hard drive model> S.M.A.R.T. Capable and Status OK
Auto-detecting USB Mass Storage Devices .. 
Device #01 : SMI USB Disk *HiSpeed*
01 USB mass storage devices found and configured

So the POST didn’t really teach us anything we didn’t already know.

At the bottom of the screen until you get past “Initializing USB Controllers” its says

(C) American Megatrends, Inc.
64-****-******-********-******-Broadwater-********-Y2KC

It then disappears once past “Initializing USB Controllers”. I’ve blanked out most of the characters as I reckon they’re a unique identifier.


So the POST isn’t all that conclusive.

Then it’s time for the OS to load

MBR
H

SYSLINUX 3.31 V1.06 Fri Jul 9 18:03:04 PDT 2010
FOUND SMBIOS
Copyright (C) 1994-2005 H. Peter Anvin
02F8
Normal
FactoryDefault
OSReinstall
TechSupport
SkipVolCheck
MemoryTest
TestDisks
Loading
18
1B
To Be Filled By O.E.M.
To Be Filled By O.E.M.
07/26/2010 FLAME6-MB V2.0
To Be Filled By O.E.M.
kernel……………………
Loading initrd.gz……………………
Ready.

So nothing new there either.

If you plug in an USB Keyboard you can press Del to get in the BIOS and take a look around. Be careful not to change anything though!

Once in the BIOS the seven top tabs are “Main, Advanced, PCIPnP, Boot, Security, Chipset, Exit”. At the bottom of the screen on all tabs it says v02.61 (C)Copyright 1985-2006, American Megatrends, in.” I'm not going to post what's in every tab (and I haven't even opened all of them!), but I'll post my edited highlights.


Main Tab
Processor name/Speed, System Memory size, and date/time all as expected.

Version: 08.00.14
Build Date: 07/26/10
ID: ********

I’ve blanked the ID as I think it’s a unique identifier.

Advanced Tab
Hardware Health lists all the voltages which is nice. CPU Configuration is of interest:

Configure advanced CPU settings
Module Version: 3F.17

Manufacturer: Intel
Pentium (R) Dual-Core CPU E5300 @ 2.60GHz
Frequency: 2.60GHz
FSB Speed: 800MHz
Cache L1: 64KB
Cache L2: 2048KB
Ratio Actual Value: 13

Hardware Prefetcher - Enabled
Adjacent Cache Line Prefetch - Enabled
Max CPUID Limit - Disabled
Intel(R) Virtualization Tech - Enabled
Execute-Disable Bit Capability - Enabled
Core Multi-Processing - Enabled
PECI - Disabled
Intel(R) SpeedStep(tm) tech. - Disabled
Intel(R) C-State tech. C1 Config - Standard
Intel(R) C-State tech. C2 Config - Standard
Intel(R) C-State tech. C3 Config - Standard

The meaning of CPU Module Version: 3F.17 could well be significant I reckon.

Chipset
Chipset is divided into NorthBridge and SouthBridge pages.
NorthBridge

DRAM Frequency - Auto
	(533 MHz)
	(667 MHz)
	(800 MHz)
	(1067 MHz)
Configure DRAM Timing by SPD - Enabled
	(Disabled)

The option of setting the memory speed to 1067MHz could well be significant I reckon.

SouthBridge
Doesn't have anything interesting.

That's about everything of interest that I can think of from the BIOS.