Are there any 8GB Nvme compatiable motherboard

[Doug Clark]

Anyone aware of a motherboard that handles nvme and provides os/2 access to the full 8gb of main memory?

I don't see one on the wiki and was hoping someone has experience with building such a system.

[Dave Yeo]

What do you mean by the full 8GB's? OS/2 is limited to 4GB address space, minus PCI address space. So my system gives,

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Total physical memory:      8,078 MB
Accessible to system:       3,502 MB
Additional (PAE) memory:    4,576 MB
which is as close as your likely to get for memory. It has an Nvme slot, actually 2 including one for wifi, plus 4 SATA ports (one is eSATA).
It's a Lenovo 910s, about 6 years old.

[Dariusz Piatkowski]

What do you mean by the full 8GB's? OS/2 is limited to 4GB address space, minus PCI address space...

Yeah, I'm thinking Doug is looking for a hardware config Dave that allows OS/2 to set aside the max <4GB space it can possibly use, as well as anything above that 4GB mark for ramdisk...heck, I suppose you don't necessairly have to stop at 8GB, but not sure what one might need a bigger ramdisk for.

In comparison to Dave's numbers, here is what my ancient MSI board shows:

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Total physical memory:      8,191 MB
Accessible to system:       3,199 MB
Additional (PAE) memory:    4,992 MB


[ivan]

Hi Doug,

Depends on what processor you want to use.
If you are happy with AMD Ryzen processors then you could look at the MSI B550 A-Pro.  I have one with a Ryzen third gen processor with the built in video.  I have kept it to the 4GB memory that OS/2 can use.  I would suggest that you download the PDF manual for it and check it is what you want - I can't say anything about Intel processors because I stopped using their over priced units when AMD came out with their 486 processor. 

[Dariusz Piatkowski]

Hi Doug,

Anyone aware of a motherboard that handles nvme and provides os/2 access to the full 8gb of main memory?...

What about finding a mb that provides OS/2 with a nice linear memory map (no holes) and using an adapter for nvme chores?

Assuming that the original goal of finding both proves to be a challenge, I am thinking an adapter would be the easier of the two to handle in ad-hoc fasion...I mean as long as the mb provides a nice PCIe x4 (or greater, such as x8 for multiple NVMe drives) you would be good.

[Doug Clark]

Oops - I really meant 4 GB for OS/2 and some more for RAM disk.  Since I think of memory in either 8GB or 16GB units/sticks - I said 8 GB.  I should have said "with a nice linear memory map" - cause that is what I really meant.  I guess I wouldn't oppose a 12 GB ram disk - but 4gb is probably enough.

I am looking for a desktop because I am hooked on using dual monitors - which means SNAP, which means either a built in graphics chip that SNAP supports with 2 outputs, or a desktop so I can use my Radeon x600 PCI card.

ArcaNoae has released a test program that you can run on a perspective computer to see what features/attributes it supports or has.  But I can't realistically take a USB stick into MicroCenter and run it on boxed motherboards. 

Dariusz's idea of an adapter is good - if adapters (PCIe - NVMe) work in OS/2.

But my fear is: everything you can buy now has issues with a non-linear memory map but everything you can buy now has NVMe built it. So I am probably looking at used - not from Microcenter.  < edit - just checked an apparently you can still get the MSI 550A Pro motherboard - so I will be looking at that.  It appears to only have 2 PCIe tiny slots and one large PCIe-x16 slot.  I have seen a PCIe-x1 to PCI adapter so maybe that would work from my serial port card.

[Doug Clark]

Ivan,

Can OS/2 see the full 4gb of memory on your MSI B550A-pro?

[ivan]

Hi Doug,

Yes it sees all 4GB.

A question, what 2 monitors are you using?  I have a 28 inch HDMI 16:10 (1920x1200) which allows my old eyes to see all I need.

[Doug Clark]

I have two run of the mill Dell 27 inch monitors - they aren't even the same exact units but close enough.  Each 1920x1080

I have them hooked up to a  dual-head KVM so that I can share them between multiple computers.  I am using VGA because the Radeon outputs either DVI or VGA and the VGA version of the dual KVM was much cheaper. 

I tried a 49 inch monitor - thinking that I could use the Radeon to drive each half of the 49 inch monitor thought its picuture by picture feature.  But the conversion from VGA to HDMI that the monitor wanted didn't work very well. (I don't think there is a 49 inch that accepts VGA)  And what I discovered is one 49 inch monitor weighs much more than two 27 inchers.  The result being the 49 inch shakes alot when the desk is bumped which doesn't happen with the two 27 inchers.  Plus 27 inch monitors are so cheap now - so I sent the 49 inch back.

[ivan]

It sounds as if you have something like I do - a number of monitors connected to several computers via KVM switches except my KVMs are HDMI/usb units and all the monitors are 16:10 units (the extra height pixels make all the difference).  I am now playing with the idea of connecting the computers that are upstairs to the three monitors on the middle floor to save me having to run up and down two flights of stairs to keep an eye on what is going on.

I had several vga push button KVM switches but decided to go with hdmi auto switching when a new computer comes on line plus the length of hdmi cable is much greater than vga and the switching is by a remote push button unit so the actual switch unit can be tucked out of the way behind the computers.  Any thing to make life easier considering I'm 80 plus.

[Eugene Tucker]

My personal recommendations are the Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (WI-FI) . And the Asrock B550M-HDV.

[Pete]

Hi Doug

This is "on the wiki" and works quite well  https://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php?title=MSI_B450M_PRO-VDH_MAX

After boot and with Seamonkey running this is the output from mem/v

H:\sys\bin>mem /v

Total physical memory:     14,271 MB
Accessible to system:       3,036 MB
Additional (PAE) memory:   11,235 MB

Resident memory:              259 MB
Available virtual memory:   2,827 MB

Available process memory:
  Private low memory:         278 MB
  Private high memory:      1,792 MB
  Shared low memory:          199 MB
  Shared high memory:       1,587 MB


Regards

Pete

[Neil Waldhauer]

I'd recommend any modern PC with a slot for your video card. The CPU can be Intel or AMD. PCie to NVMe adapters work fine with Arca Noae's NVMe driver, but I recommend a newer computer with built-in NVMe support. There are no reasonable modern video choices that have SNAP support.

Using a modern monitor with VGA or DVI is sub-optimal. DisplayPort and to a lesser extent HDMI lead to higher quality video. It would be nice to have a video driver and audio driver that could support DisplayPort and HDMI.