Upgrading Asus P1-AH2 with AMD Athlon 64 X2 5050e

Around mid-May I have upgraded punknix.com server which is a P1-AH2 barebone with the new AMD Athlon 64 X2 5050e. Not only this CPU has a low 45W TDP (review can be find here: [newegg] and [tomshardware]), but also clocked at 2.6GHz. Hence, I expected this CPU can run faster and with cooler temperature than the replaced Athlon 64 X2 4400 2.3GHz. This CPU is the most best suited for my tiny punknix.com server with also runs 3 Xen DomU guests.

the 'cat /proc/cpuinfo' gives me this information:

processor       : 1
vendor_id       : AuthenticAMD
cpu family      : 15
model           : 107
model name      : AMD Processor model unknown
stepping        : 2
cpu MHz         : 2612.100
cache size      : 512 KB
fdiv_bug        : no
hlt_bug         : no
f00f_bug        : no
coma_bug        : no
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 1
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu de tsc msr pae cx8 apic mtrr cmov pat clflush mmx fxsr sse
 sse2 ht nx mmxext fxsr_opt 3dnowext 3dnow pni cmp_legacy extapic cr8_legacy 
 3dnowprefetch
bogomips        : 5225.80
clflush size    : 64
power management: ts fid vid ttp tm stc 100mhzsteps

The most disappointed thing after the upgrade is that I cannot find any update of the BIOS of P1-AH2 (M2N8L motherboard ) to recognize the newest CPUs. So /proc/cpuinfo reports "AMD Processor model unknown". Indeed, the CPU flags returns no "svm" flag. I doubted that would 5050e support hardware virtualization as I thought that all latest AMD CPUs after Pacifica should support SVM. This may be due to "unknown AMD processor" gives wrong report in cpu flags. But when I run a voyage kernel compilation test on DomU guest, it reports:

real	12m24.383s
user	17m2.576s
sys	1m56.547s

which is similar to my expectation. Or, may be SVM does not affect Xen paravirtualzation at all, but only affects kvm.

The sensors programs proved the new chip is COOLER!

k8temp-pci-00c3
Adapter: PCI adapter
Core0 Temp:  +25.0 C
Core0 Temp:  +22.0 C
Core1 Temp:  +27.0 C
Core1 Temp:  +29.0 C

dme1737-i2c-0-2e
Adapter: SMBus nForce2 adapter at 4c00
V5stby:      +0.00 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +6.64 V)   ALARM
Vccp:        +1.18 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +2.99 V)
V3.3:        +3.29 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +4.38 V)
V5:          +4.99 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +6.64 V)
V12:        +11.83 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max = +15.94 V)
V3.3stby:    +3.27 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +4.38 V)
Vbat:        +3.00 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +4.38 V)
CPU_Fan:    2020 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
Fan2:          0 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
Fan4:          0 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
RD1 Temp:      FAULT  (low  = -127.0 C, high = +127.0 C)  ALARM
Int Temp:    +50.7 C  (low  = -127.0 C, high = +127.0 C)
CPU Temp:    +45.0 C  (low  = -127.0 C, high = +127.0 C)
cpu0_vid:   +1.550 V

The fan is running steady 2,000 RPMs at idle and 3,000 RPMs at load. When compare to 3000/5000 RPMs I saw with the old 4400, I am much satisfied. Temperature figures also showed 5050e is 5-10 C degress cooler.