Slashdot Mirror

AMD sponsored an entry.

So did Intel

Guys we have all the reviews listed on our main page, and I'm adding more as they come in. It currently totals at 19. Does Hothardware pay Slashdot for these links? ;)

Any info on when they're releasing the OS's (2003/XP). I was reading an article somewhere about the XP-64bit beta release that said the OS would be released to OEM's only and not available as a retail upgrade (sorry can't find the link @ the moment) any info on that? Also here's a blurb about a version of Visual Studio which supports AMD64 also being released someday

In conclusion the Athlon 64 3000+ is one of the best CPUs AMD has never announced. It makes a sub $1,000 system that is 64 bit capable easy to reach, and is able to perform quite admirably even with half of the cache of the other AMD64 CPUs. Will AMD make more 512kb cache Athlon 64s in the near future? How long will Socket 754 continue? Is this 3000+ an overclocker of merit? Stay tuned. For now if you have been craving for a powerful and cheap system with 64 bit onboard then the Athlon 64 3000+ is your CPU. It has no competition in its class, and likely will not for months to come.

Let's see, 1 year since Slashdot has approved a story I've submitted. Let's keep the streak alive! ;) HP shipping Mandrake biz PCs. Who cares!

Thanks guys. We also have the first DDR400 cas 2 benchmarks with Athlon 64 FX. Previously registered DDR400 would only run at Cas 2.5. :) We compare with the same OCZ memory at Cas 2 and Cas 2.5.

So why no link to our reviews. :)

Most definitely, see here for an overclocking starting point. They're also an excellent bang/buck, currently $84usd at Newegg.

Here are some more benchmarks

AMDzone
AnandTech
XbitLabs
Ace Hardware

There are even more at AMDZones main page.

Here are some more benchmarks

AMDzone
AnandTech
XbitLabs
Ace Hardware

There are even more at AMDZones main page.

The via board hinders the opteron. Instead of utilizing both on-chip memory controllers, it only uses one. You can see better results if you added a second set of memory banks for the second opteron to use.

There are more dual boards also including Tyans Thuder K8W. Rumor has it that nvidia will be coming out with a nforce chipset that will support dual opterons also.

Benchmarks
246 Benchmark
Overclocked 246

The via board hinders the opteron. Instead of utilizing both on-chip memory controllers, it only uses one. You can see better results if you added a second set of memory banks for the second opteron to use.

There are more dual boards also including Tyans Thuder K8W. Rumor has it that nvidia will be coming out with a nforce chipset that will support dual opterons also.

Benchmarks
246 Benchmark
Overclocked 246

Not according to AMD: AMD Opteron(TM) Processor All Opterons are made in Germany.

Microsoft pre-beta Windows for AMD64 available(to resellers)

Opteron 246 Overclocking Benchmarks

They also have small form factor AMD systems

First AmdZone say:
Apple claims they have the fastest 64 bit desktop on the planet. We claim they have a pretty fast 64 bit workstation, but Opteron workstations available now seem faster.

To my knowledge there is no Opteron computer or motherboard with an AGP slot, as that will replace my Dual Athlon MP!

From ridiculous to:
Update: My fears about these benchmarks have apparently been valid. This site has plenty of details about how Apple twisted results and crippled the P4 and Xeon scores. You can get the details of the testing here to back it up. If you want to see where I got the SPEC CPU2000 scores then click here.

I'm absolutely dumbfounded that people who should know better are using this tripe as "proof" for their own arguments.

...scores, against Opteron, Athlon, Itanium, Power4, and real SPEC scores for the P4 and Xeon. What I found was a huge gap in peformance. I find it difficult to believe Jobs, and I found that Opteron, a the true first available 64 bit workstation CPU, which is what the Power Mac G5 is, far outperforms it. Of course it has twice the cache, and the same HyperTransport. Many have raised the GCC compiler issue. I say when you benchmark something you use the best available for that platform. Apple did not, and they also did not have the guts to reveal the hardware specs of the P4 and Xeon system they tested. Jobs is smearing the PowerPC970 and Apple because of this. I find that sad, and I feel Apple is better of without him, and needs the clones back.

http://www.amdzone.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1 296

I could swear I've seen this somewhere else today... hmm... yes that would be this article on AMDzone. Take a look at the second page for the SPEC score comparison...

HEXUS reckons a 200MHz front side bus can't hurt. here. There's a picture of a brown semiconductor, also known as the "brains of a computer".

TOM'S HARDWARE has a controversial conclusion about the 3200+ and describes it as a "spineless paper tiger". It thinks the 3200+ is "much too aggressive" and it should be an XP2800+.


SUDHIAN Some crazy looking geek at Sudhian (hi Joel), reckons that AMD is being a little coy with clock speeds while its PR speeds have rocketed skywards.


FIRING SQUAD says AMD's odyssey for the performance crown has been a little more treacherous than Her Indoors, but welcomes the introduction of the 3200+ and the 400MHz bus.


TECH REPORT says there's not much new to report about the 2.2GHz chip apart from the fact that it runs on a 400MHz front side bus. But it reckons that the release is timely. There's a picture of a brown semiconductor which appears to resemble the brains of a computer.


LOST CIRCUITS contrasts the real brown brains of a computer with the hypothetical 3200+ brains of a computer it previewed a month or two ago.


BIT-TECH reckons that AMD's finally released the processor that the 3000+ should have been, denies the site's too pro-Intel, and puts it through its paces. There's a picture of a brown chip which appears to be the brains of a computer.

I stop whoring now, more to be found at amdzone

I'm going to start following your excelent example with my Slashdot comments.

Make money fast! Click here now!

I think it will help to improve the quality of my comments, and bring in more readers.

Your computer is not optimised. Optimise now!

However I'm a little concerned that people may find it difficult to follow my posts if I keep breaking them up with adverts and links.

Naked cheerleaders!

I guess it might also be a problem for users on high latency links.

Get your University diploma. Act now!

Who am I kidding? Fuck um, I'll just milk a single post for 6 page impressions per reader and overload it with adverts, animated GIFs and other shit. All I need to do is work out how to make Slashdot accept blink tags and embedded Flash, I can be just as leet as your site is every day!

Adverts got you down? Want content? Well we can't help!

x86-64 also supports SSE2, fyi. That link's a giant x86-64 FAQ.

Here is a article from AMDZone.

SUNNYVALE, CA-JANUARY 31, 2003-AMD (NYSE:AMD) today announced that the worldwide introduction of its next-generation, 64-bit AMD Opteron(tm) processor for servers and workstations will take place on April 22 in New York City. AMD plans to follow up with the introduction of the AMD Athlon(tm) 64 processor for the desktop and mobile markets in September 2003

Windows XP and Office XP run on the opteron. There was also an article on slashdot a while back about it. Linux ports are definitely in progress, but I don't know if there's anything solid running on 64 bit x86 machines right now.

Is the review like similar reviews from Tom's?

Is Tom's still using Sysmark?

I figured out something was going on over there when Tom's remained silent on the IBM GXP hard drive issue. After that, on visits to the site, something about the reviews just didn't seem right. Now, my suspicions have been confirmed.

Go to AMDZone, click on Search, then use search term "Van" for third hand information on Tom's methods.

Anybody forget the brouhaha happening over at Tom's Hardware? Check Van's site, and a few others. Tom's silence on the IBM GXP hard drive issue woke me up. After that, some of the articles just gave me a funny feel, or smelled like something was wrong. It looks like Van's site, AMD Zone and the Inquirer have confirmed my suspicions.

Go to amdzone, archives, search term---> Van or Van's, and read the sorry state of affairs.

• 
  "Switching gears to Apple will the rumored support of Hammer become a reality. Will Apple finally stop making the same mistakes and port over their OS to Hammer? How will Steve Jobs react to a market full of 64 bit CPUs when all Motorola has is bad yields? Surely this has crossed sweaterman's mind as the race to 64 bit computing accelerates. Will the rumors turn to reality? Again, like Dell, Jobs seems to be the stubborn type, so the likelihood of booting OS X on AMD silicon is far fetched at this time."
  
  

Yeah, and I love the way they correct themselves over at AMDZone -- the above quoted 2 lines are tacked onto the story, which still bears the headline, "Opteron to Support Palladium." If they took the time to add the correction, do you think they coulda stuck a "Not" in that headline?

Sigh.

Update: AMD has contacted The Inquirer and indeed Opteron will not support Palladium. Apparently that was some creative writing on the part of the outfit that posted the story.

The fake palms I've seen in the San Jose/Santa Cruz area aren't so bad. The fake pine tree I saw somewhere was butt ugly. I've known for ages that these things have been being hidden anywhere high, one example being a church getting a nice piece of change for placing one in their belltower.

This must be a slow newsday, for an article like this to come up, though.

Funnier was this about face: Opteron To Support Palladium Had me an anxiety attack for a moment there...

There are several more 2600+ reviews, and these are much better too.
AMDZone.com
Hot Hardware
Tech-Report
Overclockers.com.au
Ace's Hardware
Firing Squad
Hexus
xbit
Anandtech
Van's Hardware
VIA Hardware
The Inquirer

AMDZone wrote a FAQ which was a good read.

AMDZone.com
Technoa.co.kr
Hardinfo.dk
Active Hardware
Ace's Hardware
Lost Circuits
Anandtech
Hexus
VIAHardware

Racksaver also announced a blade server using 132 2200+s in a 7 foot cabinet!

AMDZone.com
Technoa.co.kr
Hardinfo.dk
Active Hardware
Ace's Hardware
Lost Circuits
Anandtech
Hexus
VIAHardware

Racksaver also announced a blade server using 132 2200+s in a 7 foot cabinet!

Quote:
AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced that SuSE Linux AG, one of the world's leading providers of the Linux operating system, has submitted enhancements to the official Linux kernel.

Read the rest here: http://www.amdzone.com/releaseview.cfm?ReleaseID=8 10

I think this is a great device, but I think I've heard about it somewhere before. Oh yeah, now I remember. Timothy, do you remember your previous articles? It's not really news the second and third time. Remember: News for Nerds.

Be sure to check out Chris Tom's ongoing review of the AquaPad over at AMDZone.

--

While I've been waiting for the site to come up I've put up a new site, AquaPAD.org. This site is meant to support the AquaPAD which I am starting to sell now. I'll have the review up here as soon as the server issues are fixed.

He has a whole new web site created specifically for a device he intends to sell. He's linking to it from a page which reviews that same device. What are the odds the review will be objective? "In conclusion, Aquapads thoroughly suck. Click here to buy one from me at a special review-only price..."

AMD Zone sounds like a great site. I'd trust his reviews. Way more so than Tom's or Anandtech or Dan's data. None of those guys has a deeply personal involvement with the hardware in question.

-B

Seriously, look at it. it looks like a very interesting product, with nice specs, but whos gonna buy it? its too big to fit in your pocket, and if you are going to bother to carry it around in case, (as one of its features is its wirelessness) then you might as well carry a full fledged laptop (except that a laptop is heavier). The only use i can see is for someone you really needs a laptop, but can't afford/doesn't want the extras of a laptop, then this would be a good option. But, there arn't many businesses that 1) have a need for lots of people moving around and 2) will take a chance on this product, and businesses are one of their primary targets.

I think the FIC Aquapad blows it away. Midori Linux, wireless, infrared, multimedia support, IBM Microdrive support. I'm kissing my Iopener goodbye.

AMD Zone gives this summary at the end of its review: "No architectural or marketing changes with this release ... expect the previous CPUs to decline in price ... expect a bit higher performance and power consumption."

Anandtech agrees, saying the chip will not offer any significant extra performance over the 1800+, so early adopters need not sweat too much about being left behind. The site believes that AMD is currently the performance leader on desktop processors.

VIAHardware.com reckons users could be just as well off picking up the 1800+ at 1.53GHz and simply overclocking it to 1.6GHz. Users already owning a high-speed XP chip are better off waiting for the next upgrade on the platform to significantly increase performance.

Tech Report has some extensive benchmarking, putting the 1900+ slightly ahead of Intel's P4 2.0GHz in most of them, while SimHQ.com gets very excited about the new chip.

Amdmb.com also has a piece showing the expected five to six per cent performance increase.

There other reviews of this 1.6GHz processor at AnandTech and at AMD Zone and at VIA Hardware. Check them out.

AMD zone also has an update on this story. The most interesting thing (to me) is that they have a 2nd video that show the P4 shuts down. With possible data loss like the modified XP tom was shown in munich.

AMD zone also has an update on this story. The most interesting thing (to me) is that they have a 2nd video that show the P4 shuts down. With possible data loss like the modified XP tom was shown in munich.

This argument is still going on. I wonder why companies resort to this type of tom-foolery. It makes me wonder about the authenticity of all the fan performance guides and papers.

There has to be something more effective that we are overlooking in the processor cooling arena. Water-cooling is neat, but I try to keep my case dry, and the thought of adding a water pump running all the time to my water bill makes me cringe.
I thought peltiers were cool for a while but now I wonder about them as well, with many people saying that they aren't as effective as reported.

I guess the argument goes back to the old "ugly beige box" syndrome, and how its effected the PC industry. I would imagine that there is someone out there that could design a much more effective cooling system if they would drop all of the pre-thought notions that it has to be a box.

Am I overlooking a previous slashdot story?

It seems as if even good old Tom can be bought and sold these days. Damn shame.

Looks like there is even a video of it!

Why would Tom go and report something like that?

It seems as if even good old Tom can be bought and sold these days. Damn shame.

Looks like there is even a video of it!

Why would Tom go and report something like that?

Here's the original Tom's article.

Here's the text of the new article direct from the source:

Thanks to the millions of people who e-mailed me about this.

Do we title this: We TOLD You So!
or do we title it: Maybe we were right about him?
or do we title it: AMD Won't Burn a hole in your wallet, or your motherboard?
or do we title it: AMD Slaps Around Little Tom-Tom? as Van Smith put it?

Well whatever you want to call it, there is a new video out on the internet showing what REALLY happens to an AthlonXP (or MP) when your heat sink falls off, or when your fans fails. Now I'm not saying that Tom Pabst is completely wrong, but let's just say this makes his testing methods look a little 'suspect' at best. Here's a quote from Van Smith:

A video has appeared on the Internet countering a huge dose of FUD my former employer inexplicably dumped on his readership a couple of months back. The new video, with AMD credits all over it, is entitled "How an Athlon(tm) MP 1.2GHz Really Copes with Heat Emergencies." The piece demonstrates the AMD Palomino Athlon subjected to brutal circumstances such as heat sink removal while playing Quake III and boot up attempts when a CPU cooler is not attached. In all scenarios, the Palomino comes out unscathed. A similar though much less thorough test came out with unsurprisingly different results at Tom's Hardware. Ouch! Looks like dispensing bad medicine can result in a mouthful of looser teeth. Good job Ben & Joe, perhaps you can also give THG a crash course in analyzing computer technology.

The video also presents the much more realistic situation when the CPU fan fails. In that case the Palomino continued to play Quake III for several minutes before shutting down. Again the chip was undamaged.

This video may look like it's from AMD, but I'm pretty sure it's not, even if it makes a great case. The original download site appears to be down, so I mirrored it onto AMDZone right here.

Other mirrors: Mirror.

Update: One of our readers e-mailed me to give me his first hand experience with the thermal control capabilities of the AthlonXP:

I installed my amp1800 (sic) with the heat sink rotated 180 deg. and after 3 hours of trying, incessantly, and not being able to boot I found the problem, I rotated the heat sink and all is fine. I must say, I was sweating bullets when I found the problem.

No fried chip, no smell of burned silicon. Looks like the thermal diode is working.

(end article)

~Aaron.

Here's the low down on the dual Athlon. It is incredibly fast for any server or workstation application. Of course the app has to be SMP capable which is why your seeing the new KT266A chipset single CPU system beat it out in some apps, but those are only non SMP capable apps. It is apples and oranges. Yes, I would like to see some chipset improvements to the 760MP. The latency is too high. Perhaps the 760MPX will address some of this. I would very much like VIA to commit to their dual Athlon chipset, but they have not as of yet. Another issue is heat. While they do use the cooler running Palomino core, they are still quite hot for say a 1-2U rack. The shrink to .13 micron early next year will eliminate that issue and should hasten adoption by larger computer makers. For the time being though it is a relatively cheap solution for those who need it, and is a blazingly faster web server for those who know how to set it up. Check out my review for more, my site is still up, and we didn't copy anyones site idea.

Here's the low down on the dual Athlon. It is incredibly fast for any server or workstation application. Of course the app has to be SMP capable which is why your seeing the new KT266A chipset single CPU system beat it out in some apps, but those are only non SMP capable apps. It is apples and oranges. Yes, I would like to see some chipset improvements to the 760MP. The latency is too high. Perhaps the 760MPX will address some of this. I would very much like VIA to commit to their dual Athlon chipset, but they have not as of yet. Another issue is heat. While they do use the cooler running Palomino core, they are still quite hot for say a 1-2U rack. The shrink to .13 micron early next year will eliminate that issue and should hasten adoption by larger computer makers. For the time being though it is a relatively cheap solution for those who need it, and is a blazingly faster web server for those who know how to set it up. Check out my review for more, my site is still up, and we didn't copy anyones site idea.

You are probably better off reading from the site AMDMB copied, AMDZone. They have a review here with more benchmarks and less fluff.