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Tiger MP Dual-Processor Motherboard

CtrlPhreak writes: "Anandtech has posted a review of an affordable AMD 760 based motherboard, the Tyan Tiger MP. It's basically the Tyan Thunder K7 without all the integration. For $220, it's a great deal. It has the exact same performance as the Thunder, and it is tested to run fine with those cheap and fast 1ghz durons. They say Tyan is putting out this board to compete with other offerings of a cheap 760 platform, we can only hope."

232 comments

  1. $220 is a cheap motherboard these days? by TechnoVooDooDaddy · · Score: 1

    Damn... $220 for a motherboard? what happened to sub $100 motherboards? geeze, i've been buying DLL too long i guess.

    I was hoping to build an AMD system for $400 or less... but spending $220 on a motherboard ain't gonna get me there..

  2. Go AMD! by JEDi_ERiAN · · Score: 0

    this is great, now that they have cheaper/better/faster processor's than Intel for the desktop, AMD can tap into the server market, where the real money is to be made.

    E.

    --

    -
    This Post has been brought to you by the letter "E".
  3. Re:$220 is a cheap motherboard these days? by Brento · · Score: 2, Informative

    Damn... $220 for a motherboard? what happened to sub $100 motherboards?

    Read the article again. It's a dual-CPU motherboard, meaning you can plug in a pair of Athlons or Durons. Sub-$100 motherboards support a single CPU.

    --
    What's your damage, Heather?
  4. Re:$220 is a cheap motherboard these days? by irksome · · Score: 0, Redundant

    It's a dual-processor motherboard.

    -

  5. Re:$220 is a cheap motherboard these days? by X · · Score: 1

    It's cheap when you consider it's dual-processor using the Althlon's fancy bus. This board has 2x the bandwidth of a single processor board.

    --
    sigs are a waste of space
  6. Re:$220 is a cheap motherboard these days? by JEDi_ERiAN · · Score: 1

    since when does the average pc user need a dual processor system anyway? single processor mobo's can be had for $100. dual processor systems are primarily aimed at server applications.

    E.

    --

    -
    This Post has been brought to you by the letter "E".
  7. Don't get this one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Tiger MP is a sweet mobo. However, AMD will be coming out with a new MP chipset called the 760MPX. The MPX has two distinct improvements. First, registered DDR RAM will not be necessary. Any old DDR RAM will do. Secondly, the MPX will support 66Mhz 64-bit PCI slots.

    1. Re:Don't get this one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why does the Tiger MP feature 4 DDR slots, but claim only a max memory of 3GB? What am I missing here?

    2. Re:Don't get this one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because Tiger MP supports 6 banks of memory, not 8. So if you use memory with two banks per DIMM (as most very large DIMMs are), you can only use 3 of those 4 DRR slots.

    3. Re:Don't get this one by geekwin · · Score: 1

      It can be due to you can use non registered DDR RAM at the first two slots with registered DDR RAM at the rest?

    4. Re:Don't get this one by Telastyn · · Score: 1

      wait... the Tyan Thunder can support the 66mhz 64bit PCI already. and the Tiger can support normal old DDR (though only 2)

      Do you guys even read the articles?

    5. Re:Don't get this one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does that mean I can't use 4 256MB DIMMs, or are those single banks?

    6. Re:Don't get this one by AsylumWraith · · Score: 1

      More than likely, you have 4 chips, each with 2 banks of 128 MB each, so you're shit out of luck. You'll only be able to use three of those chips.

    7. Re:Don't get this one by aeroleous · · Score: 1

      No it can't. Read the original AnandTech article. The Thunder has 5 slots that are 64 bit x 33 Mhz. The main problem with using 66 Mhz slots is that they're not backwards compatible - in fact, they don't even have the same plastic recesses so you can't fit a 33 into a 66 slot.

    8. Re:Don't get this one by DnemoniX · · Score: 1

      The Tiger comes with 4 or 5 64 Bit PCI slots already.

    9. Re:Don't get this one by hawk · · Score: 2
      sure. like the article said, it won't post when you do this. BUt go ahead if you want to :)


      hawk

    10. Re:Don't get this one by ncc74656 · · Score: 2
      wait... the Tyan Thunder can support the 66mhz 64bit PCI already.
      Bzzt...it does support 64-bit PCI, but not at 66 MHz. The 760MP doesn't support 66-MHz PCI.
      Do you guys even read the articles?
      Pot. Kettle. Black.
      --
      20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
    11. Re:Don't get this one by Z4rd0Z · · Score: 1
      What's the problem with registered ram? At Crucial, 256 megs of registered ram for this motherboard costs $40 US. That's the same as for unregistered.

      And, having researched this board before, I know it has 4 64 bit pci slots.

      --
      You had me at "dicks fuck assholes".
    12. Re:Don't get this one by Z4rd0Z · · Score: 1

      Oops, I didn't see where he said 66Mhz pci slots. My bad.

      --
      You had me at "dicks fuck assholes".
    13. Re:Don't get this one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At 33MHz, not 66.

    14. Re:Don't get this one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Anand got it to work with regular RAM, but I want to see it written in the manual. If Tyan doesn't explicitly say it will work, it's all just luck and my money will be better spent on things that are guaranteed to work.

  8. How are the drivers for it? by dave-fu · · Score: 1, Insightful

    And the stability?
    Or: is it based off of the Via chipset? That bleeping chipset seems to be in eternal beta.
    The stability of the motherboards is, IMHO, the biggest thing keeping AMDs out of the server room. Admins don't give a damn about overclocking the CPUs, they want rock-solid performance and to not have to futz around with 8000 BIOS settings.

    --
    Easy does it!
    This comment has been submitted already, 276865 hours , 59 minutes ago. No need to try again.
    1. Re:How are the drivers for it? by MrWood · · Score: 1

      It's based on the 760 MP chipset from AMD. Desigen by and for AMD chips. Stability? time will tell.

    2. Re:How are the drivers for it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >And the stability?
      >Or: is it based off of the Via chipset? That
      >bleeping chipset seems to be in eternal beta.
      >The stability of the motherboards is, IMHO, the
      >biggest thing keeping AMDs out of the server
      >room. Admins don't give a damn about
      >overclocking the

      Dork,

      Did you even bother to read the link? Geez!

    3. Re:How are the drivers for it? by SlamboS · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I have the Thunder K7 and I haven't had one problem with stability yet. I haven't had a problem in over a month so far, running Windows 2000. I'm running 2x Athlon MP @ 1.2GHz. I'm really happy with this machine. It really heats up the room, though. I have 5 extra case fans and the ones in the back blow out very hot air. That's the only downside to it so far.

      --
      Today is the closing of a parenthesis opened before this sig, before this story, before this existence that is me (as if
    4. Re:How are the drivers for it? by DnemoniX · · Score: 1

      Tyan is recognized as making the best server motherboards on the market, that is why they have the exclusive rights for one year to make SMP Athlon boards. They have an excellent reputation for stability. I have been running a Thuinder K7 since they came out, and it just plain rocks.

    5. Re:How are the drivers for it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Stability is A+

      Drivers are A+

      Board is not based off Via in the least. AMD Northbridge and AMD Southbridge.

      Mine performs most excellently.

    6. Re:How are the drivers for it? by Halo5 · · Score: 1

      I've had a dual Athlon Redhat 7.1 system running for about two months now, without a reboot. Stability is not a problem (at least not with a well-cooled Enlight 8950 server case and an approved power supply).

      Another nice thing about the Tyan Thunder mobo is that all the onboard chipsets are supported in Linux. RH 7.1 installs beautifully, and picks up all hardware!

      --
      665: The mark on the forehead of Satan's slightly less evil brother, Stan.
    7. Re:How are the drivers for it? by main() · · Score: 1

      > they want rock-solid performance and to not have to futz around with 8000 BIOS settings.

      ... if this is the case, Compaq seem to be winning against all odds with their (damned) BIOS on a disk.

      Si

    8. Re:How are the drivers for it? by anandrajan · · Score: 1

      I have the Thunder K7 with linux (red hat 7.1 SMP) on it and it is just great. The vendor Net Express (http://www.tdl.com/~netex) who put it together for me did an outstanding job in terms of cooling. Anyway, be careful installing large amounts of memory on this machine. I wanted 2GB DDR 2100 RAM and Net Express had a lot of trouble early on with data corruption in memory. Finally, they got it working with x4 chips (x4 refers to the number of bits per bank: http://www.tdl.com/~netex/ram/ram.html) instead of x8 chips because the latter was slowing the bus down. So, if you're thinking of putting together a server using the Tyan Thunder K7 board, double and triple check for memory corruption.

      Anand

      --
      Anand Rangarajan anand@cise.ufl.edu
  9. Re:$220 is a cheap motherboard these days? by curtS · · Score: 1

    Get an ECS K7S5A mobo for $70. SiS735 chipset, stable, best deal in town. I've built two boxen with 'em. See Tom's Hardware here or the AnandTech forum here.

  10. ASUS and MSI first 760MPX motherboards by geekwin · · Score: 5, Informative

    We have photographs of the new Asus and MSI 760MPX mobos.

  11. RAM . . . by Kaiser+Sose · · Score: 1

    Great price for an apparently awesome board, but I dont really wanna pay the extra for the Registered Ram . . .

    Looks like I've now got something to save my paychecks for :)

    --
    "All that we see and seem is but a dream within a dream." --Edgar Allen Poe
    1. Re:RAM . . . by greenfly · · Score: 2, Informative
      Apparently you only need the registered RAM if you are going to use more than 2 Memory banks, the article says more about it. It apparently has to do with electrical load on the memory bus. The Anandtech review has this to say:

      The Tiger MP keeps the 4 DIMM slots of the Thunder K7 which is a good thing since efficiency in higher end applications is not only governed by CPU and platform performance, but memory size as well. This also forces it to keep the registered DDR SDRAM requirement, but only if more than two banks are populated. If you only install two modules then you should be fine with regular DDR SDRAM (provided that it has no specific compatibility issues with the Tiger MP). During our tests we ran the board with Corsair Registered DDR SDRAM modules and the same Crucial unregistered DDR SDRAM we use in all of our other tests. As long as only two slots were filled, the stability was identical and the performance was roughly the same (the unregistered modules are theoretically faster but that doesn't translate into any tangible performance gains). When more than three unregistered DIMMs were installed the system would not POST; and adding a third registered DIMM to a set of two unregistered DIMMs would not boot either.
    2. Re:RAM . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      w0w.

      You have to pay less than $4.00 more per 256MB DIMM for registered vs. non-registered ECC PC2100 DDR @ Crucial.com. And it's just $7.00 more per 256MB DIMM for registered ECC vs non-party PC2100 DDR DRAM.

      You cheap-ass!

    3. Re:RAM . . . by Tower · · Score: 2

      Well, the price premium for 512MB DIMMS is a little sharp, but for the 256MB modules, the premium is minimal... and I'm one of those crazy guys who actually believes in ECC memory, too (after tracking some statistics... it is amazing what a noisy supply can do).

      (for PC2100 - heck, these are so cheap now anyway)
      256MB - $27 plain / $40 reg&ECC
      512MB - $87 plain / $111 reg&ECC

      --
      "It's tough to be bilingual when you get hit in the head."
  12. Why would I need 2 Athlons? by SpanishInquisition · · Score: 5, Funny

    One is quite enough to heat up my appartment during the coldest winter nights. That motherboard is for someone with a big house or something.

    --
    Je t'aime Stéphanie
    1. Re:Why would I need 2 Athlons? by arkanes · · Score: 1

      When I'm hacking late at night and it's really cold, I stick my toes on the power supply for modem, and hang my legs over the my (open) case. Keeps me toasty.

    2. Re:Why would I need 2 Athlons? by Pope · · Score: 2

      You apparently don't live in Canada :)
      Damn, my G4 sure won't keep me warm, I gotta leave this 19" monitor on all the time...

      --
      It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
    3. Re:Why would I need 2 Athlons? by SpanishInquisition · · Score: 1

      I fact I do

      --
      Je t'aime Stéphanie
    4. Re:Why would I need 2 Athlons? by Bonkers54 · · Score: 1

      As funny as you think this might be, the ambient temperature in my room after I got one of these is like 80F and I had to install an extra fan in my room just to keep the temperature down.

  13. Re:$220 is a cheap motherboard these days? by brad3378 · · Score: 1

    The version with Onboard Ultra160 SCSI costs about $100 more, But IMHO still seems reasonable considering this board has two 10/100 NICS supports 3 gigs of DDR, and has tons of other features.

    I've been keeping an eye on this board at Pricewatch.com, but unfortunately the price hasn't been dropping nearly as fast as other computer stuff.

    --

  14. And this one uses a standard PS by greenfly · · Score: 5, Informative

    Nice thing about this board in comparison with Tyan's other AMD MP offerings is the fact that you can use a standard ATX power supply. Tyan's previous boards required that you purchase a proprietary 450W power supply. They recommend at least 300W, though. I'm running one of these right now with a single 1.2 Palomino on the 300W PS that came with my In-Win Q500N with no problems as of yet. While it can handle a standard power supply now, Tyan still recommends that you use Registered PC2100 RAM for it. I was able to find 256M for around $50 or so.

    I recommend Einux Systems if you are looking for a place to purchase a motherboard processor combo for this board.

    Before this board came out I was going to go for a dual PIII 1Ghz system, but since that type of processor is always going to stay at 1Ghz, I figured it was worth the extra money to be able to upgrade this board to wherever the Palomino chipset ends up (from what I've heard it the chipset should be able to scale up to 2Ghz or so).

    There are supposed to be other boards released by Abit, MSI, etc. in the next month or two that will be even cheaper, but if you are like me and couldn't wait (and aren't planning on overclocking your system) then this board is a good choice.

    1. Re:And this one uses a standard PS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I just purchased this motherboard/cpu combo from Einux Systems.. they shipped it ground for very cheap and I got it in 4 business days. I have yet to boot it up (waiting for Heatsinks to arrive), but it is all ready in the case.

      From all the reviews this is a good motherboard for those who want a stable platform to run a dual system. I couldn't wait any longer either.. my sister needs a computer and she is getting my old one.

      I will be using a 365W PS to power this and all my extras (6 hard drives). Here is an overview of my new system.

      Dual Athlon 1.2Ghz MP (Swifttech MC370-0A heatsink)
      Tyan Tiger MP Motherboard
      Geforce2 GTS 64MB
      512MB ECC Registered RAM from Mushkin
      SB Live! Gamer
      Sony 19" G420S monitor
      Seagate IDE 40GB 7200RPM Drive
      5 Ultra-160 10K SCSI Drives 36GB Drives (SW Raid5)
      5 bay Hotswap drive enclosure for the SCSI Drives (Enlight Corp)
      Enermax FS-710BB Case 5 Fans Built-in
      Enermax EG365P-VE Dual Fans
      Adaptec 29160 SCSI card
      Intel 10/100 NIC

      -Tank
    2. Re:And this one uses a standard PS by mach-5 · · Score: 2

      Yes, but the specs call for the 5V to be able to kick out at least 30A. I don't know if this can happen with a "standard" supply. Anyone who knows more about power supplies wish to comment on the current capability of the 5V node?

    3. Re:And this one uses a standard PS by steven_r · · Score: 1

      30A @ 5V should be fairly easy for all power supplies to handle.

      Voltage * current = Power
      5v * 30 A = 150 Watts

      Steven

    4. Re:And this one uses a standard PS by ncc74656 · · Score: 3, Informative
      Yes, but the specs call for the 5V to be able to kick out at least 30A. I don't know if this can happen with a "standard" supply. Anyone who knows more about power supplies wish to comment on the current capability of the 5V node?
      You'll need to check the specs for your particular power supply. For instance, the Enermax EG365P-VE that I'm currently using is rated for 32A on both +3.3 and +5. If you have one of the "name-brand" power supplies, tracking down specs for it shouldn't be too difficult.
      --
      20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
    5. Re:And this one uses a standard PS by mach-5 · · Score: 2

      Yes, but that would imply that the 5V node sucks up at least half of the power. That is a lot considering there are also 12V and 3.3V nodes as well to use the remaining 150W.

    6. Re:And this one uses a standard PS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Do you mod people with whom you disagree as trolls/flamebait/offtopic? You will be meta-modded accordingly.

      That's what (-1, Overrated) is for. No metamoderation, but you still get to mod down the idiots.

      ~~~

  15. Tyan 2460, nice but picky by MadCow42 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I ordered one of these a few weeks ago, and unfortunately it arrived "Dead On Arrival".

    I've been talking to a lot of other 2460 owners, and everyone is impressed, but everyone agrees that it can also be a very picky board.

    There's been many reports of memory related problems, specifically with some brands of memory. The consensus so far is that Corsair memory has been the most reliable.

    Once it's up an running though, there's been nothing but raving reviews.

    MadCow... anxiously awaiting my replacement mobo...

    --
    I used to have a sig, but I set it free and it never came back.
    1. Re:Tyan 2460, nice but picky by exodus2 · · Score: 1

      I have one running as a server for a small non-profit I volunteer for, It has 2 256k non reg ram and 2 1.2 non mp processors in a 65 dollar case, it runs great and has not had any problem. Its running axon linux

      --
      .sigs suck, thus nothing here.
    2. Re:Tyan 2460, nice but picky by Guns+n'+Roses+Troll · · Score: 0

      So you have 512 kilobits of RAM? Jesus, how could you afford it?

    3. Re:Tyan 2460, nice but picky by Kraphty · · Score: 1

      I had no problems with the board being picky. I ordered my RAM straight from Crucial and it worked just fine.

      The only problem I had was the fact that one of my processors arrived DOA, so currently my Dual Athlon board is running only one Athlon.

      --


      Watch out, or I'll have the penguins eat you.

      Oh...and, I'm liquid talent
    4. Re:Tyan 2460, nice but picky by MindStalker · · Score: 1

      Sad thing is, I bet that if you tried to find 512kb/8KB ram you would pay alot of money, cause I'm sure whatever collecter had it wouldn't let it go for cheap.

  16. Whole article link by [amorphis] · · Score: 3, Informative

    Get the whole article in one shot with the Print Article link.

  17. check specs first by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As always,
    before you buy, make sure you know what you're getting into.

    This is a Kick-butt MoBo, but supposedly requires a 460 watt power supply!

    Also, (I may be wrong), I thought that this board required the more expensive AMD "MP" processors.
    Somebody here claimed it can run on Durons, but like a lot of what I read on the internet, I'm somewhat sceptical.

    1. Re:check specs first by Penguinoflight · · Score: 1

      The Latest Duron 1ghz is based on the palomino core, and of course would be able to run on this motherboard. But in theory any socket a Processor should work, because they all have SMP support. The thing is though, the major "extra" cost lies in these "Cheap" motherboards (they were $500 at first). Athlon MP 1.2ghz will only run you about $50 more than a regular one, and the MP seems to be more overclockable. Mostly we need cheaper dual processor motherboards for a really good Athlon system. I still want a VIA chipset on one of these. Via rulez.

      --
      "And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
      1 John 4:14
  18. Re:$220 is a cheap motherboard these days? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've built two boxen with 'em.

    when you say boxen instead of boxes it doesn't make you sound cool, it makes you sound like an idiot who's trying to sound cool. just give it a rest.

  19. Registered DDR is not a handicap. by Shivetya · · Score: 5, Informative

    256Mb dimms are only $7.00 dollars more than their unregistered brethern. Checking crucial's site confirmed the cost really is not an issue

    This looks the motherboard I was waiting for, as I don't need all the bells the previous offering had, let alone the price tag.

    Granted a 64bit/66mhz bus chipset is coming out, but for those to whom this board appeals to most likely won't need the 66mhz PCI.

    --
    * Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
  20. Tyan troubles. by Futurepower(tm) · · Score: 2


    I've had trouble with getting tech support from Tyan. I've also had trouble with their manuals not being complete.

    --
    Bush's education improvements were
    1. Re:Tyan troubles. by ithink2 · · Score: 1

      Buy your mobo's locally. I quit buying mobo's thru the Net a few years ago for just that reason. Mobo makers give crappy support. So I found a local store owned by two brothers and they get all my mobo business. If they don't stock it, they'll order it. And their service is great. Sure, I pay a little more, but it is well worth it. How much is peace of mind worth to you? ;)

      --
      What, me worry? - Alfred E. Neuman
    2. Re:Tyan troubles. by Pituritus+Ani · · Score: 1

      Uh, yeah. I'm certain that Sanjeet or Chen at the screwdriver shop will support you 100% since you bought the board at retail, taking it back if you have intermittent stability problems. Not.

      --

      Another proud carrier of the $rtbl flag

  21. (Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by SexPig · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've used AMD processors and would've bought AMD when I upgraded my machine 5 mos ago if the SMP capabilities were there but I'm not so certain now after the Tom's Hardware review. In the review (posted on /.) it demonstrated heatsinks being removed from the CPU while in operation. Both the PIII & PIV survived but the Athlons fried up with one taking the motherboard with it.

    I think we all use Linux for it's across the board stability so why not apply those high expectations to the hardware we put in those boxes? I for one think that I may not be purchasing AMD until they address the fact that the heat monitoring system that works for a fan-failure should also work for aa heatsink begin dislodged. Else you may find yourself out the $$ for a processor as well as the cost of your kick-ass Tyan mobo.

    --
    "...and generally behaved in a manner one can only describe as despicable." - February 27 2001, Michael Sims
    1. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by RollingThunder · · Score: 5, Insightful

      In related news, a test of automobile engines showed poor design, as they all seized when the oil was drained out while they were running...

      Sure, the TBirds cook off without a heatsink. However, you can get two, maybe three, TBirds for the price of one PIV, and they'll still kick it's ass. ESPECIALLY in multiprocessor systems.

      So, do you want that safety limiter on your speed, in the bizarre case that your heatsink FALLS OFF, or do you really want to floor it?

    2. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by pcgamez · · Score: 2, Funny

      and if you don't throw your case across the room, you will not have that problem...

      I think too many people are taking that test too seriously...so what if it fries it...then put the dang thing on right in the first place!

    3. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by Sleepy · · Score: 2

      >In the review (posted on /.) it demonstrated heatsinks being removed from the CPU while in operation. Both the PIII & PIV survived but the Athlons fried up with one taking the motherboard with it.

      Yes, but that's a *catastrophic* failure. Heatsinks are not moving parts and generally don't fail.

      Now, Fans DO fail, but then in that case the temperature increase is much more gradual and the chipset or software can power off the box in time.
      Even in a 1U box, you have good directional airflow so I would expect it not to fry.

    4. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by SexPig · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If a result of the seized engine was a fire that took out pedestrians it would not be acceptable. I had a faulty mobo catch on fire once and it made me nervous to leave my box up n' running at home while at the office (was the sound chip from a Dell system).

      Also, an oil light in the car notifies you when oil is low (like CPU hot notification) but a car does not usually idle unattended whereas a computer does.

      Finally, the feature exists in one brand but not the other (Athlon vs Pentium) so I don't find your analogy convincing.

      If you insist on car analogies, though, I'll take the Volvo, sir!

      --
      "...and generally behaved in a manner one can only describe as despicable." - February 27 2001, Michael Sims
    5. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by Looge+Over+All! · · Score: 0

      I suppose I must explain the other poster's point for the extremely slow witted among us.

      The point of the analogy was that all the oil in your engine will not spontaneously and instantaneously drain out while you are driving along, just as a steroid pumped German bloke with a screwdriver and a pair of pliers will not open up your computer after it's been running for half an hour and laboriously pry off your CPU cooler.

      It was an absurd test which has left a huge number of readers wondering about Tom's sanity and whether it's related to the renewal of the ad contract with Intel on his site.

    6. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by SexPig · · Score: 1

      The review specifically stated that the heatsink could not firmly attach to the motherboard due to space restrictions. In addition, I have had heatsinks dislodge from the CPU; I don't recall throwing the box but being a geeky-type guy I frequently go into my box, swap hardware, etc.

      I didn't say the CPUs were faulty; I simply stated that *I'm* not buying them if there's a risk of the mobo going up in flames just because my dog may have knocked the case over.

      --
      "...and generally behaved in a manner one can only describe as despicable." - February 27 2001, Michael Sims
    7. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can you guarantee that the heat sink won't fall off? Is the method of securing the heat sink stable or is it a piece of metal secured by bending the metal over two tabs? Do you crack open the case and check everything EVERY time the computer is moved?

    8. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For a server, the PIV way is the best; it keeps running.

    9. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by doppleganger871 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Heatsink Installation 101:

      1. Clip heatsink/fan unit onto socket.
      2. Look to make sure it's on properly.
      3. Power up, check fan, put case back together.
      4. Do not drop, kick, throw, or abuse the computer.
      5. Molecular reconstrucion of the spring-clip is not recommended. This may cause it to fall off.

      (Ah, nevermind, i'm going too far here.)

      Dude, i have never had any heatsink fall off my CPU. If I did, then I deserve to buy another CPU. Sheesh at $110 or so, a 1.4GHz Athlon is disposable.

    10. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by Jburkholder · · Score: 1

      >then put the dang thing on right in the first place!

      For those that build their own machines, no doubt.

      For those that buy...

      Had a case just the other day of someone I work with losing their machine from this. Was a store-bought system (hey, not everyone builds their own) and the thing fried after being moved to a new house. When she plugged it in and started it up at the new place, it halted during bootup and refused to even get past the bios post. Now it shows no signs of life at all.

      Guess what - AMD with the heatsink fallen off.

      The thing is out of warranty and she is screwed.

    11. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by doppleganger871 · · Score: 1

      No, I don't check it every time I move the computer, because I don't drop the thing. It takes a bit of prying to get the damn clip off, i'm sure it's not gonna change its mind.

      Plus, I can hear the heatsink go THUNK if it hits something inside because it's no longer attached.

    12. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So throw away the dog

    13. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by Sleepy · · Score: 2

      >Can you guarantee that the heat sink won't fall off? Is the method of securing the heat sink stable or is it a piece of metal secured by bending the metal over two tabs? Do you crack open the case and check everything EVERY time the computer is moved?

      I'll assume you didn't know about the "mounting holes" around each socket. AMD motherboards and heat sinks actually mount the heatsink to the montherboard, so your heatsink can't damage the motherboard. I believe Pentium 4 boards have this now (not certain about Intel because I don't care -- the P4 chip costs more than an entire Athlon-based system, and is not any faster!)

      Try reading the specs sometime.
      And there are no guarantees in life - not from AMD, Intel, Microsoft, or Linux.

    14. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by RollingThunder · · Score: 2

      How many servers are subjected to shocks that will make the heatsink FALL OFF?

      None. Unless you're in an earthquake zone, and then I rather suspect you have more important things to worry about.

      Spend five bucks more, get a decent HSF with more than one clip per side, and you never need worry about this ludicrous situation, even if you regularly lug your system to LAN parties.

    15. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, spend 80 bucks on a new processor and heatsink and install it. It's not like you have to buy a whole new machine.

    16. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by RollingThunder · · Score: 2

      True, all analogies fall apart in one way or another....

      The other replier got it, though. It's a completely unrealistic problem for a HSF to completely fall off, unless it's poorly made (one clip per side), the nubs on the CPU mount are weak, AND the box is subjected to a severe jolt, enough to make the HSF rip off.

      As I said before, you can choose to limit your performance in fear of such a situation, that's the benefit of multiple processor makers. I think it's a ludicrous concern, and am glad for the extra performance, especially in SMP conditions (yes, I admin a SMP TBird, specifically an APPRO 1124 1U dual tbird, http://www.appro.com - and it's mindblowingly fast).

      Also, that chip of yours is just as you said - faulty. Doesn't matter for PIV vs TBird, any subcomponent is as (un)likely to fail on either brand's mobos. Nobody ever said life was safe. :)

    17. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by GrenDel+Fuego · · Score: 2

      Also, an oil light in the car notifies you when oil is low (like CPU hot notification) but a car does not usually idle unattended whereas a computer does.

      Most new motherboards have temperature monitoring. Many bioses also let you have the machine power off automatically if the temerature reaches a particular amount.

      With OS support of the temperature monitoring and the ability to lower clock speed, you can also do fun things like reduce the speed of your processor to cool it down when it starts getting too hot.

    18. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by jerrytcow · · Score: 2, Informative

      In the review (posted on /.) it demonstrated heatsinks being removed from the CPU while in operation. Both the PIII & PIV survived but the Athlons fried up with one taking the motherboard with it

      Who would do this??? There's even a warning sticker on Athlons and Durons that specifically states not to operate without a heatsink.

      As far as being dislodged, I've never heard of that in normal operation, but if you're overly paranoid, you could get a HSF that screws into the motherboard like the mc462 from swiftech. It uses the four screw holes present on all socket A motherboards.

      They show a "crash test" where they repeatedly dropped a case off the roof of a one story building. The HSF did not come off.

    19. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by dr_db · · Score: 1

      Of course, software throttling has no bearing if the monitor cannot keep up. Which was pointed out in the article - the diode in the pally could not follow the speed.

      The the guy who complained about TIP throttling his machine - buy a fucking heatsink then.

      Any yes, I have knocked the fan off my cpu by turning my chair around and bumping (ok, slamming) the case. Of course, the 533's don't explode in 1 second, and MBM shut it down for me.

      Moot point to me - my next system is going to be athlon, 99.9999% sure it will be dual. I just dread the via chipset tho.

    20. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by ncc74656 · · Score: 2
      I didn't say the CPUs were faulty; I simply stated that *I'm* not buying them if there's a risk of the mobo going up in flames just because my dog may have knocked the case over.
      Hmm...how about locating your computer such that your dog can't knock it over? Never mind what might happen if the processor heat sink fell off (not likely anyway, if it's properly installed); your computer's hard drive is not likely to be happy with that kind of treatment, especially if it's spun up when the computer is knocked over. One of mine is in a closet (where every server belongs); the others are either sandwiched between the desk and the printer stand, stacked next to the desk, or on top of the desk.
      --
      20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
    21. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by Dukrous · · Score: 0, Flamebait
      Me and a buddy at work discussed and came up with two things:

      If a heatsink/fan falls off your CPU while in operation, get out of computers. If you can't installa heatsink correctly you are a dangerous individual who should be restricted to installing AOL for people.

      I think the CPU cooking would be just one part of the catastrophe. Think about...heatsink falls off. You now have a hunk of metal the size of your fist falling into your box. Along the way, what could it hit? Dislodge the wrong capacitor, fry your video card by connecting the wrong solder points, cook the motherboard through the same process. If the heatsink falls off and only the CPU cooks, consider yourself lucky that you're only out $100.

    22. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by MindStalker · · Score: 1

      Just curious, what do you dread about via chipsets? I hear the new 266A is freaken awesome (can't buy it yet though :(

    23. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by MentlFlos · · Score: 1

      I have 2 dual tyan boxes both with via chipsets (one PIII box, and one this board with 1.2mps in it).

      They are rock solid in linux.

      -paul

    24. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by MentlFlos · · Score: 1
      I'll assume you didn't know about the "mounting holes" around each socket. AMD motherboards and heat sinks actually mount the heatsink to the montherboard, so your heatsink can't damage the motherboard.



      Too bad this board dosen't have these holes.


      I'm serious.. I bought the damn thing and all my watercooling gear only to find out that I needed to buy different clips for the waterblocks because the holes aren't there. At least the place I got my stuff from [(plug) BeCooling http://www.aquastealth.com (/plug)] was nice enough to take it back for credit.


      -paul

    25. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by MentlFlos · · Score: 1
      It uses the four screw holes present on all socket A motherboards.

      BZZZZZZT
      this board does NOT have these holes. I purchased all my watercooling gear with the assumption that it had them but imagine my surprise when it showed up and I tried to build it.

      (plug) BeCooling (http://www.aquastealth.com) (/plug) is the place where I got all my cooling gear.He was nice enough to exchange my clips to the more "standard" socket-lug version

      -paul

    26. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The EPOX 8KTA3 has the holes..tho Ive never needed them.

    27. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by pcgamez · · Score: 1

      "The review specifically stated that the heatsink could not firmly attach to the motherboard due to space restrictions."

      Granted, I have dealt with motherboards that were a somewhat tight fit (including my curent), but how could a heatsink NOT fit firmly in place? There are 2 verticle clips (well 1, but 2 ends) that attach vertically with only about .1-.25 inch outward curve.

    28. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by pcgamez · · Score: 1

      "So, spend 80 bucks on a new processor and heatsink and install it. It's not like you have to buy a whole new machine."

      It usually taked both the processor and motherboard out when it fries...

    29. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by morgue-ann · · Score: 1

      How many servers are subjected to shocks that will make the heatsink FALL OFF?

      None. Unless you're in an earthquake zone, and then I rather suspect you have more important things to worry about.


      I live less than 10 miles from the San Andreas and I'm more worried about an Athlon burning my house down than an earthquake knocking it down.

      The house sits on steel reinforced concrete piers that go more than 15 feet into the sandstone, the house is bolted to the foundation and the framing has shear panels attached. The gas lines to the water heater and furnace are flexible so when the inertia of 30 gallons of water resists shaking, it won't snap the line.

      We're less careful about the contents of the house, so an earthquake will give us fish on the floor swimming in shards of vases and my CRT. That should be about it, though. I hope if the computer falls over, though, that it doesn't cause a fire!

      What Tom's Hardware didn't show is what the PC looks like 10 minutes after the heat sink is removed. Does the thermal runaway eventually burn itself out?

      I wouldn't be worried about my PC being dead after an earthquake, but I'd rather it not take anything with it.

    30. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by pcgamez · · Score: 1

      "Had a case just the other day of someone I work with losing their machine from this. Was a store-bought system (hey, not everyone builds their own) and the thing fried after being moved to a new house. When she plugged it in and started it up at the new place, it halted during bootup and refused to even get past the bios post. Now it shows no signs of life at all. "

      Granted, it may happen, but other crazy things happen too. This something that happens less than .001% of the time and people are basing their purchase off of 1 characteristic.

      So yes, the feature of the Intel chip might have prevented this from happening in this case, but its not something that happens often.

    31. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by sjames · · Score: 2

      I have one of the early Thunder K7s on my desk with the case off, another system stacked on top. It has been moved from office to office (with the stacked unit), and generally abused for a couple of months. The heatsinks (not even intended for K7) show no sign of coming off.

      The thermal shutdown/throttle is nice, but to me, the higher performance and better price/performance is more than worth foregoing the thermal protection.

    32. Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast by sjames · · Score: 2

      Can you guarantee that the heat sink won't fall off?

      If you're that worried about it, find small metal washers as thick as the die of the athlon (or grind to fit), and use thermal epoxy to secure the heat sink. It WILL NOT come off, even if you want it to!

  22. This board is not approved by AMD! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There are quite a few problems with this board, two of the least being that the voltage regulators cant support higher clock speeds, and the system becomes unstable when the DIMM load becomes too heavy. Also, I cant believe Tyan is saying you can use unregistered DIMMs if there are only two in the system.

  23. Mounting Heatsinks by doorbot.com · · Score: 5, Informative

    Note that the Tiger MP has problems with larger heatsinks due to the layout of the PCB. Check the Anandtech article for more info.

    One other problem that the Anandtech article didn't mention is that the board does not have the four mounting holes around the processor sockets (like the P4s all have, and many AMD have). So forget about the latest Swiftech and Alpha heatsinks which require those holes.

    Perhaps Tyan decided to omit the holes because there wasn't room anyways... the heatsinks that mount via screws tend to be bigger and may not have fit properly anyways. At the same time, I do like the mounting holes as I feel a lot safer when my heatsink is screwed onto the motherboard -- I don't want it popping off and allowing my processor to burn itself up.

    1. Re:Mounting Heatsinks by Jeffrey+Baker · · Score: 4, Informative
      I dislike the "bigger + louder is better" notion in the do-it-yourself computer hardware community. I think this idea has been planted by the same people who drive Camaros and Mustangs :) Seriously, there is NO reason to get a huge brick of a heatsink for these new Athlons. What is needed is a heatsink and fan combination designed by actual engineers from an actual engineering company, like, for example, Hewlett Packard. Look, here's one:

      Agilent ArctiCooler HACA-0002

      The Agilent cooler is small so it presents no mounting problems. It is very light, so it won't shear the socket off your mainboard. It is quiet, so it won't drive your wife/husband/parents/kids/dog/cat/neighbors berserk. Best of all, it cools the 1.4 GHz Athlon better than any other cooler around, including those enormous bricks with 8500 RPM fans.

    2. Re:Mounting Heatsinks by Guns+n'+Roses+Troll · · Score: 0

      Eat it, Honda boy. American Muscle has always and will always be king. Although it doesn't help that GM announced yesterday that this is the last year for the Camaro and Firebird. Hopefully GM will bring them back when the market is a little better.

    3. Re:Mounting Heatsinks by doorbot.com · · Score: 2

      On the contrary, I want a bigger, better heatsink to cool my processor, so that I can run a low voltage, low speed fan on the heatsink and still adequately cool the intensive heat produced by the 1.4 Ghz Athlon. I just bought a few upgrades for my gaming machine and I chose a 1 Ghz Duron because it will run cooler (and thus I don't need the high pitched whine of a 7000 RPM fan driving me nuts).

      I would rather heatsinks get bigger, as there will be more surface area for heat transfer to the air. Plus, I can then use a larger diameter fan, which can produce more airflow for a lower decibel level.

      The other advantage of getting a large heatsink is that hopefully you can reuse it if and when you upgrade to that 10 Ghz processor. I would refer you to the Pentium 4. The unreleased Socket 478 Northwood (I think that's the code name) is expected to hit 1 Ghz. So let's say I buy a 2 Ghz version now, I could keep my nice big (expensive) heatsink which is rated for that 10 Ghz processor. Now, which will be a more efficient (and thus potentially quieter) cooler? The HSF designed for a 2 Ghz chip (and associated heat production) or one designed for a 10 Ghz chip?

    4. Re:Mounting Heatsinks by 2ms · · Score: 1

      I generally love my Arcticooler and am surprised how little attention it gets considering how awesome its performance/(noise+size) ratio is.

      How do you clean it though? That's my problem with it. I don't want to take it off because it was a bitch to get on my extremely tight motherboard (VA-503+), but I haven't come up with a decent way of getting in between all those fins in the center to get all the dust out. I know that dust has got to be hampering thermal transfer.

    5. Re:Mounting Heatsinks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      try a can of compressed air...works wonders..

    6. Re:Mounting Heatsinks by pcgamez · · Score: 1

      "I dislike the "bigger + louder is better" notion in the do-it-yourself computer hardware community. I think this idea has been planted by the same people who drive Camaros and Mustangs :) "

      First: I drive a Mustang (well, 89 4 Cyl - sux!)

      to the real point of this post: Bigger + louder is better in some cases. The WBK38 heatsink+fan on my 1.2 Thunderbird runs at close to 60 DB. Why did I get it: its cheaper and works better than others. With this heatsink, I have my processor overclocked to 1.4 with only a 2C increase in temp. I can also run my rig with only a single 80mm fan. This saves me at least $35 alone.

  24. Why a simple home user needs a dual-CPU MB by telekon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Of course having two CPUs isn't as important as having 384 or 512 gigs of RAM, but it's a valid concern for the average home user...

    See, these days, the average home user wants to run Nautilus and Netscape simultaneously in Enlightenment on top of GNOME with antialiased screen fonts and alpha-rendered transparent xterms, while he (or she) watches Antitrust on DVD in a window (if LiViD worked) and works in Photoshop running on VMWare.

    This is what the average home user wants these days, and so the average home user is building his (or her) own PC because Dell and Gateway just aren't offering it.

    --

    To understand recursion, you must first understand recursion.

    1. Re:Why a simple home user needs a dual-CPU MB by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I will tell you why one needs this kind of power, WINDOWS XP baby! whooaaaaaa I mean this beast screams on my P-150 with 16mb of ram, but just think what i could do with dual durons!

    2. Re:Why a simple home user needs a dual-CPU MB by brad3378 · · Score: 1

      &gt You just described the anti-average user.

      Yeah, but who want's to be average if you can have 512 Gigs of Ram?

      ;-)

      --

    3. Re:Why a simple home user needs a dual-CPU MB by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mighty quick on the uptake there buddy... pat yourself on the back.

  25. Inform me. by Kingpin · · Score: 1


    Why is it that AMD produces explicit MP CPUs, and I read about MP boards that can use standard CPUs?

    --
    Unable to read configuration file '/bigassraid/htdig//conf/14229.conf'
    Geocrawler error message.
    1. Re:Inform me. by greenfly · · Score: 4, Informative

      The Palomino chipset has some MP optimizations, and is officially supported by AMD for MP use. The older processors will work, but don't perform as well in the benchmarks I've seen. The Anandtech review states that they were able to use the old Athlon chipset in this board too. I'm thinking that when they built their old chip they allowed SMP, but they didn't optimize for it (or perhaps there were other issues with the chip that we don't know about) and so they released a new chipset once the MP boards were ready that was optimized for it.

      So, yeah, you can use the old Athlons in your Tyan 2460, but if you really want the performance, you'll want to go with their Palomino core. As a added benefit, the Palomino is supposed to run cooler too.

    2. Re:Inform me. by cybrthng · · Score: 2

      Doesn't the Palomino support SSE2 optimizations as well, so it is on par with PIII instructions as well as its own 3dnow.

  26. Re:$220 is a cheap motherboard these days? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Since games, graphics design and CAD so who said its for the average PC anyway? On the other hand many servers are way over built CPU wise as CPUs wait for I/O so it is not really built specifically for anything.

  27. Tyan's Thunder K7 wasn't exactly overpriced.... by Xibby · · Score: 5, Insightful

    NOt only did you get the dual athlons, you got dual 3com NICs, Adaptec 7899W dual channel Ultra160 SCSI controller (dual channel!), onboard ATI RageXL graphics. Add all that up as seperate components, and the board doesn't look that expensive. Espically when you have all that hardware and still have 5 ? 64-bit/33MHz PCI slots (backwards compatible with 32-bit/33MHz PCI devices).

    Overall, the board is competitive to server board offerings from Intel. I haven't been overly impressed with the onboard 3com nics however. Installing linux can be a chore as they don't always work except on the latest 2.2 kernels. The drivers included in Windows 2000 for these cards have a few bugs in them as well. In both cases it's fixable by driver/kernel updates, but could present an issue during installation.

    And the problems I've had with the onboard 3com's have been on Dell motherboards anyway. :)

    --
    I'm going to go back in my box and will think within the limits of my box: MS Sucks Linux Good I read too much Slashdot.
    1. Re:Tyan's Thunder K7 wasn't exactly overpriced.... by doppleganger871 · · Score: 1

      We've had pretty good luck with the 3com nic's in the latitude's at work. What we were having issues with was the Xircom dual 10/100 & Modem combo pcmcia cards. Some have to be installed upside down to work (poor qc on the system boards?).

      Shrug.

      I'll continue to have no problems with my 1.4GHz Athlon at home.

    2. Re:Tyan's Thunder K7 wasn't exactly overpriced.... by Arker · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Onboard stuff is... well... onboard. Come on. I mean, ok, maybe the NICs work fine, but honestly, I only needed one. Maybe the SCSI controller is great (hope it comes with provisions for external connect though) - but I already have a perfectly good SCSI card sitting here ready to pop in, so whatever the added cost of the onboard setup, it's too much. And onboard video always sucks, unless it's exactly what you need and that never changes. In this case it's not. I've never had a good experience trying to add a vidcard to a board with one built in - and again the added cost, low though it may be, is worse than 100% waste - not only paying for something not needed, but for something that will probably wind up causing problems.

      --
      =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
      Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
    3. Re:Tyan's Thunder K7 wasn't exactly overpriced.... by MrWood · · Score: 1

      Xibby said:
      > I haven't been overly impressed with the onboard 3com nics however. Installing linux can be a chore as they don't always work except on the latest 2.2 kernels.

      I don't mean this as a flame. I'm genuinely curious, what are your reasons for not wanting to use the 2.2.x kernels?

    4. Re:Tyan's Thunder K7 wasn't exactly overpriced.... by m_chan · · Score: 1

      Not really expensive, but there is one gotcha in that the Thunder uses a proprietary power suply connector; there are, as far as I have read, only three suppliers with the appropriate connector available on the market.

      The Tiger uses a standard ATX power supply.

    5. Re:Tyan's Thunder K7 wasn't exactly overpriced.... by Xibby · · Score: 1

      No, I want to use the 2.2.x kernels, 2.2.19 exactly. The problem is that Debian's installer for Potato is a 2.2.17pre7 (or something like that....), and I didn't have good luck getting the onboard controller to work durring the install.

      Also, at the time I was doing this perticular install, 2.2.17 was the very latest kernel. The only way the onboard controller would work was with the latest netdrivers package from Scyld

      This has all been rectified now with newer kernels, but if your installer uses an older kernel you're looking at updating the installer or finding a different NIC for the install. (Unless you're using a CD or Modem for install, I do network installs, so I need a working NIC during install.)

      Other than that, I haven't had too much trouble with them other than the Windows 2000 bug and having them not respond to WOL (Wake On Lan) requests, even though WOL was enabled.

      --
      I'm going to go back in my box and will think within the limits of my box: MS Sucks Linux Good I read too much Slashdot.
    6. Re:Tyan's Thunder K7 wasn't exactly overpriced.... by Xibby · · Score: 1

      You're obviously not the target for the Thunder board then are you? These boards are very competitive with Intel's server board offerings.

      --
      I'm going to go back in my box and will think within the limits of my box: MS Sucks Linux Good I read too much Slashdot.
    7. Re:Tyan's Thunder K7 wasn't exactly overpriced.... by Junta · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You need to keep in mind the target audience. With a big SMP motherboard, it is really geared for serving. Servers are often Rackmounts, the Fewer Us the better. With a motherboard like this, a decent 1U system can be built. At the very least most servers could care less about your video card and such, even if in a Desktop system. Heck, Sun's Netra rackmount systems don't usually have a video card ta all. If the PC world didn't care about graphics so much, then you could leave the onboard video out. When I build a home system, I avoid built-ins like the plague, I have room to spare to get the better stuff put in. But the typical home user will get by fine with uni-processor configuration...

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    8. Re:Tyan's Thunder K7 wasn't exactly overpriced.... by sjames · · Score: 2

      Maybe the SCSI controller is great (hope it comes with provisions for external connect though)

      There is an internal only, but it's not hard to get a cable that ends with an external connector for mounting in an open case slot. It's even easier since there are 2 SCSI channels built in.

  28. check article first! by Looge+Over+All! · · Score: 0

    Perhaps you should make sure you know what you're talking about before posting!

    First, it uses a standard ATX power supply not the 460 watt custom one required by its big brother.
    Second, the most recent Durons are identical to Athlon MPs aside from the amount of L2 cache.

  29. Where to buy / fan noise by Danny+Rathjens · · Score: 2, Informative

    monarchcomputer

    These guys test out the board/cpu/ram for you. I haven't had any problems with mine which I have had for almost a month.

    My only problem is noise. I got the ThermalTake Volcano II because it was listed as the lowest decibals.
    But both those fans running are still horrendously loud.

    1. Re:Where to buy / fan noise by Master+Bait · · Score: 1

      I have the same problem with my Volcano II, to. Too noisy.

      --
      "Only in their dreams can men truly be free 'twas always thus, and always thus will be."
      --Tom Schulman
  30. That big power supply by hawk · · Score: 2
    It's not for the athlons & mb. It's for the entire system. Anywone buying one of these would typically be loading it up with lots of u160 scsi drives and the like.


    Once the prices settle after the October chip announcements, I'll be having one of these built with the Thunder board (unless something else comes along :). I *do* need u160 scsi, and will be loading it up with about 4 15k cheetahs for my workstation. mmm, raw power . . .


    hawk

    1. Re:That big power supply by (H)elix1 · · Score: 2

      Actually, the extra connector was for the Video card... I kid you not! The AGP pro? spec wanted an insane amount of power to be available to the video card. I've never seen a video card that ran extra power through the mainboard - several that did use an external power connecter, however...

  31. Time to swap out the ole bp6 by Lord+Kestrel · · Score: 1

    It looks like I've finally found a board that's worthy enough to replace the bp6 I've been using forever.

    The bp6 let me use low cost celerons in an smp config, and now I can use durons the same way.

    1. Re:Time to swap out the ole bp6 by Guns+n'+Roses+Troll · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I dunno, my BP6 with 2 Celeron 400's running at 522(?)Mhz each still runs everything fine. I have a TNT2 Ultra 32MB card too. Q3A runs in 1024x768 at about 40fps. Unreal Tournament is the same. Kernel compiles are quick, about 4 minutes. RAM helps.. I have 768MB (board's max amt). I see no reason to upgrade yet. Maybe in another 2 or 3 years.

    2. Re:Time to swap out the ole bp6 by Lord+Kestrel · · Score: 1

      I've got 2x433s, but can't get them to run stable w/ 2 Alpha PAL6035s at more than 500 or so. It has 512 Megs, so I'll have to scrap that if I buy a new board, but that's not too expensive anymore.

      The main reason to upgrade would be to have 2x1Ghz, which would give me a decent boost in performance. Plus, each cpu has a dedicated bus to memory, so they should get a nice boost on any memory io intensive programs.

      I think I'll wait a few months to purchase one, but I've got a feeling that I may not be able to hold out for too long ;)

  32. Re:$220 is a cheap motherboard these days? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    /* since when does the average pc user need a dual processor system anyway? /*

    Since the DivX:-) format came out and I discovered a need to watch at least three Rocco films simultaneously...erm, so I can render 3D scenes blazingly fast...

  33. Re:one question by mattdm · · Score: 1

    SCSI 160 cards -- Adaptec 29160, for example. Also, I think some high-end PCI graphics cards.

  34. Boy! by daeley · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Imagine a StarCat Cluster of these! :)

    --
    I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
  35. You buy from Crucial? by Penguinoflight · · Score: 1

    That's funny, I don't. In fact, if cost is an issue you shouldn't be. Use Pricewatch man. I'm sure that you'll find that the difference is sufficiently more than $7.00 dollars.

    --
    "And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
    1 John 4:14
    1. Re:You buy from Crucial? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Free second day air shipping. Lifetime warranty. guaranteed compatibility. Hmm... that's why I buy from crucial.

      S.

    2. Re:You buy from Crucial? by ncc74656 · · Score: 3, Insightful
      That's funny, I don't. In fact, if cost is an issue you shouldn't be. Use Pricewatch man. I'm sure that you'll find that the difference is sufficiently more than $7.00 dollars.
      The last time I checked (which was admittedly a while ago), Crucial beat nearly everyone else's price for DDR SDRAM. While the Pricewatch vendors have since lowered their prices (256MB PC2100 registered starting at $38 vs. $41 at Crucial), it's anyone's guess whose parts they usually use. Even if a Pricewatch vendor advertises its product as Micron memory, it's probably just Micron's chips on who-knows-whose board. Last time I checked, Crucial sold DIMMs that were completely assembled by Micron...chips, boards, everything.

      Factor in the free 2nd-day shipping and it looks like Crucial is still cheaper overall.

      (No, I don't work for Crucial or Micron...but I've bought from them on more than one occasion and don't see myself buying memory from other vendors anytime in the near future.)

      --
      20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
    3. Re:You buy from Crucial? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, that's funny alright. Crucial is $7 more for PC2100 unregistered, but has FREE 2nd DAY SHIPPING. Not only that, all of the cheaper stuff is house brand/generic. I've never had a problem with Micron memory, and after working there and seeing their quality processes (Sorry for the shameless plug), I'm convinced I never will.

    4. Re:You buy from Crucial? by AssFace · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I buy nearly ALL of my computer parts off of priceline - find the cheapest and get it.

      but I've started buying my memory off of crucial due to the higher quality, and barely higher price. It is more of a crapshoot if you soley go the pricewatch way. I used to do that and scoff at those that did otherwise, but then got burned muliple times with crap.

      crucial guarentees quality.

      --

      There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
    5. Re:You buy from Crucial? by Penguinoflight · · Score: 1

      Actually they were selling Crucial ram on Pricewatch for cheaper than Crucial was selling for. If you want quality equipment choose a good brand, then search for it on Pricewatch. Hopefully this discussion won't really matter after the new Tyan comes out.

      --
      "And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
      1 John 4:14
  36. damn, still no 66 pci by AssFace · · Score: 1

    it still has the 33 like its big brother.

    son of a...

    --

    There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
    1. Re:damn, still no 66 pci by AssFace · · Score: 2, Informative

      although the MPX variant chipset "coming soon" will have it, so those RAID controllers get the larger memory chunk at a time.... mmmm yummy

      --

      There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
  37. something I never expected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Product-placement on Slashdot! ;-)

  38. $45 for a fan? by laetus · · Score: 2
    It better be nice. And cool my beer too.


    Agilent Articooler Price

    --

    "We're sorry, but the website you're trying to reach has been disconnected."
  39. Safety of AMD CPUs? by bball99 · · Score: 1

    i use a tyan 230 w/dual PIII CPUs... what i like is the *lack* of features, and only want to deal w/RAM, storage, CD-ROM, and video

    i went with the Intel CPUs because i read about the tests of the AMDs regarding cooling fan failure and how the CPUs don't have thermal protection (dead CPU, kill the mobo, and fire hazard)...

    has anyone ever experienced this in a home-built box w/AMD CPUs?

    1. Re:Safety of AMD CPUs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i only got an amd athlon 700 mhz with my own built-box and my computer is running 24/7.

      okay amd produce a lot of heat, but if you got a good fan for each of your processor and a fan too cool you box, you should get no problem.

      and motherboard got a automatic shutdown system if the temperature level get crazy.

      so you can have the power of amd, but you need to buy a really good cooling system and in the worst case the mb shutdown, so it's secure to the max.

      and the good thing with this is that you don't have to heat up your appartement in winter cause you're processor are doing it for you :)

      (you can also use some watercooling)

    2. Re:Safety of AMD CPUs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      umm the test wasn't cooling fan failure
      they said the motherboard temperature monitor worked fine during a cooling fan failure. The test they ran was taking the heatsink off, and if you watched the videos they were struggling to pull the clips off.
      The chances of a heatsink falling off are slim to none unless you bought a 500 pound heat sink that uses plastic clips

  40. Speaking of DDR... by TheSHAD0W · · Score: 2

    Does anyone know where I can get 512M DDR? I've seen a few places in the various price bots, but not at a decent price from anyone I'd trust to buy from.

    1. Re:Speaking of DDR... by ASCIIMan · · Score: 2

      Muskin. This text here to defeat the lamo lameness compression filter.

    2. Re:Speaking of DDR... by ZolCat · · Score: 1

      Corsair but I think its more expensive. Now they have 1GB DDR Registered PC2100 modules. Check their link for Distributors/Retailers.

  41. Fan Recommendation? Crusoes an Interesting Alt. by idonotexist · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Considering the heat Athlon puts out, what fan is recommended? It would be nice to have something quiet, but I guess that would contradict the desire to have a cool fan.

    On a related note, I recently read of servers equiped with Transmeta Crusoes having no fans. While I am sure the performance of the Crusoe is not as great as Athlons, it is a trade-off to consider imo. Here is a bit from a recent press release of the Crusoes:
    NEC CS56 NetBrain server has won a Nikkei Byte Best of World PC Expo 2001 Editors' Choice award. The small office/home office server, with a 600MHz Crusoe microprocessor, consumes less than 20 watts of power at full operating speed and does not require a cooling fan as a result of the microprocessor's unique, power-efficient design. If an interruption occurs in the main power supply, a built-in auxiliary battery supply kicks in and the server will continue to operate before shutting down in a safe manner. The NEC server runs Linux 6.5 Secure Server edition, comes with a built-in UPS and optional RAID, and can fit into a 19-inch wide rack in two- and three-unit wide configurations. It includes 192MB SO-DIMM memory, an ATI-mobility graphics chipset, 40GB (x2 for RAID) hard drives, optional CD-ROM, one serial, two USB, one parallel, two PCI, two PS/2, one VGA and dual RJ-45 ports. Internally, there are up to two PCI sockets and room for compact flash storage.
    --
    "There ought to be limits to freedom"
  42. Re:Ride me, CowboyNeil! (decode and enjoy) (I) by robvasquez · · Score: 0

    GoatSex, view it in the right font in MS WORD

  43. Tiger MP DOES support unreg DDR by _UnderTow_ · · Score: 3

    The board has four DDR slots, you can only use two of them if you want to use unregistered DDR.

    Here's a blatant rip from the review:

    "As long as only two slots were filled, the stability was identical and the performance was roughly the same (the unregistered modules are theoretically faster but that doesn't translate into any tangible performance gains). When more than three unregistered DIMMs were installed the system would not POST; and adding a third registered DIMM to a set of two unregistered DIMMs would not boot either."

    Reading the article closely before you post is a good thing.

    1. Re:Tiger MP DOES support unreg DDR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe Anand could get it to work, but I'll only believe it if it's spelled out in Tyan's manual.

  44. Re:$220 is a cheap motherboard these days? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    You can't be ``elite'' unless you have two processors.

    It could be like what one girl told me about guys who drive Porsches: ``they all have bald heads and small dicks''.

  45. Why would a home user build their own? by brokeninside · · Score: 1
    When one can surf over to the likes of http://www.lanm-pc.com and have them build a custom machine complete with one's favorite Linux distribution custom installed.

    My only regret is ordering the week prior to AMD's recent price cuts. I realize that prices are virtually always spiralling down, but missing price cuts by just a few days hurts.

  46. Re:$220 is a cheap motherboard these days? by Guns+n'+Roses+Troll · · Score: 0

    I have a bald head and a small dick. My daily driver is an '86 Escort with 186K miles.

  47. Nice Motherboards will not be here for a while. by AnonymousCowheard · · Score: 2, Interesting


    In General, I can care less about the ATX form factor. Allowing the operating system advanced control over a switching power supply is something I regard as a conspiracy to thwart Linux's efforts for longest up-time. ACPI controllers have always been a waste of a perfectly-good IRQ. APM and "green-pc" was a thing of the past too. The powersupply should have interactivity with the operating system as to when it will shutoff and how many seconds power will remain "on", which is purely Unix-friendly in my POV. We don't need anying integrated on the motherboard: RS232 ports, Parallel Ports, USB, FloppyDisk Controller, IDE Controller.

    This is legacy speeking to us on how we should have a generic system setup. We need a new device interface. Think of PCI, but without the bracket and IO connectors facing behind the computer, outside. Think of PCI in the middle of the board with IO riser-cables snaking to the front of the Computer Case to the actual user. Everyone enjoys easy access to their PCMCIA, CardBus, USB, Firewire, and RS232 ports on the front of the Computer; think of Compaq's idea. Or even think of a IO-Hub on a rotary arm that swivels from the computer case to wherever you want, without it touching your workspace.

    Motherboard, we need them smaller. We need them more customizable. I want to see a Dual AMD AthlonMP Motherboard or Dual Pentium V Motherboard with a dependable number of 32bit PCI-slots, TWO AGP SLOTS, a nice array of 64bit PCI-slots, 4 168pin DIMM SLOTS, and DUAL CPU SLOTS that give courtesy to full-length PCI and AGP DEVICES. Frankly, I want a motherboard that is simply a BUS for the RAM, CPUs, and expansion cards. I want to add my own firewire and scsi interfaces and be able to remove them *with ease when they fail. I'm talking about a motherboard with the dimensions of 8 inches BY 8 inches. Can they do it? That's the challenge!

    My comment on the Tyan is: "Those two remaining 32bit PCI slots will allove my Hercules Stingray 12MB Voodoo2 SLI-mode videocards some optimum motherboard usage. Too bad they stuck with ATX form factor and weren't able to integrate 7 PCI slots at their discretion."

    --

    But I'm sure you already Gnu that.
    1. Re:Nice Motherboards will not be here for a while. by Datafage · · Score: 2

      You expect 2 socket 462s, with space for cooling, 4 DIMM slots, say 4 32 bit PCI slots, and 6 64 bit PCI slots, all on 64 square inches? Get real.

      --

      Nicotine free Amish .sig.

  48. it would have happened to me! by Juju · · Score: 1

    I have a dual Celeron (300A running at 500Mhz) with a Tyan Tiger dual motherboard.
    The clip from the heatsink on one of the CPU went off. Once I noticed that the programs kept hanging and that the temperature of the CPUs was to high, I opened the case, found the problem and fixed it (bought thermal paste and put everything back in place).
    The stuff was installed correctly and held for a year. But shit happens... And I doubt the case was thrown though the room (I have got kids so they might have banged the case a bit, but nothing unusual, just the usual kicking ;o)

    Mind you, it was the first time I saw this happen, and I could probably have got better heatsinks (they came with the CPU's). But still it makes you think! And right now, I am thinking of upgrading in a few month time, with a dual Athlon.

    --
    Black holes occur when God divides by zero.
  49. Is AMD in trouble? by PhipleTroenix · · Score: 1

    I've been watching AMD's stock for the last few weeks, and can't believe how low it is. Anybody out there with a financial background care to comment on why they have such hot products, yet their stock continues to go down?

    --
    When VPNs are outlawed, only outlaws have VPNs.
    1. Re:Is AMD in trouble? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      AMD chips don't scale, and there's nothing coming down the line.

      On top of that, big business stays away from AMD like they were the plague, and with good reason - their total cost of ownership is through the roof due to flakey motherboards, overheating, and the like.

    2. Re:Is AMD in trouble? by liquidsin · · Score: 1

      Anybody out there with a financial background care to comment on why they have such hot products

      who cares if they're hot? just so long as the heat sink doesn't fall off, you're all good

      --
      do not read this line twice.
    3. Re:Is AMD in trouble? by dtjohnson · · Score: 1



      >AMD chips don't scale, and there's nothing coming >down the line.

      Except for the 0.13u CPUs on the way next year... and the 64-bit Sledgehammer. Or the the Palominos coming any day or the powerful Athlon 4 notebooks ...here now.

    4. Re:Is AMD in trouble? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hi, parent poster here, what is an 'Athlon 4' and why would anyone want to use Sledgehammer when Intel has their own, totally incompatible, yet almost guaranteed to be more popular, 64-bit system?

    5. Re:Is AMD in trouble? by dtjohnson · · Score: 1

      >what is an 'Athlon 4' and why would anyone want to use Sledgehammer when Intel has their own, totally incompatible, yet almost guaranteed to be more popular, 64-bit system?

      Athlon 4 is a new low-power mobile version of the upcoming desktop Palomino Athlon with power management. There is no mobile P4 so the notebook powerCPU choices are PIII or Athlon 4.

      The Intel 64-bit Itanium does not run 32-bit software very well and is also S-L-O-W (and expensive). They are being sold now but no one is trading in their P4 for one. Sledgehammer will run 32-bit software like Athlon does but will also be faster than Athlons with its new Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) construction. Oh, and it will run 64-bit applications, too.

  50. Re:You are a buffoon. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You know I can almost envision Osama moving your mouth and pulling the strings to flail your arms: You're his bitch, and everything you say works right into his hands.


    You're also really dumb.

  51. Re:$220 is a cheap motherboard these days? by abumarie · · Score: 1

    try 1 mobo + 2 1 Ghz durons = < $400. durons run real nice in this as do the old tbirds.
    1 mobo + 2 1.4 Ghz T-birds = < $425.

    or for a screamer...

    1 mobo + 2 1.2 Pallys + 2 golden sockets will go for < $700 and will bury any dual P4 machine in performance when you oc them to over 1.5 Ghz.

    the price performance of this mobo with the amd processors is compelling. but that is old news now, like this "news" story...

    --


    Sex is heriditary, if your parents didn't have it chances are good you won't either.
  52. Re:one question by Christian+Smith · · Score: 1

    My Tekram DC-3903UW (Symbios 53c1010 based) uses is a 64 bit card (I think it can do 64x66MHz)

    Thanks to the wonders of PCI, however, it works fine in my current 32x33 PCI slots.
    Can't wait to get it onto one of these boards, as I have a couple of seagate cheatas striped on this baby, and I think PCI may be the performance bottleneck!

  53. Re:$220 is a cheap motherboard these days? by pvera · · Score: 1

    Brento is right. $220 is a lot of money when the Abit VP6 dual PIII can be had for $130.

    --
    Pedro
    ----
    The Insomniac Coder
  54. Re:$220 is a cheap motherboard these days? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cool. She wasn't talking about you. She said that you were OK. It's just the Porsche guys that bugged her.

  55. Stability is wonderful by Kraphty · · Score: 1

    I bought the Tiger about 2 weeks ago and I haven't had a single problem with it. I switched from the GA-7ZX-R which, needless to say, is a terrible motherboard.

    I'm running Athlon 1.1ghz(non MP, obviously. It also runs excellently in single processor mode, although I'm not sure why you'd want to do this.

    --


    Watch out, or I'll have the penguins eat you.

    Oh...and, I'm liquid talent
  56. My experience with this board by pben+harris · · Score: 5, Informative
    I plunked down my $250 and waited three weeks to get this board. IMHO it was worth the wait! The system has been entirely stable, dual booting both Red Hat 7.1 and Win2k. I use it for video processing and it's a workhorse. I can encode DVD quality MPEG-2's from DV source in practically real-time, with motion search filtering and a high bit rate for output.

    However I tried to triple boot with Windows 98 so I can use a cheap video grabber card--my advice is DON'T EVEN TRY to install Win98 on this board. Mine installed fine but would not boot Win98.

    Placing the heatsink/fans on the CPUs was kind of tricky. I had 2mm of clearance between my heatsink/fan of choice and the single row of capacitors on the board. If the caps didn't wiggle I wouldn't have been able to install the heatsink/fans.

    I found humor on the inside cover of the manual. I was pleased to see in print that this motherboard is certified for *both* Win2k and RH 7.1. However that textual note was marked with an asterisk to the effect:

    This Tyan board is fully supported by Red Hat 7.1; however Tyan is not responsible if Red Hat no longer continues to support Red Hat 7.1.
    Hello Tyan! I believe Microsoft will stop meaningful support of Win2k long before that RH would stop meaningful support of RH 7.1. More info about that assertion here, here and here.

    Also, a warning. If you choose to install 1 Gb or so of ECC, registered memory, then booting takes a long time. There's some kind of POST that occurs for this kind of memory that delays my boot by like 30 seconds.

    Finally, I just want to say that SMP is no magic bullet. For my purposes this board is fabulous. But in fact, some applications run more slowly on a dual CPU system. For example, any given single threaded program (read: first person shooter) will take a hit, say 2-5% of its speed. Your application has to use multiple threads to take advantage of this environment. Of course you can run more processes, that's nice.

    You can judge for yourself if this is a good board for you. Look at the reviews for the Tyan Thunder K7, I feel they apply to the Tiger when it comes to processor performance. You can find review for that board here and here

    1. Re:My experience with this board by MentlFlos · · Score: 1
      Also, a warning. If you choose to install 1 Gb or so of ECC, registered memory, then booting takes a long time. There's some kind of POST that occurs for this kind of memory that delays my boot by like 30 seconds.

      I too have this board and love it. I have a gig of ram but I decided to just turn off the ECC option so it boots faster (and has a higher memory bandwidth if I remember right).

      -paul

    2. Re:My experience with this board by Bonkers54 · · Score: 1

      You must have something wrong with your memory or maybe it's just really shoddy memory. I have dual boot with WinXP and Debian and I also have 1GB of ECC registered memory. To boot XP, from power button to fully botted is 38 seconds. With Debian, it's just over 40 seconds. Maybe you don't have teh quick power on boot check enabled in the BIOS? If not the bios checks the ram over like 3 times or some crap and really slows you down. I haven't had a single problem with this board yet.

  57. Re:$220 is a cheap motherboard these days? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Read the article again

    That would imply he read it the first time.

  58. Fan size by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You can use 60-2-80mm fan adapters now. http://www.inflowdirect.com [inflowdirect.com] sells them for like $8. 2 day air shipping to NYC arrives next day. They get good reviews and are very cheap. Well, except for some of the case fan covers, but those are custom made and no one needsa biohazard fan grill anyway :)

  59. Re:$220 is a cheap motherboard these days? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And you'll get what you pay for: a flaky piece of shit. You'd think people would have learned their lesson after the BP6.

  60. Re:$220 is a cheap motherboard these days? by MentlFlos · · Score: 1

    wrong board... this is not the s2462, this is the s2460.

    It is pretty much a totally different design.

  61. Noisecontrol Silverado quiet fan might fit by leighklotz · · Score: 2, Informative

    I use a Noisecontrol Silverado. It's really quiet and was the winner in a Tom's Hardware roundup, and the quietest at 38db.

    It cools my 1.2Ghz Athlon running at 1.35GHz just fine, and I can't hear it at all over the Antec case fans (which are quiet as well).

    Price is an issue though -- it was $88 shipped to the US from Germany, but it arrived quickly.

    It's 80mmx56mm, but it's 133mm tall because it uses twin squirrel-cage fans, so it's certainly not going to fit in a rack-mount, but it fits in a tower just fine.

    1. Re:Noisecontrol Silverado quiet fan might fit by Jeffrey+Baker · · Score: 1

      OMG that thing is enormous. I wonder what kind of moment it exerts on the CPU socket!

  62. Fire Hazard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Intel CPU's and Mobo are the real fire hazard. If the heatsink gets hit with a hammer itcan fall off, cracking MB/VID capacitors and causing and electric arc to light the dust bunnies inside on fire. The smoke can trigger the halon system, killing everyone in the data center.

    The Athlon heat issue is a non-issue. The P3 burns out if it doesnt have a heatsink either. So do car engines if you take off the radiator. My god, what are you people thinking? Do you complain when your car's rims spark and your gas mileage drops when you drive around without tires too?

    The heatsink doesn't just "fall off". The fan stopping its a remote possibility. My athlon 1.33 stock GHZ goes up to about 80*C when I remove the fan. Windows craps out at about 75*C (or 0*C really :p) and UT fizzles at about 73*C thanks to my ATI AGP.

    You let the system shut down, turn it back on and the CPU is fine. If your system's heatsink or fan are in the habit of falling off on their own, you have a far great problem than how much heat the CPU produces.

  63. AMD stock. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    AMD is the 2nd largest maker of [PC] CPUs. As a result, it is most commonly compared to Intel, which honestly, is a different industry, but I won't harp on that here.

    "Bad" news for AMD result in a boost to Intel's share price, since anything eliminating competition results in monopoly profits for Intel. The reverse is not true however. Any "bad" news from Intel is seen as industry wide, which results in AMD taking a hit. This applies even when the "bad" news is Intel screwing up a FAB and having to delay a launch by six months as a result.

    The layoffs (2300 total) AMD announced are at a 20 year old FAB in Austin. They don't make CPUs OR flash memory there. Those FABs were hold overs from when they made network chips as well. AMD is focused on CPU production, with Flash memory staying in the mix since its a big fat cash cow. The recession has halted the cash cow aspect of flash, but that will pick up in 6-18 months. It's a cyclical business after all.

    Incidentally, AMD's stock has "dropped" back to what it was in July'99, but it's not lower. AMD was at $14.5 at its low, but it SPLIT in Aug99, so even at its 12 year low today of $8.xx its still up 10%.

    In short, AMD is a far better buy than Intel if you want to play the CPU/PC market - IF you think the market will improve. Five years from now no one knows what will be going on. We could all be running Apple OS XXX on MS/AOL/TWC/ATT/IBM's crusoe chips on our Palm Pilot MIM green "because green is faster" (Mac Addict injoke) deluxe editions.

    Yes I bought AMD stock this week. Yes I'll buy more.

  64. Not oil - coolant! by bgarcia · · Score: 2
    a test of automobile engines showed poor design, as they all seized when the oil was drained out while they were running...
    Bad analogy. This is analogous to an automobile engine loosing coolant.

    There are some engines that can handle a catastrophic loss of coolant by running on fewer cylinders, and using the "unused" cylanders to help keep the engine cool (I know some Cadillacs have this).

    It's a matter of quality. AMD is still deficient in some areas compared to Intel.

    If you leave your machine running unattended, you probably would rather not have it catch fire.

    --
    I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
    1. Re:Not oil - coolant! by dtjohnson · · Score: 2, Funny

      I have been watching the heatsink on my ASUS A7M266 Athlon 1.33 Ghz like a cat eyeballing tuna but, so far, it just kind of hangs there with the fan spinning.

  65. Re:one question by Hamshrew · · Score: 1

    Myrinet cards... a faster-than-Gbit networking technology designed for the beowulf clusters slashdot seems so fond of...

    --
    - Free tabletop fantasy gaming! Grey Lotus
  66. Yo KarmaWhore by mosch · · Score: 3, Informative
    Go look in your BIOS at the temperature monitoring stuff. You'll see a section where you can choose a temperature at which you want the machine to automatically shutdown, in case say, the heatsink falls off.

    Oh yeah, and it's set to something reasonable my default. You actually have to disable that if you want to fry your processor.

    Next time you're going to whine, whine about something legitimate.

    1. Re:Yo KarmaWhore by jabagi · · Score: 1

      In Tom's review it also says that the mainboard temp. diagnostic cannot handle such fast increases of temp. Better read the article carefully...

      --
      Can someone tell me what this "Sig" box is for??
    2. Re:Yo KarmaWhore by Beevis · · Score: 1

      i tried this ... (not takin off the heatsink, but setting the cut off teperature). Unfortunately, the machine never booted. i guess, the proc needs to exceed the min temperature while booting but stabilizes in normal use. so, i won't recomend tinkering with the mobo temperature cut off thing

  67. What about the low end? by rossz · · Score: 1

    There's too much buzz about the latest and greatest high end multiprocessor motherboard. Isn't one of the selling points of Linux is its ability to run on slower (and less expensive) equipement?

    I want to set up a server at home. It will run Linux as the O/S. It will also run apache and sendmail and possibly samba (haven't decided on that last item). I expect it to be extremely low volume on both web hits and email.

    So how much power do I need? I figure a 300 Mhz system will be more than enough power. 128Meg of memory should be enough, though it's cheap enough that I might as well go for 256Meg. SCSI is nice, but EISA is plenty fast for my needs, besides, big honking EISA drives are dirt cheap. I don't need onboard sound or fancy 3d graphics - it's going to be a headless server - sound and graphics won't be used at all. In fact, the fewer built in features the better, so i would prefer no built in ethernet cards. I can pick up a pair of ethernet cards for less than $25 any day (I probably have a couple lying around, anyway).

    The only feature I can think of that could possible push the price up is I want it to be quiet. Does anyone make a system that is so quiet it can be kept in a bedroom where I (and my wife) sleep? Now do they make it cheap?

    Essentially: Box with powersupply, motherboard with processor, 128Meg of ram, build in EISA controller, 10 Gig drive (more or less), floppy (for that first time boot and crash recovery), CDROM (nothing fancy, just used to install new software). Only enough video to run in console mode. No keyboard, monitor, or mouse - I can borrow those from another system for the initial setup. After that, I'll ssh into the system for configuration.

    --
    -- Will program for bandwidth
    1. Re:What about the low end? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey I have one home server like you want, it's a squid proxy for two/three computers, web, exim(mail), nfs, samba, ftp, ssh... but it's only a 487dx4 100Mhz with 32Mb, and a 40Gb hd, no screen, well it has a isa vga, two 100Mbs NIC, and three 10Mbps (for playing with bonding) and it has been working flawlesly since a year and a half with only being rebooted for upgrades or power faliures.

      It has ReiserFS, mainly because it has not enougth ram to run fsck for the whole partition, it happened me few days after upgrading the hd from 4Gb to 40Gb, after a power faliure it spent about 5 hours and then hung with no memory left to complete the fsck, so I upgraded to ReiserFS.

      So I think that you don't need such beast for this, but nowadays I would do the same.

      Good luck.

      P.S. Oh! and BTW it has only ONE fan, the power supply fan, the 486 has only a heatsink, so the only noise comes from the power supply and the hd when it runs.

      --
      Jorge Nerín

    2. Re:What about the low end? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You must be joking. 300 MHz is overkill. I have a P5/75 that does this. As to running quiet, just underclock the 300 (a lot!) and get rid of the fans.

    3. Re:What about the low end? by rossz · · Score: 1

      The 300Mhz number is something I pulled out of my ass. It's obvious from the first two responses, I've overstated my requirements by about 3 fold.

      Can you even buy new 100Mhz systems anymore?

      --
      -- Will program for bandwidth
    4. Re:What about the low end? by westfieldscientific · · Score: 1

      Start with a Socket 7 or Super 7 MB. This could be AT or ATX. Socket 7 will run CPUs ranging from P75 to AMD-K62-550. Look for a board with plenty of accessory slots, since we seem to share a bias against integrated components. (The whole point of the original ISA spec in 1981 was that individual components could be replaced without obsoleting the rest of the platform.)

      Look on Pricewatch or the "Buy it now" items on Ebay for bargains. Classical Ebay auctions are notorious for wasting time and having someone else plant a winning bid in the last 30 seconds of the auction, but "Buy it now" may actually result in servicable merchandise at low cost.

      64 Mb of ram will be plenty for what you describe. Pick a suitable chassis (AT or ATX, depending what MB you decide on) add a cheap video card (Trident maybe?) and whatever size IDE drive you feel will be sufficient. CPU can be any Celeron, AMD or Cyrix you opt for. I would suggest 10/100 autosensing NICs, because it doesn't matter what ya connect'em to, and they can be had for around $15 each.

      Shipping charges can be lowered by bundling a lot of components from a single supplier. These days, I've noticed also that quite a few hardware guys are offering free shipping. One exception to this though might be the CPU fan, assuming you don't opt for a heatsink. Since silent operation is a high priority you might want to contact CDW or someplace like that with the sales expertise to recommend a speciality fan optimized for quiet.

      Good luck with the build. During the runup to Y2K I built a lot of machines along the same general spec for customers that just wanted to go on running their same old stuff on hardware compatible with a 4 byte year. Rough pricing for the stuff described above is around the $200 - $250 range.

      --
      give me a /home where the buffalo roam
    5. Re:What about the low end? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean IDE and not EISA. EISA is very, very dead.

    6. Re:What about the low end? by rossz · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the correction. You are correct. I was thinking IDE, but the newer specs that support the very large drive.

      --
      -- Will program for bandwidth
    7. Re:What about the low end? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Isn't one of the selling points of Linux is its ability to run on slower (and less expensive) equipement?

      That's nice. This article isn't about slower equipment. Or Linux.

      You're abusing the forum. Get on topic or go away.

  68. Its a 760MP by AA0 · · Score: 1

    Its a 760MP chipset, not a 760 chipset, there is a world of difference. The 760 was the first Athlon DDR solution, and up until recently the best performing.

    The 760MP is what is on the Thunder K7, it supports dual processors and DDR.

    Maybe you should modify the article.

  69. Re:$220 is a cheap motherboard these days? by Pooua · · Score: 1
    $220 is a lot of money when the Abit VP6 dual PIII can be had for $130.

    Does the VP6 support 1+ GHz CPU clock speeds? I doubt it. Does it support a 266 MHz FSB? How about DDR? Even if it does, I'd rather have a 1 GHz Athlon than a 1 GHz Pentium; even if you like Intel over AMD, you would still have to admit that an Athlon is from a more advanced generation than the PIII.

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    Taking stuff apart since 1969 (TM)
  70. quake performance by 2ms · · Score: 1

    The article doesn't have any Quake benchmarking. I understand that Quake3 is designed to make use of smp. Does anyone know how Quake 3 runs on biAthlon MP? I heard it's amazing on the new 800MHz Dual G4s.

  71. YES!!! by cyberbob2010 · · Score: 1

    I'm a cheap skate so I'm definatley going to buy it. all i use are inexpensive or old parts. for ex. my soon to be linux machine has got a cyrix processor in there (200 mhz. but it's got the pre-raid architecture) a sonique sound card from the early nintees, 48 megs of old dram, and some old cdrom that i've never heard of.

    --
    We seldom regret saying too little but often regret saying too much.
  72. More fps in DroneZ with Dual CPUs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Dual processors can increase your gaming pleasure. DroneZ gets 20%-78% more fps with dual athlons.

    These results came from a review of the Tyan Thunder K7
    http://www.amdworld.co.uk/ty.htm

    The bottom of this page has the benchmarks.
    http://www.amdworld.co.uk/ty8.htm

    Comparing 1 CPU vs 2 CPU (Athlon 1.2GHz MP)

    1 CPU 2 CPUs Improvement
    Highest Quality: 44.37 54 21.7%
    High Quality: 61.2 98.9 61.4%
    Medium Quality: 62.32 102.11 63.8%
    Low Quality: 83.91 149.8 78.5%

  73. TigerMP by tcc · · Score: 2

    It's an *EXCELLENT* board, a bit expensive but it doesn't have all the "problems" it's older brother had (power supply issues comes to mind).

    BTW: KUDOS to anandtech for doing something more than quake benchmarks (not that I mind about quake benchmarks but only GAMES benchmarks and crap like sysmarks doesn't show the real potential of the board in a REALWORLD context, you can tweak a system/drivers for specific tests, EVEN if they are supposed to be the closest thing to realworld, manufacturer know exactly WHAT the websites are going to benchmark with and they will exploit everything they can). I really appreciate the fact that there was something like 3DSmax rendering numbers for example, you don't buy that kind of setup to play games, you buy it for cad, 3d, server, workstation, GENERALLY :).

    Of course it's still a bit "expensive" right now, but since it's unique on the market due to tyan's exclusive deal with amd, I guess it's a bit normal for them to try to cash in on that, still it's WAY cheaper than the intel equivalent offering. The price will come down soon enough when Asus releases it's version and there were rumors about a gigabyte motherboard comming soon as well.

    The only thing that would make me hesitate if I was someone without the budget and wanting to invest for a "longer term" solution, if there's supposed to be an HAMMER announcement from amd in october or november (with all you can read on the net) and the fact that it should run 3x the speed of an Athlon, you might want to hold off a bit, but else, it's an excellent choice, I've ordered 5 extra renderfarm nodes built on Tiger MP motherboards. The only thing I have to worry now is heat management ;)

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    --- Metamoderating abusive downgraders since my 300th post.
  74. Already got one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I already bought one and built a system around it. Dual 2.1Ghz Palaminos, 2x 256 PC2100 DDR RAM. Sweet!

    I have been impressed. Very stable, I've only locked up the machine once under RedHat 7.1 (SMP Kernel) while using Mozilla... I threw an old 3GB drive with BeOS 4 and it took off right away. I didn't have to change anything. BeOS saw that it was a dual.

    I bought a USB keyboard for it... I had to hook a PS/2 to it first so I could turn on the USB support. Otherwise you can never get into the BIOS.

    Scottgfx... too lazy to sign in. The password is somewhere on my G4/733 at home. :)

  75. Re:$220 is a cheap motherboard these days? by Mounty25 · · Score: 1

    Well you can get the Abit board cheaper. But what you save on the board you will more than spend on the Processor

  76. Re:$220 is a cheap motherboard these days? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Stable my ass. Apparently a significant percentage of them are bad right out of the plant (some sort of issues with video screwiness, on both PCI and AGP systems, followed by a freeze-up) and you have to ship them back. If you order it online, that means the joy of paying shipping to wait a week for something you thought was going to be up and running already. I moved my system to a more expensive yet less featureful Abit, and have had absolutely zero problems (not to mention its easier to overclock and the BIOS doesn't suck as much)...

  77. You can't have two AGP slots. by Dr.+Manhattan · · Score: 1
    I want to see ... TWO AGP SLOTS

    Can't happen. There's a reason it's called the Accelerated Graphics Port. It's a spec for a special port with priority access to memory and such. It was never designed as a "bus", just as a "port" to connect two points, and it's nearly impossible to put two into a system.

    There's a reason why you've never seen a motherboard with two AGP slots. They can't exist, given the current spec.

    --
    PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
    1. Re:You can't have two AGP slots. by AnonymousCowheard · · Score: 0

      You don't see dual AGP slots because they haven't tried implementing a motherboard in a SMP fashion without the operating system being aware it is SMP. Think multiple PPP pipelines between two Athlon CPUs, just as they described in the Athlon 760MP Specifications, but think of it implemented in a way where the operating system cannot detect SMP. SMP could be automatic! Linuxthreads and POSIX will be the same. Linuxthreads allows code to generate across clusters, but I'm talking about a quick way to eliminate Linuxthreads working itself to scale on multiple CPUs on the BUS. Why haven't they created a parallel Multiprocessor system on one motherboard? CPUs perform 1 / X data operations; same goes for FPU. Transparent SMP across the BUS, Operating system not aware. That should make AGP scale on motherboards without any limitation. I think ther would have to be dedicated RAM for each CPU, but that shouldn't be restrictive in today's era. This spells a new technology, I think i am getting to Virtual Linux. Linux in a BIOS shell. Or am I thinking of a 2-node cluster on 1 motherboard. Yes I am. That'll work well!

      --

      But I'm sure you already Gnu that.
  78. It rocks by sillysurfer · · Score: 1

    I got one 2 weeks ago.... 2 x 1.2 palamino Athlons and 1/2 gig Ram..... its soo fast its hard to believe! Insight.com in the UK have some coming in every month - they trickle in so you have to be lucky to get one.

    Great board... needs big fans, using 2 huge silver mountains to cool the CPU's, and a coolermaster 210 case.

    Only problems I have had so far is the Wake-up-on-lan and the APM shutdown, I can't for the life of me get my WOL working, when it worked fine on my old ASUS, also the machine will not APM shutdown when I go shutdown -h now (doesnt work in wintendo either) Any ideas?

    2.4.10 fixes AGP Gart problems with it too, also the board does not set the MTRR's on both CPU's for some reason?????

    great board though - no other problems and rock solid, never crashes or has an problems.