OMG, not again Suggestions Needed

[Lex]

Well, over the course of the last month, my Tyan has experienced memory eject problems, left and right. It got to a point where I didn't even keep the side panel on, because I knew I would have to push hard in the middle of a Dimm, to get it re-seated properly.

Then, Sunday night, she started acting a little strange, and it wasn't the memory. :evil: Monday I tried to boot it like 20 times, and it sounded like it was going to boot, but the monitor never saw a signal. Finally, it did boot, but I was in a hurry, and didn't do much else except talk to a Jariten about it later that night and email my vendor.

Last night, when I booted, I noticed on boot, it said I had 1 CPU. Yup, looks like a fried CPU. Well, I already had the unbearable memory problem, so this time, that's it, it's coming out again, and going back to the vendor.

Here are my choices:

Bing, Sili, Jon, other experts, care to give this a good read and see which mobo you think I should get?

I don't have to go dual CPU, but since I have the case for it, and 1024 meg of ram, I figure why not. I had 2 MP-16 AMD processors, but as I said, one of those must be fried. However, to date my S2460 MP based Tyan has been nothing but a headache.

http://www.lostcircuits.com/motherboard/amd_mpx/8.shtml

I could also turn to a single CPU machine, if I want to.

Suggetions?

Thanks,
Lex

[Bing Fung]

Well Lex. that's a real bummer. That system has been a lot of problems.

Knowing your adversion to Abit, howabout the Asus A7M266D?



A7M 266D


I'm kinda looking forward to this one as a single CPU system..

Asus A7V333



A7V333


Or from Microstar



K7D Master



KT3 Ultra ARU

I have been sweet on this one, until the ASUS K7V333 came along, STill it's at the top of my list as a single.




Bing

[Lex]

Yeah, I am looking at the Asus. But these 64 bit slots concern me. With on board sound, I would be ok on the 3 33 mghz slots if the 64 bit will hold the USB card. Asus says it will, according to these folks test says maybe not:

Four-port USB 2.0 expansion card bundled with the ASUS A7M266D.The USB card is keyed to fit both 66 and 33 MHz PCI slots, however will internally only run at 33 MHz which is what we were told by ASUS. Regardless of the frequency reduction, this feature allows more flexibility and freeing up an additional 32-bit PCI slot if this is needed. Well, we tried it and if the card is inserted in a 66 MHz 64 bit slot, the system will not boot. We received conflicting emails on this subject but that is our own experience.

I am seriously considering going back to a single CPU, even though I have this big ass case.

Lex

[Bing Fung]

Lex, maybe you need to build a dual system based on an Intel rig. Those have been proven for quite some time as the most solid and reliable. Maybe your troubles with the Tyan is why AMD is finding it hard to gain acceptance into the server / corporate market?

How is that Asus A7N Nforce working for you? maybe you need to build another one of those if your happy with it.




Bing

[SiliGoose]

Lex,

I would find it very sexy to stick with dual CPUs. It's just a cool thing to have. It would be very difficult to give up.

That said, these KT333 boards (and KT266) will out-perform AMDs 760MP boards in virtually everything we do on PCs in a typical home/office. Games, office apps, MP3, Internet apps, etc. all have little performance gains from dual processors. The memory bandwidth of the KT333 & 266 single processors is far greater than AMD's MP based boards which helps a ton in gaming.

I don't know what you use it for though. If you're a serious Photoshop addict or do a lot of video editing you can find apps that really make use of the dual CPUs.

You'll probably want to upgrade to a Hammer based system next year anyway so I'd probably do whatever is cheapest at this point. I'm not sinking any more into my machine (other than case mods) until Hammer is on the market for a few months.




-Sili

[Lex]

Bing, I really haven't gotten to using the new Asus setup yet. It will go where my daughter's machine is currently, in my cable shop area. I think what I will do, is put the new Asus here at my main worikstation and start the loading process for it as soon as I jerk the Tyan up by it's ears and use a prybar to remove the board, lol.

All I did with the Asus was install the board, and load windows 2000 on it. It seemed stable when I turned it off. last time. Need to case it up after I install necessary periperals from Tyan, then go to work. That's all provided I have time for all this. Right now, building 11 cables.

Thanks for the input Sili. As a matter of fact, I was reading about the CPU throughput today, 25% higher with the Via 333 chipset I think.

Truthfully, what I should have done, was just upgrade my bad Abit board and let it go at that, but it's a little late for that. Was it not for all this upgrade talk around here, I probably would have done that, lol. Oh well. I hope not to have to upgrade next year. I mean with 1024 meg of ram, dual 60 gig drives, and hopefully a dang Mobo and CPU that are reasonably world class now, should take me beyond next year. It's time to pull back on Tech spending for computers here. I have had 4 new ones in the last 2 years. Of course, my daughter is getting one of those, and one's a laptop, which as we know, doesn't replace a desktop. That leaves me with 2 desktops. Eventually, that's a good plan, when I finally get my cable modem back, whenever that happens. I hope within 4 months.

back to the main issue. My dealer has agreed to the exchange, so the Tyan comes out this weekend. I could send it all back and take a 15% hit. But I hate to do that to them, after all, he's been through quite a bit on this deal too. I want to be fair. So, I need to pick something else. So far, it doesn't look like the new Asus single chip board is an option, but I will find out. He didn't show to have that perty MSI. Of course, if I had it, I would ned the picture window to show it off.

Lex

[Bing Fung]

Lex, it is tough to go from dualies to a single, however most times you won't really know it, as Sili stated, unless you are rendering or number crunching, a fast single may be a better option.

That Asus A7N you have is a very nice board. I know you don't want to hear it, but the Abit KR7A is a world class board that kicks ass and takes numbers it would be the board I would buy if I was to fill my empty case now :LOL: :LOL:



I think I will just keep it empty so you can keep ragging on me....
Then bamm, I'll drop a 450Mhz PII into it.


The Gigabyte GA-7VRXP is another fast performer, although I have never worked with Gigabytes I hear they are reliable.



GA-7VRXP




Bing

[Lex]

Bing thanks for "most" of your suggestions, lol. Your right on the Abit. I can't go there. My mind just won't let me, nor would my dealer, that doesn't have so high an opinion of Abit himself, lol.

Yeah, I ragged on you pretty good about that CPUless computer. It's been fun, that's for sure!

I have requested a quote on the MSI board with the Via 333 chipset. The Asus is not available as yet, according to my dealer. I requested a quote on the biggest baddest AMD CPU I can get to go with it.

As to my going from a Dually? Well, Photoshop is completely graphics intensive and CPU intensive. It's the largest resource user I use, other than having tons of stuff open at once. That's more a memory issue than a CPU issue though. I think I have the memory department covered at 1024. :B

Will let you know what my dealer says on the MSI.

Lex

[Andrew Pratt]

I had an MSI board before my Abit and ESI boards and I really liked it. Stable and fast were the key points IMO

[Bing Fung]

Bing thanks for "most" of your suggestions, lol. Your right on the Abit. I can't go there. My mind just won't let me, nor would my dealer, that doesn't have so high an opinion of Abit himself, lol.

Oh, that Tyan was a good buy over an Abit..... :roll: :LOL:




Bing

[Bing Fung]

:LOL:




Bing

[Bing Fung]

That would be the XP 2100+

Palomino 2100

A wise word of caution:

Anandtech

Another day, another CPU speed bump. Who would've thought we could've done so much to talk about another 67MHz? The reason we focused on this launch so very much is because of the fact that the Athlon XP 2100+ is indeed the last 0.18-micron Palomino core of the desktop Athlon line. With a $420 price tag the Athlon XP 2100+ doesn't make much sense for most users, even those looking for the highest performance. You're much better off sticking with a 1700+, 1800+ or 1900+ and upgrading later on to a Thoroughbred core or if you can hold off, maybe even a Hammer.

According to AMD's press-release just put out today, the first 0.13-micron Thoroughbred CPUs will be shipping to OEMs by the end of this month. It'll be another few weeks after that before end users can get their hands on the first 2200+ CPUs but those will be a much better buy to look for than this 2100+, the reason being that they'll have a bit more overclocking headroom and will run cooler.

I know I'm certainly waiting for the Thoroughbred at least, if I don't go P4 :P




Bing

[Lex]

Bing, why you. :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: I will get you for that!

But your right, I jumped right out of the frying pan into the fire with the Tyan. Strange, as so many had good luck with the Tyan. However, I will say, there were some things that were slow on operation. Now maybe norton caused some of it, but if you right clicked on the start button, it was like wait wait wait. With 2 CPUs? come on!

I talked to my dealer on the MSI, and I can get it. Say, Bing, you think the RAID can be turned off on that board with the raid card? I like the flexibility of it being there, but not sure I want to run raid. I really don't want to reload everything. Now, the CPU I am looking at is a 2.0 ghz, I can get it for 240.00 of my money I already spent. I can get the raid MSI board for 142.00. I figure right now, I am at least 100 under the cost of the Tyan and 2 MP-16s. I think I would be able to keep my 1024 of registered Samsung memory, well, maybe.

Lex

[Lex]

If you go P4, I will eat a 512 DDR. lol.

Lex

[Bing Fung]

Bing, why you. I will get you for that!

If you go P4, I will eat a 512 DDR. lol.

Lex

Heheh, sorry Lexinator, I couldn't resist

Now that's a dare if i ever seen one, but odds are against it

Yes, don't have to use the RAID on that MSI. However it is recommended to format the drive for a new motherboard as it can creat problems if you run the OS of your old set-up in a new system. That's not to sat it wouldn't work, you have been warned.

That is one sweet board for sure Lex!




Bing

[SiliGoose]

Lex,

You absolutely must get a case window and a cold cathode light to show off that beautiful red PCB.

It'll make it go faster too.




-Sili