8K7A Palomino compatible?

[Killbat]

Well, is it? I can't find a definite answer on this. I need to know if the 8K7A supports Palomino Athlons out-of-the-box. I don't have another SocketA chip to upgrade the BIOS.

 

[IdahoB]

Well, since there's no such thing as the desktop Athlon 4 yet, I'm curious as to what you mean. I'm assuming you've got an Athlon MP, and no, the 8K7A doesn't support it - but it will support the Athlon 4 when it's out

 

[Killbat]

I haven't got anything yet. I'm looking at "Althlon Palomino MP 1GHz Series H Server CPU"s.
Obviously the 8K7A doesn't support dual CPUs, but can I use this *single* CPU in it?

 

[salman327]

I would seriously wait a month or 2 until they pop out some desktop 1.53 pally's, I think your money would be more justified, not to mention you'd get a proc that's 1.5 times faster than the 1 gig

 

[bevo]

<< an Athlon MP, and no, the 8K7A doesn't support it >>

There are quite a few people running the Pally MP with the epox board and the latest bios at this moment. But, from what I can tell from others experiences, the present bios is not using the new multimedia instruction set. The k7master does. The vcore is 1.75v on the MP's available now, and the desktops to come, so they either are, or will be able to run on many boards with bios updates. The MP's will run alone. Only the mobile Pallys will run at a reduced vcore.

 

[Killbat]

So bevo, will a Palomino MP chip run at all on the brand new 8K7A? Will I get enough functionality to boot and then update the BIOS, then getting the full capabilities of the Palo MP?

And the reason I can't wait for the 1.5s is because I'm doing this upgrade before I leave for school.

 

[TuffGuy]

insane3d is running a palo on the 8k7a. mine should arrive shortly. from what i understand, a bios with sse support shoulf be coming shortly.

for reference, a 1.4ghz palo on the 8k7a finishes a seti@home unit in ~3hrs, while a 1.4ghz tbird on the kk266 averages ~4hrs. so while the current bios might not support sse instructions, it does offer more than sufficient functionality.

 

[bevo]

<< So bevo, will a Palomino MP chip run at all on the brand new 8K7A? >>

What TuffGuy says is correct...

 

[IdahoB]

Incidentally, what's the point of getting a 1GHz Palomino? Why not go for a 1.33 or 1.4 Thunderbird - it'll outperform a 1GHz Palomino and is significantly cheaper. Wait for the desktop Athlon 4 - I really don't get why everyone want's to get the Palomino core so quickly when it doesn't really offer all that much at current speeds. I'm running a thunderbird at 1.5, so I'm not going to go Athlon 4 until it's hitting close to 2GHz - then it'll be a REAL upgrade.

 

[MrWhiteUK]

<< for reference, a 1.4ghz palo on the 8k7a finishes a seti@home unit in ~3hrs, while a 1.4ghz tbird on the kk266 averages ~4hrs >>


Hmmmm, I wonder where those figures come from they look a little 'Insane' to me. 25% faster erm, yeah. Oh and you can't even buy a 1.4MP, it's a 1200 oc'ed to 1400.

Have you seen the new article on the P4 1.8 by Anand? It shows a variety of benchmarks between the 1.8 P4, 1.4 Tbird and the 1.2MP. The 1.2MP (remembering it costs more than a 1400tbird) loses out to the 1400bird in nearly all of the benches, and there are alot of benches.

Anand on the AthlonMP:

<< making the regular desktop Athlon a much better single processor option. >>


I don't care if you buy a 1.2MP it's your money but stop reccomending them to people for single processor boards.

Just waiting for Insane3D to come on and do his copy/paste thing.

 

[IdahoB]

The Athlon 4 should only be around 10-15% at most faster in processor intensive tasks thanks to it's new prefetch. Seriously, don't get an MP for a single processor system, there's just no point.

 

[Killbat]

How different are the MP chips? I wasn't in it for the speed so much, but I've been hearing that they're &quot;nicer&quot; CPUs, more reliable, cooler running, etc. Any of this true?

 

[TuffGuy]

there's a couple of resons why a person would buy a palo. at the same clock speed, a palo runs about 10-15C cooler than a tbird. and a 1ghz palo overclocks to ~1.4-1.47ghz. while running a lot cooler.

to the person who mentioned anand's article. you'll notice that all the scores in the article are close/comparable, until we come to the truespace 4.2 benchmark, where a 1.2ghz palo beats a 1.2ghz tbird by 40%.

in the seti@home example that i mentioned, the palo is only 25% faster.

 

[Insane3D]

Oh man...I am getting seriously sick of MrWhiteUK. What's your problem man? Just because you got a 1.4ghz Thunderbird are you intent on proving someone who got the MP/Athlon 4 made a wrong choice. You blatantly choose to ignore the facts regarding the new core that have been exhaustively reviewed and proven to make a difference over a regular Thunderbird. I guess I am going to have to keep arguing with you because you are so sure the MP's are a waste of money and that I am lying. People like you make this forum a less pleasant place to discuss things. Why don't you do a little research before you make comments you obviously don't know much about. And no copy and paste thing guy, because you just ignore the facts anyway. I'm done with you, I got better things to do than waste my time on ignorant people.


To everyone else, yes the MP/Athlon 4 runs in a single CPU board, especially the Epox. It even works in most KT133A boards. I am using one, and if you need any more info, please PM me as I am done with any thread that this guy is in...

 

[Gracki]

on the contrary, I think mr. white made more sense than anyone else in this thread. An athlon 1.4 is faster than a 1.2 Palo in 95% of benchmarks. The 1.4 is also cheaper. And whoever said that the palo 1.0 oc's to 1.7 is really misinformed... where did that info come from?

 

[Insane3D]

&quot;on the contrary, I think mr. white made more sense than anyone else in this thread. An athlon 1.4 is faster than a 1.2 Palo in 95% of benchmarks. &quot;

I agree, but my Palo is @ 1.4ghz......

 

[bevo]

<< I don't care if you buy a 1.2MP it's your money but stop reccomending them to people for single processor boards. >>

Hey White, you don't have any business dictating what is to be recommended. This forum is about information, and some good info is contained in this thread about something you obviously have no experience with. I have not seen any of the Pally advocates trying to enforce their will on anyone. I think Tuffguy is a bit generous in the cooling aspects of the Pally, but they do run cooler. Quite a bit cooler at idle, but less at load. Sure, the regular desktop Athlon a much better single processor option, simply because it will begin at 1.4MHz, but they use the same core. But, there has been extensive testing going on with the Pallys for about the last three weeks on the k7 master which enables the multimedia instruction set, and it is a better chip than the tbird. The MP also features the prefetch, but the use of it is a MB issue. I feel that it is a pretty damn good when a 1.2MHz cpu is about on par with a latency laden Intel CPU.

 

[TuffGuy]

actually, i got my temp numbers from compuwiz1, who sells overclocked processors. so he tests a lot of them. he is working on a more accurate test though.

my current tbird is running on a kk266. before i assemble the palo/8k7a system, i'll run the palo on the kk266 so i can get temperature comparisons between the two chips using the same board. this way i won't have to worry about two different boards giving me different results.

 

[Adul]

MrWhiteUK, Insane3D has every right to make a recomendation based on his own user experience. Insane3D happens to have a athlon MP in his system, and he is very happy to be running it. So quit attacking him, it is just a freaking recomendation! Also insane3D has no reason to be lying about his numbers from Seti. Seti happens to like lots of bandwitdh and the architexture of the MP takes advantage of that. You can go to the seti home page and look these numbers up yourself and they ae a few athlon MP there toping the charts in WU times.

 

[bevo]

Ed at o/cer's.com and fasteddie on the bbs at amdzon.com bbs have done extensive testing on the Pally MP run as a single unit. According to their results cooling is a little better..Check out their stuff..Also, the Register is reporting this morning that the desktop 1.4 pally has been delayed until late Sept. So, there ought to be a pretty good market for the 1.4MPs when they are ready. It's the same vcore as the desktop.

 

[salman327]

No, Dammit!! No!! Why the hell do they have to delay the pally. And 1.4??? What happened to 1.5???? Aww man, this really sucks. I hope they're wrong and we see it by late august/early september at 1.95!

 

[Insane3D]

Oh, and one more thing, I would not reccomend the 1.2ghz MP to most users, the 1.4ghz Thunderbird is a better choice for most end users...

 

[bevo]

<< I would not reccomend the 1.2ghz MP to most users >>

Insane, why is this? It it because the 1.0 clocks to about the same MHz as the 1.2? All of the testing I have seen has been with the 1.2. Fasteddie was going to try the 1.0, but either he hasn't, or he hasn't put out results yet. The fastest I have seen the 1.2 o/c with stability has been 1475MHz.
salman327...It seems like it has been this way all year long, but don't worry, get the 1.4Mhz MP. It will be out sooner and will have the same vcore.

 

[MrWhiteUK]

Ok, ok! I won't post reagarding this topic anymore. I didn't realise people would get so ruffled.

Peace.

 

[Insane3D]

&quot;Insane, why is this? It it because the 1.0 clocks to about the same MHz as the 1.2? &quot;

I wouldn't suggest a 1.2ghz MP just because the extra price is not really justifiable for most people as the 1.2ghz @ 1.4ghz will only outperform the regular Tbird @ 1.4ghz in some select benches right now. A 1.2ghz MP will only overclock a little past 1.45ghz or so with heavy overvolting 2.0v+, while a 1.4ghz Thunderbird will usually hit 1.6ghz with a good system around it. Plus, a 1.2ghz MP is ~$250, while a 1.4ghz Tbird is ~$160. I know that the new Athlon 4 core is superior to the Thunderbird core, but the extra cost for most people is not justified just yet in my opinion.