Athlon MPX stability and other issues

[augiem]

Hi guys,

I'm probably going to be building a new system soon. I need some serious horsepower for 3DStudio Max, Photoshop, and the like.

I've been thinking about a multiprocessor setup, but I'm a little worried about getting another Athlon system. I've been using a 500MHz Athlon (oc'd to 650) for the last 2 years and have had quite a few problems (from USB, to random rebooting, to certain programs being very unstable). I used only top-notch name brand stuff, yet I still ended with an iffy system. (For example, Truespace 5 would lock up after about 20 minutes or less while it will run all day long on a Pentium 3 733 system at my parents' house.)

It seems like the more people I talk to at school and the more stuff I read on newsgroups, the more I get the impression that more often than not Athlon systems have stability (random rebooting mainly) problems. (I know about the power supply stuff) Yes, I know, it's probably the @#$#@ 3rd party chipsets, but what can you do.

Anyway, I really do want to get a dual athlon rig, but I am not willing to sacrifice stability for a few hundred $$$.

I guess what I want to know is -- are the 760MP/MPX boards more stable than the single proc VIA/SIS/etc boards that are out there? I know someone who has random reboot problems with Tyan Tiger MP rev.1. I REALLY do not want to live with another system with that problem.

Also, does anyone know where I might find some recent benchmarks comparing a dual athlon 760mp/mpx setup with single proc Via 266a Athlon or Northwood setups? (Especially for 3DSMax). Since MPX is inherently slower than 266a, I wonder if the performance increase from 2 Athlon procs is enough of a boost to make it worthwhile. (I'd be willing to take up to a 25% performance hit for the single P4 vs dual Ath system.)

Thanks!

Augie

 

[AGodspeed]

Well, if we are to accurately judge the stability of a motherboard, then it would make sense to research this subject by reading what experts and experienced people in general have to say about the particular motherboard, right? Let two of the most respected hardware reviewers on the web sum up their experience with the Tyan Tiger MP motherboard (AMD Athlon MP):

Anandtech

During our weeks of testing we never encountered a single problem with the Tiger MP, even after testing it outside of AMD's and Tyan's specifications by using Dual Athlon (Thunderbird) CPUs and Dual Duron (Morgan) CPUs.

Anand didn't just test this board, he tested it for weeks, and even tested it outside the recommended specifications. The Tiger MP "never encountered a singel problem" after all of this. Pretty good IMO. However, it's not enough to just site one respected hardware reviewer, right?

Aceshardware

As we have been able to test both boards for months now, we can safely say that Tyan's dual Athlon boards are the most stable Athlon platforms on the earth. We have tested the samples that both AMD and Tyan have sent us, and several retail boards (Tyan Tiger MP) for more than three months now, and we have never seen one workstation benchmark fail or crash.

Johan from Aceshardware tested the Tiger MP for 3 months, and it never crashed, not once. He also goes on to mention that he used all types of configurations with this board, and it still wouldn't crash.

I could dig up more reviews of the Tiger MP, but I'm just a little tired right now. The MPX boards are no different from the MP boards (there's only one MP board, the Tyan Tiger MP) save the additional feature of support for 66MHz/64- and 32-bit PCI bus slots. But that's the only difference.

I'd go with the Tiger MP simply because it's cheaper than other MPX boards, which are no different.

 

[Siddhartha]

Is your system stable when it is operating within its specifications?

 

[Jman13]

Well, if you want one person's anecdotal evidence: I have an AthlonXP 1700+ (@1540), on a VIA KT266A chipset. My system has been running non-stop for 2 days and 17 hrs. right now. Prior to that, it was 8 days, 18 hrs. It'd be over 11 days straight, but I rebooted for a software install. So, that's with heavy Photoshop use, web browsing, and gaming. This is by far the most stable machine I've ever owned. Running WinXP Pro. Of course, your milage may vary.

 

[augiem]

Hi,

No, the overclocking doesn't make any difference. I've basically given up on getting this system stable. It's 2 years old now and I spent too much time with it already. It may have something to do with the motherboard (Asus K7M) -- I know it was a particularly picky mobo when it comes to power supplies.

You know, something I didn't mention is that it is MUCH better with Win2K than it ever was in Win98. I would literally be rebooting 10-15 times a day on Win98 if I was working on a bunch of Photoshop or intense browsing (I like to open 15+ IE windows + other apps sometimes). I got to the point where I was casually rebooting every time I would get up to get water or go to the bathroom. (I would permanently lose system resources as time went, sometimes VERY quickly). Memory dumpers didn't help.

Win2k doesn't have those memory loss problems, but I did occasionally get the random reboot. (Haven't seen it in a while since I disabled the automatic reboot on BSOD in Win2k, but then again I haven't really used my CPU very heavily in a while). Plus the truespace thing... Other stuff were USB issues and general VIA IDE issues...

Augie

 

[augiem]

Hi,

>> Well, if we are to accurately judge the stability of a motherboard, then it would make sense to research this subject by reading what
>> experts and experienced people in general have to say about the particular motherboard, right? Let two of the most respected
>> hardware reviewers on the web sum up their experience with the Tyan Tiger MP motherboard (AMD Athlon MP):

Thanks for the reply!

I know, I was encouraged when I saw Anand and Tom's reviews, but then other little quips from the same lips got me to questioning...

In one roundup of boards (I think they were 266A's), either Anand or Tom made a quick little comment something like:
We should note that none of the Athlon boards made it through the benchmarks completely without at least one crash.

He had mentioned that none of the P4 boards crashed during the benchmarks. (I'm sorry if this is a bit vague, but I have been doing SOOO much browsing and reading that I just can't remember where I saw it -- either Tom or Anand in one of their roundups talking about stability.)

And then I saw some comment by one of them mentioning the rock-solid stability of the i850 chipset -- the way they worded it made me feel like they were somehow used to a less stable system.

It's just little things -- little things that I pay particular attention to. It seems like a good part of the time you can't get straight answers on specific topics that you're looking for when trying to find info on the web. I have learned a LOT from side comments...

As to the AMD MP/MPX boards -- It may well be that they are more stable than the VIA systems. (AMD 760 was supposedly pretty stable.) The only things that really turn me off are the USB bug and the Geforce 3 problems people are having on the MPX. The MP probably would be a better bet at this point I guess. (Arg, registered DDR is _expensive_)

Augie