Best Dual CPU Mobo for athlon < $300?

[PhaZe]

Hello, I don't usually post in this category but I want to start now =)

Topic says it all. I was looking at this Tyan one on newegg thats 215$, seemed nice

Any recommendations?

thanks

 

[AkumaBao]

ASUS A7M266-D? Heard good things about it so far.

 

[Boonesmi]

tyan is a good board
but it has no overclocking features

none of the current MPX board have working usb (its a bug in the 768 southbridge... this bug has just recently been fixed with a new revision of the southbridge "b2")

so you have to remember that if you want usb you will need to install a usb pci card, and that takes one of the few 32bit/33mhz pci slots that the mpx boards have (most have 3 32/33 slots, some have 4)


im also about to get a dual AMD board, but im waiting for the new boards based on the new southbridge

some that im looking at
epox m762a
iwill mpx2
abit wa2a

the epox is probably at the top of my list because it will have working usb and it has onboard LAN, so the 3 pci slots will be free for other stuff

from what i hear the new boards should be showing up in stores around the start/middle of next month

 

[PhaZe]

Cool man, thanks for the heads up.

 

[caboob]

might that epox board overclock as good as well as their single cpu boards?

 

[Boonesmi]

probably not since its really designed for workstations.... but im hoping it has some good overclocking features

 

[caboob]

after building several systems now, im feeling the tug to build a dualie after reading about the "creamy smoothness' of multitasking in a dualie environment. it looks like i'll have to really research component choices for compatibilty and the asus board looks like its on the top of my list for now

 

[XMan]

so you have to remember that if you want usb you will need to install a usb pci card, and that takes one of the few 32bit/33mhz pci slots that the mpx boards have (most have 3 32/33 slots, some have 4)

That's not necessarily true. The Asus A7M266-D has a USB 2.0 card that will work in a PCI64 slot. Not sure if the Tyan's included USB card is the same.

 

[Boonesmi]

true it will work in the 64bit/66mhz slot, but... it slows the bus down to 33mhz

and since i have a 64bit/66mhz raid card i really dont want to run it on a 33mhz bus


actually for that matter there are lots of 32bit/33mhz cards that are keyed to work in 64bit/66mhz slots, but again they will slow down that bus


*** edit to add that if i remember right the tyan usb card isnt keyed to work in the 64/66 slot

 

[GetInMyFatBelly]

You probably want to check out www.2cpu.com motherboard forum, my pick it the Gigabyte GA-7DPXDW.

 

[Boonesmi]

yeah ive bee looking at that board (i like the onboard ide raid)

but it costs around $300, hehe a little out of my price range

 

[Spamela]

<< after building several systems now, im feeling the tug to build a dualie after reading about the "creamy smoothness' of multitasking in a dualie environment. it looks like i'll have to really research component choices for compatibilty and the asus board looks like its on the top of my list for now >>



i have a dual (800MHz P3) system at work. "creamy smoothness" is not how i'd describe it.
IMHO, they're not worth the money unless you're a software developer & need to test your stuff on multiprocessor systems (which are great for finding bugs in device drivers, i've found), or you have specialized applications that REALLY benefit from it.

 

[bozo1]

I agree with Spamela. My duals definitely benefit me when doing some heavy Photoshop or Premiere work but for everyday stuff and apps that aren't multithreaded, I see no difference. A few people report on their "creamy smoothness" and all that but I can really tell no difference between my dual 1800+ rig and my single processor 1800+ box on everyday stuff.

Granted, the OS will offload processes to both processors, but unless an app is multithreaded, NEITHER processor will run above 50% utilization which basically puts you back to a single processor system.

 

[PhaZe]

Well the main reason I want to go dualie is because I do _alot_ of divx encoding. I like to try new ways and new guides nd if you know about encoding, well it takes a long time. When I first learned to encode, most of it was trial and error, which took mostly all night for each movie. I have a 1.2Tbird and I get about 2-2.5hrs of encoding time per pass. (2pass is a must). Thats my main reason =)