I?m not much of a ?tech forum? poster but I?d like some input thrown at me on this one if anyone is so inclined?
With all due respect to AMD? I?m one of those fiercely-loyal types? and when it comes to processors & motherboards INTEL & ABIT top the list (ever since the day I toyed with my first BP6/Dual Celeron366 combination ? which I still have by the way, and it still chugs along nicely at 528MHz)
I?ve grown tired of fending off the kids who want to play on my VP6/Dual P3-800 machine? and? OK? so I?m getting itchy to play with a new toy? I?ve surrendered & decided to build a new one.
Not wanting to take the plunge into the Xeon pool yet, and not yet ready to jump ship to AMD, I?ve decided on a new dual server-version 1.4MHz P3 Tualatin rig. The problem I ran into is my old friend ABIT has let me down on this one? Abit doesn?t make a dual ?T? board and I?m not real keen on the adapters.
Going through the usual paces when making a hardware choice has been a bit frustrating? Naturally, I visited the websites of all the usual suspects and complied the initial list of options. Weeded out those that didn?t match a few critical criteria and then proceeded to search the tech sites and boards (like here) for reviews, benchmarks, comments, criticisms, etc?
After a week of that (I swear that I got a popup from Google that they were going to start charging me for bandwidth) I came up practically empty. Problem is there?s damn little out there in the way of info on the dually FC-PGA2 boards. I guess that shouldn?t be so surprising. There are only 3 dual capable versions of the FC-PGA2 P3 processors produced before Intel seemed to have ditched them in favor of the Xeons. So, the demand is likely fairly low.
Since I?m an ABIT man I?m going to have to be dealing in territory where I?m not real familiar with manufacturers reputation-wise, so I?m hoping that anybody with a comment, even if it?s only on the reputation of the maker, will chime in here.
I?ve narrowed the ?Short List? to the 6 listed below. I suppose I should define the terms of battle? so here goes?
The beast?s most important purpose in life will be audio/video production. FASoft?s n-Track Studio, Ulead?s VideoStudio, and Sonic Foundry?s Vegas Video, running on Win2K, will be in heavy rotation.
On-Board ATA100 IDE-RAID is a must in my book. On-board graphics is not needed as a dual-head ATI VE card and Sigma Design?s REALmagic Xcard will handle the monitors.
Stability is a must. Crashing in the middle of a long editing session is not one of my favorite pastimes. I don?t mind toying with overclocking for a few extra MHz? but I won?t sacrifice stability for it.
Finally, cost? I?d really like to keep the board under 200 samolians. So, right away Intel based boards didn?t make the cut. The final 6 all have VIA chipsets at the helm.
And the contestants are?
(Make & Model) ? (cost via PriceWatch) ? (Chipset) ? (Max Supported RAM)
Aopen DX34R-U - $106 ? Apollo Pro133T - 2GB PC133 SDRAM
Gigabyte GA-6VTXDR-C - $179 - Apollo Pro133T - 4GB PC133 SDRAM
Iwill DVD266U-RN - $178 - Apollo Pro266T - 4GB DDR266/200 RAM
MSI Pro266TD-LR - $142 - Apollo Pro266T - 4GB ECC DDR266 SDRAM
Supermicro P3T-DDE - $181 - Apollo Pro266T - 4GB PC133 SDRAM
TYAN Tiger 200T - $205 - Apollo Pro133T - 1.5GB PC133 SDRAM
My current notes?
At just over a Bennie the Aopen board certainly garners attention.
Although, the thought of using DDR-RAM and it?s advantages has me looking hard at the offerings from Iwill & MSI. Not to mention their use of the better Apollo Pro266T chipset. Supermicro also offers the 266T but opted for regular SDRAM instead.
While I?m talking about the Iwill? if the 6-channel C-Media CMI8738-MX audio controller is half what it?s hyped to be? that would save me the cost of the latest and greatest from the SoundBlaster warehouse. But that?s a minor issue.
The Tyan board is a bit of a mystery to me? on the surface it?s the least interesting of the bunch yet the highest priced. I can only assume this is based on name & reputation.
Speaking of the Tyan?. It along with the Gigabyte have on-board video and hence no AGP slot. That may or may not be a final determining factor. Graphics intensive gaming is not an issue, the Xcard handles the DVD end of things, and I CAN get my hands on a PCI version of the dual head ATI VE.
In my initial cursory (and likely ignorant) ranking I?d have to put the Iwill in the lead by a gnat?s eyelash over the MSI with the price of the Aopen a very tempting 3rd.
OK folks? let me have it? what am I forgetting? what board have I left out? comments? criticisms? go ahead? I?ve been called worse.
With all due respect to AMD? I?m one of those fiercely-loyal types? and when it comes to processors & motherboards INTEL & ABIT top the list (ever since the day I toyed with my first BP6/Dual Celeron366 combination ? which I still have by the way, and it still chugs along nicely at 528MHz)
I?ve grown tired of fending off the kids who want to play on my VP6/Dual P3-800 machine? and? OK? so I?m getting itchy to play with a new toy? I?ve surrendered & decided to build a new one.
Not wanting to take the plunge into the Xeon pool yet, and not yet ready to jump ship to AMD, I?ve decided on a new dual server-version 1.4MHz P3 Tualatin rig. The problem I ran into is my old friend ABIT has let me down on this one? Abit doesn?t make a dual ?T? board and I?m not real keen on the adapters.
Going through the usual paces when making a hardware choice has been a bit frustrating? Naturally, I visited the websites of all the usual suspects and complied the initial list of options. Weeded out those that didn?t match a few critical criteria and then proceeded to search the tech sites and boards (like here) for reviews, benchmarks, comments, criticisms, etc?
After a week of that (I swear that I got a popup from Google that they were going to start charging me for bandwidth
) I came up practically empty. Problem is there?s damn little out there in the way of info on the dually FC-PGA2 boards. I guess that shouldn?t be so surprising. There are only 3 dual capable versions of the FC-PGA2 P3 processors produced before Intel seemed to have ditched them in favor of the Xeons. So, the demand is likely fairly low.Since I?m an ABIT man I?m going to have to be dealing in territory where I?m not real familiar with manufacturers reputation-wise, so I?m hoping that anybody with a comment, even if it?s only on the reputation of the maker, will chime in here.
I?ve narrowed the ?Short List? to the 6 listed below. I suppose I should define the terms of battle? so here goes?
The beast?s most important purpose in life will be audio/video production. FASoft?s n-Track Studio, Ulead?s VideoStudio, and Sonic Foundry?s Vegas Video, running on Win2K, will be in heavy rotation.
On-Board ATA100 IDE-RAID is a must in my book. On-board graphics is not needed as a dual-head ATI VE card and Sigma Design?s REALmagic Xcard will handle the monitors.
Stability is a must. Crashing in the middle of a long editing session is not one of my favorite pastimes. I don?t mind toying with overclocking for a few extra MHz? but I won?t sacrifice stability for it.
Finally, cost? I?d really like to keep the board under 200 samolians. So, right away Intel based boards didn?t make the cut. The final 6 all have VIA chipsets at the helm.
And the contestants are?
(Make & Model) ? (cost via PriceWatch) ? (Chipset) ? (Max Supported RAM)
Aopen DX34R-U - $106 ? Apollo Pro133T - 2GB PC133 SDRAM
Gigabyte GA-6VTXDR-C - $179 - Apollo Pro133T - 4GB PC133 SDRAM
Iwill DVD266U-RN - $178 - Apollo Pro266T - 4GB DDR266/200 RAM
MSI Pro266TD-LR - $142 - Apollo Pro266T - 4GB ECC DDR266 SDRAM
Supermicro P3T-DDE - $181 - Apollo Pro266T - 4GB PC133 SDRAM
TYAN Tiger 200T - $205 - Apollo Pro133T - 1.5GB PC133 SDRAM
My current notes?
At just over a Bennie the Aopen board certainly garners attention.
Although, the thought of using DDR-RAM and it?s advantages has me looking hard at the offerings from Iwill & MSI. Not to mention their use of the better Apollo Pro266T chipset. Supermicro also offers the 266T but opted for regular SDRAM instead.
While I?m talking about the Iwill? if the 6-channel C-Media CMI8738-MX audio controller is half what it?s hyped to be? that would save me the cost of the latest and greatest from the SoundBlaster warehouse. But that?s a minor issue.
The Tyan board is a bit of a mystery to me? on the surface it?s the least interesting of the bunch yet the highest priced. I can only assume this is based on name & reputation.
Speaking of the Tyan?. It along with the Gigabyte have on-board video and hence no AGP slot. That may or may not be a final determining factor. Graphics intensive gaming is not an issue, the Xcard handles the DVD end of things, and I CAN get my hands on a PCI version of the dual head ATI VE.
In my initial cursory (and likely ignorant) ranking I?d have to put the Iwill in the lead by a gnat?s eyelash over the MSI with the price of the Aopen a very tempting 3rd.
OK folks? let me have it? what am I forgetting? what board have I left out? comments? criticisms? go ahead? I?ve been called worse.
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