Dual FC-PGA2 ?Tualatin? boards? Comments welcomed

[Dix]

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.

 

[rogue1979]

Remember, while DDR sounds good, for socket 370 there is no performance gain. My wife runs a Celeron 1.0a@1400MHz. And while I like Intel, I still prefer AMD for bang for the buck. I had the good ol' Abit BE6 II and I agree with you in the awesome BX chipset. I have tried many motherboard chipsets since such as:
KX133, KT133, KT133A, 815EP, Via Apollo Pro, AMD 761, KT266A, SiS 745, Ali Magik and a few others. None of these including the 815 ever impressed me as much as the BX for compatibility or stability. Except for one, the AMD 761. While I prefer Abit like you (running KG7 raid now) I have used the Epox 8K7A, DFI AK76-SN, and FIC AD-11, all 761 chipsets and all impressed me. I have a certain fondness and loyalty to my old 700E@933MHz, but after using everything under the sun I have come to realize the 761 is like a BX for me. Think of the possibilties with a dual athlon set up. Dual 761 chipset, real DDR performance, AGIOA-Y XP 1600+ cpu's for $53 each, all with honest to goodness BX reliability, compatibility and stability. No, the 761 isn't the fastest Athlon chipset, but just like the old BX was to socket 370, it still has awesome all around performance and unmatched stability.

Sorry about trying to convert you, but from one BX fan to another, it is something to consider.

 

[RanDum72]

I just set-up a rig consisting of an Intel OR840 motherboard. This mobo has dual Slot 1's and has dual channel RDRAM (just like the 850 chipset). I have two PIII 1.26 ghz Tualatins with 512k cache each on Powerleap sloket adapters. This is my experimental server; I'm still trying to snag a cheap SCSI RAID controller off Ebay to complete the package.

 

[Vette73]

DDR for a single P3 is a waste, BUT DDR for Dual P3's does help. You have to remember that Dual P3 systems SHARE a line to the memory, while a Dual AMD system each CPU has its own line to the Ram so each one does not fight for bandwidth.

So if you do go Dual P3, try and get a DDR board.

BUT, I understand you may not want to go DUAL AMD, but it will cost more to do Dual P3's, there is no real upgrade path for the board, and it will not touch 2 Athlons.
I am running a Dual Athlon system right now. I looked at everything out there with a open mind, and this is what I found........

Old Xeon = Slowwer than Dual Athlons and cost just as much
Dual P3's = Dual board cost same as dual Athlon, BUT the CPU's cost way to much and it can't be upgraded, no long term value
Dual AMD = board is only aroind $200-250, 2 Athlon XP 1600+'s are only $55 each, and the board can be upgraded to maybe Athlon XP 3000+'s

So being fair and open minded I had to choose a AMD system.

But if you do go Dual P3, look at DDR boards. 266T is a good chipset

Good luck

 

[Dix]

After having the VP6 running for quite a while now I have no real qualms about the VIA chipset. It?s been a soild & stable performer for me thus far? although I DO have to agree with Rogue?s sentiment on the old Intel BX boards? damn they were solid? and my BP6 still is.

Marlin would appear to be right on the DDR with the dual P3s. In my travels the past week I DID run into a ?shootout? test of a few of these board?s predecessors. And the numbers for the two DDR boards (Iwill DVD266-R was one) was an impressive improvement on the SDRAM boards.

By the way... The line in my original post...

So, right away Intel based boards didn?t make the cut. The final 6 all have VIA chipsets at the helm.

Should have read "ServerWorks" rather than Intel... Intel doesn't have a dual "T" chipset. That'll teach me to try thinking & typing at 2AM. Guess I'm just too used to the VIA vs. Intel battle by default.

 

[Athlon4all]

Iwill DVD266-RN would be my pick

 

[Parrotheader]

I know you already listed that you wanted dual 1.4s, but if you're looking to pitch pennies and don't mind taking a slight chance, I noticed that NewEgg had refurbished Tualatin 1.13s (256k cache) for $79 with free shipping. What refurbished means on a processor I have no idea. Might have just been in a bad motherboard and shared the blame. Not really sure. But if they worked fine (Newegg is good about returns) and overclocked as well as most others have you could come out at near the same speed for a good bit cheaper. Just FYI.

 

[Dix]

Thanks for the heads-up Parrot...

Unfortunately beginning with the Tualatin P3 SMP is disabled on the "regular" version (like they did with the FCPGA Celeron)

To be used in a dual system you need the "extra-crispy" version... otherwise called the "S" or "Server" version of the P3T...

The best way to tell the difference is the L2 cache. P3T = 256K while the P3T-S is 512.

Confusing is it not???

But I appreciate the effort.

Of course this begs the question... Hasn't Intel shot itself in the foot enough times by now to learn to leave well enough alone?

 

[RanDum72]

You can get the 'extra-crispy' 1.266ghz Tuallies for around $100-120 over at Ebay. Thats the same price price for the regular version at retail. I got mine's a lot cheaper though....