Going to upgrade soon: input of AT wanted!

[Rellik]

For my upcoming SMP rig, I have 2 main choices:

Buy 2 cheap DuronMP 1.2 and buy DVD and CDRW as well as get all
other components

and upgrade to Thoroughbred in the summer

or

Buy 2 1800XP and buy DVD and CDRW later....

what would you do?

 

[flood]

duron MP, eh?

Well, I'd scoop up a pair of XPs now before they do something to make the SMP incompatible.

 

[Rellik]

Bump for more input

 

[limsandy]

Have you tried Durons? They're slow. Buy the XPs now and no regret later!

 

[LanEvoVI]

XP's are already SMP locked...you have to buy MP's for your rig which cost a bit more.

 

[Migroo]

LanEvo is right. Good luck with it though.

 

[veryape]

Can't you just get one xp processor and get the second one when you can afford it. You can use just one in a multiple processor board can you not? Correct me if i'm wrong. That way there you wouldn't waste the cash on Durons that you are only going to use for a couple of months. This way you can have your dvd and cdrw now.

 

[Rellik]

Lanevo1

Where did you get the info that XP are locked? AFAIK, they are multiplier locked, but the Tyan board sees them as MP´s.

Loxked XP´s would be a big thread and so far none has appeared
here or in the 2cpu forum

 

[Turkey22]

The first XP's that came out worked in a multiproc setting. I don't remember if it was due to the boards or the first batch of processors. I think it was the procs, but I don't remember.

 

[DSTA]

The first XP's that came out worked in a multiproc setting. I don't remember if it was due to the boards or the first batch of processors. I think it was the procs, but I don't remember.

I dunno. I've never picked up any hint anywhere on the web that XPs are SMP locked - except for one firingsquad review which also coined the stupid term DuronMP (there is no such thing). I've read quite a lot on the subject of AMD SMP lately and my understanding is that as long as it is socket A, it's not SMP locked (not even early spitfire core Durons).

@Rellik

I think a Duron (morgan core) based setup would still be pretty nice to work with, but since this seems to be a compromise for you and you don't have the money for your "dream" setup now, I strongly suggest waiting for the new Athlon dual boards to hit the stores.

Things should get cheaper (even if you stick to the Tiger MP, it's price should go down) and you will not have to buy registered memory as long as you can do with two sticks of RAM.

 

[Rellik]

Thx DSTA, as I am always doing research(inquiring mind),
I know that the MPX boards are just around the corner. Also, AMD will introduce a DURON MP(no joke)along the mpx chipset. They will probably test morgan cores and validate them for SMP(like with the palominos that become MP´s). Initial frequency will be 1, 1.1, and 1.2
Ghz.

The problem with the MPX boards is that they all feature just 2 or 3 "normal" 32bit/33Mhz PCI slots. The others are 64/66. And those are physically reversed so a normal PCI card would not fit. This is the
only downside. The TigerMP has 64/33 slots that can be used for normal cards. Since I need at least 4 pci slots, I am looking for an
MPX board with that feature.

I will be building in febuary, so the boards should be out then. The
question is, how fast are prices gonna drop here in europe. An 1800XP is 231 Bucks. and this is for trayware without fan.

 

[DSTA]

Also, AMD will introduce a DURON MP(no joke)along the mpx chipset. They will probably test morgan cores and validate them for SMP(like with the palominos that become MP´s). Initial frequency will be 1, 1.1, and 1.2 Ghz.

Heh, looks like I should check my facts before posting . Read about the Duron MP on the Xbit site today.

Strange decision by AMD really, but if the Xbit guys have seen that on an AMD roadmap... Perhaps they want to aim at the "blade" server market? Dunno what price they want to set them on though, the gap between the cheapest Athlon MP and the most expensive Duron is not that big ATM.

The problem with the MPX boards is that they all feature just 2 or 3 "normal" 32bit/33Mhz PCI slots. The others are 64/66. And those are physically reversed so a normal PCI card would not fit. This is the only downside. The TigerMP has 64/33 slots that can be used for normal cards. Since I need at least 4 pci slots, I am looking for an MPX board with that feature.

Let's see what actually gets released, perhaps there's enough onboard with a few of the newcomers that you could do with 3 slots?

I will be building in febuary, so the boards should be out then. The question is, how fast are prices gonna drop here in europe. An 1800XP is 231 Bucks. and this is for trayware without fan.

Good timing IMO, but that makes it a bit difficult to plan the buying decision now . Intel seems to like dropping prices in January, and if the Northwoods are on time and the 845D is a success, AMD might have to drop prices sooner than they might like.

My personal choice would be to get the cheapest Palomino or even Morgan (if the price diff is big enough) available in february and stick with that. You might have some budget left over to get other nice things. Two high end heat sinks with silent fans for example, or perhaps a DVD-R drive if prices continue to drop or a faster vid card if you are into gaming. IMVHO you'll notice that more than a few hundred MHz.

 

[Rellik]

Good pointers. Some things to consider: I just bought a Radeon 8500 2 weeks ago(one of the few original ATI available here) so vid card is covered. I definitely am getting the cpu´s in tray not retail,
since retail AMD´s are a) hard to get and b) the fans are too loud.

I want to make the rig as quiet as possible, so the 10KIII goes into my Cooldrive(the 10KIII is supposed to be real quiet for a 10K drive)
and the wd drives are not that loud. Case will be equipped with noiseblocker pads for pc. PS will be the new Enermax 433 which has a dial to make the fan only spinn at 1500 rpm so it should be fairly
quiet. As main HSF I wanted to go with Zalman cnps 5100 or 5500
as they are really quiet.

I just hope the boards get announced soon so they can be delivered
to retail channels soon. 2 months is a long time for us, but little in terms of availablility of new products. The tiger MP has been available here only 3-4 weeks ago!

The best board from a pci slot point of view is the Abit. Sadly, it is WTX and won´t fit in any ATX case....

 

[Rellik]

Any tigerMP users want to share what HSF they use?
I am interested in the ones that are quiet. Need to cool
1.2Duron or 1.6GHz XP depending on budget.

 

[DSTA]

I just bought a Radeon 8500 2 weeks ago(one of the few original ATI available here) so vid card is covered.

That should be good enough for the next few weeks...

I definitely am getting the cpu´s in tray not retail,since retail AMD´s are a) hard to get and b) the fans are too loud.

Hard to find ist gut. Quite impossible in Germany IMO (I live in NRW). The real advantage with the boxed CPUs is warranty anyway, and since you will buy next year you'll get 2 years of Gewährleistung (I'm sure you knew that) so there's no real reason to go boxed.

I want to make the rig as quiet as possible, so the 10KIII goes into my Cooldrive (the 10KIII is supposed to be real quiet for a 10K drive) and the wd drives are not that loud. Case will be equipped with noiseblocker pads for pc. PS will be the new Enermax 433 which has a dial to make the fan only spinn at 1500 rpm so it should be fairly quiet. As main HSF I wanted to go with Zalman cnps 5100 or 5500 as they are really quiet.

Hm. Can't comment on the Zalmans or the Enermax 433 from experience, so excuse if my doubts seem over the top: first I think it might be difficult fitting two of the Zalmans close to each other, kinda wide the things (they are a few Tiger MP users here and you already asked for opinions - but for additional input also check the forum at 2CPU.com). Second, I hope there is some way of temp control on the Enermax 433 that overrides the user selected fan speed in case of thermal emergency - looks like you'll have nice stuff in your dual setup, but most of it is also pretty power hungry.

Some other thoughts on cooling and "quieting": I've had reasonable success with noise blockers from the car parts shop, or from OBI . Cork floor (Kork Bodenfliesen) is quite cheap and can easily be cut to fit, but I guess any heavy carpet would do well. And thinking of it, it might be interesting to look at watercooling (again, not speaking from experience). Two high end air coolers will set you back around DM 200 at least, and I think watercooling will get cheaper soon. There was even a review in c't magazine lately - I think the technology is slowly leaving it's "freak" market.

I just hope the boards get announced soon so they can be delivered to retail channels soon. 2 months is a long time for us, but little in terms of availablility of new products. The tiger MP has been available here only 3-4 weeks ago!

Hm, there's no way I could buy a S2460 over the counter in my region, but it's been available for months at the many local small Macrotron afilliates, who usually sell one for under DM 550 (good price IMO, cheapest on Geizhals.at is around DM 540 currently).

The best board from a pci slot point of view is the Abit. Sadly, it is WTX and won´t fit in any ATX case....

Wait and see what's available starting february. My guess is that you'll be able to get a pair of 1.1 GHz Morgan Durons for under DM 200 (and a single one of those would give your current P3 a good kick in the behind). That will leave you with a lot room to go for exotic stuff like WTX, or registered DDR RAM, or 64/66 PCI cards.