motherboard reccomendations - thinking of getting another 1.2 tbird to run duals

[Valhalla1]

I have a 1.2 (266) AMD Thunderbird processor and an MSI K7 Master AMD 761 chipset board, 512DDR ram.. I am thinking of upgrading to a dual proccessor system, and would like to keep this processor and just get another one like it if possible, and a board that will do dual tbirds and DDR ram. will regular thunderbirds like this 1.2 to SMP or do I have to sell this and buy Athlon MP cpu's ? I thought i read somewhere that the regular tbird will also do SMP with the right motherboard


stability is ithe key factor here.

 

[Double Trouble]

Hi there, first, to answer your questions on having to buy MP processors: No, you don't need to buy MP cpu's. AMD officially supports only MP processors in smp mode, but all the athlons work in smp mode.

I'm currently running a dual XP 1900+ system, using the Tyan S2460 motherboard. The downside to this board is that there's no tweaking options -- no overclocking of any kind. However, the board is solid as a rock and does everything you'd want for a dual system. It's stable, reliable etc etc. Tyan also has a dual board based on the MPX chipset, but I don't know too much about it.

I'd say your best bet for 'bang for the buck' is to buy another processor that's exactly the same as the one you have, get the S2460 board, and you can have your dual system. Of course, whether a dual system will be worth it for you depends entirely on what you want to do with the system....

Also, one final caveat, make SURE you have (or get) registered ddr memory -- non-registered will not work with dual AMD processor setups.

Just my 2 cents

 

[Tanked]

I believe Thunderbirds will work in SMP mode, although, becuase they weren't designed for it, some applications run abnormally slow on them. Athlon MP's and XP's are identical, so you could get a couple XP's and save some money.

 

[Valhalla1]

Originally posted by: Tanked
I believe Thunderbirds will work in SMP mode, although, becuase they weren't designed for it, some applications run abnormally slow on them. Athlon MP's and XP's are identical, so you could get a couple XP's and save some money.

seriously? apps will run abnormally slow? which apps? where did u get this info?

 

[Double Trouble]

Hmmmm.... thunderbirds running slow in SMP mode? Before my current setup, I was running a dual 1.4Ghz T-Bird setup (not xp or mp), and everything worked very well -- nothing ran slow that I noticed, and all the benchmarks were good. Dunno, it could very well be possible, but I didn't see it on any of the apps that I've used, including video creation, encoding, photo editing, database compression/management, compiling etc etc.

 

[Valhalla1]

as for what I'm going to be doing with the machine, nothing fancy at all but I want to be cool and say i have 2 cpu's. mainly looking for a q3 mod Urban Terror that I play to get a framerate boost, since q3 supports SMP, shouldnt that give me a few extra frames? I know upgrading this AIW Radeon would probably be better but I'm also hoping for at least a marginal increase in system response time in XP

 

[steell]

You can buy a Tyan S2460 MP board for $120 - $140 (Refurbed or used) and run dual Athlons, and if you get a Rev 3 board, it can be O/C'd using SoftFSB. In my opinion, the only downside is the heat output.

 

[Valhalla1]

oh btw overclocking will not be done...

 

[ostrich80]

is refurbished MO from newegg affoable?

they have it for 120 or something~ tylan Tyan S2460

 

[Titan]

Are you sure it works by having two XP cpus on an S2460 board? I am planning on building a dual MP system, but if i can go with XPs with no catch, that kicks a$$! I heard about a guy who got his 2 XP cpus and the stepping problems made it impossible for him to run both CPUs. Does anyone know what the technical aspects of doing this are, or is it just plug and play? I doubt AMD offers information on this subject.

 

[Strych9]

Are you sure it works by having two XP cpus on an S2460 board?

I'm running two XP 1600's on a S2460 w/o any problems whatsoever. One of the most stable systems I've ever had. Apparently it's now hit and miss with newer XP's, however. AMD has apparently started cutting the L5 to disable SMP in XP's. You'll have to reconnect the bridge to get them to work in SMP.

 

[JediJeb]

One thing I remember reading is that you can only use the TBirds on a mobo using the 762MP chipset and not the 762MPX chipset which is the newer one. The 762 MPX chipset only supports XP or MP Athlons in dual setups or TBirds and Durons in single prosessor setups. The 762MP should support the TBirds, Durons, XPs and MPs in dual setups. I believe the only mobo maker using the 762MP is Tyan, the 762MPX is used by Tyan, MSI and Asus.