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What is the best dual AMD CPU mb?

G

Gisbon

Junior Member
I have a freind who wants the best dual AMD cpu motherboard available, he would also like it to be really good for multimedia tasks, such as rendering and creating animations. I am hoping some of you may be able to help me out. Thanks.
 
For rendering and doing muti-task items yes the Dual setup will help a good amount. BUT it will not help for playing games. Just wanted to get that out there.

I have built 6 dual Athlon systems.

The 3 boards I have used were Asus, Chaintech, and Tyan.
There is very little diff. from board to board as they all pretty much stick to the layout AMD setup. So the 2 things you want to look for are intergrated items. Like do you need raid(gigabyte has a 760MPX with ide raid), tyan has one with SCSI, Asus has one with 5.1 ch sound card, etc...
The second thing to look at is price.

Also make sure you have at least a 400watt power supply and use Reg. ECC ram.

If you need more help just ask or try www.2cpu.com
 
if I were to buy one right now.. I'd probably get an MSI K7D Master-L
those are very nice, and I had the experience to toy with this mainboard in it. runs really nice... very stable, seemed to run great (i spent quite a few hours on it)
I wouldn't hesitate to buy one for myself, for a dual Athlon setup.
 
Most dual AMD servers I have seen lately are more commonly using the Tyan boards. They seem to be the most stable of the lot and Tyan has a reputation for putting out good quality high-end boards. I'm not sure why Marlin1975 is recommending Reg. ECC memory for a workstation since ECC memory is usually used only in server situations where data reliability is crucial. ECC has a performance hit, albeit not big, 1 extra cycle, but I wouldn't recommend it over unbuffered unregistered memory if you're only building a workstation. The extra cost involved isn't worth it either.

Depending on how much he wants to spend, a good RAID configuration, say RAID 1 or even RAID 5 would benefit renderings and animations. This all depends on how large these files are going to get. It all depends...

techfuzz
 
techfuzz is right.. dual CPU is really not all that practical. anything that can utilize only 1 CPU is slower on a dual CPU setup (cant' help it, it's just the architecture) and as stated, ECC RAM is more expensive too (some old duals used to require it) and also, when the CPU's are used both at once. is it really worth the money for how little they're in use?
I want a dual CPU setup just for the cool factor. but I do not believe they are practical.
 
Originally posted by: techfuzz
Most dual AMD servers I have seen lately are more commonly using the Tyan boards. They seem to be the most stable of the lot and Tyan has a reputation for putting out good quality high-end boards. I'm not sure why Marlin1975 is recommending Reg. ECC memory for a workstation since ECC memory is usually used only in server situations where data reliability is crucial. ECC has a performance hit, albeit not big, 1 extra cycle, but I wouldn't recommend it over unbuffered unregistered memory if you're only building a workstation. The extra cost involved isn't worth it either.

Depending on how much he wants to spend, a good RAID configuration, say RAID 1 or even RAID 5 would benefit renderings and animations. This all depends on how large these files are going to get. It all depends...

techfuzz
Click to expand...


I said to use Reg. ECC as the 760MPX chipset was built to be run WITH Reg. ECC ram. SOME boards say you can use regular ram in 2 of the 4 ram slots, but even then it is hit or miss. The chipset was made for Reg. ECC ram for it to be 100% stable.

I have built several Dual athlon machines so I have done my homework and know what I am talking about.

And again, repeating myself, all the 760MPX boards are pretty much the same excluding the extras that have been put on the board, i.e. Sound, raid, ethernet, etc... Don't believe me, go to www.2cpu.com and anybody that knows what they are talking about will say the same as I.

 
Actually the AMD 762 system controller which the AMD 760MPX uses specifies that use of Registered memory, but also states that ECC is optional and thus not required. Unfortunately 9 times out of 10 you aren't going to be able to find Registered Non-ECC memory, it's probably too rare and would drive your costs up.

Too bad AMD can't get with the program and release a dual processor capable chipset that would function better as a workstation than server. Intel still has the edge there, their chipsets don't require Registered memory to function properly.

techfuzz
 
The Asus A7M266D, MSI K7D, and Tyan Tiger MPX are quite similar in performance.
The Tyan Thunder K7X/Pro is the most stable and most powerful; however, this board is extremely expensive when compared to the other 3.
Thunder K7X Pro S2469UGN (gigabit ethernet/ scsi) lowest price at 451 shipped
Thunder K7X Pro S2469GN (gigabit ethernet) lowest price at 360 shipped
Thunder K7X S2468UGN (scsi, 2x3Com 10/100) lowest price at 420 shipped
Thunder K7X S2468GN (2x3Com 10/100) lowest price at 333 shipped
General specs are here.
Thunder Tiger MPX S2466-4M lowest at 205 shipped Specs
Asus A7M266D lowest at 164 Specs
MSI K7D Master lowest at 207 Specs
If he is just considering the A7M266D, K7D Master, and the Tiger MPX, I would say go with the Asus. If he has a lot of cash, he should pick the Thunder K7X that best suits his needs.
 
Originally posted by: Marlin1975
BUT it will not help for playing games. Just wanted to get that out there.
Click to expand...

Had to laugh when I read that. It is for playing games that I am trying to upgrade my computer to a dual CPU solution.

Two CPUs will help me as I am trying to play TWO games on the same computer.

Right now I'm doing ok running one instance of my game with a 1 Ghz duron maxed at 100% CPU utilization. Run two instances and watch my machine crawl.

So I am looking at getting an MSI/Gigabyte/Iwill/Chaintech or Asus dual CPU MB with a couple of those cheap $60 1.2 Ghz MP CPUs. Figure $460 for dual 1.2ghz MB, and 512MB ram is not a bad upgrade from my 1Ghz Duron.

however, I'm debating if going with a newer chipset like the Nforce2 with one of a faster CPU would be a better use of my $$$.

I plan on getting two sticks of 512MB unbuffered ram if I go with the dual solution

Crucial seems to think you don't need registered ram if you are only using two slots on the IWILL board. I can always return it if they are wrong
 
actually, it won't help your games
your games are usually more dependant on graphics card and memory bandwidth(which in the AMD 760MPX's case, since it shares the memory bandwidth between the the chips)

🙂
 
Originally posted by: bgeh
actually, it won't help your games
your games are usually more dependant on graphics card and memory bandwidth(which in the AMD 760MPX's case, since it shares the memory bandwidth between the the chips)

🙂
Click to expand...


I'm not running a FPS. It's a MMORPG that not very graphicaly challenging, it even runs on my old computer that has i810 integrated graphics.

With one instance running the game runs fine but the CPU is maxed at 100% The process: game.dll takes up 99% of the CPU utilization.

With two instances things run OK but when moving around a lot every thing gets "laggy" Now each process is getting 49% or so of the CPU so I figure the most likely culprit is my wussy 1Ghz DURON.

Now memory speed may be another culprit in which case maybe I should be considering an INTEL or NFORCE2 solution?


 
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