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Dual AMD mobo... what is YOUR experience?


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Hey there... in the market for a dual AMD system... In the old days there was just one option Tyan... within Tyan there was (is) Tiger (more basic) and and Thunder (more robust). Today with the AMD 762 chip, there are more Mobo's available. MSI, Gigabyte, and Asus are the ones I have found. Looking at 2cpu.com, the basic concept that I got was that Tyan worked well based on its maturity but is still pretty basic. The new bread seems pretty cool.

 

I would like to know... what is your experience? If you have a dual AMD mobo, which one do you have, and how do you like it? Any issues? Would you choose another one if you had the chance? I'm leaning towards the Asus or Gigabyte...

 

Follow up question: what is the rule on memory with these systems? I hear it is tricky... Can you recommend something for me?

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I have a TYAN Tiger MPX (2466).

If I was in the market now, I'd get the Gigabyte one (it has raid on board) or the MSI.

I never Liked Asus boards, even though they are considered the worlds biggest manufacturer...

BTW, there is also Iwill in the dual AMD game, which has no extras on it, but suppose to be the most overclocable board.

The memory deal is that you can only fill 2 memory slots with unregistered sticks. if you want to get all slots full of memory you'll have to get registered ram. I use 2 sticks of Crucial non ECC unbuffered (2x256), so I can't add more. If I wanted more RAM I'd have to replace the sticks I currently use for Registered RAM. So, get the right memory from the start, even though its a little more expensive (and I think that a little slower too.)

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Got the Asus A7M266-D

 

No issues, runs solid and never have any crashes. Been running it since May 02 w/W2K, 1G ram, 2 AMD Athlon MP 2000+, GeForce 4 Ti.

 

I love rendering in C4D with the duals and visually seeing on screen a render being done w/both CPU's at the same time; one CPU on the top half and the other CPU starting at the mid way point and rendering the rest of the way to the bottom the screen!

 

Very cool...

 

[ November 18, 2002, 09:41 AM: Message edited by: Paul Griger ]

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I thought it was weird they didn't have the asus either :) .

 

The asus has been nothing but good to me. In the past 3 years or so, I have not owned a system more then 6 months before tearing it apart and rebuilding it, or selling it off...except one.

 

*Pats the Dual 1900+ MP*

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Thanks a lot guys... I really like the MSI but I am worried about the fact that the USB 2.0 and Network is external cards that come with it... combine that with my Firewire, and I only have one 32 bit PCI slot left... But it looks pretty ... the Asus which Greg is backing (and I trust him on this) may be a better option... but not as pretty. Stable is always better then a few fractions of a %'s faster in a benchmark.

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Quick Note: I've never used the onboard sound on my asus board. I just use a santa cruz turtle beach card.

 

The asus board also comes with a USB 2.0 card. I'm not sure if the later revisions have the fixed southbridge or not...mine's easily over a year old. (1 year 2 months...upgrading in dec)

 

Remember that overall for a much wider view, wwww.2cpu.com 's forum's are probably your best source for info.

 

[edit]: Its interesting to note that since this was the first system I've had over 6 months, that I just spruced it all up in the past month. Replaced all the fans (including the nvidia gpu fan), cleaned out all the airfilters, cleaned out the interior, blew out the heatsinks. Took out the old IBM GXP's and replaced them with WD800JB's, put in new hd cables (just because their uber with all this cool techie stuff like EMI shielding and copper wiring la la), added a Sony DRU-500A, flashed the bios, and reinstalled it from scratch. I will be upgrading it (hopefully) to 2400 or 2600+ MP's in december (whatever's available), to see if I can keep it going for another year.

 

You might wonder why I did all this. Yes I'm crazy. But its always nice to give your machine a nice 3,000 mile checkup every once in awhile...especially when the work load is low or nil, and you've got plenty of time to reset things up and what not. I usually replace the fans on a yearly basis just because they're running 24/7, which is a lot to ask out of those ball bearings. (They should last 2-4 years under normal conditions)

 

[ November 20, 2002, 06:32 AM: Message edited by: Greg Hess ]

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Hi there

I've just got an ASUS board. Though will only be using a single chip for the time being. Glad to see your pleased with it. Will be putting it all together over the next couple of days.

Hello Christopher......will you be putting one together or getting one from a retailer. I'll try and let you know how it works out

This looks like a pretty good deal

http://3dny.org/news/moxbox.phtml

Good luck

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