Motherboard for Athlon TBird

[quail]

I have a AMD T-Bird 1.4 GHz machine that I brought to a repair shop and it came back 2 yr ago with system not seeing the mouse. I am thinking of resurrecting the system but cannot find the Gigabyte 7Dx board that it came with. Since the system has video and sound cards those are not major issues. Can anyone please suggest considerations for upgrading this system?
Thanks,
Quail

[MJCfromCT]

Welcome to SysOpt :)

How much money are you willing to spend? Nowadays if you have even around 175-200 bucks, you would be better off getting a new mobo and cpu.

[The Lodge]

Just pick up any cheap socket A motherboard. I recently had a similar question. I acquired a computer with a 1.4GHz t-bird and a dead mobo. It already had a video card in it so that wasn’t a problem.

Here you go, $29 shipped to your door.
PCChips M811LU (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-185-010&depa=1) :t

[quail]

These are two excellent solutions. Thanks guys for your suggestions. According to Lodge I could get the system up for $29. Rather inexpensive solution. With MJC's I could upgrade the system. But what would I do with a very good T-bird CPU thereafter? I have thought of getting a board that can accommodate two CPU's but wondered if it is worth the effort. I was thinking of spending $100.00 on the computer. However, I wouldn't be averse to doubling that if I saw the need.
The machine was initially bought to do numerical simulations, but that didn't work out since it started giving trouble. It also served at an entertainment centre.
Now i am thinking of learning Java, so some light coding is in its future. Also the usual Mathcad and Mathematica applications as needed.

[quail]

Lodge, I wonder about the stability of the MOBO. How did it perform in your system? The Gigabyte 7DX didn't prove very stable given the power fluctuations around here.

[crusious31]

I have an M811LU, and its solid. I have a 1800+ in mine. Dont forget you will need new memory. The M811LU takes DDR RAM. Your old system more than likely took SD RAM. The machine will be great for internet browsing, programing , playing music and videos.

[The Lodge]

Take crusious31s advice. I don’t have the board yet, but plan on picking it up. There are a few people here in sysopt running a box with that board. You can’t complain, it would be a decent computer for $29.

If you have a lot of power surges\spikes then I would suggest you look into a UPS. Dirty power can reek havoc on a system.

Edit: Just looked up his board and it seems that it supports PC1600 and 2100.

[causticVapor]

Two CPUs? Go for any 760MPX board then. There are those around the 100 dollar mark if you're willing to hunt for them.

Tbirds make excellent cheap dual processors for MPX boards.

[Peter M]

T-bird isn't very good at dual-CPU-ing (techies: Lack of MOESI cache coherency protocol), and the 1.4GHz flavor consumes a huge lot of power. Neither of these problems will make a dual-CPU board particularly happy.

Just stick with the 811LU, that's a solid recommendation. Please mind CPU cooling and use a solid power supply unit.

[causticVapor]

Well I just suggested it to him because he wanted to do it and a lot of people have done it before - That combined with the extremely low price of Tbirds these days.

[DocEvi1]

My current machine (soon to be upgraded to AMD 64bit) is running an Asus A7V133, with 512MB PC133 and with the GF4Ti4400 still plays most of the lastest games and is suitably fast on the internet, word....

I'm just upgrading as the hardware is ageing and starting to fail (It's my gaming and workhorse so I need reliability)... My parents will get this machine and it'll be great for them!

[causticVapor]

Originally posted by DocEvi1
I'm just upgrading as the hardware is aging and starting to fail ... My parents will get this machine and it'll be great for them!

Anybody else see what's wrong with this picture?

[The Lodge]

Originally posted by causticVapor
Anybody else see what's wrong with this picture? I didn’t know failing hardware was great for anybody. :eek:

[DocEvi1]

;) Nought wrong with that picture, they think it works fine ;)

Actually the "failing" hardware was due to WinXp not liking the Via Kt133a and the installation of the Asus A7V, it would regulary crash due to bad management of the PCI/AGP interfaces (WinXP causing it, not the board).

My folks use Win98Se still (they have the licence and don't need to update) and the system worked perfectly under that.

[causticVapor]

Originally posted by Peter M
T-bird isn't very good at dual-CPU-ing (techies: Lack of MOESI cache coherency protocol), and the 1.4GHz flavor consumes a huge lot of power. Neither of these problems will make a dual-CPU board particularly happy.

Just stick with the 811LU, that's a solid recommendation. Please mind CPU cooling and use a solid power supply unit.

And the MP 3000+ isn't a CPU that consumes a lot of power? Also, most of the benchmarks I've seen show little to no advantage when using MOESI.

[Peter M]

There is no MP3000+. The series tops out at 2800+.

Athlon 1400: 1.75V, 41.2A, 95C, 72.1W max, 64.7W typical.

Athlon MP 2800+: 1.60V, 37.5A, 90C, 60.0W max, 47.2W typical.


The Athlon 1400 draws 37 percent more power than the MP2800+ in typical operating scenarios. In the theoretical worst case, it's still 20 percent.


MOESI cache protocol is not something you can benchmark separately - the MP CPUs just do it, you don't notice. It becomes relevant when both CPUs are working on the same dataset, like in threaded rendering.

[Rabbitrunner51]

Here is a good board that is a proven winner ..from Gigiabyte

It is the GA-7VT600 1394 KT600 chipset and uses the socket A and has a via chipset....

Supports your porcessor and is available a Newegg.com for $72.00

[causticVapor]

Originally posted by Peter M
There is no MP3000+. The series tops out at 2800+.

Athlon 1400: 1.75V, 41.2A, 95C, 72.1W max, 64.7W typical.

Athlon MP 2800+: 1.60V, 37.5A, 90C, 60.0W max, 47.2W typical.


The Athlon 1400 draws 37 percent more power than the MP2800+ in typical operating scenarios. In the theoretical worst case, it's still 20 percent.


MOESI cache protocol is not something you can benchmark separately - the MP CPUs just do it, you don't notice. It becomes relevant when both CPUs are working on the same dataset, like in threaded rendering.

I stand corrected then. I forgot that the 3000+ was rumored but never really existed (bad) and it always seemed to me that the fastest barton drew the same amount of power as the fastest tbird. At least that's what the general consensus was....nah well. Good to look at numbers sometimes instead of tons of subjective analyses.

As for MOESI, I swear I saw some benchmarks showing very little difference between two thunderbirds and athlon MPs of the same clock speed. Perhaps the apps didn't really benefit from use of the protocol.

My apologies for confusing any readers. :t

[kevrob1]

I bought a Chaintech Via1 for $39.00 US for an XP2100. It'll work with the T-Bird and overclock too...:t

[gtaylor]

Originally posted by Rabbitrunner51
Here is a good board that is a proven winner ..from Gigiabyte

It is the GA-7VT600 1394 KT600 chipset and uses the socket A and has a via chipset....

Supports your porcessor and is available a Newegg.com for $72.00

I always go with gigabyte moterboards, and have put a few of the flavours of the VT600 in machines at work. There are cheaper ones than that model, I think the VT600-l is a great little board, and at only £30 over here in the UK (about $20), you can't go far wrong.

On an earlier point, the 7DX is a good board, and I don't know of any electrical device that works well under fluctuating and/or dirty power. This isn't confined to this board.