Thunderbird) 900MHz Socket A CPU (New) $71.00

[Richard_Cranium72]

*Almost Gone*

AMD Athlon (Thunderbird) Socket A CPU
900 MHz
High-performance cache architecture featuring an
- integrated 128-Kbyte L1 cache and a 16-way, on-chip
- 256-Kbyte L2 cache for a total of 384-Kbytes of on-chip cache
Three out-of-order, superscalar, pipelined integer units
72-entry instruction control unit
Enhanced 3DNow! technology
0.18 micron technology
CPU Only, Heatsink/Fan not included
http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=A0900AMT3B-N

[Richard_Cranium72]

Man, I am seriously delerious.

The price on the T-bird looked great, till I pulled up newegg's site.

Oh well, gimmme a break OK, I've been pounding on this Win95 turd for over 12.5 hours now and my mind is just about gone

http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif
DrVette

[TOAD6147]

I bought one of these CPU's* a couple months ago not knowing that these were developed almost exclusively for OEM manufacturers. I understand they don't do well with the VIA chipset motherboards and you're pretty much destined to use the AMD750-based boards and I think that's all but two or three. I wound up getting a FreeTech board and it seems alright but haven't really spent much time on it as yet. Anybody else got any indepth info on this CPU and useable boards?
*Edit My mistake. I thought Doc was posting about the SLOT A T-Bird, not the Socket A T-Bird.

[This message has been edited by TOAD6147 (edited 08-15-2001).]

[mudoggy]

Toad,
I'm not sure I understand why you heard they 'won't work well with VIA chipset boards'. All Athlons work great with VIA chipsets. SBLive sound cards on the other hand, well, some of them have minor issues in specific situations.

Oodles of Athlons are running quite happily on several different chipsets. Maybe you could elaborate? I really am curious.

[TOAD6147]

mudoggy,
Well, that's the problem. I've only heard sketchy info with reference to this situation and not many people are aware of this problem. It has to do with SLOT A
*(not Socket A)* Thunderbirds (not Classic Athlons) and the fast on-die cache that the VIA has a problem with. There is an article about it at Tom's Hardware and he promised a follow-up. I've witten to him about it but I've not gotten any reply and I've not been aware of any follow-up. I've even written AMD and AxionTech (who sold me the CPU and a VIA-based board) but all are ignoring my RFI's.
*EDIT* No wonder you guys were confused.

[This message has been edited by TOAD6147 (edited 08-15-2001).]

[preludexl]

what are you guys saying? the athlon socket a only works with some motherboards only?

[TOAD6147]

preludexl,
We were paying attention to what we were saying. I said the SLOT A (NOT Socket A) comes in two flavors: Classic Athlon which is what the early VIA-based (as well as the AMD-based) motherboards were developed for, and Slot A Thunderbird (developed almost exclusively for the OEM market) which has the high-speed on-die L2 and L3 cache which, as I stated, can't run the higher mhz CPU's (like the 800-1000 Slot A T-Birds)with stability. Yes, the VIA chipset's NOW don't have a problem with the TBirds, obviously, but hey, guess what, they're all on SOCKET A boards now.

[Stat]

I've been using via and athlon socket a on all the pc's I build. The only problem I have had is with the Soundblaster live 5.1 soundcard. I had data loss. then I installed the new 4 in 1 mothboard drivers and the problem was fixed. This is the only problem with via motherboards that I am aware of that is documented. Quite easy fix so It did not scare me away from via. Lots of rumors out there but I can't really find any facts about them.

p.s. using only asus parts here

[This message has been edited by Stat (edited 08-15-2001).]

[TOAD6147]

Stat,
You're right. I'm talking about the **SLOT A** T-Birds not the **Socket A** which (my mistake)I thought Doc was posting about. My apologies to all. Old age will do that to ya'! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[TOAD6147]

This the brief article at Tom's: http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/00q2/000605/t-bird-04.html