To OuTpaTienT and others, what's the problem with Slot A Athlon CPU's ?

[Richard_Cranium72]

AFTER, I got a slot A Athlon board and processor, I see a couple of comments regarding the opinion that they are inferior?

What areas does this include ?

Can I avoid any pitfalls, How ?

The CPU in question is a Athlon Slot A 550mhz.

Thanks
DrVette

[Andy_L]

Most slot A athlons were pre-Tbird, so they had 512 Kb of cache running at 1/2 (or so) clock speed. The t-birds, im sure you are aware have 256kb of cache which runs at full clock speed. Your 550 should be roughly as fast as a Duron 600, I think??

[Nighthawk]

Andy_L is correct, the cache was in chips off-die (like the pentium IIs and IIIs it was designed to compete with). This somewhat limited speed, since the cache actually, (according to "Upgrading and Repairing PCs, 12th ed." by Scott Mueller), "ran at either one-half core, two-fifths core, or one-third core", basically 250-350 MHz. This meant that you couldn't get as much data through the L2. This would improve performance about as much as betwen a P3 600 and a P3 600E.

Motherboards: If I remember correctly, the slot-A motherboard chipsets never did get very good and had some compatibility problems with GeForces (though that could only be with AMD's 750 Irongate chipset).

Plus there's the fact that there are no more CPUs that support slot-A, so the motherboard has almost no upgradeability

[OuTpaTienT]

That speed comparison is about right.

Doc, who's telling you they're inferior? Is a '95 Vette inferior to a '01 Vette? Sure it's not as advanced, maybe not as fast, etc. But I'd take a '95 Vette anyday.

Nothing wrong with a Slot-A board/CPU. That's what I got. Slot-A Athlon running at 1Ghz.

The Slot-A Athlons are slightly faster than the Duron at speeds in the range of 500-700mhz. After that the Duron begans to pull ahead due to it's faster cache.

There's not pitfalls that I know of, other than your normal everyday computer pitfals. If you have any trouble just tell us, ya know we'll help ya out.

[Richard_Cranium72]

I got a Epox EP7KXA mobo and a Iwill RAID card and 550 Athlon for $125.00 total.

I don't plan to o/c it , unless it don't require prying the top off. So ultimate speeds are not what I go for.

My priorities are

1. Stability
2. Cost
3. Salability

Thanks for the input guys, I thought I saw some comments indicating the Slot-A was possibly a POS.


cya
DrVette

[thekingofpain]

Like I said back then, I LOVE mine using the EpOx 7KXA with a GFD OC'd Athlon 750, its been my server for over a year now, NEVER has missed a beat...you got a DEAL for 125$...


Oh yeah, check the core of that 550, they are well known for being of higher frequency...a bonus indeed!!!

[This message has been edited by thekingofpain (edited 01-28-2001).]

[Richard_Cranium72]

check the core, check the core, check the core...

Picture of Mad Scientist Dr ItchyBod R. Cranium wielding a 6" sidegrinder to the Athlon chucked up in a vise..

Grrrrrrssccccchhhhhiiipppptt

Uh,, fellahs,, uh, uh, de core is made of little bitty transistors,, all kinda smokin now..

What now ?

[Dputiger]

I really agree with Peter Missel on this one. On the one hand, the chip/board are not going to be all that upgradable.

On the other hand, for $125, could you get a better deal?

[OuTpaTienT]

Uh guys, calm down. He already said he doesn't want to overclock it. Stability is more important than speed. And there is no positive way to know the core speed without cracking open the case and removing the heatplate.

[Peter M]

Well, as the others said already, they're outdated technology with no upgrade path, but they're by far and large fast enough for almost anyone's needs - and exactly because there's no future for them, they and matching boards are so temptingly cheap that you very well may have made the right decision.

Regards, Peter

[thekingofpain]

The product ID is available easily without rippin your Athlon apart...Richard may not wanna OC his new chip, but if you get a 550 with a 700+ core, well? why not utilize it???...
<IMG SRC="http://b.PostMyPic.com/b.nsf/Z/ath_tIDDMXS/$file/ath_tID.jpg" border=0>
K7 core has a cross reference database for the ID #'s



[This message has been edited by thekingofpain (edited 01-30-2001).]

[OuTpaTienT]

Problem is, the ID number doesn't tell you squat.

The number on my old 500 indicated it should've been a true 500mhz chip. And the white sticker on the inside, on the PCB, indicated it should have been a true 550mhz chip. The actual chip said it was 600mhz.

Plus, there's no way to overclock it without ripping it open. Except for upping the FSB which won't get you very far.

[This message has been edited by OuTpaTienT (edited 01-29-2001).]

[boboy]

I'm using a K7 pro Motherboard it only supports AMD CPU's I overclocked my 550 Athlon to 608 Mhz by setting the ferquency from 100 Mhz to 110 Mhz & voltage to 1.60 .
oh..I don't have extra cooling installed yet
i think i ran it for 8 hr's or so.I did this in my cmos setup..i've no idea about this(NEW ENTHUSIAST).But I can set it up to 150 Mhz and 1.80 volts or maybe more,is my o/c setup considered safe? Is it really done,because when I run dxdiag my CPU reading says 600 Mhz.Can i push it up a bit more without the fans ..sorry this more like of question than a reply...I dont want to overdo it THIS IS MY FIRST SYSTEM. ohh i'm
using voodoo 3 3000.


It's stupid but i dunno S****t about my system..the dealer said this is one of the best Class B sys in terms of service atleast
untill the year 2003 is he right?..if not
i'll be posting a lot of questions on how to
optimize my comp. so far this is it 608 Mhz no prob yet,let me know if there's going to be.........Thanks......

[knucklebusted]

Hey, I think he said:

1. Stability
2. Cost
3. Salability

So I'm assuming he's assembling it for resale sooner or later. I do the same type of thing. People come to me and ask, "Got anything that I can surf the web with for less than $300?"