On Mon, 2003-06-02 at 16:31, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Mark Lane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Monday, June 2, 2003 3:38 pm > Subject: Re: (clug-talk) Via KT400 Chipset > > > At 03:21 PM 6/2/03, you wrote: > > >All, > > > > > >Anyone have any experience with the new Via KT400 chipset? I'm > > doing some > > >upgrades, and am going with an athlon this time, and was > > wondering if anyone > > >has one, and would share their experience with me. > > > > The KT400 Chipset is flaky under Linux. We have had problems with > > several > > different boards. > > I have used a number of Gigabyte KT400s with zero trouble mind you with lower speed > memory and CPUs. Which specific MBs gave you trouble Mark?
The MSI boards which are generally top notch. We were running PC2100 in some and PC2700 in other systems. Our biggest problem was when trying to use them in a server setting. The systems would eventually crash resulting in us having to provide the customer with a more expensive but reliable system (A Tyan Tiger with just one processor). We had a version with an extra fancy southbridge (Nicer sound, Different AGP) than the standard KT400 chipset on a system in the office. It would run okay most of the time but we were coming across problems in Linux as well as in Windows. The NForce2 Boards run stably with PC3200 and have lots more memory bandwidth due to the interleaving. Going from a KT400 with an XP 2400+ to a NForce2 with a Barton XP 2500+ made a big difference in performance. Generally a speed increase that small shouldn't be noticed by the system user as it will be less than a 20% performance increase. But even with probably a slower onboard video card, AutoCAD inventor was noticeably faster rendering on the NForce2. The Barton 2500+ has the same or lower clock speed than XP though it does have a much bigger cache which gives it a bit better performance. > > I would recommend the Nforce2 Board over any > > other single > > processor AMD board. Even with the closed source drivers, it's > > faster and > > runs much more stable. The best deal on an NForce2 board I have > > seen is > > BioStar's. > > I use their vid card drivers because I have to, but should they stop supporting > their VC and MB chipsets were screwed. Its the only reason I won't buy one of their > boards ;-( > > Mark,I have a buddy that wants to do an smp xp or mp box. Could you recomend a good > dual processor AMD MB for use as a workstation? and can the XP processors be used > for doing this? > The best MP motherboard for this would be the Tyan Tiger 2466-4M. It's reasonally priced and is still a server quality board. To use XPs in this board you will have to unlock at least the cpu in socket one. Generally this requires taking some conductive paint and rejoining some cut traces on the top of the chip. This is similar to what needs to be done to remove the clock lock. Several overclocking sites have gone over the process. -- Mark Lane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
