Hi Mark, Thanx for your timely and informed response. I will have Tim aquire the Tyan board and we will unlock the CPUs as per.
All the best, Dan.. ----- Original Message ----- From: Mark Lane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tuesday, June 3, 2003 0:10 am Subject: Re: (clug-talk) Via KT400 Chipset > 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, > DifferentAGP) 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 > noticedby 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 > somecut 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 > overthe process. > -- > Mark Lane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >
