On Fri, 5 Jan 2001, Bill Broadley wrote:
> There are athlons that have 512k offchip cache running at 250-300 Mhz,
> make sure you don't buy one of those. You definitely want the 1 Ghz
> chip with the onchip 256k Cache running at cpu speed. The onchip cache
> often is signified by "256K cache", "advanced cache", or tbird.
I think those are the old ones that used the Slot A interface if I'm not
mistaken. I have one of those in my K7V mobo. I was lead to believe
starting with the Socket A chips, all on-chip cache was running at core
speed.
> Today theres 2 tbird options, 200 Mhz fsb, and 266 Mhz fsb (actually it's
> 100 ddr, and 133 ddr). 2 memory options as well PC133 and DC2100 (which
> is actually 133 Mhz memory transfering twice per cycle, somewhat
> similar to 266 Mhz memory).
>
> DDR for the moment is quite expensive, but as it turns out it's the
> latency thats the big bottleneck on performance these days not bandwidth.
I'd rather stick with PC133 SDRAM at the moment. I think there's a glut
in the marketplace right now that makes it the best value/performance.
> So while /266 CPU's with DDR memory (similar to ram running at 266) show
> up to 10% improvement on a wide variety of workloads, benchmarks, and games.
>
> Turns out though that the new kt133a motherboards that handle /200 and
> /266 cpu's show most of the performance increase even with PC133 memory.
I like sticking with ASUS. I heard they were coming out with a mobo
called A7V133 that supports the 266MHz FSB, but I can't find any reference
on the USA ASUS site. I've seen BIOS updates for this board already on
the German ASUS FTP site (linked from http://www.socketa.com), but no
boards to run them on! :) Do you know of any websites/local shops that
carry them?
Do you have any personal experience with another Athlon mobo manufacturer
other than ASUS?
> So if your considering a new athlon I'd get recommend:
> A. Get less then 1 Ghz cpu, and a kt133a motherboard
This is my personal choice at the moment, considering I can get my hands
on a KT133A chipset mobo. Besides, the KT133A chipset should provide an
upgrade path to any 266MHz FSB chip if needed.
> Personally one of the nicer kt133a boards+1.0 ghz cpu(/266) is looking
> really attractive right now. A couple memory places are selling 256 MB dimms
> for $80 ish.
I couldn't find the high quality type memory (256M, CAS2, 7ns) at this
price. Any hints? :)
> In any case the new amd systems have amazing price/performance, enjoy.
Thanx for the tips! :)
FL
