dual AMD motherboard?

[pieopah]

Hey everyone. I've been building my own machines for a while now, but I've fallen behind on the newest and greatest motherboards and RAM. I'm looking to build a gaming system, one that's a real powerhouse. I'm mainly concerned with finding a good dual-Athlon motherboard. One with AGP, many PCI slots, etc. Here's my ideal configuration:

Case w/ 550 watt PS
Dual-Athlon MB
Dual Athlon XP 2100+ 266 FSB
Matrox Parahelia
1 GIG PC2100 or PC2700 RAM
Dual 120 MB 8MB cache 7200 RPM drives
IDE raid controller
Soundblaster X-Gamer 5.1

I think that about covers it... Any suggestions on case, MB, RAM, etc. would be greatly appreciated. thanks!

 

[Acer]

I would not recommend Tyan's version and I am using MSI's K7D Master. A great board but only has 3 PCI slots which one will be used by the USB 2.0 PCI card that is included with the board because the onboard USB does not work with the 762/768 AMD chipsets. You also have 2-64 bit (66 mhz) PCI slots and an AGP Pro slot.

They took one page out of the Intel design and used the small square power plug to plug into the middle of the board to run the two cpu's and AGP card so to avoid a large surge/draw through the ATX cable.

I can use unbuffered ram (presently Samsung PC 2700) in slot 1. DIMM slot 2 is also available to use with unregistered or unbuffered ram.

I can overclock this puppy right up to the max, 150 FSB. But, I do have to lower the multiplier on my MP 1800's down to 10.5X, which in effect makes them 1900's. Very stable>

Now, Iwill has just come out with a release of the dual AMD board. It probably uses the same chipset have the basic same board design. They always make excellent boards too!

HERE IS THE LINK TO IWILL'S NEW DUAL ATHLON BOARD. IT HAS AN EXTRA PCI SLOT

 

[hitchhiker]

I think the new version of the MSI board, 6501-020, has working USB. The 6501-030 has on board lan. The only board out that has an IDE raid controller is the Gigabyte but its stability is questionable. The up coming Chaintech has raid but it's not yet available. The Tyan MPX board has the most PCI slots but it doesn't overclock well.

If you're building this for gaming remember that most games don't take advantage of SMP. In fact the only one I can think of is Quake 3 Arena. The games won't run any faster than a single CPU system, they might even run a little slower, but you can do a lot of things in the background while you're playing the game.

 

[jonnyGURU]

I too would not recommend the Tyan.

The MSI is a good choice, although I have already received two back on RMA.

The Gigabyte's have yet to come back on RMA and the one I built for a computer show went together "too" easily.

 

[Podolak]

wouldn't um...he need Athlon MP processors vs Athlon XP?

 

[steell]

Might be a little easier with MP's. Otherwise he might have to connect the L5 bridge (if it is cut), and there is still no garantee that XP's will work. Although they "probably" will.

 

[pieopah]

Thanks for all the help guys. I might end up going with a single proc board, just so I won't have to buy two processors. Plus, it's kind of pointless, usually. I don't do a whole lot of multitasking. So if you have any good single-proc Athlon suggestions, throw em out there!