K7D Master-L Dual Mobo

[lechumbl]

Hi Tom,

The price on Price Watch for the MSI K7D Master dual mobo is from $184.00 US for the basic board, from CDR Express, to the K7D Master-L (with on board LAN) for $214.00 US from SR-Systems.
I have bought from SR-Systems before, and they are good.
Just might have to give the dual XP a try.

Jingle Bells Jingle Bells, sounds like Christmas is coming..........Maybe early?

Take care........

[MrP]

hmmmmm, me thinks the rest of the seti team had better take cover!!!!!

toodles

[Player0]

Try it out man...I spent more for my AT7Max so it's really a good deal. It doesn't need a funky PSU either does it? I think just the 4-pin P4 connector.

If it works out good for you, I know whats going in my video editing machine ;)

[bigg]

XPs??? u must want to L5 mod them. good luck. :D
2cpu (http://www.2cpu.com) because 2 is better than 1. im on their forums too. same name

[lechumbl]

Hi bigg,

Already have it, but thanx tho.

Appreciate it.

Take care.......

[mdzcpa]

Sounds neat Lee. If you do get that mobo keep us posted. :)

[Bozo]

been looking at dual boards myself. Can somebody confirm that all i would need to do to make 2 xp's (thoroughbred) work in dual mode is to connect the bridge with a conductive pen ?

I have never attempted to unlock a chip but this seems too good to be true, even i can draw a line between two points :) If so does anybody know somewhere in the uk that sells these so i can check out the cost etc.

While i am asking. Do the new xp chips run cooler or hotter with the new core ? if for instance i went for a 2200 or 2400 would it be hotter/cooler than an 1900 with the palimino core ?

Cheers

[MrP]

try www.scan.co.uk

keep an eye on the today only offers, they tend to do the dual boards once in a while.

theyt also sell the 2400 chips

toodles

[NOHTO]

All you have to do is close the last L-5 bridge. I am runing 2 1600's OC'd to 2100's on air. K7D MASTER

[Player0]

I've decided to go dually-xeons. They are actually price competitive with the dual-amds. And, they are nearly 2x as fast as well :)

dual XPs just arent going to work as well as dual MPs, even if you unlock L5. Check out 2CPU.com for more info. I definitely suggest MPs.

[NOHTO]

What do you mean they won't work as well? I was able to OC my 1600's to 1725Mhz and loop 3-dmark, Prime 95, and Sandra Mem burnin all at the same time for 24 hrs straight. Running the memory at cas 2, 2-6-2. On air I should also note.

[Player0]

XPs do not work as well in SMP configuration as MPs. MPs have special built in functions that really improve memory sharing etc, which makes them a bit faster.

Unfortunately, Xeons are price competitive with MPs. With larger cache and hyper-threading, as well as much better multimedia support (which is absolutely needed for most SMP applications anyway), Xeons really are something everyone should take a look at. Yes, they will cost a little bit more. Upwards of $200 more than a nice Dually MP system. But the performance benefits are WELL worth the $200 (some of us spend $200 on cooling to acheive a fraction of that performance difference). Use some of that Xmas money (return grandmas sweater) and buy the Xeons! Comeon, someone needs to beable to help me install mine ;) Dont forget Tax money should be coming soon as well ;)

My particular Xeon board is dual-channel DDR and supports 533mhz Xeons, and was spensive. You might actually beable to build a cheaper Dual-Xeon system for under the cost of a Dual-AMD (no kidding), but using 400mhz Xeons and single-channel DDR. The performance will still be better though, and they also run cooler (important when considering the tight space youll have in the case, you dont want things melting).

Dual XP 2800+ *might* be able to come close to Dual-Xeons...but there arent any dual-channel DDR AMD boards for dually's yet! Thats insane!! The memory performance is just terrible on K7s. Cant wait for Hammer.

[NOHTO]

Yeah the memory leaves a lot to be desired. From what I understand the only difference between the MP processors and the XP besides cutting the 5th bridge is that the MPs are put through a more rigorous testing and they have to have pass a more stringent testing procedure than would an xp processor. I could be wrong, but if you have an article to post that shows/proves that they have special built in functions that really improve memory sharing etc, I would appreciate a link so I could further my knowledge.:D :D :teacher:

[Player0]

Athlon MPs do have special instructions and features which are used for SMP. Athlon XP and MP are basically the same cores. What I'm no longer sure about is if unlocking the L5 bridges enables SMP & the extra instructions, or if it just unlocks SMP. I was under the impression that it enaples XP to run in SMP, but does NOT enable the extra SMP instructions and features. But I am not sure on this, I'll look it up. Ive seen the articles before.

[Player0]

Yes, I've been able to find at least one example:

http://www6.tomshardware.com/mainboard/20010605/760mp-06.html

On this chart, you will see that two 1.2 Athlons are slower than two 1.2 AthlonMPs.

After re-reading this article (after well more than a year since reading similar articles), I noticed that the AthlonMP 1.2g is a Palamino (XP core). There were no AthlonXPs that ran 1.2g. The performance benefit of the better core is responsible for the difference in performance.

I have to assume then that AthlonXP and AthlonMP are equal in performance, and that AthlonXP doesn't have it's SMP instructions neutered. I guess I've just remember those articles from back when the MP came out and kept thinking that Athlon MPs were faster in SMP mode. But, guess I was wrong :)

Of course, $40 more for the MP isn't bad if you consider they all come unlocked and you don't have to do the L5 bridges. I dont know about you guys, but I'm sick of unlocking CPUs with a needle, paint, and a pint of liquor.

[Farabomb]

Originally posted by Player0
I dont know about you guys, but I'm sick of unlocking CPUs with a needle, paint, and a pint of liquor.

That pint of liquor is the most important part. :D :D