Keep dual P3s, dump mobo?

[Dragon-Lord 0]

My mobo with the blown scsi chip just does not seem to be cutting it (I think it just can't handle all the juice I am running through it, see below). I have eliminated all other causes (except ****ty CL liveware), so it looks like I will be replacing the motherboard. So, given that I have two 450mhz P3s (pre-Cu), what is my best affordable upgrade option?

 

I'd like to keep the majority of this gear. If it doesn't make sense to keep SMP with a new mobo, I'll keep whichever chip overclocks the highest (hehe) and upgrade the wife's computer with the other.

 

Note that I went SMP to run high end 3D apps that take advantage of SMP, so if I can find a good dual replacement, that would be preferable.

 

My video can go to 4xAGP and I am willing to try and push my ram from 100fsb to 133fsb, so I guess I am looking for the right fit.

 

Should I try and go dual with another brand (I will not be buying supermicro again), or skip it and just run a Win2K reliable board from Asus/Abit/Tyan/Whoever?

 

For example, is there a dual proc equivalent of the asus cusl2? Is it happy with W2K?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

:}

 

 

 

------------------

W2K Pro(Purchased Retail, ACPI/SMP)

Supermicro SBDBS r1.02, Bios 3.0 (dead on-board SCSI chip)

2xPIII @450mhz (not o/c)

256mb PC100 Ram in 2 sticks

3xIDE HDs (50gb total, all NTFS) and 1 Pioneer IDE DVD-ROM (all UDMA)

Geforce 256 DDR (32mb), CL AnnPro (DET v5.32)

SBLive! Platinum with digital breakout card (LW3.0)

3COm 3C515-TX ISA Ethernet 10/100 (W2k CD)

SIIG AP-40 UWide SCSI PCI (W2K CD)

Nikon LS-2000 SCSI film scanner (drivers now released)

Sony SDT-9000 SCSI 4mm DAT (W2K CD)

SAF 4012 SCSI CD-Write (W2K CD)

Iomega Zip 100 SCSI Drive (no drivers)

MS Natural Keyboard Pro USB (updated MS drivers)

MS Intellimouse Optical USB (updated MS drivers)

HP Laserjet 6L via USB printing (W2K CD)

Epson Stylus Photo 700 via parallel

Rainbow Sentinel Parallel Dongle for LightWave6

[Donald2B 0]

I am not the most knowledgable when it comes to all of the different dual mobos, but I can tell you that I am running an Asus P2B-D motherboard and this this is rock solid!! I haven't had any problems with Win2K, Win98, or Whistler! Everything works like a charm. There is only one major drawback and that would be that there are only 4 PCI slots. So from what you listed I don't think that will be a problem, but then again I am not sure about a couple of your items. This board is based on the solid 440BX chipset and it is overclockable. I was able to get the motherboard to run at 133Mhz FSB with all of my components working like a charm and everything running stable for over a month without a reboot!! ; )

 

Another notable feature is that the AGP is 2x max. Which when you think about it is not that big of a difference. Anyway, my systems works flawlessly!

 

~Troy

 

System Specs:

Asus P2B-D

Dual PIII 700MHz

512MB PC100 RAM

Elsa GeForce2 GTS 64MB Video Card

Promise Ultra66 Controller

WD 15.3 GB 7200 RPM ATA66 HDD

WD 20.5GB 7200 RPM ATA66 HDD

Asus 50x CD-ROM

Sony 4x4x24 CD-RW

SB Live! Platinum

SuperMicro SC-750A Case w/ 400 Watt PS

 

 

[This message has been edited by Donald2B (edited 22 August 2000).]

[Dragon-Lord 0]

thanks...I will put that one on the list of possibles. :}

[Dragon-Lord 0]

looking at boards like the p2b-d mentioned above, I have found only the following:

 

$284 AsusTek P2B-D

$187 Tyan S1832DL

$152 SuperMicro P6DBE (grrr)

$147 Abit AB-BP6

 

Since there is a wide spread in price, I wanted everyone's opinions on these boards (and any others I have missed) as a replacement.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

:}

[Donald2B 0]

I recently started checking out this site and I have found it to be very informative. http://2cpu.com Go into the forums section and all of the motherboards you listed are discussed there with people who are actually using them.

 

I just recently purchased my Asus P2B-D motherboard and I was looking at all of the other boards, but seeing how many problems people were having with them I opted to go for the Old 440BX chipset. I loved this board so much that I got one for my work machine!!

 

------------------

System Specs:

Asus P2B-D

Dual PIII 700MHz

512MB PC100 RAM

Elsa GeForce2 GTS 64MB Video Card

Promise Ultra66 Controller

WD 15.3 GB HDD

WD 20.5GB HDD

Asus 50x CD-ROM

Sony 4x4x24 CD-RW

SB Live! Platinum

SuperMicro SC-750A Case w/ 400 Watt PS

[Dragon-Lord 0]

thanks again!

 

:}

[Dragon-Lord 0]

okay, I have managed to get my machine to work flawlessly. To do this I had to...

 

switch the SBLive out and replace with an A3D card (MX300)

 

and

 

run the A3D card with latest drivers from www.vortexofsound.com, but not select full hardware acceleration (which will crash in w2k)

 

and

 

run the machine in /onecpu mode, so that only one processor is running

 

(sigh)

 

but at least everything is working. it looks like my mobo/bios cannot handle both processors, etc. I will watch for A3D drivers, EAX updates, and bios updates to my mobo...

 

for now, I run with a single processor...but at least I am getting 100% no crashes.

 

:}