Dual Socket 370 + VIA

[weerin 0]

Well, its time to buy a new machine. After using the 440bx chipset and a dual slot 1 board (gigabyte 6bxd) for a long time, it is time for something new. The 440BX was stable and performed well, it was a really great chipset..but now as I am faced having to buy another dual board, I have to look towards VIA chipsets unless I want to either fork out a lot of $$ for a i840 board + rdram or something else that is very expensive, such as a board with the serverworks serverset III le chipset. After looking through some options, I have ended up deciding on a dual socket 370 board with a via chipset, but would like to hear peoples recomendations and experiences with such a board.

 

When thinking of VIA, instantly poor performance comes to mind. However from what I have seen recently, the via chipsets have matured and are pretty decent now, however I am still concerned with the memory bandwith/performance. There are a few dual socket 370 boards that I am interested in, one being the MSI 694D pro or maybe the Tyan Tiger 133, however there are probably others out there which I dont know about.

 

So, anyone out there that is running a dual board with a via chipset, I would appreciate any feedback to do with what board I should be after, problems you have encountered, what drivers or tweaks are required to obtain maximum performance / stability, etc.

Thanks in advance

[Brian Frank 0]

Tyan has had a history of making server boards, and a very good one at that. While I dont have a dual board from them, I do have the Trinity 400, and it is very stable.

Definitely wise to skip anything with RDRAM, just because the info I got from tomshardware seemed to point to the fact that Rambus is weasling in their way to the market in any way they can.

The Via Apollo Pro 133A is, IMO, a stable chipset.

But why are you ditching the ol BX? Keep it if you can, as those can still hold it against current chipsets.

If you dont get the Tyan board, the Abit VP6 seems to be pretty popular too.

Id almost recommend waiting for the AMD760MP chipset, but considering AMD doesnt have very good performance...

STAY AWAY FROM ANYTHING REQUIRING RDRAM, RAMBUS MEMORY IS WORTHLESS FOR ANY PENTIUM III PROCESSOR.

I think that SiS and ALi come to mind when the subject of crappy performance boards come to mind.

You could also look for i815 chipset dual boards too.

[EM 0]

The Tyan Tiger 133 is actually a slot 1 board. There are three dual socket 370 via based boards that I am aware of: The MSI 694D, the ABIT VP6 and the Asus CUV4X-DLS. All of these have been reviewed or have links to a review at www.2cpu.com

 

I have used both the MSI and the ABIT boards. Very stable and with tweaking have performance levels close to but not quite at BX levels. All of the performance differences are in the memory throughput test on Sandra 2000. Real life performance, or how it feels, is the same as my Supermicro P6DBE, a BX based dual slot 1 board.

 

Advantages of the Via based boards are the ability to use 133FSB without overclocking, ATA-100 built in, AGP 4x and Use processors upto 1ghz (although I am supposed to be able to use 1ghz slot1 processors on my P6DBE if I could actually buy any).

 

Just a few thoughts on the matter.

Ed

[Brian Frank 0]

Thats what slocket adapters are for!

But that would kinda defeat the whole purpose of a 370 board.

The Tyan Tiger 200 is a dual ViaApolloPro133A boad with socket-370.

It appears to be designed for rackmount purposes, so check that out before you get it.

I havent had a whole plethora of boards to look at, but the most stable board has been from Tyan. Zero problems, unless you consider my failure to overclock a problem.

[weerin 0]

Cool, thanks all for the info I think I will go with the msi board, looks good from all the info ive seen about it. EM- any chance on pointing me towards some tweaking info? I'll take a look at that 2cpu site soon, maybe that has it.

[EM 0]

Actually there is tons of tweaking info at the forums at www.2cpu.com

 

I am not using my MSI board at the present time and am looking to sell it if it interests you. I have had no trouble with it running the two 800 chips and 2x128 RAM that I had in it. It is the Pro model without the ata 100/raid stuff. $85 shipped in US.

 

edmarvin@hotmail.com if interested.