Goin' from P4 to Athlon - Best Mobo?

Ganool · Post by **Ganool** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 3:37 am

Been reading in this forum about different mainboards, but don't really get the hang of which is the most stable for Athlon.

Anyone using an Athlon-based computer w/Scope without any problems?

Thanks,

Carl.

remixme · Post by **remixme** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 10:59 am

To what Athlon are you changing to? If its Athlon 64, then maybe somebody else can tell you.

Also if you are changing to an Athlon XP then the only question I can ask is why?

My P4 I have currently has been the most stable system I have ever owned, so I can't understand why you'd want to go to an Athlon XP.

Basic Pitch · Post by **Basic Pitch** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 11:55 am

Thats interesting,

Im using an AthlonXP system and I am changing to a P4 system

Also if you are planning to go with an 64/Opteron, it seems there is a socket change in the works, so might be best to hold off unless you dont mind being near the top of the upgrade path.

Cheers!

Ganool · Post by **Ganool** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 12:38 pm

Hmm... should I take that as Athlon XP systems isn't stable? Interesting. I've been reading quite a lot in this forum, but I didn't get the impression it was that bad.

The reason is that I'm a bit annoyed over the CPU spike problem that occurs with Pentium 4.

Regards,

Carl.

Basic Pitch · Post by **Basic Pitch** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 1:17 pm

Actually my Athlon system as been pretty amazing, I use an A7N8X with an XP2500+ with 1gig DDR400 PC3200 ram. The reason I am changing is that I have 3 different DSP boards, ScopePro, UAD-1, TC Powercore, and its been reported that the p4 with the D875PBZ works perfect with that exact combination, so I figure screw it, ill give it a go

Plus I have read the the intel board is a extremely solid performer..

But by all means the XP system is great, have no fear..

Cheers!

remixme · Post by **remixme** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 4:48 pm

Sorry to sound shocked, I forgot about the spiking problem.

The general rule of thumb with Athlon systems used to be that you have to choose your components more carefully then with intel.

Basic Pitch for instance has an Asus Nforce2 motherboard, and I'm guessing decent memory, thus has good stability.

A lot of the problems occuring (PCI overflows etc) on Atlon systems where down to poor Via chipsets such as KT333 KT266, KT133. I know because I had the KT133 so spent a lot of time tweaking, but I did manage to get it to run in the end.
http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... 72&forum=3

An intel P4 system with a intel chipset was much better for creamware cards compared to the Via KT series.

Thus that is why Intel is recommended, even though the playing field is more level now.

Put you must be having the spiking problems pretty bad, to justify a change, what software/plugins are you using?

wsippel · Post by **wsippel** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 5:25 pm

The AMD64 socket change won't affect the Opteron. According to AMD informations, only Athlon64 and AthlonFX will use socket 939. For Opteron, AMD will keep socket 940...

Post by **garyb** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 10:31 pm

cpu spike fixer:
http://www.digitalfishphones.com/main.p ... &subItem=6

Ganool · Post by **Ganool** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 1:52 am

Hey... thanks to all for your interest in helping me out here. To be honest my spiking problems isn't really that bad and maybe it can be completely avoided with the link garyb posted.

In any case, it would be interesting to check out the later Via chipsets. I know about their problematic past, but things might have changed.

When it comes to P4, I must admit that my system is completely rock solid, even though I have 3 CW card and one of them is a Pulsar I.

Is this completely mad, you might wonder. Changing from a working computer? Well. Actually no... I have a bloody weird MIDI problem that is driving me mad. I've spoken to CW support but I guess they have thier own share of problems right now.

Could I ask one thing from any of you guys? It's entirely a CW routing thing and it won't take more than 5-7 minutes and you'll spare me the trouble of ripping my computer into pieces.

Anyone up for it? I would be most grateful.

Carl.

Ganool · Post by **Ganool** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 8:28 am

http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... &forum=5&0

petal · Post by **petal** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 5:28 am

You talked about later VIA-chipsets - well, I have a motherboard with the VIA KT-400 chipset and it has the exact same problem as the earlier ones (PCI overflows), but as with the earlier ones I was able to "solve" this problem with the PCI-latency-patch. One funny detail is that I was able to get more MV's with my old KT-133-MB than with this new KT-400 that I've got now.
I don't know anything about the KT-600 though.

Thomas

remixme · Post by **remixme** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 7:04 am

I had a suspicion that was the case, but couldn't say because I don't have a kt400.

After the hassle with earlier VIA chipsets I decided that I would never buy them again.

BTW when I said "the playing field is a lot more level" I was referring to nForce1/2 boards. But even the nForce 1 boards had their teething troubles.

Ganool · Post by **Ganool** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 2:16 pm

Hmmm... thanks for that one. I honestly thought VIA had fixed that for the latest chipsets... hmmm... oh well. I'd better stay with my trusty P4. Thanks for the denormalisation link BTW. Haven't tried it yet, but it seems to be exactly what I'm after.

Carl.

TripACT · Post by **TripACT** » Fri Apr 30, 2004 3:04 am

Seems like with VIA K8T800 Chipset its all sorted and working flawlessly. (According to ppl's reviews)

remixme · Post by **remixme** » Fri Apr 30, 2004 1:23 pm

Yeah true but I can't help but feel that since they cut corners to make the price cheaper than intel.

How long before another issue arises?

TripACT · Post by **TripACT** » Fri Apr 30, 2004 1:47 pm

u mean via cheaper than intel by price? i think via was always chipper than intel by price.