max,
Anybody noticed that AMD used a Compaq motherboard for their TBird Benchmarks?
amd.com;
I saw that on sharky's review:
Although we've only tested the T-bird at the 1GHz level, we suspect that at the 750MHz mark, where the L2 cache divider on the classic was set to 2/5, the gap between the "Classic" and the T-bird set at similar frequencies will not be as wide as at the 1Ghz level.
We have only tested a single Compaq KT133-based board. It didn't have any fancy BIOS for us to sieve through and tweak. In fact, it was very much a "Dummy-Proof" final revision of AMD's own board from Compaq (not sure which Taiwanese OEM manufactured it though). There were dip switches that enable the switching of the memory bus speed from 100Mhz to 133MHz, which we suspect might be chopped and changed by some unfortunate end-users that encounter the problem of "Fussiness" (for want of a better term) with PC-133 memory.
Also....
sharkyextreme.com
Overclocking? Compaq doesn't build machines for end users to go ahead and dabble with overclocking. Their not-yet-commercially-available KT133 mainboard comes with no frills attached. There's no fancy BIOS tweaking as you would find on an Abit board. In addition to this, the frequency is locked and burned on to the "Thunderbird"-based Athlons. Changing bus speeds will still be possible when companies such as Abit, ASUS, MSI and Gigabyte release boards, so we'll revisit the overclocking capabilities of the T-bird then.
The Scheme of Things?
While there have been mumblings in the past that the KX133 was more of a step sideways, AMD firmly believes that the KT133 platform is a step forward. For the launch of such an important processor, AMD clearly needs not only a FAST but also a stable platform and the problem we see right now is that there is only one platform choice for the T-bird, the KT133.
SiS and ALi are, unfortunately, not there just yet. Whereas SiS has never been renowned for their drag racing in terms of speed, they have proven to be a house capable of making reliable, if somewhat slow, chipsets. In the business world where it is "reliability first" and "speed" second, AMD has got to hope for SiS' swift entrance onto the market as well as ALi's.
We feel that to be competitive in the commercial space, AMD cannot solely rely on VIA. The KX133 was indeed fast but was hampered by memory timing issues. The launch of the T-bird is now set for mid-June and KT-boards are making their way across the Pacific starting today, so they should arrive in time for the launch, but the word from our roving reporter in Taiwan (Jon Simon) is not all that good.
Several of the major motherboard manufacturers reported that their KT133 platforms were not yet ready or stable. The problems? Among others, timing issues with PC-133 memory again so stability could be a problem with early revisions of the KT133. In our tests, the "Compaq" branded KT133 motherboard was not what you'd call 'Gibraltar-solid' (yeah that's right, we Brits still own that rock in the south of Spain you Geography-crazed reader, you!).
So it would appear we may need to still "wait and see" on MB availability and stability (admittedly I haven't read Anand's or other reviews).
-Scot
|
