If you are even thinking AMD, you better know the chipset
Mar 17 '01
The Bottom Line If you don't know do your research, you aren't likely to get the price/performance you are after in your PC.
The past year has been a very interesting one in the PC microprocessor industry. Only 1 year ago, the first 1GHz CPUs were released by AMD and Intel. Since the somewhat premature release of 1GHz processors, not only has AMD up the ante to 1.2 GHz (1.3 and 1.33 will be announced at the end of March, but can be bought through the gray market now), but Intel has introduced the Pentium IV at speeds up to 1.5GHz.
In addition to upping the performance bar, an intense price war has errupted. Whereas the release price of the 1GHz classic Athlon was around $1200 (processor only), you can now obtain a technically superior Thunderbird 1GHz Athlon for about $160.
The price/performance of the high end Thunderbirds beats anything that Intel currently offers. However, like all worthwhile things in life, choosing the right components for an AMD system takes a little work.
One of the most important areas is in building a platform is choosing the right motherboard. Not only is it important to buy from a high quality vendor, but getting the right chipset will go a long way towards making you a happy consumer.
What are the choices
The number of different chipsets that have been available for the Athlon in its year and a half of existence is truly amazing. We are talking 6 different chipsets folks. There has even been a change in the basic form factor of processor used. (Original Athlons were Slot A, current Athlon (Thunderbird) and Durons are Socket A)
For all practical purposes, you should ignore all Slot A Athlon motherboards. Although a few low speed Thunderbirds were released in Slot A form factor, it is dead technology. The only reason to even consider a Slot A motherboard would be if your motherboard on a Slot A Athlon died. Even then, I would still consider going with a cheap Duron or TBird and a Socket A motherboard.
Unfortunately, this still leaves a confusing array of motherboards to choose from. There is an AMD 750 series chipset, an AMD 760 series chipset, a KT133 chipset, and a KT133A chipset.
If you want your machine to be as future proof as possible, you should ignore the AMD 750 series chipset and the Via KT133 chipset. These are older technologies. The maximum Front Side Bus speed of processors run in these motherboards is 100MHz. (133MHz Front Side Bus Athlons were recently released). In addition, overclockers will find that motherboards based on these chipsets are rarely stable at anything over a 10% Front Side Bus speed overclock. The only upside to these motherboards is price. Since they are obsolete, prices are dropping like a rock.
The remaining choices
We are quickly left with a choice between the AMD 760 DDR platform, and the Via KT133A platform. Both of these platforms support 133MHz Front Side Buses, and some motherboard manufacturers are supporting CPU voltages that not only work with AMDs current offerings, but will also support Palomino Athlons when they are released in the summer.
From a consumer standpoint, the major decision between the AMD 760 DDR chipset motherboards and the KT133A motherboards should come down to one of a couple factors. Dual processor support and DDR memory support.
The first dual processor AMD 760 motherboard has just been released by Tyan in the Japanese market. You can expect to see them become available here in the next few weeks. If you need SMP support, and you don't want to go with a Pentium III, the AMD 760 chipset is your only choice. However, don't expect it to be a cheap choice. The price on the first dual Athlon motherboards is current $958. (processors not included)
The choice between a DDR and SDRAM motherboard isn't as clear cut. While the theoretical bandwidth of PC2100 DDR RAM exceeds anything that the KT133A is capable of producing, benchmarking in realworld applications shows about a 7 to 10% difference in performance between the KT133A and AMD 760 chipset motherboards. (The primary reason for the disappointing results is related to the fact that current AMD 760 chipset motherboards DO NOT support 4 way memory interleave) However, the price of PC2100 is steep compared to that of quality CAS 2 PC133 SDRAM that the KT133A motherboards use.
Therefore, the choice comes down to your individual situation. If you are upgrading an older platform and already have plenty of SDRAM, you probably want to consider the KT133A chipset. Motherboards based on this chipset are very overclocker friendly and are considered stable up to about 160MHz Front Side Bus speed.
If you are building a system from the ground up, the choice is a little harder. In my opinion, the price differential between PC2100 and CAS 2 PC133 is not worth the performance gained. If you are going the DDR route, you are mainly preparing for future motherboards, not the one you are currently running. Since DDR RAM speeds will increase while Atlhon DDR chipsets are maturing, this isn't necessarily the wisest choice. The only reason to consider a 760 chipset motherboard is if you either need a dual processor Athlon, or absolutely need the most performance possible (and are willing to pay for it.)
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Member: Steve Larrison
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