Tiger MP Dual-Processor Motherboard

CtrlPhreak writes: "Anandtech has posted a review of an affordable AMD 760 based motherboard, the Tyan Tiger MP. It's basically the Tyan Thunder K7 without all the integration. For $220, it's a great deal. It has the exact same performance as the Thunder, and it is tested to run fine with those cheap and fast 1ghz durons. They say Tyan is putting out this board to compete with other offerings of a cheap 760 platform, we can only hope."

How are the drivers for it?

[dave-fu]

And the stability?
Or: is it based off of the Via chipset? That bleeping chipset seems to be in eternal beta.
The stability of the motherboards is, IMHO, the biggest thing keeping AMDs out of the server room. Admins don't give a damn about overclocking the CPUs, they want rock-solid performance and to not have to futz around with 8000 BIOS settings.

Re:How are the drivers for it?

[SlamboS]

I have the Thunder K7 and I haven't had one problem with stability yet. I haven't had a problem in over a month so far, running Windows 2000. I'm running 2x Athlon MP @ 1.2GHz. I'm really happy with this machine. It really heats up the room, though. I have 5 extra case fans and the ones in the back blow out very hot air. That's the only downside to it so far.

Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast

[RollingThunder]

In related news, a test of automobile engines showed poor design, as they all seized when the oil was drained out while they were running...

Sure, the TBirds cook off without a heatsink. However, you can get two, maybe three, TBirds for the price of one PIV, and they'll still kick it's ass. ESPECIALLY in multiprocessor systems.

So, do you want that safety limiter on your speed, in the bizarre case that your heatsink FALLS OFF, or do you really want to floor it?

Tyan's Thunder K7 wasn't exactly overpriced....

[Xibby]

NOt only did you get the dual athlons, you got dual 3com NICs, Adaptec 7899W dual channel Ultra160 SCSI controller (dual channel!), onboard ATI RageXL graphics. Add all that up as seperate components, and the board doesn't look that expensive. Espically when you have all that hardware and still have 5 ? 64-bit/33MHz PCI slots (backwards compatible with 32-bit/33MHz PCI devices).

Overall, the board is competitive to server board offerings from Intel. I haven't been overly impressed with the onboard 3com nics however. Installing linux can be a chore as they don't always work except on the latest 2.2 kernels. The drivers included in Windows 2000 for these cards have a few bugs in them as well. In both cases it's fixable by driver/kernel updates, but could present an issue during installation.

And the problems I've had with the onboard 3com's have been on Dell motherboards anyway. :)

Re:(Athlon-Heatsink) = Toast

[SexPig]

If a result of the seized engine was a fire that took out pedestrians it would not be acceptable. I had a faulty mobo catch on fire once and it made me nervous to leave my box up n' running at home while at the office (was the sound chip from a Dell system).

Also, an oil light in the car notifies you when oil is low (like CPU hot notification) but a car does not usually idle unattended whereas a computer does.

Finally, the feature exists in one brand but not the other (Athlon vs Pentium) so I don't find your analogy convincing.

If you insist on car analogies, though, I'll take the Volvo, sir!

Re:Tyan's Thunder K7 wasn't exactly overpriced....

[Junta]

You need to keep in mind the target audience. With a big SMP motherboard, it is really geared for serving. Servers are often Rackmounts, the Fewer Us the better. With a motherboard like this, a decent 1U system can be built. At the very least most servers could care less about your video card and such, even if in a Desktop system. Heck, Sun's Netra rackmount systems don't usually have a video card ta all. If the PC world didn't care about graphics so much, then you could leave the onboard video out. When I build a home system, I avoid built-ins like the plague, I have room to spare to get the better stuff put in. But the typical home user will get by fine with uni-processor configuration...

Re:You buy from Crucial?

[ncc74656]

That's funny, I don't. In fact, if cost is an issue you shouldn't be. Use Pricewatch man. I'm sure that you'll find that the difference is sufficiently more than $7.00 dollars.

The last time I checked (which was admittedly a while ago), Crucial beat nearly everyone else's price for DDR SDRAM. While the Pricewatch vendors have since lowered their prices (256MB PC2100 registered starting at $38 vs. $41 at Crucial), it's anyone's guess whose parts they usually use. Even if a Pricewatch vendor advertises its product as Micron memory, it's probably just Micron's chips on who-knows-whose board. Last time I checked, Crucial sold DIMMs that were completely assembled by Micron...chips, boards, everything.

Factor in the free 2nd-day shipping and it looks like Crucial is still cheaper overall.

(No, I don't work for Crucial or Micron...but I've bought from them on more than one occasion and don't see myself buying memory from other vendors anytime in the near future.)

Re:You buy from Crucial?

[AssFace]

I buy nearly ALL of my computer parts off of priceline - find the cheapest and get it.

but I've started buying my memory off of crucial due to the higher quality, and barely higher price. It is more of a crapshoot if you soley go the pricewatch way. I used to do that and scoff at those that did otherwise, but then got burned muliple times with crap.

crucial guarentees quality.