Athlon MPs "obsolete"???

Nomen Nescio wrote:

I've got a Tyan Tiger S2466-N motherboard with a couple of Atlhon MP 2100s
on them. I've been getting some BSODs in Windows XP Pro having to do with
CPU errors. At first, these were happening maybe once a day; last nite, it
happened about 5 times.

So, I guess tonite I'm gonna try and eliminate all the things that can
masquerade as a "CPU error" -- swap out power supply, test RAM and do a
complete OS reinstall from scratch. If the problem still persists, I was
going to run the system with one CPU and if the problem goes away, use the
system with only the other CPU.

In anticipation of needing another CPU, I called down to the local computer
superstore where I purchased the motherboard and CPUs (Fry's Electronics).
When I called and asked about availability of the Athlon MP CPUs they said
they no longer carried them because they were "obsolete". Is this true?

I would suspect that Fry's dropping the MP has more to do
with unsuccessful marketing on their part (ie., poor sales)
than with obsolescence.

If you are building/buying a new multi-processor system, then
it seldom makes sense to use Athlons instead of Opterons, so
from that point of view the Athlon MP is indeed obsolete.

However, if you already have a Athlon MP dualie, upgrading to
faster processors or replacing a dead processor often makes more
fiscal sense than replacing the system - and hence a lot of
vendors still sell Athlon MP processors.

I sometimes use the Canadian outlet of NCIX and they still carry
the MP at reasonable prices. I'm sure the US side of NCIX
would too. I recently upgraded someone's dualie from MP1600+
to MP2600+ and the MP2600's cost about half as much as
the original MP1600's did a couple of years ago.
Www.upgradesource.com also carries MP's up to the MP2800+.


On the one hand, I'm not too keen on purchasing a new CPU if the Athlon MPs
are now "obsolete". On the other hand, I have a dual processor MB along
with 768MB of PC2100 ECC DDR SDRAM that I am not eager to just put in the
junk pile. Yet, I'm not eager to have go out and buy a new motherboard,
CPU and RAM either. My system worked well prior to this.


For about $350 you could upgrade to a pair of MP2600's and
get a couple of more years out of your system. For about
$900 to you could get a new motherboard and a pair
of Opteron 240's and you might also need a new PSU - you
would be able to reuse your RAM. An Opteron 240 dualie
will match or outperform an MP2800+ dualie in just about
everything - and will give you lots of upgrade room to
faster Opterons when their prices come down.


Any advice?

Nomen Nescio wrote:

I've got a Tyan Tiger S2466-N motherboard with a couple of Atlhon MP 2100s
on them. I've been getting some BSODs in Windows XP Pro having to do with
CPU errors. At first, these were happening maybe once a day; last nite, it
happened about 5 times.

So, I guess tonite I'm gonna try and eliminate all the things that can
masquerade as a "CPU error" -- swap out power supply, test RAM and do a
complete OS reinstall from scratch. If the problem still persists, I was
going to run the system with one CPU and if the problem goes away, use the
system with only the other CPU.

In anticipation of needing another CPU, I called down to the local computer
superstore where I purchased the motherboard and CPUs (Fry's Electronics).
When I called and asked about availability of the Athlon MP CPUs they said
they no longer carried them because they were "obsolete". Is this true?

On the one hand, I'm not too keen on purchasing a new CPU if the Athlon MPs
are now "obsolete". On the other hand, I have a dual processor MB along
with 768MB of PC2100 ECC DDR SDRAM that I am not eager to just put in the
junk pile. Yet, I'm not eager to have go out and buy a new motherboard,
CPU and RAM either. My system worked well prior to this.

Any advice?

Check the heat sinks and CPU fans, dust build-up, and case fan(s) in
addition to your PS.

MPs are still available.



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On Tue, 23 Dec 2003 12:29:43 -0600, Rob Stow wrote:

Nomen Nescio wrote:

I've got a Tyan Tiger S2466-N motherboard with a couple of Atlhon MP 2100s
on them. I've been getting some BSODs in Windows XP Pro having to do with
CPU errors. At first, these were happening maybe once a day; last nite, it
happened about 5 times.

So, I guess tonite I'm gonna try and eliminate all the things that can
masquerade as a "CPU error" -- swap out power supply, test RAM and do a
complete OS reinstall from scratch. If the problem still persists, I was
going to run the system with one CPU and if the problem goes away, use the
system with only the other CPU.

In anticipation of needing another CPU, I called down to the local computer
superstore where I purchased the motherboard and CPUs (Fry's Electronics).
When I called and asked about availability of the Athlon MP CPUs they said
they no longer carried them because they were "obsolete". Is this true?

I would suspect that Fry's dropping the MP has more to do
with unsuccessful marketing on their part (ie., poor sales)
than with obsolescence.

If you are building/buying a new multi-processor system, then
it seldom makes sense to use Athlons instead of Opterons, so
from that point of view the Athlon MP is indeed obsolete.

However, if you already have a Athlon MP dualie, upgrading to
faster processors or replacing a dead processor often makes more
fiscal sense than replacing the system - and hence a lot of
vendors still sell Athlon MP processors.

I sometimes use the Canadian outlet of NCIX and they still carry
the MP at reasonable prices. I'm sure the US side of NCIX
would too. I recently upgraded someone's dualie from MP1600+
to MP2600+ and the MP2600's cost about half as much as
the original MP1600's did a couple of years ago.
Www.upgradesource.com also carries MP's up to the MP2800+.


On the one hand, I'm not too keen on purchasing a new CPU if the Athlon MPs
are now "obsolete". On the other hand, I have a dual processor MB along
with 768MB of PC2100 ECC DDR SDRAM that I am not eager to just put in the
junk pile. Yet, I'm not eager to have go out and buy a new motherboard,
CPU and RAM either. My system worked well prior to this.


For about $350 you could upgrade to a pair of MP2600's and
get a couple of more years out of your system. For about
$900 to you could get a new motherboard and a pair
of Opteron 240's and you might also need a new PSU - you
would be able to reuse your RAM. An Opteron 240 dualie
will match or outperform an MP2800+ dualie in just about
everything - and will give you lots of upgrade room to
faster Opterons when their prices come down.


Any advice?


I have a Tyan tiger 2460 which uses the same chips, and I only wish I had
your motherboard. Most Tyan dual boards have a three year warranty, so it
is likely that in the worse case situation you could RMA your board to
Tyan. I would follow the above suggestions and check your PSU, also you
might want to check out the forums at www.2cpu.com, which will have loads
of information about your motherboard. If all else fails you can post you
system stats, what psu, and coolers you use, how may case fans and other
such things. It does seem to be heat related, or a psu problem.

Gnu_Raiz

On Tue, 23 Dec 2003 18:50:02 +0100, Nomen Nescio wrote:

In anticipation of needing another CPU, I called down to the local computer
superstore where I purchased the motherboard and CPUs (Fry's Electronics).
When I called and asked about availability of the Athlon MP CPUs they said
they no longer carried them because they were "obsolete". Is this true?

From what I've read, at some point AMD will only offer the 2800MP for sale
as the MP series winds down. Perhaps that's what Fry's meant.

On the one hand, I'm not too keen on purchasing a new CPU if the Athlon MPs
are now "obsolete". On the other hand, I have a dual processor MB along
with 768MB of PC2100 ECC DDR SDRAM that I am not eager to just put in the
junk pile. Yet, I'm not eager to have go out and buy a new motherboard,
CPU and RAM either. My system worked well prior to this.

I have a 2100 MP system and I'm hardly ready to put it out to pasture.
Heck, I finally took my Winchip 200 system up to the attic and I imagine
this duallie will be in use for a many years to come.

At this point, for a new system purchasing something based on the Opteron
would probably be a better deal than buying a MP system. But a MP system
is still useful, which is probably why AMD will still be offering 2800MP's
for quite a while.

Follow the suggestions of the other posters. It's probably not a CPU
problem anyway.

--
Thus spake the master programmer:
"A well-written program is its own heaven; a poorly-written program
is its own hell."
-- Geoffrey James, "The Tao of Programming"

Rob Stow wrote:
I would suspect that Fry's dropping the MP has more to do
with unsuccessful marketing on their part (ie., poor sales)
than with obsolescence.

yep.

If you are building/buying a new multi-processor system, then
it seldom makes sense to use Athlons instead of Opterons, so
from that point of view the Athlon MP is indeed obsolete.


hmmm not sure if i agree entirely on this - guess i'm one of those
'seldom' cases for what i would use it for (network 3D rendering),
dual MP28000s are just as fast as dual Opteron-240s. admitedly 240s are
the low-end of the Opti line, but the Opti motherboards are twice as
expensive. it would be too tepting with an Opti motherboard to get
faster 244 or 246 chips, but then you've got a render node that costs
maybe 4 times what each 2800 node would cost... goes without saying u
wouldn't get 4 times the performance.... its all about getting the most
bang for the buck and in my industry the Opteron doesn't make sense
[yet]. shame really it would be cool to have a 64bit render farm but
there are no major commercial 3d renderers to take advantage 64bit-ness
yet.. AFAIK...

Nate Edel wrote:
Rob Stow wrote:

I would suspect that Fry's dropping the MP has more to do
with unsuccessful marketing on their part (ie., poor sales)
than with obsolescence.


Fry's was never good about stocking dual-Athlon motherboards; I nearly
bought one from them, but the only ones they had were Tyan non-MPX boards,
and all of those were "open box"/returns.


Hmmm. Absolutely the only thing I have ever ordered from
Fry's was a pair of Tyan Thunder K7X Pro's. Can't remember
if they had the MP or the MPX chipsets. They were advertised
as new and appeared to be in the original packaging when they
arrived. Damn you for putting these doubts in my head ;-)

Oh, well. They've been in use now for a couple of years
without any complaints from the guy I built the systems for.