Old tType Athlons...help needed.

[Conscript]

Not long ago, I went out and bought a GX71-XE motherboard and an Athlon 700, the first type in Slot A variant. however, recently, some of my mates have bought Athlons themselves (The Thunderbird type), ranging from 800MHz and above with motherboards in Socket A variant. They ahve also told me that you can no longer obtain chips in Slot A variant and that they are no longer made or sold.

Can someone verify this for me? I find it highly unlikely. AMD must have realised that they could still gain money from people who bought Slot A Athlons who wish to upgrade? I was also told that you can no longer buy them anywhere, neither can you get an adapter for my motherboard.

Cans someone tell me if this is true? If so, I find it disgusting that AMD are no longer producing these for the people who bought original Athlons, and this is simply a ploy to make people spend vast amounts of money because now they have to upgrade both the processor and the motherboard in the furture.

So anyone know if I can still get the Slot A Athlon, and if so, where?



[Edited by Conscript on 14-01-2001 at 05:59 PM]

[Deathwish2000]

I think that the Slot A varients are only sold to OEM's and not available to the general public.

Sorry

:(

[Conscript]

Oh FFS, that means that when I upgrade, Ill have to buy an entire new motherboard. Thats just not good enough, i thought AMD were a good company, and they can do better that that...Its stupid, they should still allow people to get the Slot A.

Looks like Ill be poking around PC fairs a lot more then now...

[NumbNutz]

Conscript,

Do I take it from your ickle tantrum that you haven't been using PC's for very long ? Sorry if I sound patronising but it sure sounds like your not used to speed in which this market moves.

Companies such as Microsoft, !ntel, AMD and all the others are on a continual mill to increase the power & performance of their products. In this case, the Slot A CPU has run it's course and AMD (just as !ntel have) reverted to socketed systems as they can now produce faster CPU's on a smaller die. The reason a slot was needed was because they couldn't get the faster speeds into a socket style CPU - at the time it wasn't possible. Time has moved on and AMD and !ntel have moved to the 0.18 micron size of wafer and are producing faster CPU's that are for sockets. In about 12-18 months they hope to move again to a 0.13 micron process which would be even faster and smaller than now.

It's just a case of evolution in the technology market. You must realise that no matter what piece of PC based equipment you buy today, it is already outdated. It's the nature of the beast I'm afraid. In the last 8 months I've bought:

GeForce2 GTS 32mb
ABIT KT7 RAID socket A motherboard
Duron 650 CPU
128mb PC133 RAM

amongst other things.

The GeForce2 was the fastest video card available - now superceeded by the GF2 Ultra.
The motherboard was the best mobo bar none - and is now outdated by the KT7A.
The Duron 650 is not even made now - it's too slow.
128mb PC133 RAM cost me £140 - now you can buy it for £40.

Reason to be peeved ? Probably, but it's the name of the game I'm afraid. Nothing stays still in this game and it just means that you've got either some overclocking to look forward to or a new motherboard and CPU.

It's not 'disgusting' as you put it, it's companies progressing their equipment for the benefit of everybody.

[Edited by numbnutz on 14-01-2001 at 07:51 PM]

[Jip]

if u are desperate for a slot a then dabs are still doing 800 slot A cpu's for a price but the gain won’t be that much.

If you are looking to upgrade wait a bit the latest socket A Athalons have just gone/going to 133MHz fsb and the new AMD 760 chipset is out/coming out soon and that supports DDR memory which makes the AMD a P4 kicker so if I was u wait. But as mentioned above it moves so fast its hard to keep up.

[Jip]

Athalon DOH! :homer: keep doing that
Athlon

[JGJones]

Go here (http://www.scan.co.uk/hw_idx.htm) - Scan sells a Slot A 950MHz Athlon for £210 inc VAT exc delivery.

I'm in the same boat as you...Slot A 600MHz on Gigabyte mobo. Name of the game and all that...oh well...don't matter it's still more than fast enough for my needs :)

[NumbNutz]

JGJ - are there any games that you cannot run well on your Athlon 600 ? I used to play my games on a P3 450 and apart from loading speeds I see no difference at all in game play on my new PC.

Conscript - What about all those people that have ....

Super Socket 7
Socket 7
486
386
286

boards - over time they are still used as PC's but there are no new processor developments on the platforms. You just have to accept your fate and move on I'm afraid.

Although, I'm still disgusted that Sinclair never released a 32k RAM pack for the ZX81. WIthout this my version of Doom will never work :wink: :laugh: - only kidding!

[JGJones]

Originally posted by numbnutz
JGJ - are there any games that you cannot run well on your Athlon 600 ? I used to play my games on a P3 450 and apart from loading speeds I see no difference at all in game play on my new PC.

Conscript - What about all those people that have ....

Super Socket 7
Socket 7
486
386
286

boards - over time they are still used as PC's but there are no new processor developments on the platforms. You just have to accept your fate and move on I'm afraid.

Although, I'm still disgusted that Sinclair never released a 32k RAM pack for the ZX81. WIthout this my version of Doom will never work :wink: :laugh: - only kidding!

Err...I just said that my PC is fast enough for my need :) So I'm happy with it. For example if all I only did was just to use MS Word 6.0 then I would have kept my Pentium 133MHz as that was more than fast enough...basically get the speed that's good enough for you. I did buy my PC then as a top of the range (650MHz being the fastest available). To this day it's still fast enough for me considering the games I play on it are - Unreal Tournament - smooth gameplay so happy with it. Other games don't need the fps to be playable such as Dungeon Keeper 2, Homeworld etc etc

I know all about upgrading, I just don't have the need for it. When I do upgrade, I'll probably buy a Duron next on a DDR boards as recent benchmarks show the Duron being especially sweet with it...and overclock the Duron as high as it'll go :E Or I'll just buy Duron and use PC133 SDRAM as I've got 256Mb of PC133 even though they're running at 100MHz fsb - some little future proofing, I did think ahead after all :) so basically next upgrade would be a Duron on a PC133 motherboard...I'll only need to replace CPU and motherboard. Next would be a video card but with the games I play (main game online is Unreal Tournament) the CPU make the biggest difference rather than the video card. I know I'll see a nice speed boost cos my Slot A motherboard is a pre-Super Bypass (aka AMD bug fix...with a marketing name)...yep it's that old now :) There isn't a Duron that cost over £100...so I'll only need to spend say £200 to get a decent upgrade and overclock it. (never did it with mine...too scared to break open the CPU's case :E) My hard drives run at 7200rpm and at UDMA 66 (ATA-100...pfff...no point, 7200rpm barely go over 33Mbs sustained anyway so UDMA66's good enough) so they'll last me a while too.

As for the people running older systems...well they'll need a bigger upgrade...that's the way it is...I know I'll have no choice but to do a major upgrade in the future eg I'll need to replace my memory and so on...but that's still few years away at the rate I'm going :E

[NumbNutz]

Eggersacktley.

Your 600 Athlon can run all you need it to at decent frame rates, just as Conflicts 700 should be able to. On my P3 450 I went from a Voodoo2 to a GF2 and this made a h00j difference in frame rates and resolutions. I didn't need to build a new system based around an overclocked Duron - but I wanted to.

I could still be playing the same games on the P3 450 now and getting on fine. It was just that I had the urge to build a new system - as I do every 18 months! Shhhh - Mrs Nutz mustn't read this as she thinks I HAVE to upgrade - at least that's what I make her think! :)

Most people don't need to upgrade. It's just nice when we can. Maybe a car analagy would be better, I might like to own a Lambourghini - but I don't need one.

[JGJones]

Originally posted by numbnutz

Most people don't need to upgrade. It's just nice when we can. Maybe a car analagy would be better, I might like to own a Lambourghini - but I don't need one.

I disagree...I want a Lotus Elise...no...make that I NEED one :E Err..why...erm...life's too short let's have fun :E

[Conscript]

Thanks for the advice all, especially your little philosophy on PC life there Numb :E. I aint a new PC user, my little outburst was simply 'cos I was in a bad mood at the time (one of me mates who got a new Athlon ept going on about his "1GHz porcessor, nyaah nyahh"). Git.

Your right of course. We are continuously upgrading. I shouldnt really slander AMD like that, they are actually a very good company(Christ, when I got the Athlon, I did everything but kiss their bleedin' feet), now Ive calmed down anyway :).

Thanks for the help all, I guess i was just a little peeved after the realisation that to upgrade, im gonna need a whole new motherboard.

I spose it wasnt really that I need the extra boost, just there seems to be a race going on between my mates...I got the Athlon, he goes and gt the faster one...I laugh at him now though...his brand new motherboard died on him, not so long after he was boasting about his better processor:laugh:

So thanks for your advice and your soothing words (Sarky :E)...Im off now to mutter and throw tantrums while sitting crouched in the corner.

<Rocks back and forth, hugging knees>

[NumbNutz]

Conscript - :E

It happens to us all - I remember when my Mum bought me a Commodore Vic-20 (ask your Dad's kids) for £200 and then we had to fork out £50 for the C2N cassette deck. Three weeks later Commodore released a pack with the computer and tape deck for £180. My Mum was livid!

Now that is going back nearly 20 years ...... so you see why I'm used to it ?!!

[JGJones]

Still you gotta LOVE them Scan folks with their Scan Today Only Deal (16/1/2001) (http://www.scan.co.uk/today.htm)

Asus A7V-133 Motherboard with Promise RAID with new KT133A Chipset
AMD Athlon T'Bird 1GHz Processor
Coolermaster Heat Pipe Radiator Heat Sink Fan
128Mb of PC-133 SDRAM Memory

For only £286 quid (throw in VAT and delivery)

(Seperately, it would cost you £361 (that is pre-VAT price just like above...hmm a saving of £75 which then go on 37 and half of pints (at £2 each) to celebrate :E and 256Mb offer is still cheaper!

Throw on the VAT and the cost increase to £424.18 separately or £336.05 for special offer...saving increase to £88 or 44 pints :E)

Or if you want 256Mb then its £324

Christ...that's almost a new PC for me...I can keep everything in my PC and just get a new mobo, CPU extra 128Mb to go with my 256Mb (which is already PC133 :E)

/me drools...

/me check bank balance...yah got money for it...

/me note council tax bill for £340....gah...maybe not quite yet :bigcry:

[Edited by JGJones on 16-01-2001 at 12:40 PM]

[JGJones]

Grrr...I was sure I clicked on Edit rather than Quote...

[Edited by JGJones on 16-01-2001 at 12:42 PM]