It should run both of those CPUs.

Irongate boards vary in how touchy they are but they can be very solid, especially if you avoid more problematic hardware like a GeForce/Radeon. I think the best options would be TNT/TNT2 or a 3dfx card. If you must go faster, perhaps look for a GeForce FX with aux power as that seemed to work better for me than older GeForce cards (but it still defaulted to AGP 1x). Also, these are 5v centric motherboards and Athlons can consume a lot more power than a Pentium 3, so you will probably want a PSU with at least 25A on 5v.

Irongate had a few chipset revisions with different errata. The AMD docs are still out there if you want to read specifics. For example, some have the superfetch memory feature while some don't.

Consider that they are very old and may be in need of new capacitors. You should probably look closely for trace damage and corrosion too.

As something of an AMD fanboi who gives space to all sorts of janky PCChips etc crap... I am making no conscious effort to obtain one. I guess if I tripped over a complete setup for between free and twenty bucks, morbid curiosity would take over. Though I may have passed them up at that price in the noughts before retro sensibility for them kicked in. I was kinda annoyed at AMD when they were introduced, copying intel's mistakes. From a pure practical point of view these days, coolers can be hard as hell to find.

It should run both of those CPUs.

Cool, thank you for the confirmation.

I'm really hesitating here... there are many more reasons to skip it and almost only it's rarity to get it.

Price is not good either, it would be by far my most expensive purchase so far (individually speaking).
Do keep in mind that in my area there is less that an tenth of the options at other countries, so its feels like I might not ever get a better opportunity...

The power drain though, that is a real bummer that I hadn't considered... I only have one PSU close to that, and so far I have avoided mainboards with that issue (early P 4 and S.462). I just thought this one would be closer to a P III...

You should probably look closely for trace damage and corrosion too.

The seller is a collector so it seems to be in decent shape, at least regarding user care. Nut yeah, that is a condition for the purchase.

I guess if I tripped over a complete setup for between free and twenty bucks

I'm looking at a few times that value, only in the hope that something 'unique' will make me stop getting stuff I don't need anyway.

aahh, decisions, decisions...

Well if the satisfaction of having something weird and rare is worth the money to you, go for it... it just might not cover it's era without compromises, like what graphics you can use etc, so if you are relying on it to fill a gap, then it would not be the best choice solely on that, when other machines of same age and speed might be more flexible. If you were in a tiny Japanese apartment for example, you may not want to give up limited space to it, when you can maybe get 4 machines maximum and worry about how quick the place heats up in a 4 hour weekend gaming session, when it might be cooling sensitive. Anyway, your money your choice, but if you think you will regret passing it up, you probably ought to go for it, you can always sell it off if you don't like it. However, try to get as many Slot A specific parts out of the guy as possible, cooler, slot retention mechanism etc. since he sounds like your best bet for finding any of it at all, and you don't wanna be paying $40 a time for shipping a part here and there.

Irongate will run all Slot A Athlons, those above 850mhz regardless if it is Pluto, Orion, or Thunderbird (which did come as Slot and Socket A, but the slot A version is running at 200 MHz FSB), although it may require updating to last bios release for that board.

But I would go for the K7900MNR53B, as it is is all around faster in Mhz, and more cache 512kb (even though it runs slower, more cache actually performs better than the full speed 256k on the A0700MPR24B).

And what are they asking on price? It should not be anymore than $150-$175 for the board and cpu.

I have paid less for the equivalent in the last 6 months on ebay for a k7 850, ASUS K7M irongate board & ram.

I, for one, got myself a K7Pro + 750MHz T-Bird K7 for basically zero since I traded a few boards for it (IIRC Soyo 6BA+IV, P4C800 non-deluxe and a broken MSI 850 Pro5).

Mine seems to be happy for as long as 3dfx is involved... running other stuff like TNT2 Pro or Radeon cards does result in some weird juju. 3dfx cards like a recently scored v3 2000 from a Celeron build proved to be a glove match for the K7.

I have a Gateway Select slot A system (actually two of them). Not sure if those are Irongate... though I think they are?
Either way, never had any issues running various AGP GPUs in them. Tested Radeon 7000, 7200, 9200 SE, and a faulty 9800 XL (that still can run DX7 games without crashing or artifacting somehow.)
I don't remember if I tried any nVidia cards in that system, though.

swaaye wrote on 2024-10-10, 17:12:

Also, these are 5v centric motherboards and Athlons can consume a lot more power than a Pentium 3, so you will probably want a PSU with at least 25A on 5v.

Ah, there goes the mythical 25A number again.
Must abide by it, or your retro system will crash and burn. 🤣

All jokes aside, the reason I criticize these "25 Amps on the 5V rail" comments so much is because there are plenty of solid retro OEM PSUs (from Delta, LiteOn, HiPro, Astec, and etc.) that have a lower-rated 5V rail (typically 18 or 20 or 22 Amps). If you really take 25 Amps as a hard, "do not below this" minimum, then you'd be missing out on a lot of these old units. Not to mention that back in those days, Delta and LiteOn didn't always use crap caps (and Astec never did.) In fact, from what I've seen in OEM systems for slot A, the PSU isn't usually that capable on the 5V rail. Most are rated around 20 Amps on average... and honestly, I think that is good enough in many cases.

But let's do the math here.
25 Amps is 125 Watts of power on the 5V rail. That's quite A BIT.
The CPUs that the O/P listed are 60 Watts and ~40 Watts, respectively.
Let's take the higher power one. 60 Watts is 12 Amps with a 5V supply. Add 1 Amp for MB VRM inefficiency, just for the heck of it.
On most of these old boards, the RAM (SDRAM) is also typically powered from the 5V rail (usually via dropping it to 3.3V with a linear regulator). Worst case all slots populated, you's be looking at 10 Watts consumption there... so maybe 2 Amps more on the 5V to add to the list. Then add 2 more Amps for a standard HDD + optical drive (or two) setup... though TBH, that's quite overkill. That brings the grand total to 17 Amps absolute worst case.

Now, I do realize (and agree) that it's good to have some overhead. But honestly, you don't need too much, at least when it comes to quality OEM PSUs. Of course, it all depends on the video card that will be used.

Speaking of which, the only "game-changer" of a video card (both literally and figuratively speaking here 😀 ) is if you use a Radeon 9700 or 9800. These two are probably the "worst" when it comes to power draw from the 5V rail. With both rated around 50 Watts just for the GPU, you can expect to see up to 5 Amps more on the 5V rail. If that is added to the above number... well, that's now gone over 20 Amps (22 to be exact.) So in a case like that... yes, you may indeed want to grab a PSU that is rated for 25 Amps or more on the 5V rail (though again, 22 Amps will still be adequate, even if on the limit.) But for most other retro video cards, the power draw for the GPU is usually either from the 3.3V rail or from the 12V rail, so their load becomes relatively irrelevant to the 5V rail current rating.

So just to summarize it all in a bit less text: you don't necessarily need 25 Amps on the 5V rail of your PSU for a system like this.
Rather, what's more important is the quality of the PSU. A known good brand will, in most cases, honor its 5V rail rating. A cheapo / no-name brand may not... and that's what can lead to problems down the road (if not from the start.)

.

AngryByDefault wrote on 2024-10-10, 18:30:

I'm really hesitating here... there are many more reasons to skip it and almost only it's rarity to get it. […]
Show full quote

I'm really hesitating here... there are many more reasons to skip it and almost only it's rarity to get it.

Price is not good either, it would be by far my most expensive purchase so far (individually speaking).
Do keep in mind that in my area there is less that an tenth of the options at other countries, so its feels like I might not ever get a better opportunity...

The power drain though, that is a real bummer that I hadn't considered... I only have one PSU close to that, and so far I have avoided mainboards with that issue (early P 4 and S.462). I just thought this one would be closer to a P III...

aahh, decisions, decisions...

The power drain isn't really a big issue. This is nothing like what a modern system can draw. And you aren't going to be running this 24/7. You just don't want to assume a 250W from a Pentium III will run your Athlon ok.

I don't think I would pay a hefty sum for access to Slot A. If you are really excited to spend time setting up an old Athlon it should be fun but the experience isn't really going to be all that much different from a Pentium 3 or Socket A for that matter. It's just a bit rougher around the edges.

swaaye wrote on 2024-10-10, 22:17:

If you are really excited to spend time setting up an old Athlon it should be fun but the experience isn't really going to be all that much different from a Pentium 3 or Socket A for that matter. It's just a bit rougher around the edges.

Yep, this is my experience.
I got lucky and found a complete slot A system in a physical dumpster about 5 years ago.
Mine came with a V3 2000 PCI but have swapped this out for an AGP Banchee
It performs like a less well-behaved Slot 1 P3 but is definitely usable.
It's fun to know your playing on something a bit specail.

I can't comment on price but since joining here I've passed on staches of:
100Mhz FSB 1Ghz Slot 1 CPU's
NEC XR385 MIDi cards
Aureal Vortex 2

Only to regret it later on so when the Pentium Pro Haul came along a few years later I wasn't going to make the same mistake!
and I don't regret a thing.

Well, if there is one thing I can always count on is that I'll never leave this forum thinking "yeah, the guys are right, that was a silly purchase" 🤣

I got lucky and found a complete slot A system in a physical dumpster about 5 years ago.

That was a very lucky find indeed, Chinny, that doesn't happen too often.
And yes, I hate to regret passing on stuff, I've been there too.
In my defense I will say that the guy has a Ton of stuff and I am also buying some other components that my pockets (and maybe guilt) can afford. I'm not just cheaping out, but trying to figure what would be a better choice.

The power drain isn't really a big issue. This is nothing like what a modern system can draw.

hum. right, I have more or less educated myself on the issue, but it tends to skip my mind and when someone reminds me of it part of my brain goes like "nooo, don't get into yet another problem!!" So I've been trying to dodge that bullet.

I don't think I would pay a hefty sum for access to Slot A.

If it was half the price I would not hesitate, at a hundred bucks and with many people saying I would be almost forced to Voodoo only, I don't know...
It's interesting how that is in the middle of what someone here paid for such a combo and what other said he's max would be.

Thanks everyone, as always you've given me food for thought.

I have seen two Slot A motherboards in my home, one is still here, other went somewhere.

Slot A CPU that i have
AMD Athlon 500 – AMD-K7500MTR51B Slot A
AMD Athlon 650 – AMD-K7650MTR51B Slot A
AMD Athlon 700 – AMD-K7700MTR51B Slot A
AMD Athlon 950 – AMD-K7950MNR53B Slot A

I have Radeon 7200 or Radeon 7500 inside that build, but if i could and if i had i would use Rage Fury Maxx with it. Soundcard is Solo1.

Nice late 1999 Athlon 3Dnow build.

marxveix wrote on 2024-10-11, 00:09:

I have seen two Slot A motherboards in my home, one is still here, other went somewhere. […]
Show full quote

I have seen two Slot A motherboards in my home, one is still here, other went somewhere.

Slot A CPU that i have
AMD Athlon 500 – AMD-K7500MTR51B Slot A
AMD Athlon 650 – AMD-K7650MTR51B Slot A
AMD Athlon 700 – AMD-K7700MTR51B Slot A
AMD Athlon 950 – AMD-K7950MNR53B Slot A

I have Radeon 7200 or Radeon 7500 inside that build, but if i could and if i had i would use Rage Fury Maxx with it. Soundcard is Solo1.

Nice late 1999 Athlon 3Dnow build.

Thanks, I'll keep it in mind!

So, I passed on that purchase.... And then I didn't...

Back when I asked here I decided to get other stuff he was selling, and try to cool off, but of course I couldn't and I just contacted the guy and will be picking up the combo this weekend. (it's in the area, so no shipping costs).

Now, I figure I just *might* get a second CPU as a backup, and I wonder if there is any reason to choose any other than the Thunderbird 700 he has, which I believe would be the best one after the 900 Orion I'm already getting.

Maybe one generation is preferred over the other... maybe the Pluto 512k cache matters more than TB's on-die speedy 256k...

(Price is pretty much the same for any of them)

1K7 700 - A0700MPR24B ? (TBird) (DUAL FAN)
2K7 700 - K7700MTR51B A (Pluto)
3
4K7 650 - K7650MTR51B A (Pluto)
5K6 600 - K7600MTR51B A (Pluto) (DUAL FAN)
6K7 550 - K7550MTR51B A (Pluto) 
7K7 550 - K7550MTR51B C (Argon)

Thanks in advance!

I personally have a 700MHz T-Bird and a 700MHz Pluto. I'd say go for the T-Bird. IIRC the Thunderbird runs cooler than Pluto.

Thunderbird might be more stable at 900 than the real 900 and also do 1000.

PcBytes wrote on 2024-11-01, 18:37:

I personally have a 700MHz T-Bird and a 700MHz Pluto. I'd say go for the T-Bird. IIRC the Thunderbird runs cooler than Pluto.

Ok, that's great info. Thanks!

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-11-01, 18:41:

Thunderbird might be more stable at 900 than the real 900 and also do 1000.

🤣

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-11-01, 18:41:

Thunderbird might be more stable at 900 than the real 900 and also do 1000.

My Thunderbird 900 will run at 1050 no problem, and even over 1100 with a modest vcore increase.

So, I finally got it and I figured the least I could do was to share it with you guys.

Here they are, in all of their uncertain glory!

I hope I 'll have fun with them 😜

I also got some other stuff.