nd22 wrote on 2025-07-04, 06:03:

Archer57 wrote on 2025-06-30, 15:02:

SATA on socketA, from what i've personally seen - VIA does not work (sata1 devices only), nvidia works with no issues, sil controllers may work or may break spectacularly - data corruption and everything.

On my Abit NF7-S2G NO ssd works! I tried multiple brands and none worked. The only 2 socket A Abit boards that accepts SSD's are: AN7 and NF7-S 2.0. On the rest of the boards nothing worked! Not even with adapters!

Well, for that i have no other explanation than BIOS bug or hardware implementation issue specific to abit boards.

I have no strong preference in terms of motherboard manufacturers. In fact i consider such preference to be extremely harmful and limiting, so i consciously avoid it. Even my hate for gigabyte... i try to limit and once in a while still try their stuff. I try to pick boards based on functionality and price/functionality, old or new. So i have a reasonably diverse set of S462 boards: asus, gigabyte, ECS, epox. I do not have any abit boards simply because i never chanced upon one with good price/functionality (i do have AM2 board from abit though).

When i was testing some flaky GPUs i was literally swapping the same cheap 120GB aliexpress SSD based on SMI2259XT attached to IDE-SATA adapter between a bunch of different boards and it worked perfectly first try everywhere. With onboard SATA i've had some issues i've described before, but IDE-SATA - none. Well, except one epox board decided the adapter is 40 pin cable and had no override in BIOS, so it worked at UDMA33. But that's not SSD related and it still worked with no issues other than speed.

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-07-02, 11:31:

New addition to my Athlon XP boards, another KT880 board since the MSI 880 is in the repair bin for new caps. […]
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New addition to my Athlon XP boards, another KT880 board since the MSI 880 is in the repair bin for new caps.

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As soon as it arrives Ill put it through some testing with both an unlocked 3200+ and the XP-M 3000+, just going to use the 7900GS I have that I know works good .. might throw the 6800 Ultra at it too to see just how much improvement the 7000 series are even in a Athlon XP build.

Got 2Gb of DDR500 to throw in it as well, should allow for some wiggle room on memory speed and timings since I know these DDR500 sticks can get some super tight timings running at DDR400 speeds.

i didnt even knew that Asus had a MB with KT880

the only one that came to Argentina was the MSI KT880 Delta-FSR. At that point everyone after the last chipset was going for Nforce 2 and the ones on a budget for a KT400 or Sis 741GX, both with IGPU

by the time that 754 and 939 gained traction, VIA was already a minor player in the chipset market. The Nforce 4xx was BY FAR one of the most successful, longest lived and recycled chipset of all time, i seen that chipset in many flavors until at least 2016 in some Asrock AM3 motherboards

Living wrote on 2025-07-04, 10:34:

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-07-02, 11:31:

New addition to my Athlon XP boards, another KT880 board since the MSI 880 is in the repair bin for new caps. […]
Show full quote

New addition to my Athlon XP boards, another KT880 board since the MSI 880 is in the repair bin for new caps.

The attachment ASUS A7V880.jpg is no longer available

The attachment 2500+.jpg is no longer available

The attachment Post.jpg is no longer available

The attachment deets.jpg is no longer available

As soon as it arrives Ill put it through some testing with both an unlocked 3200+ and the XP-M 3000+, just going to use the 7900GS I have that I know works good .. might throw the 6800 Ultra at it too to see just how much improvement the 7000 series are even in a Athlon XP build.

Got 2Gb of DDR500 to throw in it as well, should allow for some wiggle room on memory speed and timings since I know these DDR500 sticks can get some super tight timings running at DDR400 speeds.

i didnt even knew that Asus had a MB with KT880

the only one that came to Argentina was the MSI KT880 Delta-FSR. At that point everyone after the last chipset was going for Nforce 2 and the ones on a budget for a KT400 or Sis 741GX, both with IGPU

Neither did I till I saw it, the only issue with this board is the lack of the 4 pin P4 power socket but it shouldn't be a show stopper.

I just needed a board to replace the MSI one and to have as a spare once I get the MSI recapped, I also have a pair of Nforce NF7-S 2 boards I can do some testing with, im curious about how each chipset handles dual channel. IIRC KT880 could be pretty damn picky about the modules you could use when trying for 4Gb.

Archer57 wrote on 2025-07-04, 07:51:

I have no strong preference in terms of motherboard manufacturers. In fact i consider such preference to be extremely harmful and limiting, so i consciously avoid it. Even my hate for gigabyte... i try to limit and once in a while still try their stuff. I try to pick boards based on functionality and price/functionality, old or new. So i have a reasonably diverse set of S462 boards: asus, gigabyte, ECS, epox. I do not have any abit boards simply because i never chanced upon one with good price/functionality (i do have AM2 board from abit though).

All my collection is made up of Abit boards and all geforce3 and 4 series cards are Siluro from Abit; in fact I got the whole lineup: geforce3 standard, ti200 & 500; geforce4 ti 4200 64mb & 128mb; 4400, 4600. I do not consider this to be harmful in any way, in fact this is the driving force behind all the stuff I got over the years.

nd22 wrote on 2025-07-29, 06:30:

All my collection is made up of Abit boards and all geforce3 and 4 series cards are Siluro from Abit; in fact I got the whole lineup: geforce3 standard, ti200 & 500; geforce4 ti 4200 64mb & 128mb; 4400, 4600. I do not consider this to be harmful in any way, in fact this is the driving force behind all the stuff I got over the years.

Well, if you are collecting stuff from specific manufacturer as a collector there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. It can absolutely be fun and i understand that.

But for simply building a system... different manufacturers tend to have different offers, advantages and disadvantages. For example with vidocards coolers can be different, frequencies can be different, etc. With motherboard BIOS options, layouts, compatibility, etc can be different. Locking oneself to single manufacturer removes a lot of options, which is not good.

Not to mention old stuff like this can be quite hard to find and getting something like a motherboard with specific chipset and features from specific manufacturer can be... challenging.

It was really challenging; in fact getting Abit parts today has become very challenging! I estimate that by 2030 they will become so scarce that it will be impossible to actually get some of them - even today in 2025 Abit boards has become very rare. I am very happy with 165 boards - practically I got 98% of all boards ever made by Abit.

Today, after 7 years, I reached the end of this journey! Everything I had to say and do with socket A I considered it done. I tried to test from as many angles as possible to better gauge the performance, the compatibility and the little tricks required (bridged AGP cards on AMD760 boards for example) of all the boards and processors tested.
Over the course of the years I learned a lot about testing, compatibility and what is needed to have good and repeatable results; the first tests on AN7 took me 6 months, the last - also on AN7 - took me 2 weeks!
This is not a farewell, my favorite system with an Athlon 3200 and gf7600gt on AN7 remains the one and only permanently assembled PC used for gaming which I consider perfect for the 2000 - 2004 era. It also feels just right, games are really enjoyable on it and and can also deliver the performance required for games that would be impossible to play on the hardware that was available when they were released - example original Age of empires 2 can not run with maximum number of players and units on any Pentium 3 or classic Athlon.
For me it was full of fun and unexpected twists and turns. Socket A era is one of the most memorable periods for me.This is also a tribute to Abit - a legendary company in the history of computing for its innovations! THANK YOU ABIT.
In the hope that I helped at least one colleague today is the end of this trip down the memory lane!

nd22 wrote on 2025-07-29, 09:03:

Today, after 7 years, I reached the end of this journey! Everything I had to say and do with socket A I considered it done.

Thanks for all of your effort on researching this!

There's a ton of useful information in this thread, which people can reference when considering different options for their builds. Great job!

nd22 wrote on 2025-07-29, 09:03:

Today, after 7 years, I reached the end of this journey! Everything I had to say and do with socket A I considered it done. I t […]
Show full quote

Today, after 7 years, I reached the end of this journey! Everything I had to say and do with socket A I considered it done. I tried to test from as many angles as possible to better gauge the performance, the compatibility and the little tricks required (bridged AGP cards on AMD760 boards for example) of all the boards and processors tested.
Over the course of the years I learned a lot about testing, compatibility and what is needed to have good and repeatable results; the first tests on AN7 took me 6 months, the last - also on AN7 - took me 2 weeks!
This is not a farewell, my favorite system with an Athlon 3200 and gf7600gt on AN7 remains the one and only permanently assembled PC used for gaming which I consider perfect for the 2000 - 2004 era. It also feels just right, games are really enjoyable on it and and can also deliver the performance required for games that would be impossible to play on the hardware that was available when they were released - example original Age of empires 2 can not run with maximum number of players and units on any Pentium 3 or classic Athlon.
For me it was full of fun and unexpected twists and turns. Socket A era is one of the most memorable periods for me.This is also a tribute to Abit - a legendary company in the history of computing for its innovations! THANK YOU ABIT.
In the hope that I helped at least one colleague today is the end of this trip down the memory lane!

...

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-07-29, 09:25:

nd22 wrote on 2025-07-29, 09:03:

Today, after 7 years, I reached the end of this journey! Everything I had to say and do with socket A I considered it done.

Thanks for all of your effort on researching this!

There's a ton of useful information in this thread, which people can reference when considering different options for their builds. Great job!

Thank you sir.
Thank you all.
Thank you VOGONS.

nd22 wrote on 2025-07-29, 09:03:

Today, after 7 years, I reached the end of this journey! Everything I had to say and do with socket A I considered it done. I tried to test from as many angles as possible to better gauge the performance, the compatibility and the little tricks required (bridged AGP cards on AMD760 boards for example) of all the boards and processors tested.
...

You rule mate! Now we await your thread about socket 478 😁 😁

Thank you very much.
I do not have all the boards manufactured by Abit for socket 478 - the early ones are really tricky to find - so until then I started testing something a little different 😀 :

I'm looking forward to a new topic dedicated to socket 754 with AGP. It's a slightly better alternative to Athlon XP, although high clocked CPUs are rare. Not many people probably upgraded from Athlon XP to s754/s939 as the benefit were minimal. You should be able to squeeze more out of the top GPUs like GeForce 7600 GT. I wonder if you have AB-NV8.

Hmm what about 754 with PCIe and a 3700+

I have a good 754 AGP board too along with a Sempron 3400+

Got both sets to tool around with, haven't used them in a while so they do need to be dug out of storage and tested to see if they are still kicking.

I do recall neither of them being super great even with being top end parts, but I guess that's what happens when you are the transitional tech and they dont want to throw a lot of money into it.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-08-20, 07:19:

I'm looking forward to a new topic dedicated to socket 754 with AGP. It's a slightly better alternative to Athlon XP, although high clocked CPUs are rare. Not many people probably upgraded from Athlon XP to s754/s939 as the benefit were minimal. You should be able to squeeze more out of the top GPUs like GeForce 7600 GT. I wonder if you have AB-NV8.

Well, i can tell one thing - from testing 7800GS on AthlonXP vs S939 Athlon64 x2 4800+ - the difference in performance in some case, like doom3 and fear, is almost 2x.

However 7800GS is severely limiting for s939 and it becomes a question of what you want - to get everything possible from the platform/CPU or from GPU.

7800GS/7600GT are nice on S462 because they are overkill, on S939 they just feel... meh. For example crysis benchmark shows ~7FPS on 7800GS, 1024x768.

Also for top end cards like HD3850 s939 is still too slow. Probably want LGA775 for the ultimate overkill AGP platform...

S754... to me feels even worse than s939. It is a curiosity, at best, like S423, with no practical usefulness. Why would you pick s754 athlon64 nowadays instead of s939 athlon64 from the same time period on the same core, but with dual channel memory and more options? But perhaps i am wrong and there is some reason...

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-08-20, 10:14:

Hmm what about 754 with PCIe and a 3700+

Socket 754 Athlon 64 3700+ is on sale locally for $240. Makes no sense to buy it. Same for high clocked Socket 939 Athlons X2.

Archer57 wrote on 2025-08-20, 10:17:

S754... to me feels even worse than s939. It is a curiosity, at best, like S423, with no practical usefulness. Why would you pick s754 athlon64 nowadays instead of s939 athlon64 from the same time period on the same core, but with dual channel memory and more options? But perhaps i am wrong and there is some reason...

It fulfills exactly the same purpose as s462. Its value stems mainly from being a revolutionary design from AMD, similarly to early Athlons or Athlon X2. Big problem for both s754 and s939 is poor availability of top CPUs. Some people like me are interested in building systems they never had. I had Athlon XP, Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-08-20, 11:34:

It fulfills exactly the same purpose as s462. Its value stems mainly from being a revolutionary design from AMD, similarly to early Athlons or Athlon X2.

To a degree yes, but... while s754 did release slightly before s939 it was also quite obviously the budget option right from the beginning and in a few ways - a step backwards even compared to s462, like single channel memory. To me that revolutionary design is s940/s939, be it early single core CPUs or later dual core ones. S754 is just a cheap version of it which they chose to release earlier, probably for marketing reasons.

Though i guess this is all a matter of opinion...

AlexZ wrote on 2025-08-20, 11:34:

Big problem for both s754 and s939 is poor availability of top CPUs. Some people like me are interested in building systems they never had. I had Athlon XP, Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad.

Yep, high end CPUs are quite... pricey. I've looked up FX-57 and found a couple of them at around $1000. FX-60 just does not exist and even unremarkable ones like FX-51 are around $500. But not only FX series, even just high end athlons are rare and expensive. The fact only few options with 2.4Ghz + 1M cache exists probably does not help.

I'd guess this is the result of how expensive they were back then and how short-lived the platforms were. Not many were sold...

And yeah, i totally understand wanting to build a system on a platform you have no experience with....

AlexZ wrote on 2025-08-20, 11:34:

Socket 754 Athlon 64 3700+ is on sale locally for $240. Makes no sense to buy it. Same for high clocked Socket 939 Athlons X2. […]
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Trashbytes wrote on 2025-08-20, 10:14:

Hmm what about 754 with PCIe and a 3700+

Socket 754 Athlon 64 3700+ is on sale locally for $240. Makes no sense to buy it. Same for high clocked Socket 939 Athlons X2.

Archer57 wrote on 2025-08-20, 10:17:

S754... to me feels even worse than s939. It is a curiosity, at best, like S423, with no practical usefulness. Why would you pick s754 athlon64 nowadays instead of s939 athlon64 from the same time period on the same core, but with dual channel memory and more options? But perhaps i am wrong and there is some reason...

It fulfills exactly the same purpose as s462. Its value stems mainly from being a revolutionary design from AMD, similarly to early Athlons or Athlon X2. Big problem for both s754 and s939 is poor availability of top CPUs. Some people like me are interested in building systems they never had. I had Athlon XP, Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad.

I own the 754 PCie and 3700+, got them both super cheap a few years ago, same for the Sempron and 754 AGP board. (Still on the hunt for the elusive 754 SLI boards, they do exist)

But yeah neither is exceptionally compelling if you have a top end 939 SLI available, but we don't have to pick here we have the luxury of just grabbing the parts and testing them.

As for top CPUs .. you can get lucky but most people know what they are worth so I would grab something close in performance that is usually much cheaper and more available. (Even Opteron's are not immune to this with the top end ones for 939 being expensive)

AlexZ wrote on 2025-08-20, 07:19:

I'm looking forward to a new topic dedicated to socket 754 with AGP. It's a slightly better alternative to Athlon XP, although high clocked CPUs are rare. Not many people probably upgraded from Athlon XP to s754/s939 as the benefit were minimal. You should be able to squeeze more out of the top GPUs like GeForce 7600 GT. I wonder if you have AB-NV8.

I did upgrade from Duron 1300 to Athlon 64 2800 back in the day and the difference was enormous.
Regarding Abit NV8: my lips are sealed 😀

This topic is about socket A! I will create a new topic with - as you already guessed - socket 754 where everyone is invited to participate.
Let's keep this discussion focused on socket 462!