Should I buy an Athlon system now, or wait...?

[KilroY]

I'm building a computer for a friend in the next 3 weeks and I have a chance to sell my old processor, motherboard and memory. I was looking at getting an Athlon 700 and an Asus K7V (the new kx133 board).


However, with Spitfire just around the corner, will I be kicking myself? How soon will the Spitfire chips and motherboards be released? And will there be an initial run of slot-A spitfires before the socket A motherboards come out?


I know I can't go wrong with a K7 700, but I saw some performance figures on the Spitfire and it's mighty tempting... I just can't wait too long and pass up the chance to sell my current parts.


Please help me make the right decision

Thanks

[Nuno]

*Suposedly* thunderbirds/spitfires should work with current athlon motherboards (750/Kx133) with a bios update, much like celerons worked in boards with lx chipsets. The core is the same, the bus protocol is the same, the cache is on the cpu. I guess the bios just has to be able to recognize a 256k cache and a 1/1 divider.
Ok, I´m counting that AMD doesn´t pull out a fast one like inventing some stupid voltage protocol like Intel just to keep older boards from supporting coppermines. If it does, maybe it´s intel again when I upgrade.

If I was you here what I would do: Take the change to sell the older parts, buy a K7V and a very very cheap coppermine (can you still find a 500?) and buy a spitfire/thunderbird when they are out.

[Wombat]

Coppermine? Nuno's a little confused

[KilroY]

Heh, I see where you are coming from Icestorm. I don't mind committing to a current solution, my one worry though is being stuck with a slot-A board and not being able to upgrade the processor when AMD make the switchover to socketed form in a few months.


BTW, my current setup is a celeron 400 (not o/c) on an Asus P2B. Not exactly a POS I guess, but I don't want to miss this opportunity to upgrade. I've had bad overclocking experiences (I had 2 bloody 300a's that wouldn't even post at 450, GRRRR)
That is why I'm leaning towards AMD. (Thx for the bit of info Nuno)

[Jammrock]

The Thunderbird/Spitfires are rumored to come out as early as late May. The general consensus is June/July. I say get a good board now (the ASUS K7V) and a cheap Athlon (a 500 or so). Then when the Thunderbird comes out, grab one of those. Then when the DDR board come out later this year, pick up one of those and sell off your old stuff or build a second computer.

Jammrock

------------------
Athlon 650, Biostar board, 128 MB PC133 (Crucial), G400 32 MB DH, SB Live! w/ Digital I/O, 10/100 NIC, lots of case fans, etc...

[Nuno]

Wombat: yes I wasn´t very clear I was talking about *Intel* setting a new voltage protocol for the coppermines making them not compatible with older BX boards, when the chipset just plain simply supported it. And I hope AMD doesn´t follow that way making thunderbird/spitfire not compatible with previous 750/KX133 - damn I have a gigabyte GA-7IX - one of the very first Athlon boards and I am expecting to put a thunderbird on it sometime next year (maybe sooner )

KilroY: I had a celery 450 (300A@ 2.2v he he ) on an Abit BX6 until the board shorted, fried my cpu and a friend´s PIII 550 (ouch) Then I went Athlon, first 500 now 600, and you won´t believe how much fast it is than the celery)

[Kelvin_ky_teh]

According to information from AMD, Spitfire will come out in Socket-A only, not Slot-A. I don't know whether there will have any conversion card like Socket-370 to Slot-1.
So, I don't think existing Athlon MB can support Spitfire.

[Rags]

Hi Nuno,

There have been only limited cases where a coppermine would not work on a BX board, and the fault was due to motherboard mfrs. or old designs. The upcoming spitfires will be available in slot a and socket a. There are also slotket adapters for the spitfire and t-bird to allow use in slot a boards.

Rags

[KilroY]

I just read 2 articles over at www.aceshardware.com which basically state:


"For those who are still hoping for 'Slotket-A' converter boards, you will be disappointed: Socket-A processors cannot be used on current existing Slot-A motherboards due to "design and architectural". Hence it is unlikely we will see any "Slotket-A" in the market."
They then list several reasons why this will not work. So it is true that spitfire will most likely never work on the current generation of KX133 boards.


What I did not know was that Thunderbird will be produced (at least initially) in both slot-a and socket-a variants. The only problem with this is that Thunderbird is expected to debut at 1200-1300Mhz, and I'm assuming the price will be as high as the speed. It will be quite a while before these chips are "affordable", whereas the Spitfires (which boast better performance than current Athlons) are designated to be low cost chips.

So by buying a slot-a board now, one is heading towards a pricier upgrade future. I really wish I could hold out...Asus has already revealed their socket-a board (for mid year, June I guess) on their roadmap.


[This message has been edited by KilroY (edited 14 April 2000).]

[RAB]

According to Ace's yesterday, you might be able to get at least T-birds in slot-A format. Here is a quote from Ace's report on AMD's earnings phone conference call:

* Thunderbird shipping in volume in June (Dresden) Slot-A, Socket-A next qrt
* Spitfire also shipping in volume in June (some/all in Austin) Socket-A
* Both Thunderbirds and Spitfires from Fab25 @ 0.18 (not copper). Fab30 (0.18 copper) will *only* do Thunderbirds. Total on-chip cache for Spitfire greater than Celeron, for Thunderbird greater than Coppermine. (total, not L2.)

I hope they got their transcript correct.

RAB