Anyone that visits the site with any regularity knows that we are a bunch of RC5 freak around here. We take our key cracking very seriously and our team has risen through the ranks and become a force to be reckoned with. It was a no-brainer for me to install the client on this machine to see how it would run... Man did I almost wet myself when I saw how many Mkeys/s this thing was capable of!

Now ever since my K6-2 300 days, the AMD processors have been better at cracking keys in RC5 than an equivalent Intel processor. Be it an optimized pipeline in the CPU or a tweaked client, they have always had an edge. I had absolutely no idea that they were this good! If you're looking for a machine to run RC5 (Hehe), look no further!

Stability, Compatibility and all that...

I bet you were wondering when I would get to this. All the numbers don't mean squat if the system won't run, and that actually brings me to my one major fault with the Thunder K7. As I said on the first page, I had grand plans of running a slew of high-end application benchmarks. I have my AutoCAD 2i, 3DSMax v3.0 and Quake 3 (heh) disks sitting right here on my desk. Unfortunately the one uberhigh-end video card that I have in-house, a Quadro2 Pro, would not run in this machine which quickly squashed my aspirations of 3D rendered bliss. While my 64mb Radeon is a very nice card (I actually prefer its image quality to any Nvidia card I've owned), it just doesn't pack the "Umph" needed to show off a machine like this one. In the Thunder K7's defense, I have run into the no POST problem with this card on one other board before, so I am not entirely sure that it is the fault of the mainboard. I will be using the board as a test platform for a while, so if and when my GeForce3 ever gets here, I will be sure to do a follow-up.

While the video problems were disappointing, I must say that this machine has been the epitome of stability in the time I've had it running. I have used it for my normal day to day work, RC5, and audio and video editing for some time without bothering to reboot except for software/driver updates. It even passed the "top-secret 2CPU.com stability tests" by running RC5 and Quake 3 Arena server... All while manipulating a 1.5gb WAV file.

Speaking of WAV files, I just wanted to add that all of the problems I have been experiencing with my Live MP3+ 5.1 card on other motherboards has thankfully vanished. AMD's Viper southbridge is a leaps and bounds ahead of VIA's 686B and I never had a hiccup with the Live in this machine. You know it's stable if Liveware doesn't crash it ;-)

Tyan has also added a few features that really make this board appealing to a wide range of people. One thing that really stands out is the ability to adjust the level of ECC for the system memory. For the workstation user who only wants speed, there is a setting to disable the ECC altogether (the board does require registered memory), but for the server crowd, there are three levels of ECC to choose from. The first, and least intrusive is "EC" which just checks the data integrity. Second, there is ECC which we all know and love. The third and final setting is for the seriously hard-core enterprise server people... ECC Scrub. ECC Scrub insures the highest possible data integrity by checking, rechecking and repairing any data errors. Each of the levels has its tradeoffs though, you will give up memory bandwidth and add boot-up time to your machine each step you take. With ECC Scrub enabled, this machine took (literally) 3.5 minutes to boot.

A few words of warning though. If you are looking to overclock with this board, you are out of luck. Maybe I am spoiled by all the cool whiz-bang features available in the BIOS' of today, but the Thunder K7 has the most barren BIOS I have seen in a very long time. Other than a handful of memory settings, there is nothing in there... Nothing. Not even so much as a temperature monitor (MBM5 does work, and the Palomino's ran a warm 130 degrees F with the Volcano II's).

SPECIAL NOTE: I did run a pair of AXIA TBirds (1ghz 266mhz FSB variety) in this board, and they did work. However... AMD has requested that I not post any non-Palomino benchmarks and Tyan warns that running TBirds in the Thunder K7 might void your warranty! Consider yourself warned.

Conclusions

The question that is begging to be asked here, is "Should I upgrade?" With PIII SMP seeing the light at the end of its tunnel, and the cost of the P4 Xeons (and RAMBUS) being relatively high... Yes, it is worth upgrading. *IF* you are running some older PIII's and you were thinking of upgrading anyway. I would not recommend upgrading just for the sake of it if you are running a fast pair of PIII's now. Wait for a bit of competition in the 760MP board market. Competition is a good thing and it only means lower prices for us.

If you simply must have the latest and greatest that there is... This is it! This board is rock solid, loaded with features, and (according to AMD) has a bright, upgradable future. If you can afford it, this is definitely the cream of the crop. I never experienced any of the "normal" bugs and quirks common to a new platform introduction. AMD and Tyan played their cards right this time, and their first step into the workstation/server space is a big one without a doubt.

Micah "Hooz" Schmidt

2CPU.com gives this motherboard a 4.5/5 CPU's