2CPU.com » News » June 2001 » Tyan Thunder K7 in the house!

The long awaited day is upon us. The NDA has lifted. Is it worth it? What's all the fuss about? I have attempted to answer those questions (and a few more) in my review of the first 760MP board to hit the market, the Tyan Thunder K7. Read my review over here.

The Thunder K7 and dual AMD processors... While Tyan is not the only manufacturer basing a motherboard on AMD's 760MP chipset, they are the first (which is important in this game). We've been teased with pictures, leaked benchmarks and specifications for over a year now. Everyone knows what it is. It has generated more interest in dual processing than any other single piece of hardware that has come to market in the two years that this site has been around. It seems that the whole hardware community is waiting with baited breath for the slew of reviews that are hitting the 'net right now. Well... Here you go!

When you're done reading my review, swing by and give JackieO some love too!

06/19/2000 03:38 AM: Tyan Thunder-X Review by Granite
Well, it took me long enough, but here's my review of the Tyan Thunder-X motherboard. This board is just a BIOS rev away from a perfect 5 out of 5. I recommend it highly to anyone who wants a Xeon s...

04/04/2000 12:29 AM: Tyan Thunderbolt Review by Hooz
As some of you sharper readers have noticed, I just finished posting SMP_Homer's review of the Tyan Thunderbolt motherboard. You'll have to read the review to see what he thought of that bad-boy, but...

Jim SMP Newbie Posts: 0 Joined: 2003-12-16

#9375 Posted on: 06/05/2001 09:00 AM woooooooooooooo!

BuyALambo SMP Newbie Posts: 95 Joined: 2000-03-28

#9376 Posted on: 06/05/2001 09:05 AM MMMMMMMMM, Very Tasty

ReMeDy SMP Newbie Posts: 12521 Joined: 2001-02-10

#9377 Posted on: 06/05/2001 09:34 AM Damn that and Kev's review rocked, big ups to kev for posting some honest material. Hooz does his thing as usual, Good job!:cool: But what i wanted to know was this hooz, did you actually run that 760MP 24/7 for 2cpu.com RC5 to test the stability? Another thing is, are the classic socket a's compat or do they just blank on boot like they did with someone else? hey buyalambo. i think your avitar represents what Intel execs are doing right now as they read the storm of 760MPreviews |[size=1][url=http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=279831#post279831][color=yellow]FAQ's[/url][/color][/size]|Heatware-Remedy{WcS}|Dual760|Beerology|

ReMeDy SMP Newbie Posts: 12521 Joined: 2001-02-10

#9378 Posted on: 06/05/2001 09:57 AM Am i stupid or did i read in anands MP review that he actually used Durons in MP?:confused: :confused: :confused: Someone else read his review and tell me i'm stupid, even if you don't read just call me stupid Actually the reason why i'm confused is i could of sworn i just read another sites review of MP and it said it doesn't boot dual durons. I think it was those australlian doods from yesterday. |[size=1][url=http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=279831#post279831][color=yellow]FAQ's[/url][/color][/size]|Heatware-Remedy{WcS}|Dual760|Beerology|

JackieO Editor - Accelenation.com Posts: 308 Joined: 2000-06-20

#9379 Posted on: 06/05/2001 10:21 AM Originally posted by ReMeDy Damn that and Kev's review rocked, big ups to kev for posting some honest material. Hooz does his thing as usual, Good job!:cool: But what i wanted to know was this hooz, did you actually run that 760MP 24/7 for 2cpu.com RC5 to test the stability? Another thing is, are the classic socket a's compat or do they just blank on boot like they did with someone else? hey buyalambo. i think your avitar represents what Intel execs are doing right now as they read the storm of 760MPreviews Heya - thanks for the kind words - I booted and worked with both Dual Thunderbirds and Durons. The Durons took some work (read: bridge messing) but I htink a BIOS will eliminate that. The Thunderbirds worked like a charm. I was going to post benchmakrs, but besides being very uninteresting, AMD asked us all not to JackieO Editor http://www.accelenation.com

unspec SMP Newbie Posts: 5 Joined: 2001-06-01

#9380 Posted on: 06/05/2001 11:10 AM Job well done Hooz Excellent review, but no mention of RAID I would have thought that if this really is intended to be a 1U sever board they would have SCSI RAID. That is the only bad point I can think of the board, but it IS an issue that might stop/delay me from buying it as I'd have to go and get a RAID controller as well.... Ho hum, still droolworthy tho

JackieO Editor - Accelenation.com Posts: 308 Joined: 2000-06-20

#9381 Posted on: 06/05/2001 11:49 AM No Raid JackieO Editor http://www.accelenation.com

ambit LoveYourFruit Posts: 1246 Joined: 2000-10-15

#9382 Posted on: 06/05/2001 11:57 AM i just think it is funny that it takes 2 AMD chips @ >1Ghz each to do the same amount of d.net blocks as a nice dual G4, wow. i don't like macs that much, but a cluster used only for my d.net account would be nice

unspec SMP Newbie Posts: 5 Joined: 2001-06-01

#9383 Posted on: 06/05/2001 12:11 PM Ok so here are some thoughts of mine, AMD are paired up with Tyan. Tyan make good server boards. AMD want to get into the server market. Many server boards have onboard RAID. So, my logic is that Tyan will probably put out another board with either no-onboard a/v SCSI etc, or a board with all the goodies (including RAID) before they are no-longer the only Dual Athlon board maker people can choose from. If they cover all the bases when there is no choice for the buyer they are more likely to get the biggest section of the market when they don't have a monopoly. just my

JackieO Editor - Accelenation.com Posts: 308 Joined: 2000-06-20

#9384 Posted on: 06/05/2001 12:16 PM You are probably right. And if they don't do it, I am certain someone else will. JackieO Editor http://www.accelenation.com

posty Beach Bum Posts: 938 Joined: 2000-05-30

#9385 Posted on: 06/05/2001 12:46 PM Yum! ....shall I..... shall I not.....shall I......shall I not..... she loves me.....she loves me not...Oops.....shall I....shall I not..... Something or someone is telling me to wait, was that you Jim Hooz? I really believe that Tyan has to do a little more refining with the the Thunder K7 Some really super scores! But it is interesting that the P4(s) kept popping up every so often.... But the SiSandra Dhrystone ALU almost blew me from my seat. What the hell was that all about. Weren't they, SiSoftware, working on Samantha for dual/SMP systems, as SiSandra was not able to test dual systems throughly? But SiSandra does tell you something about CPU speed. Great memory and, Science Mark scores. Thanks for the education on QMC code /Science Mark, Kev.... will have to do a second take, maybe a third, forth....... .....Really appreciated some of the real-world applications you used for measuring overall performance, Kev Hooz, what did you mean by

Tairc Will work for bandwidth! Posts: 117 Joined: 2000-03-01

#9386 Posted on: 06/05/2001 04:51 PM Here's the thing. As cool as you guys are, I'm FAR more into the "modding" scene and overclocking scene than some of you. What I need is an Abit 760MP(x?) board before August 17th. Assuming I'm willing to pay introduction price for it, will it happen? I'm really hoping not to go Tyan on this. Some sites claim the competitor's boards should be available in Q3, hence my question as well "When is Q3 over?" - Tairc, desperate

JackieO Editor - Accelenation.com Posts: 308 Joined: 2000-06-20

#9387 Posted on: 06/05/2001 05:35 PM Originally posted by Tairc Here's the thing. As cool as you guys are, I'm FAR more into the "modding" scene and overclocking scene than some of you. What I need is an Abit 760MP(x?) board before August 17th. Assuming I'm willing to pay introduction price for it, will it happen? I'm really hoping not to go Tyan on this. Some sites claim the competitor's boards should be available in Q3, hence my question as well "When is Q3 over?" - Tairc, desperate September 30th is the end of Q3. Oh, and posty - thanks for the compliemtns - and yes, there will be a non-MP palomino, the desktop version (although it will probably do SMP, they won't support it most likely) JackieO Editor http://www.accelenation.com

ReMeDy Editor - Accelenation.com Posts: 12521 Joined: 2001-02-10

#9388 Posted on: 06/05/2001 06:13 PM How much cache does the MP palamino have? |[size=1][url=http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=279831#post279831][color=yellow]FAQ's[/url][/color][/size]|Heatware-Remedy{WcS}|Dual760|Beerology|

Jim SMP Newbie Posts: 0 Joined: 2003-12-16

#9389 Posted on: 06/05/2001 06:31 PM 128KB L1 256KB L2 Same as the T-bird.

Kampf Pixelated Posts: 554 Joined: 2000-04-21

#9390 Posted on: 06/05/2001 06:33 PM sweerness A couple Apple products and a bizarre ASUS S479 box.

posty Beach Bum Posts: 938 Joined: 2000-05-30

#9391 Posted on: 06/05/2001 07:27 PM Originally posted by unspec Ok so here are some thoughts of mine, AMD are paired up with Tyan. Tyan make good server boards. AMD want to get into the server market. Many server boards have onboard RAID. So, my logic is that Tyan will probably put out another board with either no-onboard a/v SCSI etc, or a board with all the goodies (including RAID) before they are no-longer the only Dual Athlon board maker people can choose from. If they cover all the bases when there is no choice for the buyer they are more likely to get the biggest section of the market when they don't have a monopoly. just my

unspec SMP Newbie Posts: 5 Joined: 2001-06-01

#9392 Posted on: 06/05/2001 09:52 PM Originally posted by posty Can you tell me the # of dual CPU Tyan and Supermicro platforms, currently available on the market that are equipped with integrated Ultra160 SCSI RAID and/or IDE RAID sub systems? They would price themselves out of the market if they did, especially for the intro piece. Remember, AMD has not yet established themselves in the server market, let alone the DP market. Maybe your wish will come true when the Palominos are equipped with 512Kb/1MB Kb L2 cache You have a point with RAID. A quick look at some websites didn't turn up too many 1U boards with integrated RAID. Most people requiring mission-critical RAIS will use a Mylex controller card or some other high-quality solition. I think you're probably right about it not happening till AMD beef up the on-die cache. However my main point was that Tyan is in the position of virtually having a monopolyat the moment and may well produce more than just the one board based on the 760MP chipset. The RAID angle was maily because I want a DP board without SCSI, IDE and still have to buy a RAID card I seem to remember that in JackieO's review (which was excellent reading BTW - good job there mate ) he stated my opinion more or less exactly when he said: "I think the market is big enough that a cheaper version with less onboard would do well in the low-end workstation or high-end desktop segment." That certainly would not be pricing Tyan out of the DP market and mmmmm I just plain LIKE the idea of a bare-bones board that I can put a GF3 and a Mylex controller into one of those heh. What is interesting is if Tyan will put out a 760MPX based board well before the others as well... ETA for any other Tyan boards anyone?

JackieO Editor - Accelenation.com Posts: 308 Joined: 2000-06-20

#9393 Posted on: 06/05/2001 10:27 PM I suspect that they are doing at least one other board - but that is not for sure by any means. I think they will ride this one out for awhile. JackieO Editor http://www.accelenation.com

Spiral SMP Newbie Posts: 49 Joined: 2001-05-15

#9394 Posted on: 06/06/2001 01:21 AM As far as overclocking goes: I think I read somewhere that that might come with a BIOS update (I don't know muc about OC so if this is far-fetched, 'scuse my ignorance), but I don't think it'll happen considering where this board is being targeted... Lotta companies coming out with 760MP soon, but 3 months to wait for them looks like... I want this board bad, but I'm having a hard time with it cause of the what ifs: - Palo's with larger caches... -O/C friendlier versions... -Drastic price drops... Ugh. Love computers, hate the speed with which the industry moves...

JackieO Editor - Accelenation.com Posts: 308 Joined: 2000-06-20

#9395 Posted on: 06/06/2001 01:56 AM I think we'll see higher speed MP's before more cache.. I don't know that we'll ever see that since AMD will certainly do it on Hammer.. We'll see. JackieO Editor http://www.accelenation.com

posty Beach Bum Posts: 938 Joined: 2000-05-30

#9396 Posted on: 06/06/2001 03:58 AM Originally posted by unspec That certainly would not be pricing Tyan out of the DP market and mmmmm I just plain LIKE the idea of a bare-bones board that I can put a GF3 and a Mylex controller into one of those heh. What is interesting is if Tyan will put out a 760MPX based board well before the others as well... ETA for any other Tyan boards anyone? You're probably right! I truly hope that they, AMD, will find their niche in the point-to-point topology MP workstation and server market. Like you I prefer the bare bones platforms, as what will I do with all my expansion cards? But, I too won't mind one with an integrated SCSI RAID and/or with 6 PCI 32/64 slots....... why are they so hard to come by? With fully loaded platforms/boxes in the horizon, what the hell are we gonna do with all our expansion cards Originally posted by JackieO I think we'll see higher speed MP's before more cache.. I don't know that we'll ever see that since AMD will certainly do it on Hammer.. We'll see. They'll actually have to first develop the demand for their systems, in the server market before that

JackieO Editor - Accelenation.com Posts: 308 Joined: 2000-06-20

#9397 Posted on: 06/06/2001 03:59 AM Originally posted by posty You're probably right! I truly hope that they, AMD, will find their niche in the point-to-point topology MP workstation and server market. Like you I prefer the bare bones platforms, as what will I do with all my expansion cards? But, I too won't mind one with an integrated SCSI RAID and/or with 6 PCI 32/64 slots....... why are they so hard to come by? With fully loaded platforms/boxes in the horizon, what the hell are we gonna do with all our expansion cards Pyrotechnics come to mind JackieO Editor http://www.accelenation.com

posty Beach Bum Posts: 938 Joined: 2000-05-30

#9398 Posted on: 06/06/2001 04:10 AM Whoops.......you're fast on the draw Kev, before I can even finish my sentences he is already smacking me around pick a number will you Originally posted by JackieO Pyrotechnics come to mind Oh...you're bad......just remember......I haven't received everything I've ordered yet.......backordered....and here he is already suggesting "Pyrotechnics.." Can I have a few days with them first.......before you go out blowing all my dreams & expections to smithereens.

JackieO Editor - Accelenation.com Posts: 308 Joined: 2000-06-20

#9399 Posted on: 06/06/2001 04:42 AM No! You must burn it all now! JackieO Editor http://www.accelenation.com

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