Athlon Motherboards
Athlon is a potent CPU. The earliest models are slightly faster than Pentium III Coppermine on a per clock basis. Note that these processors consume considerably more power than Pentium II and III. Make sure your PSU has at least 20A on 5v for Slot A and early Socket A boards.
Contents
Slot A
Slot A is the oldest platform for the Athlon. The CPU is in a cartridge very similar to Intel's Slot 1 processors. It ranges from 500MHz to around 1000MHz. Slot A was superseded by the popular Socket A platform.
These boards are equipped witb ISA, PCI and AGP.
Chipsets
AMD 750
- 100 MHz FSB + PC100 RAM
- AGP 2x
AGP quirks with 2x mode and so AGP can be unstable. Use a Voodoo3-5 or a PCI video card. Generally fast and stable, especially later revisions with superbypass support. Sometimes uses VIA 686A southbridge instead of AMD 756 chip.
VIA KX133
- 100 MHz FSB + PC133 RAM
- AGP 2x/4x
AGP 4x problems. Uses 686A southbridge.
VIA KT133
- 100 MHz FSB + PC133 RAM
- AGP 2x/4x
Uses either 686A or B southbridge. 686B soutbridge has PCI errata that can be triggered by some PCI cards such as sound cards. It can cause HDD data loss because the IDE controller is on PCI.
Socket A
Socket A (also known as Socket 462) was a very popular CPU socket which was produced from 2000 to around 2003 and ranges from 600MHz all the way to 2333MHz (or 2.333GHz), though higher clock speeds were achievable with overclocking. There were basically 4 different CPU's made for Socket A, ranging from the original Thunderbird (which was also made in Slot A configuration), the Palomino (which was the first Athlon XP), the Thoroughbred (which was made on a smaller manufacturing process) and the Barton (which was basically a thoroughbred with double the amount of L2 cache).
A budget version of Athlon was also made, appearing at first as the Duron (which ran from 600MHz to 1800MHz, all of them Socket A) and later as a Sempron (which was basically a renamed Athlon XP at first). While Duron was marketed with it's original clock speed, Athlon XP was the first Athlon to use a PR rating (identified by a "+"-sign right next to the speed rating), ranging from 1600+ (which is a 1400MHz CPU) to the 3200+ (which is either a 2200MHz CPU on a 400MHz FSB or a 2333 MHz part on a 333MHz FSB (the latter one being more uncommon)).
Athlon and Athlon XP use substantially more power compared to the Pentium 3 and maxes out at around 75W (without overclocking) while the hottest Pentium 3's max out at around 35W and while usually Athlon and Athlon XP draws power from the 5V lines, Pentium 4 draws it's power from the 12V line. This is important as modern PSU's typically don't support large power draws from the 5V line anymore. Whats also important is that all Socket A Athlons were manufactured without an IHS, meaning the bare die could be damaged when improperly installing a CPU cooler, possibly resulting in cracks in the die, possibly killing the CPU in the process. So being careful while installing a CPU cooler is important. Make sure you don't install the CPU cooler the wrong way around. Even though Athlon XP CPU coolers were designed to deal with the high heat output of Athlon and Athlon XP, as Socket A has the same dimensions as Socket 370, Athlon XP coolers can typically be installed on Socket 370 (and sometimes even Socket 7, provided no motherboard components are in the way).
The first Athlons use SDRAM while the later ones use DDR-SDRAM. No DDR2 Athlon XP motherboards were ever made.
No PCI-E Athlon XP motherboards were ever made. Only the very latest Athlon XP boards have SATA connectors.
Athlon and Athlon XP motherboards typically draw power from the 5V line, resulting in possible incompatibility with modern PSU's which often don't provide enough power on the 5V lines anymore.
All Socket A boards come with PCI slots. Only some of the oldest boards come with ISA slots. Almost all Socket A boards come with either AGP 4x or AGP 8x (some Socket A motherboards without an AGP slot were made though).
Socket A was made in the middle of the capacitor plague, which resulted in many Socket A boards having bulged capacitors. Bulged capacitors have to be replaced or it will cause system instability and possibly the death of hardware components.
Chipsets
NVIDIA nForce
- 133 MHz FSB + PC2100 RAM
- AGP 4x/8x
NVIDIA nForce2
- 166 MHz FSB + PC2700 RAM
- 200 MHz FSB + PC3200 RAM (nF2 400)
- AGP 4x/8x
VIA KT133A
- 133 MHz FSB + PC133 RAM
- AGP 2x/4x
Improved memory performance. 686B soutbridge has PCI errata that can be triggered by some PCI cards such as sound cards. It can cause HDD data loss because the IDE controller is on PCI.
VIA KT266
- 133 MHz FSB + PC2100 RAM
- AGP 2x/4x
VIA KT266A
- 133 MHz FSB + PC2100 RAM
- AGP 2x/4x
Improved memory performance. May have problems with Radeon 8500. Some boards received a BIOS update regarding this.
VIA KT333
- 133 MHz FSB + PC2700 RAM
- AGP 2x/4x
It may come with either the VT8233A or VT8235 southbridge. The latter has USB 2.0 built-in. Boards using the older chip typically have a separate USB 2.0 chip.
Like KT266A, it may have problems with Radeon 8500. Some boards received a BIOS update regarding this.
This is the fastest chipset with AGP 2x (3.3v) support so you can use 3dfx Voodoo5 with it.
VIA KT400
- 166 MHz FSB + PC2700 RAM
- AGP 4x/8x
VIA KT400A
- 166 MHz FSB + PC3200 RAM
- AGP 4x/8x
VIA KT600
- 200 MHz FSB + PC3200 RAM
- AGP 4x/8x
The VT8237 southbridge's SATA controller typically does not work with SATA II hard drives. You must jumper the drive to SATA I mode if possible.
VIA KT880
- 200 MHz FSB + dual channel PC3200 RAM
- AGP 4x/8x
The VT8237 southbridge's SATA controller typically does not work with SATA II hard drives. You must jumper the drive to SATA I mode if possible.
