EPOX EP-8kta3 NEED QUICK RESPONSE!!

[JML]

I'm in the process of purchasing a few upgrades and I had a question about the EPOX EP-8kta3 (as suggested to me by wild andy and openfriday). It says thunderbird cpu's are not recommended =( and thats exactly what I plan on putting in it. Is this purchase going to cause me a lot of grief? I would like an A7V133, but I don't have enough cash =( *sigh*. Oh well, any help would be greatly appreciated =D

 

[got_yogurt]

if a TBird processor is not recommended, its probably for a reason, Id go with another MB.

 

[jughead]

That doesn't make sense. I checked the epox sight, and for the compatable cpu's they didn't have tbird, (they did say athlon though) but duron as well as pentium are s'posed to work with it.... Maybe I didn't read it right.

 

[jmy]

where does it say you can't use tbirds ??

 

[Sohryu Asuka Langley]

How does an intel chip fit a socketA?

 

[athlon eater]

I saw more than one reveiw for this board using a 1.2 tbird, nice benchmarks. AMD took EPOX off the recomended list for some reason.

 

[JML]

Jughead- Yeah Athlon and Duron were on there, but they said they didn't recommend Tbirds due to some kind of advanced L2 caching the chip uses. This probably isn't a big deal. If athlon eater says he saw a review of using a Tbird, then its prob something rather minor. Thanks all for your help =D

 

[athlon eater]

Hard ocp.com, epox 8kta3 review. tb1.2@135(9x150) I sincerely hope they arent just makeing that sh*t up

 

[OpenFriday]

If hard ocp used a tbird with no problems i think it'll be fine. No idea why it would work with athlon/duron but not tbird. Well hard ocp used a 1.2 tbird and made no mention of any problems. once i get money im still buying this board. ive read only positive things about this mobo this is the first mention ive heard of a tbird not working, odd really. i leave you with a quote

"This is the first time that we have given out an award of any kind to a manufacturer for a product, but I think EPoX has certainly earned it with their 8KTA3. Now I want to see them keep the quality work as standard operating procedure."

Keep in mind AMD also recomends temps be lower than 90C. I dont always agree with what manufactorers say. AMD is a good company, by far one of my new favorites but i see no reason for a tbird not to work properly (it will work and if there is some problem it will most likly be so insignificant you will not notice) and 90C is just plain suicide.

 

[wild_andy_c]

There are no problems with this board and T-Birds. If you refer to Ed's MSI posting, there seems to be a problem with T-Birds themselves. I think that at present there may be some problem CPU's as this e-mail to a tech site from MSI states :-

"After some testing the motherboard. We have found this problem.
Problem Description:
K7Tpro2 series (6330) with 1GHz CPU or 900 Mhz CPU
When they shut down the computer and it switches off they are unable
to turn on and boot up the computer again
Problem Analysis:
This problem only happens on some lot of AMD CPUs, the families of CPU's tested that show this problem:
A1000AMT3B - AJFA0050UPFW (Athlon 1000 MHz)
A0900AMT3B - AQFA0047TPAW (Athlon 900 MHz
the following families of CPU's that are OK :
A1000AMT3B - AJFA0047UPCW (Athlon 1000 MHz)
A1000AMT3B - AJFA0101CPEW (Athlon 1000 MHz)
Maybe there are still some other lot of AMD CPU which has this problem
Suggestions for Customer who have this problem in the field:
1. Use CPU lot (see above) from AMD that can work with MS-6330 or MS-6340 as quickest way.
2. If the user can't exchange the AMD CPU, please send them back as RMA goods "

So that states a possible problem with a KT133a chipset based board and certain batches of chips.

As for the EPoX 8KTA3 - there are NO PROBLEMS WITH T-BIRDS

 

[Tom]

well i have had the 8kta3 for 1 1/2 months now and have had a tbird 650 and 850 in it with no problem and i even figured out how to do a voltage mod on it! im running at 2.16v right now never had a problem! i can run my crappy pc100@145fsb

 

[OpenFriday]

There ya' go proof. I didnt think there was nething wrong with it. Made me feel kinda bad, i have giving out bum advice.

wild_andy_c says theyre just rumors.

 

[athlon eater]

voltage mod? Is it the same as shown at wildandy's site?

 

[wild_andy_c]

That's an intel voltage mod at my site. Don't go trying it on a socket A processor!!!

 

[athlon eater]

is there a vcore mod for ta3? Didnt I read somewhere that only up to 1.83 is available out of the box?

 

[OpenFriday]

no idea about the mod, but i always thought it was 1.85 outta the box, well i'll go see what i can find on it.

Yuppers 1.85 "We could bring the Vcore up to 1.85 volts, which was sufficient to get the TBird hoppin' under an air-cooled environment. "

 

[athlon eater]

i know the specs say it goes up to 1.85 but i thought i read that 1.85 is actually 1.83 on this board. probably wouldnt make much difference either way. i got my 1.2tbird today just waiting for the board and pelt setup. should be any day. with active cooling(and deep pockets) you can never have too much voltage.

 

[SickBoy]

Frankly, I am becoming less and less a follower of AMD's "recommended" list....

After this whole KT7A thing with those boards getting removed from AMD's "list" I have decided to go by user reviews from sites I can trust rather than what AMD decides meets their standards. If it does, fine, and obviously it passes AMD's stringent tests. But if you'll notice, AMD's "approved" list doesn't include things like any Alpha heatsink, or even the venerable Swiftech MC462 which wont even fit a non-socket A board!! Nor does it include the vastly popular FOP38. But you'll find droves of generic cruddy heatsinks on their "approved" list, up to 1200 MHz! Take AMD's list with a grain of salt - I'd say base your decisions on what you read about other people's product experiences.

SickBoy

 

[proze]

i've always just gone by other people's recommendations and experiences. you can't trust a company to review or rate things relating to its own product.

 

[Jediwizard]

Correct me if I'm wrong.. but all Socket A "Athlons" are "Thunderbirds." SOME Slot A Athlons did also have Thunderbird cores, but ALL socket A Athlons versions do.

Thunderbird is a code name and Athlon is the actual product name. The reason EPoX uses only the "Athlon" name when describing CPU support is because they are using the official product name.

AMD's website makes no mention of an AMD "Thunderbird"

http://www.amd.com/products/cpg/cpg.html

"AMD says all Thunderbird chips that will be sold at retail will be in its Socket A packaging. "

http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2562800,00.html