Elite PC Titan FX: Setting New Standards in Gaming
by Wesley Fink on November 30, 2003 10:57 PM EST- Posted in
- Systems
Elite PC Titan FX: MSI K8T Master2-FAR Motherboard
| Motherboard Specifications | |
| CPU Interface | Socket-940 Athlon64FX/Opteron |
| Number of CPUs | One or Two A64FX or Opteron |
| Chipset | VIA K8T800 (North Bridge) VIA VT8237 (South Bridge) |
| Bus Speeds | 200 to 233 in 1MHz increments |
| AGP/PCI Speeds | No adjustment |
| Core Voltages Supported | Fixed |
| AGP Voltages Supported | Fixed |
| DRAM Voltages Supported | Fixed |
| Memory Slots | 4 184-pin Dual-Channel DDR DIMM Slots 2 DIMMs (2 x 512MB) Mushkin High Performance ECC Registered Memory installed provide 1 GB of DDR400 memory at 2-3-2-8 timings |
| Expansion Slots | 1 AGP 8X Slot 4 PCI Slot |
| Onboard Graphics | None — ATI 9800 XT installed |
| Onboard RAID | VIA SATA RAID 2 x 36.7GB WD Raptor SATA 1000RPM Drives Installed in Raid 0 configuration |
| Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394 | SIX USB 2.0 supported through 8237 FireWire Controller on Audigy 2 |
| Onboard LAN | 100/1000 |
| Onboard Audio | AC '97 2.2 Audio disabled Creative Audigy 2 5.1 Digital Audio installed |
| Onboard Serial ATA | Two Standard SATA connectors 8237 Used by SATA RAID 0 |
The MSI K8T Master 2-FAR motherboard is a standard ATX motherboard designed for Workstation use. Elite PC chose this board to be able to provide outstanding performance with a single FX chip and future expansion with a second socket for dual Opteron processors. Since we have found the Opteron to scale very well with multiple processors, this is an excellent option if the single CPU version performs competitively. For more information on Opteron CPU performance with multiple processors, please see Part 2 of our Opteron review.
Since the MSI K8T Master 2-FAR is a stock motherboard, you can find more information on the board and BIOS upgrades at MSI's site. While MSI classifies the K8T Master 2 as a workstation board, the feature-set is comparable to a desktop board. USB 2.0, SATA RAID, 8X AGP, standard PCI slots, and ATA133 IDE are all standard features. The only major concession to providing Dual CPU support is that MSI could only fit 4 PCI slots on the K8T Master.
The Titan FX is equipped with 2 x 512Mb (1GB) of Mushkin High Performance ECC Registered memory. This very fast registered memory can perform at 2-3-2-8 timings, which is much faster than other registered memory that we have tested. The memory is based on Winbond CH5 memory chips. OCZ also provides a fast 2-3-2-8 registered memory based on the same chips. We plan to compare available Registered Memory for the Athlon64 FX/Opteron in an upcoming memory review. The Mushkin is one of the fastest registered modules that we have tested and is a good choice for the Titan FX.
The Titan FX uses the top-line Radeon XT with 256Mb of memory to fill the 8X AGP slot. Two of the four PCI slots available on the K8T Master-2 motherboard are filled with a Creative Audigy 2 sound card and the MSI TV@nywhere card. This leaves 2 available slots for expansion, though there is so much already installed on the Titan FX that there should be little need for additional expansion slots. They are there if you need them.
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tfranzese - Tuesday, December 2, 2003 - link
Doop, no I don't feel like a fool. It's better to be informed than be completely ignorant like yourself. Even Wesley, the guy who wrote this article, was under the impression the current FX's were dual capable. It could either have been fixed by AMD or fixed in the BIOs for all you know.As for sales, sales don't determine leadership. As for the 8x thing, being first to market a new speed does not make you the leader. Am I not the only one disappointed that it can't do 8x + and - R?
And no, no one mentioned Pioneer in this article but neither did they mention Plextor. And you're kidding yourself if you think Plextor has the same prestiege in the DVD burner market as they did with CD burners. Plextors are good, but speed isn't what makes you the best.
Tweak - Tuesday, December 2, 2003 - link
oops, late post.Tweak - Tuesday, December 2, 2003 - link
Well Mr Fink, can you answer the dual FX question for us?You changed the typos, but completely ignored this MUCH more important querry.
In any case, if the 940pin Fx's are dual compatible it would be a reason for the 940 pinners to remain in existance after the release of the 939pin. The performance of the new 939's will probably destroy single chip 940's configs.
TheRealMandak - Tuesday, December 2, 2003 - link
1. The Athlon64FX IS an Opteron 148, a single server/workstation processor.2. The socket for the FX, vill change to 941. So you might get problems with upgrading this system or have to use Opteron's at a higher price. "hint" Change'en socket might give a small price drop to the FX, since it cannot work in servers/workstations any more. Properly depends on Prescott performance (but this is a guess).
3. It is not recommended to use 4 DIMMS in a single Athlon64/FX processor system, it will reduce performance.
4. The MSI K8T Master2 is NOT supporting dedicated RAM for both Processors in a dual setup. As the socket 940 designs describes. The 2.end Processor has to go through processor number 1, using Hyper Transport. Result, latency!!! And reduced performance. The MSI K8T Master2 not a great dual board. Maybe cheep but not great.
destaccado - Monday, December 1, 2003 - link
#12 I said nothing negative about pioneer, and in terms of leadership do you mean sales? That pioneer may lead but I seem to recall plextor having the first 8x drive to market...that signifies leadership to me....and why would you bring up pioneer? They aren't using pioneer who makes really good burners, they're using MSI, now I'm not saying MSI is bad but you'd think for 3g's........AMDjihad - Monday, December 1, 2003 - link
in yomammas face intel. you suck suck suck. Iknew this is much better, over 30000 3dmarks its better than anyting intel will make in the next years from prescott to tjas. amd will be market leader soonmizzouXC - Monday, December 1, 2003 - link
I think these benchmarks are unfair to the Barton 3200+ setup. Every other system had Raid 0. While this won't make much difference in the brute force FPS competition, it does play into the everyday use (office) benchmarks. Other than that great comparison. I'd like to see these comparisons when we actually have a 64 bit O/S and 64 bit software....Doop - Monday, December 1, 2003 - link
err tfranzese you feel like a fool now? Perhaps YOU should read the reviews before spouting complete bollocks about Athlon FX dual capability.tfranzese - Monday, December 1, 2003 - link
Wesley, interesting. Is the second CPU showing in the system hardware section of XP's control panel? That should let you know if it's running as a dually or not.Wesley Fink - Monday, December 1, 2003 - link
Elite PC has provided an update on Dual Processor usage. <em>"The only AMD processors that can be run in DUAL mode are the 200 and 800 series Opteron processors. The motherboard in the Titan FX machine will run all 940 pin processors, however only the 200 and 800 series Opteron processors will run as Dual processors."</em> We have just tried to benchmark the Titan FX system with 2 FX51, and while the system worked, the boot screen only identified ONE CPU even though two were installed. Oddly, the few benchmarks we ran were higher than single CPU, but not at the levels we would expect with Dual Opteron chips. Elite PC recommends the 200 or 800 Opterons for Dual CPU operation.An update with this information has been added to the review.