Twin-Turbos: MSI-694D Pro and Tyan Tiger 133 – THG.RU

Dual Processing Affordable Again: MSI 694D Pro and Tyan Tiger 133

Do you still remember ABit’s BP6 motherboard? More than a year ago, it was the first motherboard for two Socket370-processors. Using the BX chipset and an additional UltraATA/66 controller, it was able to run with one or two Celeron processors, even though Intel had claimed that Celeron-processors are unable to run in dual-configurations.

In the past the most popular platform for dual processor systems used to be the Intel’s 440BX chipset. However, as it is only specified for 66 and 100 MHz front side bus, people had to find an alternative for Pentium III processors running at 133 MHz FSB. So far, only Intel’s 840 chipset was able to meet this requirement, but only with the unpopular and overly expensive Rambus memory RDRAM. As an alternative, Server Works is now offering their Server Set III chipset series. Its big advantage is that it runs with SDRAM memory instead of RDRAM. However, the ServerWorks solution won’t make it into the main stream for quite a while to come, since motherboards equipped with this professional SMP-chipset are hardly affordable for the masses, as motherboard-prices range from US$ 500 and up.

This situation left the field wide open once more for the Taiwanese chipset maker VIA. Today VIA’s 694X or ‘Apollo Pro 133A’ is the most widely used platform for systems that are equipped with Intel Pentium III processors running at 133 MHz FSB. VIA’s data sheets always claimed that the 694X is capable of dual-processor support and finally dual-Socket370 motherboards with Apollo Pro133A are becoming available. Following VIA’s tradition, those platforms are very affordable and could therefore make dual processor systems rather popular.

Dual Processing: Why?

Some weeks ago I spotted an advertisment of a local computer shop, offering systems with ‘Pentium III 1200’ and ‘1600 MHz’. Obviously there aren’t any Pentium III processors at 1200 or 1600 MHz. The dealer was offering dual processor systems and decided to simply add up the clock speeds of the two system processors. A dual Pentium III 600 system became a ‘Pentium III 1200’ and a dual P3 800 became a ‘Pentium III 1600′. Unfortuantely it doesn’t work this way, my dear dealer! An ad claiming the above gets close to false advertising. What he doesn’t tell his customers is that the vast majority of applications is utterly unable to benefit from dual-processor systems and even software that was specially designed for SMP is only able to run 20-85% faster than on a dual CPU system. Kinetix’ 3D Studio Max is one of the exceptions, as it benefits tremendously from two CPUs. I included 3D Studio Max R2 to the benchmarks to show that two CPUs will almost halve the calculating time.

The vast majority of all applications does not support multiprocessing. Even if a title should be able to benefit from it, you will also need an operating system which supports SMP. That’s basically Windows NT 4.0 (Workstation or Server), Windows 2000 (all versions) and Linux, if you compile a multiprocessing kernel. Forget about operating systems like Windows 95/98/ME if you want to go dual …

In my opinion, the most valuable advantage of a dual CPU system is the better system response. Usually, you cannot run more than one or two CPU-intensive tasks smoothly, because your system simply cannot cope with more data load. With a dual processor system, you can easily run three tasks simultaneously and still have enough ressources left to do something else. A typical example would be an MP3-encoding session in the background, while you are working on your spread sheet. You canburn a CD and play a game at the same time. The more processor-intensive applications you are running at the same time the more you will benefit from a dual-processor system.

Upgrading Windows NT 4.0 for 2 CPUs

If you are using Windows NT 4.0 and want to upgrade to a dual system, you can either make a complete new system installtion or go the easier way:

In the NT Resource Pack you will find a little program called ‘uptomp.exe‘, which is supposed to upgrade a single processor installation to a multi processor one. Unfortunately the program comes with a bug, so you’re required to download a patch from Microsoft’s website. Don’t expect ‘uptomp.exe’ to be all you need to run. As a nother example for Microsoft’s inability to make WindowsNT user friendly enough this program will exchange the single-CPU-system kernel files with the SMP-system files from the installation CD. Thus you will have to upgrade to the service pack update you were using right after you ran ‘uptomp.exe’.

If you should want to play it safe you could back up the following files previous to the switch to SMP:

• Hal.dll
• Kernel32.dll
• Ntdll.dll
• Ntoskrnl.exe
• Win32k.sys
• Winsrv.dll

All that ‘uptomp.exe’ does is replacing those files with their SMP-versions. Although Microsoft claims you will never be able to change back to single-processor, you actually can. Start another NT-installation from where you can access the files of your original installation and swap the above files back. After a reboot you will have your single-processor installation back.

Don’t forget to make sure you have installed the right mass storage device drivers before you swap your motherboard. Without the correct HDD-drivers WindowsNT will be unable to boot.

Upgrading Windows 2000 for 2 CPUs

Fortunately Windows2000 is much less of a pain to change back and forth between single-processor and SMP configurations. Simply go into the Device Manager and find the item ‘Computer’. With ‘Change Driver’ you can choose whichever system configuation you fancy by choosing ‘show all available drivers’.

The Reference: Intel OR840

Intel’s workstation motherboard is available for some time now. As many of you may know, it uses the 840 chipset, thus it needs to be equipped with either two or four RDRAM RIMMs. Intel includes a Slot terminator card which makes it possible to use the board with just a single processor as well.

The two Slot1-sockets are rather close to one another, which restricts the size of the heatsink you can use for the two processors. You should always make sure that the system is sufficiently cooled. Most “hot” components – CPUs, RIMMs, AGP card – are situated in the upper part of the board and will generate a lot of heat in that area. Intel knows about this and placed a total of six (!) fan headers on this motherboard. Two will be used by the CPU fans, four are left too cool down your hardware.

The OR840 comes with integrated 10/100 Mbit LAN (Intel chip) and huge voltage regulators, since both the CPUs and the RIMMs require a lot of power. An AGP Pro slot makes sure that even touch workstation graphics cards can be used with the OR840, and an on-board speaker is present to replace the system speaker.

Five PCI slots should be enough for additional hardware. The workstation board can also be ordered with on-board AC97 sound system (with two internal line-ins).

There wasn’t anything to complain about performance and stability. The board ran rock-stable during my tests. Even the BIOS-Setup is very easy to use, although it is rather different to the standard AMI and Award BIOSes.

The board lacks both CPU setup and overclocking options. Basically you don’t need to set up your processor, as Intel CPUs always come with a fixed multiplier.

The Challenger: Tyan Tiger 133

We already got an early revision of the Tiger 133 a few months ago, but this initial version was still buggy and did not work the way that we would have expected it.

Tyan is now already shipping Rev. F of this board, called S-1834D, which gives quite a pretty good impression now. It’s the only one out of the three boards coming with an ISA slot.

Several jumpers are populated on this board. Most of them are used to set the processor speed. Tyan also placed six fan headers on this motherboard in order to ensure sufficient cooling.

Special hardware features are missing: No sound system, no integrated network adapter. Instead of that, Tyan concentrated their work directly on the motherboard. Six PCI slots and four DIMM sockets are maximum. You may even install an AGP graphics card without any need to close the DIMM locks, as the two components are too far apart to interfere with each other.

As expected, the system performance cannot hold up to the Intel OR840, but is still good enough. I did not encounter any stability issues during the tests.

Tyan’s BIOS gives you all common options to adjust system devices and performance.

Challenging the Challenger: MSI 694D Pro

If you thought the two formerly evaluated motherboards are equipped well you should take a close look at MSI’s new dual processor flagship. It’s not a classic flagship, because the price will likely stay below $250.

Besides excellent stability and slightly better performance than the competitor from Tyan, the 694D Pro offers lots of great features: Four DIMM sockets, five PCI slots, CNR slot, overclocking options for each of the two CPUs including settings to raise the CPU core voltage, AC97 sound system using a Winbond codec chip, two 1394 Firewire ports (an adapter cable is provided by default), 2+2 USB ports, MSI’s D-LED(tm) debug feature and an UltraATA/100 controller chip from Promise (PDC20265).

Everything you could want is present – except a network adapter. Still I am missing additional fan headers. MSI only provides the two processor fan ports and a spare one.

The benchmark results attest better system performance than the Tyan board. Last but not least the system stability was excellent as well.

MSI has a more comprehensive manual than the Tyan and includes all required cables except the USB adapter.

Test Setup

SYSmark 2000 – Windows 2000 Professional

In BAPCo’s SYSmark 2000 suite the Intel workstation board is a bit faster when running one processor. But it easily beats the two VIA-based platforms as soon as it’s equipped with two CPUs. I guess that the reason is the special bus between Intel’s 82840 and the ICH chip, which is able to transport up to 266 MByte/s. The VIA chipset uses the PCI bus to connect North and South Bridge. As the data load is much higher with two CPUs, this difference seems to be the first real advantage of Intel’s high performance interconnect.

This effect becomes more evident if a second task is present. Unfortunately, I had to use WinDVD 2.1, which does not seem to be suitable at all for such tests. I suggest that the DVD player always consumes a certain CPU time. Usually, the benchmark results for the dual CPU runs have to be much better than the result I got.

3D Studio Max Rendering Performance

This graphic shows the time which the system needed to render the scene dolphins.max. I had the file rendered at a resolution of 1024×768. It is impressive to see that this task is completed in almost half the time once two CPUs are used.

SPECviewperf 6.1.2: Advanced Visualizer

There is only little differences between the VIA boards. The OR840 is quite a bit ahead.

SPECviewperf 6.1.2: Design Review

The same picture again. This time, the MSI board is slightly faster than Tyan’s solution.

SPECviewperf 6.1.2: Data Explorer

Once more a similar result.

SPECviewperf 6.1.2: Lightscape

In Lightscape, Intel’s reference board is able to pull clearly ahead. Still only few people have to spend much more money to be that faster.

SPECviewperf 6.1.2: MedMCAD

The MSI board is a bit faster than the Tyan board once more. Again, the OR840 benefits from its dual channel Rambus architecture.

SPECviewperf 6.2.1: ProCDRS

I think we already know this kind of result.

Conclusion

From now on, multiprocessing is an option for everybody. Both the Tyan and MSI motherboards provide good performance at attractive prices. Both motherboards start at approximately $170, which is not much more than what you have to pay for 815 motherboards. Particularly the MSI board is excellently featured and gives you all important functions including sound and Firewire.

Maybe some of you wonder why I am praising the two VIA boards, even though the OR840 provides clearly better performance. Of course there are some workstation applications which justify the invenstment in an i840-platform. However, the VIA-based SMP-platforms make dual-processor systems available to anyone. Most users don’t want a dual system just to have the fastest possible solution, but to increase their own efficiency.

Prices for the Intel OR840 board start at approx. $300. In addition, 256 MB Rambus DRAM cost at least as much as 1 GB PC133 SDRAM. I can also say it in other words: $2000 are enough to buy two VIA boards, four 667 MHz Pentium III CPUs and four 128 MB DIMMs. For that money you could also get an OR840, two Pentium III 667 CPUs and 256 MB RDRAM.

This article is meant as an introduction to dual processor systems. Within the next week we are going to deal with this topic in detail. We are also working on a more accurate benchmarking suite for dual CPU configurations.