Be careful when considering Athlon DDR

[slvr_phoenix]

Recently a post started by tfbww titled, "Athlon C, DDR, Alienware and My Hatred of Mankind", talked about how Alienware has found DDR Athlon systems to be faulty. Here is an exact quote from that thread:

"It turns out that they had significant problems w/ the DDR chipsets' stability. They originally were marketing the ALI Magik but reportedly tested all the current DDR mobos. Anyhow, THEY HAVE DISCONTINUED THE LINE! As well as ANY 266FSB Athlons (they do have 200's)."

Interested in this, I emailed Alienware's sales department (since I couldn't find an email for their engineering department) to see if they would further clarify any of this, or even just confirm it. Following is the email correspondence:

----------EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE WITH ALIENWARE----------
From: Julio_Vicente [SMTP:Julio_Vicente@alienware.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2001 1:35 PM
To: Me
Subject: RE: question

the asus via chipset and tyan
and yes the athlon did fail

Julio Vicente
Sale representative
Julio_Vicente@Alienware.com
www.alienware.com
Phone# 800-494-3382 Ext. 152
Fax# 305-259-9874
local # 305-259-4462 Ext. 152


-----Original Message-----
From: Me [mailto:slvr_phoenix@hotmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2001 8:40 AM
To: chrish
Subject: RE: question


Thank you for your prompt response.

Could you please tell me which motherboards have failed to meet your
standards, and how they failed to do so?
And did the Athlon-C processors fail to meet your standards? And if so, how
so?

This information would be greatly appreciated so that I can help other
people avoid purchasing any faulty hardware, and avoid doing so myself.

Thank you in advance.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: chrish [SMTP:ChrisH@alienware.com]
> Sent: Friday, March 02, 2001 3:56 PM
> To: Me
> Subject: RE: question
>
> We had Engineering samples that worked great but as we were building
> systems
> we found out that they were not meeting our standards as far as the
> motherboards and the processor. We have had to much trouble with testing
> DDR systems in production that we made the final decision to wait for a
> New
> Board to come out for DDR.
>
>
> Thank you for your interest.
> Sales@alienware.com
> 800-494-3382 Toll Free
> 305-259-4262 International
> 305-259-9874 Fax
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Me [mailto:slvr_phoenix@hotmail.com]
> Sent: Friday, March 02, 2001 3:55 PM
> To: Sales
> Subject: question
>
>
> I just recently heard from a friend that you are no longer shipping 266Mhz
> FSB Athlon-C systems. I was shocked as I was just preparing to order one
> myself. Is this true? And if so could you please explain why?

--------END EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE WITH ALIENWARE--------



So, as you can see, according to Alienware, all current production model motherboards using a DDR SDRAM chipset for an Athlon processor are faulty. Also, the production model Athlon-C processor itself is faulty.

I'm willing to trust an OEM on this, since it's their whole business to get this kind of thing right. Especially Alienware because they're willing to overclock systems if you ask them too, so they really know what hardware is capable of.

So, if you're considering the purchase of an Athlon using DDR SDRAM or an Athlon-C, I'd suggest waiting for the technology to mature. Otherwise you could end up with a faulty product.

The engineering samples that everyone such as THG have tested all seem to work fine. But the production models don't.

Hopefully in the near future we will see these technologies working flawlessly. However, at present, they appear to be problamatic.

Just another public service announcement from your friendly neighborhood PC enthusiast.

- Sanity is purely based on point-of-view.

 

[Guest]

Steve of Stable Technologies I believe is sending out MSI K7 Master's with the Athlon "C" processors. They test burn everything for 72 Hours....and their company name is based on their stable products. If he sends them out, you know they then are Stable. It may be though that the MSI K7 Master is the only mobo able to handle DDR Ram and Athlon "C" processor.

=Quantum
AO Admin
The Dr.Twister Network
http://ao.drtwister.com

 

[AmdMELTDOWN]

IMO a bigger Co has more of a headache when dealing with Amd RMA#'s on newly released products, but that's just my opinion they may turn around and offer that product again.

"Amd cpu...Gone in 2 secs flat, it truly is a fast chip!"