OK so I've completed my first Dual Athlon and I'm getting some varied results. here's the specs:

MSI K7D Master AMD Dual Athlon MP Motherboard ATX
Dual 2400+
Antec 350W
various NVIDIA video cards
Kingston 266/512 64X64 DDR

I first tried a Wildcat 5110 but got no video, 3DLabs tells me this mobo has not been tested and cleared by them, so heads-up don't go with this mobo/video combo.

I went to NVIDIA and got video, I set the system jumper to 133MHz. I got a RAM error, change sticks (I have several of the same kind) but get the same result. After several attempts the machine boots and I install WinXP.

Now it is hit and miss sometimes I get the RAM error and the machine just sits there, sometimes it boots but the mouse doesn't work other times it seems to boot fine but the programs (3D Studio Max / Brazil) will just quit for no apparent reason. I set the BIOS to to check the RAM on start-up, it finds no errors.

I really appreciate hearing any ides or from anyone who has attempted this sort of thing before.

Liquidman

Set the fsb jumper to 100 boot into BIOS and set the memory timings to 16,16,5,2,2,2,3 and then save changes reboot and shut down. switch the jumper back to 133 and see if that helps. The K7D can be a bit finicky when it comes to RAM. Another possibility is the MSI K7D is power hungry. General consensus is not to use a power supply less that 430watts. Hope this helps.

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Well I got a call back from MSI customer service, they said try going to 'Advanced chipset' and change the 'AGP Fastload' from whatever it is to the opposite state (enable vs disable) I think the default is enable. I tried that, but it was the same if not worse. I reset the BIOS, set the fsb to 100MHz flipped the 'AGP Fastload' and that, of all things worked. Giving credit to the cs department - it did not work without changeing the Fastload state.
I got the 3DS Max/server running and here are some statistics:

Rendered with Brazil, tons pf polygons, reflection and refraction.

Athlon 2500XP (non-Barton) 1gig unbuffered MSI KM4M:

3 hours 15 minutes per frame.

Intel P4 2.4 533MHz fsb 1 gig unbuffered MSI 845GE (northwood)

2 hours 54 minutes minutes per frame.

K7D Master 100Mhz fsb (non-Barton) 1gig unbuffered value ram.

1 hour 15 minutes per frame.

I will try the ecc registered RAM next week. If the results are this good with the jumper set to 100MHz I really looking forward to checking out the 133MHz...


Liquidman

seriously try the mem timing change. Kingston and corsair seem to give the K7D problems when set to auto.

QUOTE From ocforums.com SMP topic

The absolute best, I believe, is this:

16
16
5
2
2
2
2

Most memories can't run this, or if they can, they can only run it at 133 FSB. If your memory can't handle that, then try this:

16
16
6
2
2
2
2

If your memory can't handle that, then try this:

16
16
6
2
2
2
3


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OK I tried all the retimings and got nothing. I broke down and tried ecc RAM and Viola, problem solved.

Liquidman