AT-Style K7 Motherboards? 12
yhetti asks: "I'm pretty old school and I love my K7. But there seems to be some sentiment around the cubicles and whatnot that there should be AT form factor K7 boards. The arguements of AT vs ATX are pointless and, like so much other stuff, it comes down to preference and use. My main qualm with ATX is that as nice as the BIOS softpower and power settings might be, they don't always work. You all know what I mean. AT is at least garenteed to start back up on power fail. In a perfect world everything is on an UPS. But then...HAH. So are there any plans for an AT style Athlon board coming down the pipe? Some sort of arch. problem that won't let it happen? Maybe power requirments? Are any of the major companies (read as: "Asus, Tyan, and FIC") thinking about this? I'd buy a dozen... " I too must state my desire to see something like this.
Well... (Score:2)
There's not necessarily a lot of physical reasing that you can't have an AT style board, but manufacurers may consider it a little to much of a niche product, especially since, given the cost of the other parts involved, the case ends up being fairly negligable... unless you want to replace a *nice* case (I've got 6 5" bays, 2 3" bays, and 5 internal mounts on my AT, and I can't give it up - my big ATX case has 5 5", 1 3", and 7 internal mounts - I'm a sucker for expandibility... and I believe in SCSI)[/offtopic]
So, technically feasible, but financially questionable, given:
1) SlotA - A lot of AT cases may not have the juice/cooling and a new supply can cost as much as a case
2) SlotA - Athlons still don't make up the majority of the marketplace (some Intel company, I think)
3) $$$ Creating a line of boards for a small user base would price the boards higher, or eliminate all profit. Either way, not good buisness sense.
Sorry, but that's just my e^(-j*Pi) cents...
Stupid soft-power thing! (Score:1)
Self spelling nazi (Score:1)
[/beating head]
Wait a while... (Score:2)
Are there even any Socket 370 or Slot 1 (or 2) AT-style boards?
- A.P.
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"One World, one Web, one Program" - Microsoft promotional ad
Air flow (Score:1)
Re:Air flow (Score:1)
Re:Well... (Score:2)
I found a nifty solution for my K6-III-450, which many people have reported as giving problems under Linux when not sufficiently cooled. You can get little disk drive cooling fans, which are a front-panel drive mount with a couple of tiny fans that suck in the front of the box and over a disk drive mounted there. I just stuck one in the front of my box without a drive in it, and put it in the opening that would make it blow the most air over the heatsink.
Cost me about $12US, IIRC.
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Re:Wait a while... (Score:1)
Newer ATX motherboards do (Score:2)
So my advice would be that go for an ATX mobo and an ATX case. The soft-power off is really nice, and as you've found out, there aren't really many newer AT motherboards out there.
I've been going for ATX all the way since 1996 (back when AT was still the standard, and an ATX system cost more) and I must say that I haven't regret it. It made switching motherboards since then much easier, since ATX is "the standard" now.
And ATX is also a spec for some of the board layout on the mobo. All ATX mobos have the CPU slot on the top half, so there is no risk of having a stupid mobo where the CPU sits in the way for full-length PCI cards. Such simple things, that makes life easier... =)
Of course, before you buy the mobo, make sure that it has this "resume state on power failure" option. Ask the dealer or the manufacturer.
Re:Wait a while... (Score:1)
Re:Well... (Score:1)
My advice: buy a good ATX case and don't sweat it - the power will go on.
This pointless rant brought to you by caffeine & codeine! (It's not fun to be sick during finals)
Asus P2B-D2 (Score:1)
Info on this board is on this page [asus.com.tw]