What is an "AMI MegaDual 798"?

[fwelland]

After good success with a ASUS p3C-d. I am looking at some some different MOBOs. Today it is: "AMI MegaDual 798"

However, I can't find anything about it at www.ami.com (or not looking in the right place).

So far this is all I have to go with:
-Support for two Intel SLOT1 PentiumII/III CPUs (all freq)
-Up to 4 gb of onboard ECC SDRAM system memory.
-Onboard dual channel 160M SCSI controller
-Four 32-bit, 33MHZ PCI expansion slots
-Two 64-bit,66 MHZ PCI expansion slots
-An AGP PRO 4X connector
-10/100 MB onboard LAN.

Don't really know what chipset it uses.

Does anybody know anything about this board? I am mildly interested in replacing the p3C-D since I really need 2gb (or more) ram (p3c-d only really supports 1gb).

Link/URLS to techrefs would be great.

 

[Crashman]

To my knowledge AMI no longer makes hardware and sold everything related to another company a couple years ago. You'll have to do a google search or something.

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[fwelland]

Ok,
I did find this: http://www.flippomatic.com/megadual motherboard.htm

But I would prefer a TechRef from the manufacturer. What is strange, is although, AMI may not make sell MOBOs anymore, their site has most of the info about all of their 'legacy' MOBOs - just not this one.

Here is another question related to this thread:

I want a MOBO with (or as close as possible):

-Dual slots 1's that can up up to 1ghz piii (133mhz FSB, right?) I have two piii 800's now that work well.

-2gb+ ram. I would like cheaper ram (sdram??) - this PC800 RDRAM stuff is pricey (unless there is a good reason for me to consider/keep RDRAM - I only have 640mb investment, at this point).

-AGA 4x preferred

-atx form factor - or the goofy atx with the xtra rectangle on it at one end.

Any of the rest of the 'normal onboard' stuff (lan, scsi, usb, sound) can be whatever - since I have good PCI cards for this stuff if needed.

so ....any suggestiongs

 

[Crashman]

The fastest PIII's for servers are 1400MHz, but those are Socket 370.

The 1000's were available as either E or EB. B standing for 133MHz, the 100MHz E versions are very rare and usually quite expensive. But the best SDRAM chipsets for the PIII won't run 133MHz bus, hence the high value of the rare 1000E.

You should probably look around for another i820 RDRAM board, or better yet, one of those rare i840 dual Slot 1 boards. They support 133MHz FSB and should work with the PIII-S 1400 and two Tualatin adapter cards.

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[fwelland]

Ok so,

i820 and i840 (was there i810 too?) == RDRAM and 133FSB == cheapo processors but more expensive RDRAM

So what are the chipsets for 100fsb (more out of curiosity than desire at this point)? The 440?x series chipsets?

And about my orginal question, the AMI MegaDual 798 - On (maybe not trustworthy) page I read said this about the chipset:

Intel 840 Chipset
- MCH (Memory Controller Hub) (544-Pin BGA)
- ICH (I/O Controller Hub) (241 Pin BGA)
- Two MRH-S (Memory Repeater Hub for SDRAM) (241
Pin Mini BGA)
- P64H, PCI 64-Bit Hub (241-Pin BGA)
-FWH (Firmware Hub) (32-Lead PLCC / 40-Pin TSOP)

Is this that 'evil' combination of PC100 plus i840 that you spoke of in an earlier thread (about p3c-d)? Or is that actually, a 'safe' combination of 133fsb capable chipset that supports cheaper memory?

Hmm what does the '100' in PC100 memory stand for (100fsb)? Is there PC133 memory? My guess is yes?

thx

 

[fwelland]

Tyan S1867 Thunder 2500?

Sounds like it fits the bill:
133mhz slot1's
8 - 168 Dim slots pc100/pc133 (answers that question)
AGP 2x/pro slot

Anything good/bad about: "ServerWorks ServerSet III HE 4-chip solution" that I should be aware before I hunt for one of these things?

Hmm what's a 1gb of pc133 cost anyways? looks like about 210ish...

 

[Crashman]

Serverworks chipsets to the best of my knowledge are a bit slower at things like AGP performance, they seem to be great for servers though. I still think the i840 would be your best performer.

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[Crashman]

OK, the history of the 8xx series PIII chipsets:

i810 was the low end, meant to compete against integrated chipset from SiS and VIA (ew).

i820 was meant to replace the BX chipset, but problems with RDRAM acceptance in the market lead Intel to release a Memory Translator Hub for use with SDRAM, which was problematic and hurt Intel's reputation. The RDRAM boards were fine, but were purposely handicapped in performance to keep them from competing with the i840.

The i840 was released to replace the GX chipset, a low end server/high end workstation chipset.

The i815 was meant to replace the ZX chipset, which was a lower end version of the BX. It was limited to 512MB SDRAM, and was only released because of the MTH problem with SDRAM i820 boards.

So for Intel chipsets the i840 is your best bet. Many of these boards were Slot-2, but I'm sure I've seen Slot-1 versions as well.

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[fwelland]

Ah,

OK i840 == good. The non-i840 Slot-1's that do 168 sdram seem to be to $$$ for my modest budget.

Intel OR840 looks like a good fit for me - if I can find one for on the cheap. Thanks for your advice. Just one more thing: slot-2?

 

[Crashman]

Slot-2 was for Xeons, adapters are available but I wouldn't recommend it. Which is why you look for Slot-1 boards.

The best chipset besides the i840 would be the GX, but that chipset only supports 100MHz FSB. The GX is the server version of the BX (it supports higher memory density). Normally I'd recommend the BX but it needs low desity RAM (limiting you to 1GB on 4 slots) and also has the 100MHz limit.

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