Fast, cheap - hot! (AMD Athlon (Thunderbird))

Member Name: Retron

Product:	AMD Athlon (Thunderbird)
Date:	28/07/01 (582 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fast, Cheap, Excelent x86 compatibility

Disadvantages: Power hungry, Give off a lot of heat

AMD's Thunderbird CPU is ideal for people wanting outright speed. Building on the success of their Athlon, the Thunderbird CPU gives Intel's Pentium 4 a run for its money, at a lower price.

I've not had any compatibility problems with my processor since I brought it in April. It's as happy running 19 year old software under DOS as it is running SETI under Windows 2000. Some users have reported lockups and other problems with AMD systems - these are caused by factors other than the CPU, such as the motherboard chipset. Although SSE isn't supported, the older MMX and 3D-Now! instructions are supported, giving a boost to programs that can make use of them (e.g. Photoshop).

Thunderbirds can use normal PC100/133 SDRAM as well as DDR (with motherboard support), meaning upgraders will probably be able to use their existing RAM. This compares to the P4's use of RAMBUS memory - which is much more expensive.

Gamers will be happy to know that the x87 (floating point) capabilities outperform Intel chips for the first time - before the Athlon, AMD CPUs were notoriously bad at x87 instructions, meaning games (like Quake) performed badly. With a Thunderbird, this seems like ancient history, as Quake and other games happily run without a hitch.

Thunderbirds are power-hungry devices, though a 300W power supply is recommended unless you're running a bare bones system. Due to their power consumption, heat can also be a problem unlike the Pentium III, there's no thermal diode on the CPU, meaning temperatures are measured using a probe, usually pressed against the underside of the CPU. This results in an inaccurate temperature reading - something to be wary of, as a reading of 50C may in fact mean the core is approaching 70C, which is *very* hot. Furthermore, if you make the mistake of fitting the CPU cooler incorrectly, you may end up with a dead chip: Thunderbirds die in a matter of seconds if not cooled properly. <
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Although Thunderbirds will start to be replaced with Palomino (Athlon 4) CPUs in the not too distant future, they're highly recommended to system builders those who know what they're doing, or to purchasers of pre-built systems.

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