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Conclusion

It appears as if there is finally an affordable AMD MP platform available. Priced around US$ 200, give or take a few, the Tyan S2460 Tiger offers about everything one could possibly wish for at a budget price. For another US$200 or less each, one can acquire an Athlon MP or just go the budget way and use the standard Thunderbird which then lacks the SSE instruction set or, even better, get two Morgan - core based Durons and run full steam ahead on a system that costs about $400 without the add-ons (disclaimer, I have not yet tried the Morgan-based Duron but there is no valid reason why it shouldn't work except that the snoop bus is not validated on these CPUs and there is no guarantee that it is functional). This is a price point that is hard to beat for any system offering the performance of the S2460 Tiger.

Famous last shot of the Tiger MP featuring the two NengTYI RC02 coolers and 2 GB Mushkin registered ECC DDR in form of four DIMMs (picture taken without cooling fan).

Add a high-end graphics card like the GeForce3 or the upcoming workstation class revisions of the ATi R200 series and there should be hardly anything that cannot be done with this caliber of setup. The 64 bit PCI slots offer to use high-end PCI cards for those that are into professional applications, so there is no limitation there either. The only drawback is that, in case someone needs an AGP-Pro card, the standard AGP interface will not support it.

Power and Configuration Considerations

For an upgrade solution using a standard existing case, there are the above mentioned space restraints that can be avoided by using standard PC2100 DDR with its lower profile PCB. Effectively, this limits the total system memory to 512 MB because the highest density using 16Mx8 chips is 256 MB (2 banks x 8 chips). Still, for the non-professional user, this could be a viable alternative, keep in mind, though, that officially, unbuffered non-ECC DDR is not validated and this could lead to issues with Tyan Tech Support if the system shows problems.

I mentioned earlier that the system, after solving the inexplicable stability glitch was put back onto a standard Antec 300 W power supply and has been running stable ever since. For giggles, I used a Sparkle PSU with the same results. Keep in mind here that the system was and is running in a bare bones configuration and with any higher load, the situation may change dramatically. In other words, anything below 400W with at least 40A on the 5V line is Enter at your own risk. I got away with it, but you may not.

The S2460 Tiger is certainly not a Beginner's board, there are too many little things to look out for when installing drivers, changing hardware etc but for anyone who is willing and able to roll up the sleeves and dig right into SMP, the Tyan Tiger - Athlon MP is a fascinating setup, and I mean it.

The sense and nonsense of MP systems per se is of course a completely different issue. There are certain applications that require or support SMP, Caligari is one of these applications. 3DStudio Max and other high end Discreet software so far reserved to the illustrious crowd able to afford $10 preconfigured professional workstations are just a few examples where it might really pay to take the plunge and jump right into an MP setup. And then, there are all those server applications and this is where the MP solutions can really make a difference that goes beyond the esoteric value of Quake3 Arena benchmarks.

A Few Personal Words About the Tiger

I have rarely encountered any system that initially ticked me off as much as this board but I also have rarely been as excited as with the Tyan Tiger and its level of performance and stability at an incredible price point. All in all, it may take a few days to get acquainted but it is worth it.

Special thanks to Cota and Richard (NengTYI), Ramberto and Joe (Tyan), Robert (Corsair) and the entire Mushkin Crew.

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