AMD Athlon User manual

A Guide to Building a PC with
an AMD Athlon Processor
Publication # 22914 Rev: B
Issue Date: September 1999
TM

Trademarks
AMD, the AMD logo, AMD Athlon, and combinations thereof and AMD-756 and 3DNow! are trademarks and
AMD-K6 is a registered trademark of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Microsoft, Windows, and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
Pentium and MMX are trademarks of the Intel Corporation.
3DMark is a trademark of Futuremark Ltd./Oy.
Winstone is a registered trademark of Ziff-Davis, Inc.
Other product names used in this publication are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their
respective companies.
Winstone scores are Business Winstone overall scores.
Benchmark tests were performed without independent verification by SPEC, Futuremark, or Ziff-Davis. These
benchmark providers make no representations or warranties as to the results of the tests.
© 1999 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. All rights reserved.
The contents of this document are provided in connection with Advanced Micro
Devices, Inc. (“AMD”) products. AMD makes no representations or warranties with
respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this publication and
reserves the right to make changes to specifications and product descriptions at any
time without notice. No license, whether express, implied, arising by estoppel or oth-
erwise, to any intellectual property rights is granted by this publication. Except as
set forth in AMD’s Standard Terms and Conditions of Sale, AMD assumes no liability
whatsoever, and disclaims any express or implied warranty, relating to its products
including, but not limited to, the implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a
particular purpose, or infringement of any intellectual property right.
AMD’s products are not designed, intended, authorized or warranted for use as com-
ponents in systems intended for surgical implant into the body, or in other applica-
tions intended to support or sustain life, or in any other application in which the
failure of AMD’s product could create a situation where personal injury, death, or
severe property or environmental damage may occur. AMD reserves the right to dis-
continue or make changes to its products at any time without notice.

Table of Contents iii
22914B/0—September 1999 A Guide to Building a PC with an AMD Athlon™ Processor
Contents
A Guide to Building a PC with an AMD Athlon™ Processor . . . . . . . 1
Why Build a PC with an AMD Athlon Processor? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Benchmarks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Performance Gains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Features and Benefits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
The AMD Processor In A Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Why Buy Processor in a Box?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Before You Start Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Read the FAQ and Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
Take Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
Serial Numbers and Receipts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
Basic Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
Surge Protectors and Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS). . . . . 11
Building the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Compatible Components List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Installation Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

iv Table of Contents
A Guide to Buildinga PC with an AMD Athlon™Processor 22914B/0—September 1999

List of Tables v
22914B/0—September 1999 A Guide to Building a PC with an AMD Athlon™Processor
List of Tables
Table 1. AMD Athlon™Processor Features and Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Table 2. AMD Athlon™Processor PC-100 Memory Requirements
(PC-100 Rev 1.0 minimum) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67
Table 3. AMD Athlon™Processor Motherboard Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . .72
Table 4. Recommended Power Supply List (Revised 08-06-99). . . . . . .78
Table 5. Recommended Enclosure (Case) List (Revised 08-06-99) . . . . 79
Table 6. Microstar Motherboard Recommended Memory List
(Revised 08-06-99) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Table 7. AMD Athlon™Processor Component Compatibility List
(Revised 08-15-99) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

vi List of Tables
A Guide to Buildinga PC with an AMD Athlon™Processor 22914B/0—September 1999
Preliminary Information

1
22914B/0—September 1999 A Guide to Building a PC with an AMD Athlon™ Processor
A Guide to Building a PC with an
AMD Athlon™ Processor
READTHISGUIDEFULLYBEFORESTARTINGTOBUILD
YOUR AMD Athlon™PROCESSOR-BASED SYSTEM.
It is crucial that you use the download and configuration information available at the
AMD web site. The latest configuration information and drivers are available at:
www1.amd.com/athlon/config
On page 89 there is a checklist for assembling AMD Athlon processor-based systems.
You can use this checklist to verify the steps of the assembly process as you proceed.

2
A Guide to Building a PC with an AMD Athlon™Processor 22914B/0—September 1999
Why Build a PC with
an AMD Athlon™Processor?
The AMD Athlon processor sets a new performance standard in personal computing.
n True seventh-generation features include a 200-MHz system bus—twice the peak
bandwidth of the current industry standard 100-MHz bus.
n High-performance cache architecture featuring an integrated 128-Kbyte level-one
(L1) cache—four times the L1 cache of a Pentium®III—and a programmable, high-
speed backside L2 cache interface scalable to support up to eight Mbytes. Current
processor modules implement a 512-Kbyte L2 cache.
n AMD Athlon processor available at clock speeds of 650 MHz, 600 MHz, 550 MHz,
and 500 MHz.
n The AMD Athlon processor marks the introduction of the PC industry's fastest
floating-point engine, featuring three out-of-order, superscalar floating-point units.
n If you need fast rendering of high-resolution graphics and video, the AMD Athlon
processor provides the solution.
n 3DNow!™technology has been enhanced for the AMD Athlon processor with 24
new instructions added to the 21instructions already implemented in the currently
available AMD-K6®family of processors.
n If you are looking for long-term investment protection, the AMDAthlon processor
delivers next-generation features designed to allow your investment to last for
years to come. High clock speeds and seventh-generation architecture are designed
to allow you to be prepared for emerging technologies or future innovations in PC
software.
n Whether you are a business user, power user, or PC hobbyist, AMD has the solution
that is right for you.
n With over 120-million PC processors sold worldwide, AMD delivers a broad range
of highly reliable products to power mission-critical applications.
Benchmarks
The following benchmarks (Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3, and Figure 4) show the
outstanding performance of the AMD Athlon processor. You can build the world’s
fastest PC system with the AMD Athlon processor.

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22914B/0—September 1999 A Guide to Building a PC with an AMD Athlon™Processor
3DMark
3DMark™99 MAX from Futuremark was designed specifically to measure 3D
performance and includes optimizations for AMD's 3DNow! technology, Intel's SSE
technology, and standard floating point processing for CPUs without 3DNow! or SSE
technologies. CPU 3DMark is a subset of 3DMark 99 MAX that indicates how quickly
your processor can handle large amounts of 3D geometry and lighting operations.
Figure 1. 3D Mark Benchmark Results
Benchmark System Configuration. Diamond 770 using nVidia TNT2 Ultra 150MHz core, 183MHz memory
clock 32MB, Western Digital Expert 41800, single PC100 128MB DIMM, SoundBlaster Live (Value)
Audio, Linksys HPN100 Home Ethernet card, Toshiba 6X DVD SD-M1212, Dual Boot Windows®98 &
WindowsNT®4.0usingNortonSystemCommander.WindowsNT4.0isinstalledwithSP4,Windows98
with DX 6.1A build 2150, and nVidia TNT2 Ultra Driver Rev 1.81 under Windows 98 and Windows NT.
AMD Athlon™processor-based system: Reference Motherboard Rev. B*, BIOS Rev AFTB00-2, Bus
Mastering EIDE Driver v1.03, AGP miniport v4.41.
Pentium®III processor-based system: ASUS P2B Rev 1.02, BIOS Rev 1008 beta 4, EIDE-BM Driver
5/11/98, AGP miniport 5/11/98.
* This Futuremark benchmark employs an AMD Athlon processor-specific DLL that has been devel-
oped independently by AMD. This benchmark is not meant to replace or be a new version of
3DMark, it is simply intended to demonstrate the superior performance capabilities of the
AMD Athlon processor architecture.
** This motherboard is not commercially available at this time.
0 2000 4000 6000 8000
Pentium® III 600
AMD Athlon 600
AMD Athlon™ 650
Futuremark 3DMark™ 99 MAX
- 3DMarks -
Slower Faster
The AMD Athlon™650 processor provides the projected
performance of a Pentium®III running at 770MHz.

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A Guide to Building a PC with an AMD Athlon™Processor 22914B/0—September 1999
Business Winstone 99 Windows 98
Ziff-Davis Business Winstone®99 is an application-based benchmark that measures
system performance when running popular Windows-based 32-bit business
applications. Winstone 99 uses real business suite applications with scripts that mimic
the usage patterns of typical computer users, and allows end-users and organizations
to evaluate PCs for mainstream use.
Figure 2. Business Winstone 99 (Windows® 98) Benchmark Results
Benchmark System Configuration. Diamond 770 using nVidia TNT2 Ultra 150MHz core, 183MHz memory
clock 32MB, Western Digital Expert 41800, single PC100 128MB DIMM, SoundBlaster Live (Value)
Audio, Linksys HPN100 Home Ethernet card, Toshiba 6X DVD SD-M1212, Dual Boot Windows®98
& Windows NT®4.0 using Norton System Commander. Windows NT 4.0 is installed with SP4, Win-
dows 98 with DX 6.1A build 2150, and nVidia TNT2 Ultra Driver Rev 1.81 under Windows 98 and
Windows NT.
AMD Athlon™processor-based system: Reference Motherboard Rev. B*, BIOS Rev AFTB00-2, Bus
Mastering EIDE Driver v1.03, AGP miniport v4.41.
Pentium®III processor-based system: ASUS P2B Rev 1.02, BIOS Rev 1008 beta 4, EIDE-BM Driver
5/11/98, AGP miniport 5/11/98.
*This motherboard is not commercially available at this time.
27 27 28 28 29
Pentium®III 600
AMD Athlon 600
AMD Athlon™650
Business Winstone®99 (Windows®98)
Slower Faster
The AMD Athlon™650 processor provides the projected
performance of a Pentium®III running at 680MHz.