Next Generation Motherboard Platforms - Part 1: The Athlon Craze

The key behind the Fester's success as a stable motherboard is its ability to provide enough current to the Athlon CPU. This will truly be the deciding factor as to how successful an Athlon motherboard will be, whether or not it is able to deliver enough current to keep the Athlon running. In an ideal situation, this wouldn't be that difficult of a task to accomplish. However, with the number of different power supplies and configurations out there today, keeping a current clean enough and sufficient enough to meet the Athlon's demands is not that simple of a task without increasing the cost of the motherboard by too large of a factor.

Obviously, the Fester design isn't optimized for price which makes perfect sense because it wasn't intended to be sold to the public, but how feasible is it for a motherboard manufacturer to step in and reproduce the Fester design as closely as possible while keeping the manufacturing costs of the motherboard considerably lower?

MSI tried this strategy and ended up having to recall a portion of their 6167 (Athlon) motherboards due to stability issues associated with their "modified" design. One of the reasons MSI isn't present here in this roundup is because they are very dependent on Intel for support, and they are not promoting the 6167 publically until they feel comfortable enough to.  Although they were one of the first to release an Athlon motherboard, they will probably wait until the rest of the industry starts supporting the platform before going ahead with pushing their boards any further in the market. 

One thing is very clear, with Athlon motherboards, the cost of production will definitely place manufacturers in an interesting situation. Should they opt for a lower price over a less stable motherboard or a more stable board with a higher price? What you'll notice is that the manufacturers that are notorious for producing motherboards that aren't exactly of the best in quality but may carry an attractive price will stick to their roots while manufacturers that keep stability as priority #1 will continue to stay true to their philosophies as well. Do your research and know what to expect before a manufacturer drops their press release on your doorstep and you're forced to make an on-the-spot decision.

The Fester of course uses the AMD 750 chipset which is quickly being phased out by AMD since, as we mentioned before, they don't want to put themselves in the position where they have to manufacture chipsets and compete with VIA/ALi for that territory. The beauty of the AMD 750 chipset is that it's South Bridge, the AMD 756, closely resembles the VIA 686A, so in theory, phasing out the AMD 750 wouldn't be too difficult if you have pin compatible parts available from other chipset manufacturers.

The AMD 751 North Bridge and the 756 South Bridge are manufactured on a 0.35 micron process, and with the North Bridge dissipating so much heat, a shrink down to 0.25-micron could help tremendously. This move is up to the chipset manufacturers to make and can't really be placed on the shoulders of the motherboard manufacturers, but with Intel taking the first steps by producing their i810, i810E, and i820 parts on the 0.25-micron process it makes sense for AMD to follow.