Again like it's predecessor, the Thunder is a monster of a motherboard. Covering just over one hundred-fifty square inches of area the Thunder won't fit in just any ole case you may currently own.

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Even with the massive size of the Thunder K7X, there are a couple of things to think about before ordering parts to build your server/workstation. For example Registered memory by nature is taller than PC2100 memory. With the memory slots angled for possible low profile server installation, you have a limited amount of space to mount the heatsink.

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The use of any heatsink that utilizes a large clasp will have to be carefully checked for fit and mounting clearance. Running larger aftermarket heatsinks as most of us do can pose a problem. As you can see below, our first selection of heatsinks left us a bit uneasy and in search for a better cooling option.

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On the flip side, the capacitor row running between both sockets is also well within reach of many of the heatsinks on the market today.

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Kind of reminds me of the old saying "Water, Water everywhere but not a drop to drink". With the size of the Thunder platforms I never expected to have a spacing issue with mounting heatsinks. Not to worry though as a pair of Volcano II heat sinks fit like a glove with a wee bit of room to spare.

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With the type of cases the Thunder K7X platforms will reside in, cooling shouldn't be a problem. Most server cases have fans oh plenty which helps maintain a comfortable ambient case temperature. Speaking of fans oh plenty the Thunder K7X has eight case fan headers located in several positions across the platform plus two-heatsink fan headers for a total of ten.

Man there is a lot of power usage involved here. The Thunder K7X feeds off an ATXGES dual AMD certified power supply. DO NOT under any circumstances try to run this platform with a ATX 2.X, ATX12V or EPS12V power supply as these are NOT COMPATIBLE and will cause damage to your new Thunder K7X.

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Because of the amount of power required to feed the Thunder K7X an additional eight-pin power connector is required. This connector is located in the upper right hand corner of the platform just behind the USB and Keyboard/Mouse ports. Tyan has placed the 24-pin main power connector basically in the center of the platform. With careful routing the main power cable can be kept out of the way of the heatsinks. Something that did worry me was how close the 24-pin main power connector was to the AGP slot.

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End users utilizing a Thunder K7X platform as a workstation will be running an AGP graphics card instead of the onboard video for obvious performance reasons. My only concern was that the connector and associated wiring would interfere with the video card clearance.

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Here you can see the space between the AGP slot w/GeForce 3 and the main power connector.

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Yep fits like a champ with no pesky motherboard components to get in the way.

So lets take a look at layout of the available slots on the Thunder K7X.

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The upper brown slot is obviously an AGP PRO slot. Just below the AGP slot are two 64 bit/66mhz PCI 2.2 slots. If you look closely you can see the two slots are different. The upper slot is a 64bit/66mhz 5.0/3.3 volt PCI slot while the lower is an Adaptec Zero-Channel Raid ready 64bit/66mhz 5.0-volt PCI slot and has been colored green for easy recognition. Just below these slots are three 32bit/33mhz PCI 2.2 slots.

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Most servers run in a dedicated capacity and require little or no video capability. The integrated ATI Rage XL graphics controller handles all the graphic need of these types of servers.

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While taking direct aim at the server/high-end workstation market, Tyan's incorporation of integrated video, dual 3 Com LAN ports requires a unique case backplate, which is included.

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You may have noticed that you lose use of a serial port due to the placement of the integrated video port. Tyan has included an additional Serial port that mounts in a free case slot for easy access if needed.

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As we mentioned, our review sample doesn't include the integrated Adaptec AIC-7899W Dual-channel Ultra 160 SCSI controller. Below you can see where this sweetness will be found on the S2468UGN version of the Thunder K7X platform.

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At this point we have looked at all the available options on our Thunder K7X motherboard. The last item we need to take a look at is the various jumpers located on the platform. The most important jumpers are J49-J52 as these jumpers set the front-side bus speed of the Thunder K7X. Unlike most motherboards the Thunder K7X come with these jumpers set to 133mhz as default.

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Jumpers J52-J53 are located to the right of the main power connector.

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Jumpers J48-J49 are located near the left edge between the two 64bit/66mhz PCI slots. Jumper J99 is also located in this position and sets the voltages supplied to the upper 64bit/66mhz PCI slot.

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Located just below the bottom PCI slot is jumper J85. Users that are going to run an AGP graphics card can use this jumper to disable the integrated video. By default this jumper comeswithout a jumper installed. Other jumpers that comewithout a jumper include J86 and J88. These jumpers allow you to disable each of the onboard LAN ports. J92 sets the primary PCI bus speed. By default J92 comesfor the 66mhz setting. By closing this jumper you can force the primary PCI bus to run at 33mhz.

Last but not least if for any reason you need to reset your Bios, jumper J21 located adjacent to the system battery is the one you will need to use.

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That pretty much covers the tour of the Thunder K7X platform. So with that out of the way we headed into the Bios for a quick and I mean quick look around. As expected the adjustable Bios options are extremely limited as this platform is shooting for the Server/High-end Workstation market and stability is of the utmost of importance. Memory timings and adjustable bus speeds are for the weekend warriors and gamers that push their personal systems to the edge of existence. I know of no IS/IT heads that would bring a company server online in an overclocked state. Instead they would just buy bigger processors and better memory to make it scream.

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Now that our test sample is ready to roll we installed Windows 2000 Professional, all necessary drivers and all available patches for OS. Sitting at the desktop purring like a kitten it was time to test the system for stability. SETI is a processor intensive program that will peg your CPU usage. With two instances of SETI running one on each processor we start looping the 3D Mark 2001se demo. After seven hours of continued looping and ripping SETI the system was still going strong. With our stability tested it's time to run a few benchmarks to see how the Thunder K7X compares with its siblings. Below is a complete list of Thunder K7X specifications.