Abit KG7 RAID motherboard- $47. plus s&h - It's baaack at the Geeks!

[Zepper]

Yup, new in box Abit KG7 RAID motherboard for $47. + S&H is back in stock at: CompGeeks . Some other sites like Directron have it at somewhat higher $$$s - Pricewatch
. Abit must have dumped a $__+ load!!! :Q
.bh.

 

[Wei2Cool]

Is this a better MB than the ECS K7S5A for XP 1600+?

 

[Chang10is]

Holy cow!!! Man, I really really want to jump on this deal, but I don't really need to upgrade system right now. Is Abit still making these, or are they being discontinued?

Wei2Cool, I think this should be a bit better than the ECS mobo. ECS's reliability isn't the greatest from what I've heard.

 

[Zepper]

If you want to OC your 1600+, yes. There's little to no OC'ing the ECS mobo using an official BIOS. There are 3rd party BIOSes out there that allow OC'ing but at that point you're on your own. As is well known, Abits are for OC'ing fools...
. Some of the KG7s come with the an older BIOS so you have to flash the BIOS to get proper support for the XP series Athlons - but from what I read, it will boot with the XPs just not up to spec. You can then flash w/ latest BIOS update. Apparently some of the vendors have preflashed for you. Personally, I was thinking of a SiS solution (AOpen AK75) but no longer. Not to mention you get RAID and change in your pocket.
.bh.

 

[Karsten]

Arghhh... make the deals stop!

That is one great MB. I'd take an Abit any day before an ECS!

 

[GoingUp]

This is a great board. I have the non raid version that I paid $120 for a year ago. I was able to OC my Tbird 1.4 to 1.65 @ 155fsb with 4 sticks of crucial pc2100 in as well as 3 pci cards. You wont be sorry if you get it...Bios is very easy to use and there are a lot of great OCing guides on the net for the board that walk you through step by step. It also does have the 4 holes around the processor so you can mount an alpha 8045 like I did

The only possible downside to the board is that its very wide so I had to buy a new case to be able to fit it in.

 

[WT]

Just got this board last week with a 1600+

This link provides EVERYTHING you ever wanted to know about the board.

Paul's Unofficial KG7 FAQ

BTW, I got mine 2 weeks ago @ $54. By the next week, it was down to $47. Since it's now $44 .. its an even better deal !

 

[Orbius]

I can say from experience that the KG7 is a lot more stable than any VIA board I have used. Also with DDR2100 performance is right there with the 266a.

BTW there are none for sale at JustDeals.com if there ever were any, when you add one to your cart it shows they have no quantity available.

 

[Wei2Cool]

Justdeals OOS and I ordered one from Compgeeks for $53 shipped. Thanks.

 

[Kaieye]

Great motherboards...

I just received four of these kg7 lite's for almost $41 bucks shipped each including shipping and tax here in Calif. plus coupon.

A slight note: I accidentally removed the cpu fan plug from the mb and was wondering why my box wouldn't boot. Saved a cpu...

 

[WT]

I accidentally removed the cpu fan plug from the mb and was wondering why my box wouldn't boot. Saved a cpu...

Oy Vey !! Thats something you don't wanna accidentally do often ! Brings up another plus about this board with its hardware monitoring - including fan speed, voltage and system environment temperature. If it doesn't receive a signal from the cpu fan it doesn't boot !

 

[m1ke101]

how well would i be able to overclock a 1600+ with one of these?

 

[KennyH]

m1ke101, I am not sure, trying to find that out now.

 

[Zepper]

Bump
for new eyes

 

[wshtb]

Originally posted by: Orbius
I can say from experience that the KG7 is a lot more stable than any VIA board I have used. Also with DDR2100 performance is right there with the 266a.

BTW there are none for sale at JustDeals.com if there ever were any, when you add one to your cart it shows they have no quantity available.

I have got mine RMA'ed twice, and it is still missing functionality and very unstable.... Should I try my luck one more time?

 

[AnyMal]

I need to stop coming here, it's costing me a pretty penny Anyhow, I've been very pleased with KT7 RAID I bought from Comgeeks back in April, guess I am going to break down and buy KG7 board since XP prices have fallen so much. One of these days my wife WILL kill me.

 

[ReallyFlatBroke]

Anyone know what the highest CPU (Athlon XP) this board will take with the latest Bios update? I would like to be able to drop in a 2.2 Ghz Athlon XP. Currently own the Abit KT7-Raid version and have loved it. Really stable all around board. I'm hoping the KG7 Raid will give me nothing less in performance and features when compared to its predecessor. Thanks in advance for all replies)

 

[Chang10is]

Originally posted by: AnyMal
I need to stop coming here, it's costing me a pretty penny Anyhow, I've been very pleased with KT7 RAID I bought from Comgeeks back in April, guess I am going to break down and buy KG7 board since XP prices have fallen so much. One of these days my wife WILL kill me.

Just make sure that the bios has been updated before you try to put an Athlon XP in there. Some retailers will flash the bios for you, but others will not. Compgeeks says that this mobo:
- Supports Socket A Athlon 700Mhz - 1.33GHz CPUs (as shipped)
- Will Support Socket A Athlon up to 2.1GHz with BIOS Update
- Will Support Athlon XP CPUs with BIOS Update

In order to flash the bios, you need a CPU that is supported by the bios version already installed on the mobo. I'm actually glad that this is necessary, since I don't want to buy an older CPU just to flash the bios. This is the only thing keeping me from jumping on this deal!

 

[Peekaboo]

Originally posted by: Wei2Cool
Justdeals OOS and I ordered one from Compgeeks for $53 shipped. Thanks.

Hmmm...but they have them listed in their ebay auctions??

 

[GoingUp]

Originally posted by: ReallyFlatBroke
Anyone know what the highest CPU (Athlon XP) this board will take with the latest Bios update? I would like to be able to drop in a 2.2 Ghz Athlon XP. Currently own the Abit KT7-Raid version and have loved it. Really stable all around board. I'm hoping the KG7 Raid will give me nothing less in performance and features when compared to its predecessor. Thanks in advance for all replies)

If I remember properly, the latest bios update supports the new .13 Palominos at 2100+ speeds....What I'm interested in is will it support the 2600+ when that comes out in a couple of months....but I doubt it cause ive heard its based on the 166fsb....

 

[Marukoo]

I have the KG7-RAID with AMD XP1700+ Running for almost 1 year... It works smoothly. As long as you have latest update of the bios update and you should be ok.

 

[amao]

But it seems that this MoBo doesn't support DMA 133.

 

[Zepper]

"doesn't support DMA133"

So what? No ATA drive yet on the market needs even ATA66 and it does support ATA 100.
.bh.

 

[CSMOOTH]

Yeah, got in on one of these from compgeeks with the 1600xp deal over at newegg. This is going to be the first overclocking attempt that I make. I am hoping to get the 1600 up to 1850 or something like that. I hope that it works......

 

[WT]

CSmooth, good luck with the O/C'ing ! I got my AGOIA cpu today from Newegg and am still waiting on the Raidmax 350 watt PS from SVC.

Things to consider if you want a stable and higher overclock:

Do NOT skimp on RAM - quality RAM is a VERY high priority in order to bump up the FSB.
Samsung and Crucial DDR 2100 are often mentioned as being capable of 2700 speeds and are a great price on a budget.
Cheaper memory will be just that, cheaper ![/b]

Do NOT skimp on a power supply, as an XP processor is a power hungry chip and more is always better when fed wattage.
Antec is always mentioned when quality power supplies are discussed.

Get a good HSF ... this isn't the most important component since the airflow from the heatsink fan will only go so far, and your case ventilation itself has a great impact on overall temperature. Rather than start an argument on coolers, I will offer this link from AT:
Anandtech Cases and Cooling heatsink reviews link

Added another tip: This board accepts RAM in a reverse order, so you start inserting it from Bank4 and then add to Bank 3, then 2 and 1. Odd, and worth a quick post for clarification.