**Official Epox 8K5A Series (KT333) Thread** (Files, Reviews, and Info Inside!)

[Michfan4]

Ok i just tested the module using memtest86 and its working just fine. Sandra doesnt report any errors either. Ill continue to play with it and see what i can do. All your suggestions are very welcome. I appreciate it.

 

[Oakenfold]

Originally posted by: ScrapSilicon

I don't wish to answer that yet..still assembling[/quote]


Quick N dirty install huh? The new Via 4'in one's doing the trick or what?


Easing my way past 2.7GHZ on the new P4 setup btw Carl.
DDR is @ 350+
Best part is no hardware monitoring on the gigabyte, no clue as to my temps...woo!!!

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: Oakenfold

Originally posted by: ScrapSilicon

I don't wish to answer that yet..still assembling

Quick N dirty install huh? The new Via 4'in one's doing the trick or what?


Easing my way past 2.7GHZ on the new P4 setup btw Carl.
DDR is @ 350+
Best part is no hardware monitoring on the gigabyte, no clue as to my temps...woo!!!
[/quote] hehe...notice that was when I was modding that pink TIM off the northbridge Sat. night and putting that 7k rpm 40mm on the same .. ..quick and dirty was last night..USB 2.0 now working stupid ..USDM ..hehe..CPU is 35c .. the ALC650 sounds way better than reg AC97 btw..gonna drop GF4 ti4200 in now..

 

[Chappo]

I have a little question about the ide configuration on my 8k5a3+

i have 2 maxtor drives, a cd burner and dvd player

What is THE correct way to set them up so they can all run in MASTER ?

When i have the cd burner and dvd player in IDE 1 and IDE 2 , and the maxtors in IDE 3 and IDE 4
and i try to start windows 2000 setup from cd, it says it cannot detect any Harddrives ???

How did everyone else setup their IDE's and their drives ??? (this also goes for 8k5a2 users)

 

[bupkus]

Primary of first ide must be the hdd you boot from, all else is personal opinion.
I personally find my biggest problem is the length of the ribbon cables.
I have seen posts to this thread to not use the RAID for simply installing multiple ide devices on their own ide interface but you have the 3+ where I only have the 2+, so perhaps some else can help. Good luck.

 

[bupkus]

I just got some hsf's for my 8K5A2+ boards but they don't cool very well.
I have the Arctic Cooling Super Silent Pro TC.
I do like the fact that they have variable rotational speeds for the fan.
The Volcano 7+ and 9 also do, or so I've read.
Will the Volcanos fit on my Epox?
Does anyone have the Volcano and if so, do you like it's cooling and noise leverl?

 

[BZeto]

CL 2.5 RAM will work ok if I set the fsb to 166, right?

 

[Technonut]

Originally posted by: Chappo
I have a little question about the ide configuration on my 8k5a3+

i have 2 maxtor drives, a cd burner and dvd player

What is THE correct way to set them up so they can all run in MASTER ?

When i have the cd burner and dvd player in IDE 1 and IDE 2 , and the maxtors in IDE 3 and IDE 4
and i try to start windows 2000 setup from cd, it says it cannot detect any Harddrives ???

How did everyone else setup their IDE's and their drives ??? (this also goes for 8k5a2 users)

Install your hard drives on the Highpoint controller, the burner and DVD on your Primary and Secondary IDE ports. You need to have the Highpoint controller enabled in the BIOS, and have your Highpoint floppy disk in when installing Win 2000 to load the drivers.

EDIT: You did FDISK and FORMAT your hard drives, correct? I assume they are new drives??

 

[wpenhall]

[/quote]

(1) FANS - There are 3 fan plugs, FAN1, CPU FAN is clear, FAN2, CHASSIS FAN is I suppose for a case fan, and FAN3, POWER FAN. I have an Antec True Power PS which has a 3 pin plug for plugging into the mobo for the purpose of monitoring the speed of the inner of the PS's 2 fans. This I assume is to be plugged into FAN3 POWER FAN. However, page 3-8 shows the pin voltages for the 3 fans and FAN1 shows {GND, +12V, Rotation}, as does FAN2, but FAN3 shows {GND, +12V, NC}!? I think when Epox says "POWER FAN" they mean it's an unmonitored plug and simply pure power only. [Y,N]?

most likely non-monitored if that's( and it does show it in the manual as such..) what the manual says but until you put a fan that has the signal feature on it and it noshows in a prog like the USDM..you won't know..neither will I ..if I don't finish assembling the mobo..[/quote]


I tried connecting the fan power/HW monitor lead of my Enermax Whisper EG365P-VE(FC) 350W PS to FAN3 on my 8K5A3+, and subsequently lost both my mobo and power supply. Nothing burned or popped, but both devices refused to do anything when I tried reapplying power. Even when I removed the fan lead from the mobo, I still have a seemingly dead board and power supply (I tried both with other computers). I don't know if this connection caused the damage (I also played with the case LEDs a bit although I would be very surprised if that caused me to lose everything), but I'm not sure what else it could have been.

 

[Brandon2000]

I have a xp2000+ do I put the jumper on the 133 instead of the 100 on the 8k5a2 motherboard then? Also, l am getting different answers for the via 4 in 1's. Do I install them or no, and if I do, do I install everything? Thx for your time.

 

[MaxDSP]

WTF? My order from SVC came in for the GC68 but on the box, it says GC118 on the box. what gives?

EDIT: As far as I can tell, my hsf looks exactly like the one pictured on the SVC website. Do they even make a GC118?

 

[Chappo]

Okay....my system is UP AND RUNNING

this is what i did

first setup your comp with only 1 hd and 1 cd rom

install windows 2000, install mobo drivers and highpoint disk

then install cd rom and dvd into ide 1 and 2
and hd 1 in ide 3 , hd 2 in ide 4 etc.


it all works

 

[bupkus]

I just installed winblows 98 on my Epox 8K5A2+ and set the BIOS to default. When the machine goes to sleep mode I can only wake it by the reset. Which bios setting must I change to beable to wake with either keyboard or mouse?

 

[jagilbertvt]

bupkus: I'm not sure about the 8k5a2+, but the EPoX 8k5a3+ has it under the IRQ/Event Activity menu in the Power Management Setup. you want to set PS2KB Wakeup Select to Hot Key and then select your hot key using PS2KB Wakeup from S3-S5. You can also set USB Resume to Enabled if you want to be able to resume using a USB mouse I assume .


Hope this helps!

 

[BobTheWizard]

------Double post... sorry------

 

[russr]

Brandon2000, go ahead and set the jumper on the board to the 133mhz fsb setting. What this means is that everytime the bios is set to defaults, it won't set the fsb to 100mhz, but rather to 133mhz fsb.

Also, there's no harm in installing the latest 4in1's from Via's site. Personally, I noticed no difference in stability or performance. Windows Update found updated drivers for me for the onboard audio and the onboard lan, I installed those.

And if you do install them, install everything...the installation file usually knows what u need, but select "install" at each step.


Bupkus, you should never have to 'reset' the computer to bring it out of standby unless something is wrong. At the very least, the power button on the PC should bring it out of standby. My guess is there's soemthing weird going on with either the video card drivers or some agp or APIC drivers.

 

[Ruroni]

<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">

 

[russr]

Well do the best you can to swap other parts to make sure it's not one of the components. If you have a spare video card or an older one even try that. If you still have the problems then it is most likely a bad board and I would RMA it.

While it could be the cpu, I would highly doubt that it is (unless u r overclocking it). In any case, RMA the mobo and see if a new one helps.

 

[AMDBOY]

bupkus, your 8K5A2+ will accept the Volcano's. You may find this review/ roundup of heatsink fans (for AMD) useful:roundup. The Thermaltake Volcano7+ being the coldest in this review, I found that it was going to cost me about $44. The Volcano 7, (I got reamed @ Fry's brick & morter for $24.99) can be found for ($14.99 @ Fry's/outpost.com here. The difference in the temps between the Volcano 7+, the Volcano 7, and the Evercool CUD 725 is 1-2 degree C. I also received the CUD 725 from Nexfan.com $17+ $5 flat fee shipping=$22. Inside the Nexfan box was the shiniest copper HSF along with a FREE system exhaust blower for a PCI slot. Pretty nice surprise for free. ANYway, yes Volcano fits. I'm REALLY cheap!

 

[bupkus]

It's a little late for me; I've already ordered 2 Volcano 9's for $23 each. I'm as much interested in quiet as I am in cooling.
When I'm stressing my system I want powerful cooling, but when I'm doing stuff like this I want quiet! I just did a session of UT2003 and I'm a little pumped. I'm even typing faster than usual. That sure is weird!
Shit, it's after 12am!

 

[bupkus]

AMDBOY, maybe you can give me some advice on this.
I bought some "Arctic Cooling Super Silent Pro TC's" but find their cooling substandard.
Check this link for this test and review. Damn, their site is down. Well here it is anyway.
LegionHardware
The online store offered to take them back without restocking fee if I order something else first.
I was going to get some GC68's but they have a single hole clip. I think I just may stock up on the
Thermaltake Smart Fan 2 for $12. I suppose I can use these fans to upgrade whatever heatsinks I use.
Opinions?

 

[SP33Demon]

I've been trying for the last couple of days to install windows XP or 2K. In every attempt to install there has always been some kind of lockup or a blue screen error (different error messages). The error messages are random. the closest I've gotten is When it's saving configuration and it's 2 minutes from finished. :| But that only happened 2 times, once it was 2 minutes away and once it was 5 minutes away. Other than that, it's usually at the "Setup is starting Windows" (Blue Screen stage). I have swapped different RAM chips (A PNY DDR chip) and HDD (Another one just like the mentioned above, and a 20 Gig western Digital) I've even tried swapping my G4 Ti with a G2MX, and I've played with all kinds of BIOS settings. I have even updated the BIOS with the ALT+F2 method. 5a2p2815.exe dated 08/15/02. I can't even get Windows 98 to install, but I actually got MS-DOS 6.22 to install!

Ruroni, try a different CD of Win2K or even WinXP. Your CD is probably scratched or missing some files/corrupted if it's a burned copy, not the original (don't answer that here! lol) Lastly, forget about Win98! That OS is trash...

~Rob

 

[MrEMan]

 

[MrEMan]

Hello everyone.

I emailed EPoX tech support yesterday to inquire as to whether or not the new 8K9A KT400 boards actually utilize the Athlon XP/newer Durons on-die thermosensor for either emergency shutdown and/or for the BIOS CPU temperature status display. As you will see in their reply, apparently the much higher, and much more accurate temperatures caused many to return the boards (some have commented that NewEgg added their no return policy for EPoX boards due to these higher temperatures being equated with defective boards).

*****************
EPoX's reply:

We do not use the internal thermal diode of the CPU. Too many customers were confused by its higher temperature readings. Thermal die readings if enabled in the board design would only be accessible to the BIOS (not seen by user) for safey features. I cannot confirm at this time the thermal die reading ability of the board.

*****************

I would much prefer to see the actual temperatures, no matter how high, instead of the grossly inaccurate "under the CPU socket" temps. The CPU die tempurature is much more important than the internal case temperature. The under-socket sensor, or other sensors (such as the ones on some heatsink/fan assemblies) can be used to determine if the internal case temp is causing the CPU to run hotter due to lack of case ventilation.

I strongly suggest that everyone check out an interview with the Artic Silver which is still posted on the now shut down Van's Hardware site for a very detailed explanation of why the on-die sensors are the only means of measuring accurate temperatures.

http://www.vanshardware.com/articles/2001/december/011209_AS_Interview/011209_AS_Interview.htm


I would ask that all readers of this forum contact EPoX USA via their support page and make it known that you would prefer that they display both thermosensor temperatures on the BIOS screen, or at the very least, give the option to choose the temperature you want displayed.
The contact page is at http://www.epox.com/html/motherboard-contact.asp?lang=1 .

Lastly, if you check out Arctic Silver's site, you will see that the recent Tom's Hardware guide to building PCs totally contradicts Arctic Silver's procedure for proper application of their thermal compound (THG shows a big glob being applied where Arctic instructs a minimal covering and thickness to keep the compound from acting as an insulator!).

Thanks, and sorry for the previous blank post.

 

[Ruroni]

*Sorry, I don't know why my previous post got messed up; all I wanted to do was update.*

I was reading this thread, and I was sold on getting myself an 8K5A2+

I've been trying for the last few days to install windows XP or 2K (even tried Win98). (on an Epox 8K5A2+ With Corsair DDR3500 CMX512-3500C2, A 60 Gig Maxtor 7200RPMD740X-6L, An Athlon XP 2200+ (Throughbred), The power supply is a 431 Watt Enermax Whisper EG465P-VE (FC) Cased in an Aluminum Alloy Kingwin KT-436 The Video Card is an MSI TI 4600, And an Aopen DVDROM.) In every attempt to install there has always been some kind of lockup or a blue screen error (different error messages).

The error messages are random. The closest I've gotten to successfully installing Windows XP is when setup was at the ?saving configuration? stage and it was 2 minutes from finishing. But that only happened 2 times, once it was 2 minutes away and once it was 5 minutes away. Other than that, the Lockup usually follows the "Setup is starting Windows" (Blue Screen stage, after Loading some initial files).

I have swapped different RAM chips (A PNY DDR chip) and HDD (Another one just like the mentioned above with which I was considering to use RAID Striping, and a 20 Gig western Digital) I've even tried swapping my G4 Ti with a G2MX, and I've played with all kinds of BIOS settings. I have even updated the BIOS with the ALT+F2 method. 5a2p2815.exe dated 08/15/02. I can't even get Windows 98 to install, but I actually got MS-DOS 6.22 to install.

If any one has any suggestions, or knows any way I could get this to work I would greatly appreciate it.

* At this point considering russr's suggestion (thanks for taking the time to address my issue), that it's probably a faulty motherboar, I have decided to contact Epox and see if they reply, and what they would say.

* SP33Demon (thanks for taking the time to address my issue) : ALL 3 of my CDs can't be scrached (I try to take good care of them by keeping them encased in a CD holder.)... And I've used them before and they've ALL worked. Lastly, at this point I am DESPERATE so if I could get 98 to work, I would use it (hell I would even use Windows 95!). But ideally I would prefer using 2K over 98 and XP over any other.

System config:
(2x) Corsair DDR PC 3500 CMX512-3500C2
60 GB AT Maxtor D740X-6L (7200 RPM Ultra ATA/133)
An Athlon XP 2200+ (Throughbred)
The Video Card is an MSI G4Ti4600-VTD
And an Aopen DVDROM
Power supply is a 431 Watt Enermax Whisper EG465P-VE (FC)
Case Aluminum Alloy Kingwin KT-436