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

[Oakenfold]

Originally posted by: ScrapSilicon

Originally posted by: bupkus

Epox should put a fan onto the northbridge. It's damn hot without ocing. (If you ever touch it, you know it)
I managed to install a 40mm fan on it though.

Out of curiosity I just touched mine and yes, it is warmer than the hs on the cpu. You say 40mm? I wish I had a ruler here cause I have some hsf's for a p133 cpu I've never used and I'm wondering if I could somehow use them. Well, on second thought the clip sure is wrong. Perhaps the fan can be cannibalized. That would be cool.

p133 HSF is 50mm fan( 50mm fan worked well on Voodoo 3 3000 HS.. )...the Epox Northbridge HS is 40mm fan fittable..or you can dremel that p133 HSF to fit.. ..hmmm...

Carl are you still playing with this board?

 

[Minkyboodle]

Hey all,
First thanks for this great thread and forum. I have been reading for awhile but this is my first post. I am going crazy with some 8K5a2+ issues. Let me start from
the beginning. I ordered one form Newegg and got a DOA model. Lots C1 errors and general craziness. Seems I wasn't alone in this so no biggie I rma'd it back and
recieved a new one in a week. Before I get into the troubles with this one I guess I should give my system specs
Antec p412 400W PS
Epox 8k5a2+ w/iceberq cooler on Northbridge
XP 1600+ AGOIA week 12
Corsair XMS3200 Cl2 512mb DIMM
Thermalright SLK800 w/80mm YS-Tech and AS3
Gainward Geforce2 Pro w/blue orb and mem heatsinks
IBM 80gig 7200 hard drive ATA100
Western Digital 40gig 5400 hard drive ATA66
Liteon 48x12x48 CDRW
Chenbro Genie case with mucho fan mods
Although I plan on OCing everything has been at stock speed so far. I am running win2k sp2 and have updated the bios to the most recent (8/15/02). I am running the CDRW on IDE 1 and the hard drives on the RAID IDE 3 and 4. Windows installs with no problems. I install the newest via 4in1s and drivers for onboard sound and LAN with no problem. However when I connect the LAN to my cable modem my troubles begin. First I cannot get online on a connection that I know works and has the correct settings. Also when win2k boots up if I go to the device manager and check the properties of any of my devices it does not work and I have to end task. I also discovered if I try to reboot immediately after win2k starts I get the CSC notification window end task dialog. This sounded like IRQ problem to me so I followed I guide on AMDforums and installed win2k as a standard pc without ACPI and with USB2.0 disabled and set all the IRQs in the bios and had them seperated. Same problem occurs. Next I tried with my SMC NIC in slot 6 on its on IRQ and the same damn thing happened. I'm running out of ideas. I have built many systems and don't think I've missed anything (i.e. I'm running with conservative settins in the bios and my temps are fine 28/31 C). Also this ram and ps has been tested in other systems without issue. Does anyone have any suggestions or advice? I'm going to try without the RAID controller and onboard sound next. Might even put Win98 on there fresh install (btw all my installs have been fresh ones). Help on this is greatly appreciated. Maybe I got another bad mobo but it works fine otherwise although I haven't had the chance to test for stability obviously. Thanks for any help and for the great thread.
Scott

 

[Live]

Hi all!

I hade some memory problems that is now solved. The trick was to not use any of the predefined settings. Leave that to normal and set timings manually. Worked for me.

I saw in a erlier post that Insane had disabled his com ports. I cant find were to do that in the bios?
If i disable them will that free up IRQs?
I would also like to disable my printer port since I am not using it. Cant find that either?

Reason why I ask is that my sytem info shows a lot of conflicts:

I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 PCI bus
I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 Direct memory access controller

I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF VIA CPU to AGP Controller
I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 200

IRQ 10 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller
IRQ 10 Multimedia Audio Controller

IRQ 11 NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 200
IRQ 11 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller
IRQ 11 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller
IRQ 11 VIA Compatable Fast Ethernet Adapter

Memory Address 0xD8000000-0xDFFFFFFF VIA CPU to AGP Controller
Memory Address 0xD8000000-0xDFFFFFFF NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 200

Memory Address 0xE0000000-0xE1FFFFFF VIA CPU to AGP Controller
Memory Address 0xE0000000-0xE1FFFFFF NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 200

Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF PCI bus
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF VIA CPU to AGP Controller
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 200

I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB VIA CPU to AGP Controller
I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 200

And I am hoping to get rid of some.

All advice welcome.

 

[BobTheWizard]

This post is for you guys out there already running the EpoX 8K5A2+ motherboard (Insane3D, Actaeon, and others).

I realize that if I search through the 300+ posts to the EpoX 8K5A2+ thread, I might find the answer to this, but geez?. This is quite a popular subject and thread and it takes awhile to search through it all? So please forgive me if I'm repeating something already covered.

I just got my upgrades completed over the past weekend, and have the 8K5A2+ mobo with a XP1600+ CPU and 256 MB Samsung PC2700 memory (will add another stick of that in a few weeks). The cooling for the CPU is a Volcano 7+, which was working great with the switch in the low setting, with the CPU reading 1450mhz (temperature about 39C).

First question? My memory is PC2700, but the last reading I was able to see on boot up said it was PC2100, though I can?t see that anymore because of the screens that come up. Is there another way to read what the memory is, and if it is still PC2100, how do I get the true PC2700 reading. Sorry if some of you have seen me ask this before, but my pea brain doesn?t quite get where the ?mem? setting is to correct this.

Last night I boosted the voltage on the CPU to OC it as I had been reading about. Now it is reading 1750mhz. In doing that, the temperature went up some to about 42 to 43C. Not knowing what is safe, I switched to the medium fan speed, and that brought the temp back to 38 to 39C, but with more fan noise. I suppose I could look into a noise suppression pad for the case to reduce the noise if I leave the fan set like that, but I was wondering if this is normal, and what an acceptable temperature is for the CPU. How high is too high or high enough to worry? I might want to boost the voltage again to see what I can get, but don't want to blow anything up....

So far, the new rig is faster than the old one?. I upgraded from an AMD K6-III 450 so I?m looking forward to seeing how much better this one does over the other.

Again, I have thoroughly enjoyed the posts here, and the thread on the EpoX 8K5A2+. Any and all advise (or encouragement? heheh) is very much appreciated.

 

[bupkus]

I took the 50mm fan off the cpu hs I mentioned in my last post. It seems it will fit the two clamp-down holes perfectly. I'll let you know if that turned out to be the right size.

render, when you attached the 40mm fan did it require screwing directly into the heat sink?

Another point, should the fan blow down and towards or up and away from the hs?

 

[mooo]

Originally posted by: BobTheWizard


First question? My memory is PC2700, but the last reading I was able to see on boot up said it was PC2100, though I can?t see that anymore because of the screens that come up. Is there another way to read what the memory is, and if it is still PC2100, how do I get the true PC2700 reading. Sorry if some of you have seen me ask this before, but my pea brain doesn?t quite get where the ?mem? setting is to correct this.

Make some irrelevant change in the BIOS and save the settings. Upon reboot you will see PC2700 as it should be. It seems to me that if you do a cold boot, you will see the POST screen for a while longer than on a reset. I think the PC2100 is the factory default BIOS value that gets overriden by SPD values once you save the BIOS settings for the first time.

Last night I boosted the voltage on the CPU to OC it as I had been reading about. Now it is reading 1750mhz. In doing that, the temperature went up some to about 42 to 43C. Not knowing what is safe, I switched to the medium fan speed, and that brought the temp back to 38 to 39C, but with more fan noise. I suppose I could look into a noise suppression pad for the case to reduce the noise if I leave the fan set like that, but I was wondering if this is normal, and what an acceptable temperature is for the CPU. How high is too high or high enough to worry? I might want to boost the voltage again to see what I can get, but don't want to blow anything up....

I am not an expert at this, but your temps look cool to me. I am running at 45C to keep fan noise down. If you look a little above your post at Epox's reply to Ruroni's message, they suggest that the CPU temp should be below 55. So my guess is that below 50 should be fine.

 

[Minkyboodle]

Hey,
Just an update on my situation to anyone who can help. I have now tried the setup with only ide and no raid on win2000sp2 and with this setup and no onboard audio. Same results (hanging on device manager at boot and no network connection). I also tried windows 98 and the same problem ensued minus the device manager bug i.e. I could not connect to the internet. This is a crazy problem it seems like it has to be software but maybe it is another defective board. The strangest thing is that I couldn't connect with a SMC NIC that I know works on my cable modem w/default settings. I'm pulling my hair out here. Someone take pity and save me!!! Just kidding about that although I'd gladly take any advice anyone could offer. Thanks
Scott

 

[bupkus]

I need to copy my active partition to another harddrive.

Because the ide's are so far down in my *tower* I can't connect a second hard drive without using the raid plugs.

Any changes in the bios? I have raid disabled.


Current situation:
ide1 has hdd1 and cdrw
ide2 has dvd

 

[Technonut]

Originally posted by: bupkus
I need to copy my active partition to another harddrive.

Because the ide's are so far down in my *tower* I can't connect a second hard drive without using the raid plugs.

Any changes in the bios? I have raid disabled.


Current situation:
ide1 has hdd1 and cdrw
ide2 has dvd

bupkus, Just wondering..... Since you have the RAID ports available, why not have your hard drive on the Highpoint controller, and your burner and DVD on the Primary and Secondary set as Master?

 

[BobTheWizard]

Does the hard drive function better when set up using the raid? I could also set my drives up on the raid and the CD Rom on the primary IDE... Not sure of the purpose of the raid.....

 

[kgatwork]

Minkyboodle:

Are you the same Minkyboodle from D.C. that posted on the AMDMB forums? If so I guess you read my solution and have solved your problem. If not, try resetting your cable modem.

 

[Minkyboodle]

Kgatwork,
Its me. Thanks to the kind people at amdbforums I'm online and kicking. Thanks
again for the solution.
Scott

 

[Falco103]

Ok, I have a EP-8k5a2+, and was planning on getting a xp 2400+, but, while I was looking over the Epox site, I came across the recommended CPU page, and looked at the 8k5a2+, and to my suprise, there was a check for the XP 2100, 2200, 2600, but the XP 2400+ was not recommended. Whats up with this? I thought the 2600 and the 2400 were very similar, with the same FSB and stuff, so why would the 2400 not be recommended? Has any ever tried a 2400 on a 8k5a2+? In a .pdf file on the AMD site, I found they benchmarked the 2600 and 2400 on a 8k3a, which is not recommended for the 2400+ on the Epox site, so I'm thinking it will work, but I wanted to check here cause you guys know yer shiz.


EDIT: Searched amdmb forums and found this thread where someone used a 2400 on a 8k5a sucessfully, but had some problems with overclocking and unlocking the processor, but managed to fix them. So I guess it works, but may have some problems OC'ing.

 

[Imaginer]

I am itching to buy an XP 1900+ with the 8k5a3+ because of the 10 total devices that can be hooked to the ata controllers and i heard it is a good overclocker.

Isn't it right that this board will take the 1900 up to 200fsb stablily? (that is if I couple this with corsairs xms 3200ct memory modules?)

I have some more questions.

I am split in choosing water cooling from the innovatek kit found here or a regular air cooled heatsink like the alpha 8045.

I also want to hold off upgrading because i have a 1ghz t-bird with pc133 memory and it performs just fine for what i need. But I would like to have some system that is fast for my sister (who BTW is running a p2 400) and is probably on the edge on switching to a mac. (not as relavant to the scenerio)

then there is the clawhammer....

so what do you think?

 

[bupkus]

I'm experiencing intermittent crashes with my 8k5a2+. Sometimes it happens at boot and other times it happens playing UT2003 Demo.
I have a new Antec True Power 330W PS so I don't think it's that. I'm running W98 2ed so that is always suspect. I wish I knew how to analyze the cause.
Suggestions?

 

[tbates757]

Originally posted by: Imaginer
I am itching to buy an XP 1900+ with the 8k5a3+ because of the 10 total devices that can be hooked to the ata controllers and i heard it is a good overclocker.

Isn't it right that this board will take the 1900 up to 200fsb stablily? (that is if I couple this with corsairs xms 3200ct memory modules?)

I have some more questions.

I am split in choosing water cooling from the innovatek kit found here or a regular air cooled heatsink like the alpha 8045.

I also want to hold off upgrading because i have a 1ghz t-bird with pc133 memory and it performs just fine for what i need. But I would like to have some system that is fast for my sister (who BTW is running a p2 400) and is probably on the edge on switching to a mac. (not as relavant to the scenerio)

then there is the clawhammer....

so what do you think?

If you are considering an air cooler, the Thermalright SLK-800 outperforms the Alpha 8045, well, and every other heatsink ;D

 

[AMDBOY]

Bupkus, You may you find you prefer the stability & ease of set up with Win XP Pro. If you ever should encounter probs, recovery is fast & easy. Imo. When you experience crashes, are you O/C'd? What is your FSB/ & RAM timings for your particular RAM? Insane has a lot of good advice here. Lots o reading though lol.

 

[Imaginer]

Originally posted by: tbates757

Originally posted by: Imaginer
I am itching to buy an XP 1900+ with the 8k5a3+ because of the 10 total devices that can be hooked to the ata controllers and i heard it is a good overclocker.

Isn't it right that this board will take the 1900 up to 200fsb stablily? (that is if I couple this with corsairs xms 3200ct memory modules?)

I have some more questions.

I am split in choosing water cooling from the innovatek kit found here or a regular air cooled heatsink like the alpha 8045.

I also want to hold off upgrading because i have a 1ghz t-bird with pc133 memory and it performs just fine for what i need. But I would like to have some system that is fast for my sister (who BTW is running a p2 400) and is probably on the edge on switching to a mac. (not as relavant to the scenerio)

then there is the clawhammer....

so what do you think?

If you are considering an air cooler, the Thermalright SLK-800 outperforms the Alpha 8045, well, and every other heatsink ;D

am i missing some review?

 

[MrPALCO]

Does anyone have the Volcano and if so, do you like it's cooling and noise leverl?

Yep, I've got the 7 it is too loud for me. As soon as I have everything running smooth, I am going to work on a quiet fan.

 

[bupkus]

AMDboy,
I do plan on a multi-boot system including XP, but I find games sometimes don't run in XP.
My current settings R:
System Performance: Normal
Current FSB Frequency: 133MHz
Current DRAM Frequency: 166MHz
DRAM Cock: By SPD
DRAM Timing: By SPD
CPU Clock: 133
All R very conservative settings.

These problems consist of
1) spontaneous shutdowns
2) blue screen

If I'm fortunate enough to get a blue screen it reports that a program was shut down. What I've done is list the running apps via Alt-Cntrl-Del just after boot and then list them after a blue screen "recovery". The missing app is often a Norton auto Update "Aupdate".
As for the shutdowns, I think it best to install XP as dual boot and see if it ever occurrs there. I would like to isolate it as either a software or hardware problem.

 

[Ruroni]

Originally posted by: Imaginer

Originally posted by: tbates757

Originally posted by: Imaginer I am itching to buy an XP 1900+ with the 8k5a3+ because of the 10 total devices that can be hooked to the ata controllers and i heard it is a good overclocker. Isn't it right that this board will take the 1900 up to 200fsb stablily? (that is if I couple this with corsairs xms 3200ct memory modules?) I have some more questions. I am split in choosing water cooling from the innovatek kit found here or a regular air cooled heatsink like the alpha 8045. I also want to hold off upgrading because i have a 1ghz t-bird with pc133 memory and it performs just fine for what i need. But I would like to have some system that is fast for my sister (who BTW is running a p2 400) and is probably on the edge on switching to a mac. (not as relavant to the scenerio) then there is the clawhammer.... so what do you think?

If you are considering an air cooler, the Thermalright SLK-800 outperforms the Alpha 8045, well, and every other heatsink ;D

am i missing some review?

Links to several reviews declaring the SLK-800 as the best heatsink available now-a-days, are present on this page. If money is of concern to you an alternative to Innovatek's pricey kit is the iceberg1. You can find tons of reviews on the Iceberg1 and pretty much all will say it's better than any heatsink and fan combo (Not cooler than an Innovatek kit, but $150 USD cheaper.)

 

[Insane3D]

Hey all, looks like this thread has gotten huge! I have been away for awhile, for some medical reasons, and I am back now. If anyone still has any outstanding questions I missed while I was away, feel free to ask. I will be keeping an eye on this thread now that I am back. Thanks to Technonut and russr, and everyone else that kept helping people in this thread while I was away.

 

[Live]

18 replies up I have a few questions for you

 

[bupkus]

If in the bios I set "warning if temp goes over 63 degrees C", and "shutdown if over 70 degrees C" might I not get warnings before shutdown in W98? I'm using a Volcano 9 in an Antec box & Antec True Power 330W with lots of fans without OCing a 1600+ AGIO.
Could this be the cause of intermittent reboots?

I'm concerned my 8K5A2+ or Corsair X?? 2700 is flawed.

I now have dual boot w/ W98 & XP pro. So far no spontaneous reboots in XP, but I did clear the "shutdown on overheat" in bios.

 

[RideFree]

NicColt,
Sorry to take so long to get back to you...

so are you using the Mushking or the Samsung ?etc, etc.

I am using the Mushkin 1@512 and 1@256 for total = 756MB.
It is all merrily running along at 266/266 Fast timing. But with 1.85cpu and an extra .3v ram.
It's all I could get out of it without unlocking. I wish someone with a good set of eyes would offer to do it for me.


Insane, good to have you back. And again, thanks for starting possibly the best-all-time thread I've seen.