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

[bupkus]

I phoned SVC to find out abou the GC68 cooling and they recommended instead the Arctic Cooling Super Silent Pro TC. Does anyone have any experience with trying to fit this monster into the Epox 8K5A2+ ?

Cooler Dimension: 90x82x73 mm Max.

 

[RideFree]

Tom's Hardware report on 9 of the latest KT400 MotherBoardsAnd their reference board was a KT333 chipset Epox EP-8K5A2+ board!

 

[keyeye]

Originally posted by: bupkus
I phoned SVC to find out abou the GC68 cooling and they recommended instead the Arctic Cooling Super Silent Pro TC. Does anyone have any experience with trying to fit this monster into the Epox 8K5A2+ ?

Cooler Dimension: 90x82x73 mm Max.

No problems on mine. Round Heatsink. I quite like the heatsink (easy to install) and the fan (quiet/silent at the RPMs that it's at- about 1100 RPM with 1600+ at 1.5V). I can't comment on faster fan speeds as to whether it is annoying then. It does spin up with higher temps pretty readily (the temp sensor is wedged between fins, I think, but am not sure).

 

[mooo]

Help - do I have a bad game port?

One of the pins of the game port connector on my 8K5A2+ board seem to be missing (pin 16, I think). My game port looks so:
x x x x x x x o
x x x x x x x x
1________8

There is no pin indicated by the position 'o'. Can someone that also has this board please take a look and tell me if they have a pin in this position or not?

Just noticed this after having completed my build - wires all neatly tied and everything. It will be a heartbreak to have to RMA this board because of this.

<edit> clarification - I am referring to the male game port connector pins on the 8K5A2+ board.

 

[russr]

it's a female connector the game port..it should not have any pins. it should have holes none of which should be blocked.

 

[mooo]

it's a female connector the game port..it should not have any pins. it should have holes none of which should be blocked.

russr, i am referring to the pins on the mb (8K5A2+) that is available to connect the game port into. it is missing one pin. is this normal or bad?

 

[MaxDSP]

what carrier does mwave use and can I have the stuff shipped it to a PO box? I cant find any info on the site

 

[MaxDSP]

also, Im not going to be overclocking anything so should I stick with the GC68 and some artic silver 3 for th XP1600?

 

[RideFree]

This pin is not needed...it is missing from all of these boards.
As you look at the board with the game connector to the upper right, the lower left pin is the one that is missing. Again, this is normal.
This does not show in the printed manual but sort-of does in the on-line .pdf manual. You can D/L this at 8K5A2+ Manual

Pin one would be the uppermost-right one with the board in this position. The red stripe would go to the right so as to interface with pin one.

If you made a million of these, the bean-counters would raise a fuss if a non-essential pin were included.:frown:

 

[Technonut]

Yet Another 8K5A2+ Review...

 

[RideFree]

Max

Im not going to be overclocking anything so should I stick with the GC68 and some artic silver 3

This combo is way better than the stock HSF.
If you are interested to see where your combo falls into the thick of the HSF market look here... Overclocker's Fan Database

 

[BZeto]

Could someone tell me how to remove the round heatsink from the northbridge on the 8K5A2+ ? Do I just push in those plastic pins?

 

[friedpie]

I found this in the alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.epox newsgroup. It relates to a message posted earlier about why PC2700 was being shown as PC2100. I hope this helps.

Subject: Re: New 8K5A2+ and how to figure memory

> The chip has a sticker on it that labels the chip as 2700, but when my
> machine first booted up the booting screen reported it as 2100 memory. (I
> have tried to "catch" that screen again upon further bootups, to recheck,
> but it passes by too fast for me to see it or to push the pause button in
> time.) Am I missing something?

Generally, you have to manually set the memory bus to be asynchronous to the
processor bus to get PC2700 operation. Most boards default to the
synchronous operation mode (so since the processor is at 133MHz = 266M
transfers/sec), the memory will run at this speed too
(266M*8bytes=2100MB/sec).
Look in the BIOS for a setting for the ratio of memory speed to processor
speed. It will normally have two options, one at 1:1, and the other at 4:5
(or 5:4 if the ratio is given the other way round). Select the 4:5 option to
get PC2700 operation.
However it is also worth being aware, that the speed gain is truly tiny.
Because of the asynchronous operation, the chipset has to buffer the
transfers, and while for some page fetches there will be a speed gain, for
some other operations there is an extra overhead. reported gains are below
2%!...

 

[bupkus]

Friedpie,
So am I better off saving some money and just getting a mobo based on the KT266 chipset and 2100 memory, running a fsb at 266, sychronous between the memory and the cpu, or do I need to read some more? Did I get that right?

 

[Technonut]

Could someone tell me how to remove the round heatsink from the northbridge on the 8K5A2+ ? Do I just push in those plastic pins?

Just push the ends of the pins together on the back of the board, and push them through. I just use my fingers. You will see how they catch when you look at them.

 

[BZeto]

Well, I just finished taking the northbridge heatsink (round) off on my 8K5A2+ , cleaning the pre applied thermal paste off and adding arctic silver 3 to it. I cleaned most of it off with my finger, then cleaned the rest with a Q-tip and alcohol and a lint free cloth (I think, lol) for the KT333 chip, then for the heatsink I scraped the thermal pad off with a razor and cleaned the rest the same way as the chip. I spead a think layer of AS3 to all of the KT333 chip, then rubbed some AS3 into the heatsink and wiped off (ala AS3's website instructions). I installed the heatsink back onto the chip and mobo, I didn't realize that it doesn't even cover the whole northbridge chip that I spead AS3 all over. It just touches a circular part in the middle of the chip, the edges you can still see through the fins of the heatsink. Hopefully that wont be a problem. I did get a little AS3 in between a couple of the heatsink fins, hopefully I dont have to worry about that either.

At least thats over with now. Anyone care to share what there mobo temp is on their 8K5A2+ ?

 

[friedpie]

Originally posted by: bupkus
Friedpie,
So am I better off saving some money and just getting a mobo based on the KT266 chipset and 2100 memory, running a fsb at 266, sychronous between the memory and the cpu, or do I need to read some more? Did I get that right?

Yeah, there is not much difference (performance) between a KT266 and KT333 system. The Athlon 133MHz FSB is the limitin factor.

Read more here

Are there KT266 boards with built in LAN, Sound, and USB 2.0?

 

[BaboonGuy]

hmm so if you have to use the headphone and microphone ports for 5.1 channel sound you have to sacrifice those and thereby not have the ability to use headphones or a microphone... sounds like a rip to me

oh well should be gettin my board soon, gonna be my first computer build, kinda getting excited

 

[bupkus]

So, if it's possible to overclock AMD's fsb from 133 to 166 we should see noticable improvements in speed?
Can we do that... with or without modifying the L1 pins? I read the article but it seems dated. I wish I had a better handle on overclocking and if it's worth the investment in expensive memory.

 

[DrPara]

What dividers has 8K5A2 (8k5a series) for PCI/AGP ? do they automatically set ?

 

[Insane3D]

Hey everyone...sorry I haven't been monitoring the thread for a couple days..

Ok, let's take these questions one at a time..

I phoned SVC to find out abou the GC68 cooling and they recommended instead the Arctic Cooling Super Silent Pro TC. Does anyone have any experience with trying to fit this monster into the Epox 8K5A2+ ?]

It should work fine. While a straight 92mm square HSF probably would not fit on the 8K5A2+ without modification, the HSF you linked to looks like it's basically a 80mm HSF (82mm) with a larger bracket up top to fit a 92mm fan. The top half of the HSF being 92mm should not interfere with any board components, as both the NB HS and the capacitor near the first memory slot will both not be as tall as the HSF itself where it measures 92mm. However, this is just a guess since I have no experience with this combo first hand. There is only one real way to find out for sure..try it.

Help - do I have a bad game port?

One of the pins of the game port connector on my 8K5A2+ board seem to be missing (pin 16, I think). My game port looks so:
x x x x x x x o
x x x x x x x x
1________8

There is no pin indicated by the position 'o'. Can someone that also has this board please take a look and tell me if they have a pin in this position or not?

Nope, your gameport is fine. That is normal on all 8K5A boards.

also, Im not going to be overclocking anything so should I stick with the GC68 and some artic silver 3 for th XP1600?

That should be more than enough cooling. The GC68 would be fine for even running 166mhz FSB, 1.75ghz (2100+).

hmm so if you have to use the headphone and microphone ports for 5.1 channel sound you have to sacrifice those and thereby not have the ability to use headphones or a microphone... sounds like a rip to me

Not really. Two things to consider. First, most 5.1 speaker sets also have a place for you to plug in a headphone and/or microphone, so you could just plug them into the speaker set. Second, while you can't use the microphone port while you have a 5.1 speaker set hooked up, you would only need to unplug one connection and plug in the mic to use, not a real big deal. Also, there is no "headphone" port on the motherboard, or most other soundcards.You normally have to plug the headphones into the front channel jack, so you will always need to disconnect one speaker connection to use headphones anyway.

What dividers has 8K5A2 (8k5a series) for PCI/AGP ? do they automatically set ?

The board has the correct AGP and PCI dividers for 100mhz (200mhz), 133mhz (266mhz), and 166mhz (333mhz) FSB operation. At each of those FSB settings, the AGP and PCI will be 66mhz and 33mhz respectively. They are automatic as well.

 

[Insane3D]

bupkus-

Let me explain a bit about how overclocking works. There are typically three ways to o/c a CPU. First is the FSB. Simply put, raising the FSB speed will also increase the processor speed. When you get a CPU, it has a set multiplier, depending on what speed and FSB it is rated at. Let's take a 1600+ for instance. It's normal clock speed is 1.4ghz, or 1400mhz on a 133mhz FSB (266mhz DDR). Also, CPU multipliers are in .5 increments...like 8, 8.5, 9, 9.5, etc. Now, a 1600+ has a 10.5 multiplier set by default from the factory, so it runs at 1.4ghz (10.5 x 133 = 1400 (1397) ). Now, if you raise the FSB to say 140mhz, you would make the CPU run faster as well..1.47ghz (10.5 x 140mhz = 1470).

The second way is with the multiplier alone. If you unlock a AMD CPU, and your motherboard supports changing the multiplier ( the Epox does), you can manipulate that to change your CPU speed without changing the FSB. For instance, you could change your 1600+'s 10.5 multiplier to 13, and the CPU would run @ 1.73ghz (13 x 133 = 1729), or 2100+. You would basically be making your 1600+ into a 2100+.

The third way is to use both to maximize your overclock. For instance, you might find the fastest raw speed your CPU would run by changing the multiplier only first, then finding out your max FSB and work out a combination of multiplier and CPU so both your raw CPU speed and FSB speed were maximized.

Now, the KT333 chipset normally works with the memory running 166mhz (333mhz) and the FSB running 133mhz (266mhz). Now, if the setup is run that way, it is not much faster than a good KT266A board. However, where the performance benefit really comes in is running the FSB and the memory @ 166mhz (333mhz) When you run both FSB and PCI synchronously, you gain much more performance than running them asynchronously. Asynchronous operation introduces latency, which wipes out most of the performance boost gained from running the memory faster.

Now, here's where the Epox, 1600+ AGOIA, and PC2700 come in to the picture. To change the multiplier on the 1600+, you would need to unlock it. This requires some extra materials and patience, but it's not needed with the 1600+. The beauty of the 1600+ is that it will easily run the speed of a 2100+, 1.75ghz, and higher, without the need for extra cooling or extra voltage. So, when setup a system with the 1600+, Epox, and PC2700, you can simply set the FSB to 166mhz, and boom, you are done. It's simply a matter of changing the FSB setting in the bios from 133mhz to 166mhz, hitting F10, and rebooting. You are now basically running a 333mhz FSB 2100+...simple as that. Since the Epox board has the correct AGP and PCI ratios, you are not o/c anything but the CPU, which makes for a stable system.

So, IMO, yes, it is worth the extra $$$ for some decent PC2700. PC2700 is fairly mainstream now, so there really isn't that much of a premium for PC2700 over PC2100. I hope this clears up your confusion.

 

[DrPara]

too bad there isnt a 1/6 divider for pci(for higher freq overclocking)

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: DrPara
too bad there isnt a 1/6 divider for pci(for higher freq overclocking)

The KT333 chipset does not support this...and neither does the KT400... The only board with a working 1/6 divisor (for 200mhz FSB) operation is the Iwill XP333.

 

[bupkus]

Insane, thanks for the explanation. Not only does it clear things up about overclocking, it sorts out the pieces of info other posts have contributed. I was beginning to think I had wasted resources for not skipping from the KT266A chipset to the upcoming nforce2 motherboards.