Success with K7S5A

[mantis69666]

Just to let you all know that some people do get good boards still. I'll have to admit that when I first booted this thing up I swore it was bad. Turns out that it was only my inexperienced self that hooked the IDE cables up backwards. LOL Although for this being my first home built computer I don't think I did a bad job. I have it dual booting W2K and XP Pro.

Athlon XP 1800+
ECS K7S5A
Lite-On 24x burner
Hitachi DVD-ROM
Antec SX1240 case
Antec 400w PSU
GeForce3 Ti200
Maxtor 60 Gig HD

Its been up for three consecutive days, hopefully it stays up.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Well done! That's a nice rig you got there I also see you did your homework and used an excellent power supply. Now, how about putting that XP to work in it's spare time crunching for Team Anandtech's ECCp Project

 

[cavemanmoron]

400 watt p/s cool idea so is XP nice chip!!
i have an ECS k7s5a, no major problems,

 

[mantis69666]

Forgot to list:

256MB Crucial PC133
128MB Crucial PC133

 

[mboy]

<< Forgot to list:

256MB Crucial PC133
128MB Crucial PC133 >>



Ah, you just ruined it I know it isn't as cheap as it was, but try throwing a good stick of crucial PC2100 256MB, you wont be sorry. Your XP will be thanking you.

 

[pogomips]

I've just about finished setting up my 4th system using this board. Apart from some bone-headed mistakes (we all make them) it runs like a champ. Not very overclockable, but in my case, I'm looking for stability.

I now have:
1ghz athlon
thermaltake volcano II cpu fan
antec ks282 case
antec 300w p/s
512 mushkin pc133
WD 30g hd x 2
iomega 12x10x32 cdrw
matrox g450 32mb dual head agp
i/o flex 1394 card
win2k pro

cheers,

pogo ( :^} #

 

[rwalterk]

I have a good one too. I thought it was bad first, but then I wiped my Win 98SE in favor of Win2K and what a difference. It turned out most of the problems I was having were Win 98 related. I love my board now; what a steal.

 

[briansdad]

I am a humble newbie at the "stupid mistake" stage, and willing to endure some hazing and sarcasm in exchange for a little advice.

Emboldened by the Hot Deals forum, I resolved to build my first computer. Going for the best deals all around, I ordered:

ECSK7s5a
Duron 1GHZ CPU
Hon Hai case
Cooler Master fan
128+256 SDRAM
Maxtor 7200 rpm 20 gig drive
Newegg refurb xstacy 5632 video card

I also had Win95, Win98 upgrade (not SE) and Win XP.

I installed Win95, upgraded to Win98, added the video drivers, updated the BIOS and then decided to do a clean install of XP. DISASTER!

All kinds of weird messages, and the install shut down "to protect my system."

I tried to backtrack. I reformatted the hard drive 27 different ways, using the Maxtor utility, the Win 98 rescue disk, and even DOS 6.22.

Now, nothing will load--not Win95 (DOS extender error), Win98, XP (all kinds of .sys errors).

Is there anything short of selling the parts on e-bay and buying a Dell that I can do to rescue my situation?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Freewolf]

Have you tried clearing your cmos?

 

[briansdad]

No, I have not tried clearing the CMOS, but I will try that as soon as I get home tonight.

Thank you for the suggestion.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

briansdad
When you clear the CMOS, disconnect the ATX cable from the board and let it clear for a couple of minutes just to be safe. When you turn it back on let it boot from the win98 disk and when you get to the prompt try running FDISK/mbr. It could be that your boot record has become corrupted. When you reboot go to the bios and set the CD as the primary boot device, then reboot with XP in the CD drive and attempt the install from there. Let us know how your getting on.

 

[mantis69666]

mboy: The biggest reason I went with this board (besides the price) is the ability to accept both kinds of ram. I can't afford DDR at the moment, hopefully in a month or to I will though. I won't drop the cash until I can afford a stick of 512MB DDR ram.

 

[bowie71]

<< mboy: The biggest reason I went with this board (besides the price) is the ability to accept both kinds of ram. I can't afford DDR at the moment, hopefully in a month or to I will though. I won't drop the cash until I can afford a stick of 512MB DDR ram. >>



same here mantis69666, DDR prices goes up like a rocket. My K7S5A flies like a rocket too,.. I love my K7S5A at the first booting..

 

[mboy]

<<

<< mboy: The biggest reason I went with this board (besides the price) is the ability to accept both kinds of ram. I can't afford DDR at the moment, hopefully in a month or to I will though. I won't drop the cash until I can afford a stick of 512MB DDR ram. >>



same here mantis69666, DDR prices goes up like a rocket. My K7S5A flies like a rocket too,.. I love my K7S5A at the first booting.. >>



I was just teasin you guys DDR is mucho Dinero compared with what I paid for it few months back. k7s5a takes a lot of abuse around here, but my Dadloves his, my buddy loves his and my 2ndary rig is SUPER stable with it. Even my GF has a hard time crashing it

Enjoy your new rigs!

 

[jsmckenna45431]

I have built 3 K7S5A systems to date, and I must admit, I am absolutely impressed with the performance/stabilty to cost ratio. I have had no major problems with any of them. I am dual booting ME/XP on my rig and running my 1.33 AYHJA at 1.43 rock solid. I am now in the process of building an Iwill XP333 rig, but I am definitely not parting with my S5A. It will be a perfect second system for my wife and kids, and a nice Urban Terror gaming rig for my friends to use on my LAN when they come over. My kids' current PC will now become my router/firewall.


Jeff

 

[dejacky]

I LOVE my ECS K7S5A(w/onboard lan) = super fast & super stable(win98se). I'm using a 256MB crucial pc2100 DDR ram dimm, bought it few months ago when it was ~$33.00 at crucial.com. 256 is plenty for me right now & I'm so glad i bought this then & not now.

AthlonXP 1600(1.4ghz)
Maxtor D740X 40.0GB
Antec 303x (300watt) ps
LiteOn 12/10/32cdrw w/ burnproof
1.44 teac floppy
Hercules (cmi8738) 4-speaker surround sound card
3com NIC
Geforce 256 DDR
2 sunon 80mm case fans
1 thermalright sk6 w/60mm delta fan@7v
Enlight 7237 case w/carpet on inside of case to absorb noise

pretty nice eh?

 

[Toonces311]

I am another happy K7S5a user. I still can't belive that I am using an ECS as MY main computer I too am using PC133 ram until DDR comes down in price. Lets hope.

 

[thevillageinn]

glad to hear so many good reports on the K7S5A...I just picked one up with a 1.2 duron at Fry's for $109 (hot deals link), and I'm looking forward to the kick up from the k62 550 I'm on now.

With some luck and a little planning I'll be posting again tonight on the new board.

 

[Freewolf]

You're going to be flying going to a duron1.2 from a k62 .

 

[thevillageinn]

<< You're going to be flying going to a duron1.2 from a k62 . >>



you're not kidding...it's great! I'm up and running with a fresh install of XP right now and I can't believe the difference!!!

I'm looking forward to buying a stick of DDR and finalizing my upgrade...

 

[rdegler]

I purchased this board about 3 month ago and it ran great for 2 months. Now everything runs but I get lock up with certain video operations. I have tried the following :

Re installed OS (2 times) both 98se and ME
tried using different versions of geforce 2 mx 200 drivers
switched video card
changes bios settings optimal, performance, and altered to very basic


What locks it up
run DXDIAG to run display tests direct draw in full screen
game black and white
opening IE 5.5 several windows while pages loading
general web browsing

I have read about using multiple sdrams can cause problems with this board. I have two 256 PC 133s in now I will try dropping down to just one.

If anyone has ideas I would sure appreciate the help.

roy
roydegler@juno.com

system
ECS k75a
cardexpert geforce2 mx 200 w/ 32 megs
maxtor 30 gig
2- 256 meg PC133s
300 watt power supply

 

[mboy]

<< I am another happy K7S5a user. I still can't belive that I am using an ECS as MY main computer I too am using PC133 ram until DDR comes down in price. Lets hope. >>



My father wewnt from the same 500 K62 to the k7s5a xp1600 and 256 DDr that I built him and he is still amazed at the difference. ENjoy!

 

[sten]

Another post has a warning about XP and the SIS 1.09 ide drivers:

Link

It is worth checking out.

I have built 4 systems based on the board, and all have worked great. I would recommend sticking with a reputable seller and testing the heck out of the board when you get it, but that goes for any motherboard.

 

[LS20]

coincidence.. my K6-2 500mhz just DIED on me (methinks PCChips motherboard crapped out) .. right now im on Xp1700 w/ ECS and it rocks


only complaint is that voltage is dangerously low (12v @ 6.x & 5v @ 4.0) according to the SiS hardware monitoring.. im gonna reboot and check the BIOS monitoring and see whats up

 

[sadb0i]

congrats!
i love this board!