Thumbs up to K7S5A!

[Booster]

I just successfully installed this notorious motherboard with a Duron CPU, 2 sticks of generic SDRAM each of different density, and a generic 230W PSU salvaged from am old rig. Using a Maxtor 40Gig 5400RPM drive and a GF256DDR. Of course, this newly made PC is nothing to write home about, it was just for fun, but I'd like to share my impressions of that board. Of course, it's a little dated now, but after all that I heard and read about it's problems, I have to say that there aren't any.

Of course, I got a rev. 3.1 board, maybe most issued were with those of 1.x series. But, thanks to the fact that the board has only 2 jumpers, it was the easiest one to set up or configure ever. Not a single problem. Also, knowing of the possible memory errors I left it memtest86-ing for about 12 hours, it showed 0 errors. It was the easiest WinXP installation I ever had to perform. Not a single issue, not even a minor stability glitch. I'm really shocked with that, I was expecting a lot of trouble, and it appeared to be a FUD.

 

[Peter]

Sure lots of the comments are FUD, and plenty stem from user error. The product itself is OK.

Fingers crossed for how long that 230W PSU is going to survive. Let's hope it's a quality one ... have a look at what BIOS reports for the various voltage rails. Should a highly loaded one show weak (3.3V, 5V) or a lightly loaded one be high (12V), it's suspicious.

 

[Nats]

I'd replace your PSU w/ a more reliable 350W branded unit.
I had the same board but equipped w/ an Athlon XP 1700+,
Geforce3 Ti200 and 2 sticks of generic 256 PC266 DDR. It worked
great, and feeling adventurious I downloaded a copy of Cheepobios
and was able to do a modest OC of the bus from 133 to 143.
Unfortunately, my power supply conked out. Somehow my
two hds and board went dead. I've replaced the board and learning
from my mistake a much better power supply.

 

[OS]

Originally posted by: Peter
Sure lots of the comments are FUD, and plenty stem from user error. The product itself is OK.

uhhh, so how do I fix this no sdram 133/133 problem?

 

[DieHardware]

so how do I fix this no sdram 133/133 problem?

Well if your running a Duron like the guy who started this thread try 100/133. Next fix the user error problem...it sits between your keyboard and seat.

 

[OS]

Originally posted by: DieHardware

so how do I fix this no sdram 133/133 problem?

Well if your running a Duron like the guy who started this thread try 100/133. Next fix the user error problem...it sits between your keyboard and seat.

I'm using a retail AXP 2K+.

 

[Peter]

Originally posted by: OS

Originally posted by: Peter
Sure lots of the comments are FUD, and plenty stem from user error. The product itself is OK.

uhhh, so how do I fix this no sdram 133/133 problem?

It's not a board design problem, it's a problem in YOUR unit. Fix by using WORKING RAM, adequate CPU cooling and a strong enough PSU. I'm just right now building a K7S5A/XP2100+ system for my brother. Runs 133/133 perfectly fine ... only that the SDRAM DIMM has one bad bit cell. Ah well, exchange time tomorrow ...

 

[MaxDSP]

whats FUD stand for?

 

[MercenaryForHire]

FUD - Fear, Uncertainty, and Doom.

Speaking of, I'm about to start a K7S5A bitch thread of my own. See you there.

- M4H

 

[clicknext]

My K7S5A is also perfectly fine and peachy, and it's a rev 1.x too.

 

[Praxis]

Lots of folks complain about the K7S5A crapping out after a few months though, even though they set them up properly, used good RAM and power supplys and got the rig to work fine at first. I've read several reports of the onboard LAN failing. That said, I've set up a couple of these boards, and they still seem OK (though I can attest that they are picky about RAM). I even bought another one last month. It is hard to ignore some of those Fry's combo specials (in this case, the K7S5A with a retail 1800+ XP T-bred for $79).

I think there are better cheap SDRAM/DDR boards out there, though. Newegg customer ratings give the K7S5A four stars, but the Biostar M7VIG five stars, for instance. And the M7VIG Pro just hit the market with USB 2.0 and C-Media CMI9739A 6-Channel sound, as well as the Warpspeeder Windows-based overclocking utility.