What is the best budget Athlont Board? my old K7S5a is flaking out on me

[tnitsuj]

 

[BlackMountainCow]

Shuttle AN35N-U. No extra stuff, just plain basics and overclocking.

 

[Peter]

Hold your horses. ECS so far being unaffected by bad-capacitor-itis, you need to figure out what exactly is dying in your system. Anything is possible - and from a clogged up CPU fan, dirty/oxidized contacts on DIMM sockets and expansion card slots, down to a dying power supply unit there are MUCH more common reasons than a dying mainboard.

Apart from death by leaking capacitors, mainboard don't "just die" on their own behalf, usually. In the vast majority of cases, it's something else.

 

[tnitsuj]

Originally posted by: Peter
Hold your horses. ECS so far being unaffected by bad-capacitor-itis, you need to figure out what exactly is dying in your system. Anything is possible - and from a clogged up CPU fan, dirty/oxidized contacts on DIMM sockets and expansion card slots, down to a dying power supply unit there are MUCH more common reasons than a dying mainboard.

Apart from death by leaking capacitors, mainboard don't "just die" on their own behalf, usually. In the vast majority of cases, it's something else.

It was never that stable to begin with, I am also running it with SDRAM which is reported not to be that stable with that board.

 

[Peter]

Oh, it is, otherwise I wouldn't be typing this. However many many SDRAM DIMMs are of questionable enough quality to flake out on the high performance SiS chipset. I've seen more than enough of that - and I've also seen plenty K7S5A run excellently with (proper) SDRAM DIMMs, including mine here.

Do yourself a favor and follow my advice: Instead of guessing, figure out what's actually going on, and fix exactly that.

 

[PCHPlayer]

I also had one of those "flakey" ECS K7S5A boards. Tried SDRAM (unknown vendor), DDR RAM (Crucial from another working system), 300 Watt Allied PS, 400 Watt Antec PS, on-board sound, SB!Live sound, PCI video card, AGP video card. Would always get a BSOD every couple of days. Replaced it with the Epox 8KHA+ from my main rig and bought an ASUS A7N8X Deluxe. Both rigs are solid as a rock. BTW. I tried to RMA it, but it just wasn't worth the phone hassles I encountered.
Yes they are good performers at a great price, but there were alot of flakey ones. My point is: If it has never been stable then just replace it. How much are you willing to spend?

 

[Bonesdad]

Originally posted by: BlackMountainCow
Shuttle AN35N-U. No extra stuff, just plain basics and overclocking.

That's the one...nice board with everything a (budget) user could want. I think $63 at zipzoomfly...

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: BlackMountainCow
Shuttle AN35N-U. No extra stuff, just plain basics and overclocking.

My first-generation K7S5A finally (wore out/died/whatever) and I got the Shuttle AN35N Ultra to get going again. I certainly got my $62 out of my K7S5A, and I don't have many complaints about it, but having multiplier adjustment on this Shuttle is nice. How fast do you want to go today...?

If you do want to troubleshoot the K7S5A, testing the memory and trying a different (good-quality 300W+) power supply are great ways to start. If you pick the Shuttle, make sure your PSU has the 4-pin ATX12V secondary power plug, because it does use one.

 

[Moonbeam]

You don't need budget, use the thousands Bush saved you and get an Athlon64.

 

[CDRecorder]

I've heard that the north bridge heatsink on many ECS boards doesn't work well because the thermal interface material doesn't transfer heat properly, causing instability. You might want to try to carefully remove the north bridge heatsink, clean it and the north bridge, and re-attach it with Arctic Silver thermal epoxy.

 

[Salvador]

I have both the original K7S5A and the Pro version. The Pro works flawlessly. No overclocking, but I don't care with this system. It's stable as a rock. The original K7S5A worked great too with Crucial DDR266 memory, but when I tried to put Crucial PC133 SDRAM in it recently, it would not run. The RAM tested out fine, so it's the board that doesn't like it. Some have suggested updating the BIOS to the latest version. I haven't gotten around to trying it yet because the board is currently not in a system.

I recently bought a budget combo cpu/mobo from Micro Center for $69 after rebate. It's a XP2400+/Shuttle AK35VN. I figure at that price, it's like buying the cpu and getting a mobo for free. The board seems to be running fine right now, but if I run Sandra 2004 on the burn in mode, the board temps spike and Sandra shuts it down. Even on normal setting. OTOH.. I tried this very same test with my ECS K7S5A Pro and I can run it all day long on the high stress setting and the temps are flat as a board. I'm still trying to figure out what the Shuttle mobo temps are spiking like this.

I'm also trying to help a friend build his second system right now. I suggested the Shuttle AN35N U to him because I've heard good things about it here. He's having a problem getting the board to fire up right now. When he hits the switch, it goes to start for a second and then nothing. We're trying to get it worked out right now. I thought it was the connection between the mobo power header and the case power button because I've had that happen before. He claims that he's tried the connector every possible way and no go. I really wish I could jump through the phone line and look at it myself though.

Anyway.. My point to all of this rambling is that I've had relatively good luck with the ECS boards with the exception of the PC133 RAM in the original K7S5A board (I'm still not giving up on it), but I'm pretty down on Shuttle boards right at the moment.

Sal

 

[Bonesdad]

try shorting the powerbutton pins on the mobo with a screwdriver to see if it turns on...if it does, it's the switch.

 

[Texun]

Originally posted by: BlackMountainCow
Shuttle AN35N-U. No extra stuff, just plain basics and overclocking.

Another vote for the AN35N-Ultra. I'm a solid Abit user, but for the money the AN35N-U is probably one of the best kept secrets around. I've had one running for a little over a month and have had zero problems. Some say it's picky about memory, but I didn't know that and I guess I got lucky. I'm using a stick of 512 Corsair VR.

 

[thedarkwolf]

I have a stick of crucial pc-2100 and a stick of cheapo kingston pc-2700 mixed with my 2500xp in a shuttle an35n-ultra and everything is getting along fine. I haven't been able to hit 200mhz fsb yet but I did get it up to around 195. The only problem I have with the board is the 4pin ATX connector is a streach for my powersupply. It reaches it but there isn't much slack.

 

[Mem]

I have both the original K7S5A and the Pro version. The Pro works flawlessly.

Yep I`ve to agree,my MSI board died after 4 years and I replaced it with the ECS K7S5A Pro so I could keep my Crucial SDRAM with the board,the Pro has been solid since day one and was great value for money at £29.99 here in the UK,I`m no ECS fan but have to call it as I see and use it .

Ironically my Epox 8KHA+ board has several leaky caps (but stable so far)and that`s the next one that`s going to be replaced by me.

When you use a lose term like "flaking" well that could be caused by anything,don`t be so quick to blame the board until you`ve gone through the logical process of ruling out other components as well.

 

[bozack]

My K7S5a hated PC133 memory, no matter what combo I tried, or how many different brands it just wouldn't work with more than one stick, switched over the DDR and no problems at all....

I am just holding out until I get enough spare cash and a real need to upgrade to another Intel system.

 

[Salvador]

My K7S5a hated PC133 memory, no matter what combo I tried, or how many different brands it just wouldn't work with more than one stick, switched over the DDR and no problems at all....

Have you updated the BIOS? I've heard of some people not being able to run PC133 and then when they flashed the BIOS, it ran cheap PC133 perfectly. I'm going to try it next time I put the KS7S5A back in a case.

Sal

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: CDRecorder
I've heard that the north bridge heatsink on many ECS boards doesn't work well because the thermal interface material doesn't transfer heat properly, causing instability. You might want to try to carefully remove the north bridge heatsink, clean it and the north bridge, and re-attach it with Arctic Silver thermal epoxy.

If you do this, you don't have to be amazingly careful: it's attached with double-sided tape.

Oh, yeah, and except for the onboard sound, the AN35N-U is great.