Advice on setting up an 8K7A+ ??

I've been running this board for 2 years now without a hitch. (apart from a
faulty Enermax psu where my +5v dropped to 4.65 and the thing woudn't boot)
Nitza is bang on regarding the pc2700 running at pc2100 and that the board
is power hungry. A good psu is a must! My replacement Enermax 350 watt has
worked well . +5v rail is always right on +5.0 - 5.10v. I recommend uping
your vcore +0.1v from the default and recommended voltage in the manual. In
fact later releases of the 8K7A+ were shipped with the voltage set there.
(JP3 pins 2-7)
"The Shadow" <shadowman.DeleteThis@shadow.net> wrote in message
news:bjnbo0$ksem9$1@ID-26971.news.uni-berlin.de...
 > Hi Group,
 > I've got an 8K7A+ Rev 1.1 board that I acquired nearly new many months
 > ago but have never built into a system. Now thinking of doing so...
 > Reading past posts to the group I reckon I can go at least as high as
AMD
 > Athlon TBred 2400+ and some PC 2700 DDR RAM. I would be grateful for
 > confirmation from those who've tried. The manual I downloaded speaks only
of
 > PC 2100...
 > I'd like also to know if I can expect to be able to put the above CPU
and
 > memory into it and have it boot up sufficiently to update the BIOS to the
 > latest available, which I've already downloaded.
 > I think my nearly new 350W PSU on my present Slot 7 (!) machine should
 > be up to the job, and I hope my other peripherals/video board will be too,
 > at least in the first instance.
 > But can I get away with still using Windows 98 first edition, or is XP
 > now a must? (I am a bit of a scrooge where computer material is concerned.
A
 > lot of the old stuff works well enough for my purposes...)<
 >
 ><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Advice on setting up an 8K7A+ ?? 

Thanks the replies. I forgot to ask whether I should worry if I get an "A"
or "B" core TBred Athlon. Does it matter?

Also, if PC2700 works as if it's PC2100, is there any point in getting the
former, which is presumably more expensive?

Thanks again in advance.
 >> Stay informed about: Advice on setting up an 8K7A+ ?? 

"The Shadow" <shadowman.TakeThisOut@shadow.net> wrote
 > Thanks the replies. I forgot to ask whether I should worry if I get an "A"
 > or "B" core TBred Athlon. Does it matter?
 >
 > Also, if PC2700 works as if it's PC2100, is there any point in getting the
 > former, which is presumably more expensive?

Not much point, except for future use, but most places have already stopped
selling PC2100 anyways - PC2700 is the 'low-end' DDR memory now. ECC &
Registered memory for servers is still easily available at 133MHz (PC2100)
but that's all I've seen recently.


 > Thanks again in advance.

Avoid Tbred A like the plague - that core topped out at just above 1.8GHz,
the spec' speed for the 2200+ - slower than the last Palomino core..!
(AGOIA) Most all Tbred Bs are good for over 2.1GHz - all 3 of my 1.5Vcore
spec 1700+s (DLT3C) are running at 2.4GHz 24x365 100% load for SETI...

Ciao...

[UK]_Nick...
--
Nick M V Salmon Master Mariner MN(Retd.)

My four initials.TakeThisOut@btinternet.com<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Advice on setting up an 8K7A+ ?? 

"The Shadow" <shadowman.RemoveThis@shadow.net> wrote in message
news:bjnbo0$ksem9$1@ID-26971.news.uni-berlin.de...
| Hi Group,
| I've got an 8K7A+ Rev 1.1 board that I acquired nearly new many months
| ago but have never built into a system. Now thinking of doing so...
| Reading past posts to the group I reckon I can go at least as high as
AMD
| Athlon TBred 2400+ and some PC 2700 DDR RAM. I would be grateful for
| confirmation from those who've tried. The manual I downloaded speaks only
of
| PC 2100...
| I'd like also to know if I can expect to be able to put the above CPU
and
| memory into it and have it boot up sufficiently to update the BIOS to the
| latest available, which I've already downloaded.
| I think my nearly new 350W PSU on my present Slot 7 (!) machine should
| be up to the job, and I hope my other peripherals/video board will be too,
| at least in the first instance.
| But can I get away with still using Windows 98 first edition, or is XP
| now a must? (I am a bit of a scrooge where computer material is concerned.
A
| lot of the old stuff works well enough for my purposes...)<
|
I have been running an 8K7A+ virtually from the beginning. I have recently
upgraded to an XP2100 and the latest BIOS. I have not tried it, but someone
reported that a new chip and the old BIOS resulted in the CPU running as a
slower version, but reliably. I cannot comment on this. Obviously the CPU
has to run on 133 MHz FSB and a DDR RAM frequency of 266 MHz. Faster memory
runs OK at the slower speeds and these days is cheaper than the slow stuff.
Also, a higher bus multiplier is required to run a fast CPU from 133 bus. I
think that is the ultimate limiter re CPU speed.

The 8K7A+ is not power hungry as such, but derives some 3.3 volt busses on
board from the 5 volt input. This means that it tends to take more power
from the 5 volt lines and less from the 3.3 volt. I am only using a brand X
power supply, but it maintains the 5 volt line slightly above 5 volts and
will maintain the computer even through power brown outs. (240 volt mains
here).

These boards were designed for Win98, but what about any new hardware or
software you want to add? It you decide to use it, remember Big Bad Bill is
stopping support from the end of this year, so get in for any updates now
and keep them for future reinstalls.
John
 >> Stay informed about: Advice on setting up an 8K7A+ ?? 

I've used Win98 se, ME, and XP Pro, and all have been good. My 2400+ is
running at the 2000mhz as it should but is detected as unknown cpu in bios
(03/04/2002)
and by the os.
If you're planning on using Xp and the Highpoint Raid controller, you'll
need to download the Highpoint driver for WinXP from the Epox site and save
it to a floppy disk. Xp will ask you for it during installation.
"The Shadow" <shadowman.TakeThisOut@shadow.net> wrote in message
news:bjnbo0$ksem9$1@ID-26971.news.uni-berlin.de...
 > Hi Group,
 > I've got an 8K7A+ Rev 1.1 board that I acquired nearly new many months
 > ago but have never built into a system. Now thinking of doing so...
 > Reading past posts to the group I reckon I can go at least as high as
AMD
 > Athlon TBred 2400+ and some PC 2700 DDR RAM. I would be grateful for
 > confirmation from those who've tried. The manual I downloaded speaks only
of
 > PC 2100...
 > I'd like also to know if I can expect to be able to put the above CPU
and
 > memory into it and have it boot up sufficiently to update the BIOS to the
 > latest available, which I've already downloaded.
 > I think my nearly new 350W PSU on my present Slot 7 (!) machine should
 > be up to the job, and I hope my other peripherals/video board will be too,
 > at least in the first instance.
 > But can I get away with still using Windows 98 first edition, or is XP
 > now a must? (I am a bit of a scrooge where computer material is concerned.
A
 > lot of the old stuff works well enough for my purposes...)<
 >
 ><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Advice on setting up an 8K7A+ ??