AMDXP1800+ Retail and ECS MB at Fry's for $64.99

[stockjock]

I hate Frys!!!! cause there aint none anywhere in Fl.

 

[Wyck]

Anybody verified this deal in the Oregon fry's?

 

[CheetahMk2]

Well, here's a note about the board, I got on this deal a while back for $59.99 and the K7S5a Pro.

2143Mhz AXDA JIUHB[Prime95 stable] 45'C Idle @133mhz [core voltages are iffy] on K7S5A Pro

So this thing is an overclocking beast, the CPU at least. The motherboard is flaky as hell, such as the inability to use PCI slot 1 and the USB 2.0 controller at the same time, or the fact you can't [reliably] go to 166mhz on it. Just for that 166mhz limitation I may have waited around and exchanged it.. if they let you do it for another model. K7S5a Pro is nice, but not that nice.

 

[Naruto]

Originally posted by: CheetahMk2
Well, here's a note about the board, I got on this deal a while back for $59.99 and the K7S5a Pro.

2143Mhz AXDA JIUHB[Prime95 stable] 45'C Idle @133mhz [core voltages are iffy] on K7S5A Pro

So this thing is an overclocking beast, the CPU at least. The motherboard is flaky as hell, such as the inability to use PCI slot 1 and the USB 2.0 controller at the same time, or the fact you can't [reliably] go to 166mhz on it. Just for that 166mhz limitation I may have waited around and exchanged it.. if they let you do it for another model. K7S5a Pro is nice, but not that nice.

Heres a tip, get a a cheap Biostar nforce 2 mobo and ebay this board. I also got in on the $60 deal, using the cheepoman bios, I am at 2100mhz (150mhz fsb) totally stable. I admit the ECS is a good board for the price, but I need more performance. I plan on getting the biostar board for $54 after rebate, and selling this board on ebay for $35.

 

[CheetahMk2]

I would, if I could ^^; Right now this system can have 0 downtime, and my budget just ran out. Maybe in a couple months when I get the rebate checks back from that Dell deal, but untill then I'm SOL

 

[MuffD]

They have the ECS K7VTA3 with XP1800 retail again this week in San Diego for 64.99. A friend of mine got a Rev 5 board. Anyone else get this combo?

 

[AkumaX]

Originally posted by: MuffD
They have the ECS K7VTA3 with XP1800 retail again this week in San Diego for 64.99. A friend of mine got a Rev 5 board. Anyone else get this combo?

up all over So Cal also

i've never actually experienced the k7vta3 (the k7s5a series was 70% hit and 30% miss |) for me)

 

[pxc]

Originally posted by: shady06
i just bought this combo. i got a JIXUB 0329 XPMW, 1.45 default Volts

I sold one of those same stepping CPUs to a guy who got it up to 2.3GHz.

 

[MuffD]

I'm very tempted to get one but don't know if I will have good experience with the ECS board. I hear all these horror stories so I figure it's like a 50/50 chance I have a good experience. I read some of the reviews on this board and this would suit me fine since I don't overclock. There are like 8 revisions to this board too so if you can get Rev 3 or higher, I think you will be okay.

 

[JEDI]

it looks like the new "hot" board will be the k7vta3 v5.0 since Fry's is switching to it in it's combo specials.

if you are upgrading just to play HL2, i would wait till next year since hl2 is delayed till April 2004.

by next year, a new version of the board might be out and/or people will know what the o/c capabilites are.

right now, u still can't beat the k7s5a pro/xp1800+ for $59 and o/c to 2.4ghz = XP3200+ (using the wire mod)

 

[tallassazn]

can you link me to info about the 'wire mod'?
thanks

 

[Soybomb]

Why can't fry's offer this on their online store.......

 

[BuonaDomenica]

Does the ECS k7vta3 v5.0 mobo suffer from the infamous lost CMOS too like the K7S5A board? I'm temted to get this combo but so far I only had bad experience with 3 ECS K7S5A boards. I don't know how much one would get to just sell the board on Ebay and keep the retail CPU? The 1800XP Retail CPu alone just costs $59 at Newegg.

Anymore input on this board would be great. Thank you

BD

 

[MuffD]

Originally posted by: BuonaDomenica
Does the ECS k7vta3 v5.0 mobo suffer from the infamous lost CMOS too like the K7S5A board? I'm temted to get this combo but so far I only had bad experience with 3 ECS K7S5A boards. I don't know how much one would get to just sell the board on Ebay and keep the retail CPU? The 1800XP Retail CPu alone just costs $59 at Newegg.

Anymore input on this board would be great. Thank you

BD

I was searching today and saw some boards selling at around 50 bucks.

 

[pxc]

Originally posted by: BuonaDomenica
Does the ECS k7vta3 v5.0 mobo suffer from the infamous lost CMOS too like the K7S5A board?

Not likely since the chipsets are totally different and CMOS data is stored in the chipset's south bridge, or in the K7S5A Pro's case the single chip SiS735 (combined north & south bridge).

 

[mikeford]

I am pretty pleased with my first combo, built last couple nigts based off the K7S5A Pro and running 98se. I had a major snafu by using some old 512 mb sticks of high density (kt133) memory, which worked fine until I tried running windows, but I jerked that and put in a Kingston stick of DDR and so far not a single glitch.

I was hoping to get the same board with the current $64.99 deal, but the new one is a K7VTA3. OTOH looks like the memory on sale should work with it, $29 PC3200 256 mb (stick marked Legacy, chips marked LED). Bought it, but haven't started with it yet.

 

[AkumaX]

Originally posted by: mikeford

I was hoping to get the same board with the current $64.99 deal, but the new one is a K7VTA3. OTOH looks like the memory on sale should work with it, $29 PC3200 256 mb (stick marked Legacy, chips marked LED). Bought it, but haven't started with it yet.

i've had those legacy pc3200 ddr sticks. they did NOT run @ 200mhz fsb... even after 4 exchanges!! (8 sticks total!!) they did run like a champ as pc2700... so if you want to use this board, it'll go as high as pc2700 anyway, but just dont expect to take this ram out and stick it on an is-7 or nf7-s @ pc3200

 

[CheetahMk2]

For all those people that said they got it up to 2.3ghz operating, download and run Prime95 and tell me if it runs that or not. I've seen some O/C'd systems that could not... I lowered mine to 2146MHhz to make it stable.