Any sign of a KM400 mobo yet?

[Plantsman]

Mwave has both the Asus KM400 board (A7V8X-MX , $64.13) and the Asus KT600 board (A7V600 , $90.10).

 

[RagingGuardian]

I'm wondering if any of these boards support overclocking. Someone need to try them all and let me know

 

[Boonesmi]

the A7V8X-MX really has no overclocking options (well you can run the fsb at 166mhz, and if its a 133mhz part then i guess you are overclocking )... but the A7V600 mentioned above has all the overclocking options you could ask for

 

[Praxis]

Mwave traditionally charges rather a lot for shipping, in this case $8.50 for the A7V8X-MX, so the price to your door is $73.50 plus CA sales tax, if any. Ajump, which has higher Resellersratings as well (8.74/9.02), is hawking it for $64 with free ground shipping. So the board has only been available a couple of weeks and it is already selling for only $10 more than what a decent KM266 board would run (i.e. DDR support, not Pcchips). The cheapest Nforce2 IGP (integrated video) board on Pricewatch is still $89.

The board only comes with BIOS memory settings and FSB dip switches, no voltage adjustments or changes to multiplier (that I saw). I like the layout of the board and it is now in a case with peripherals and drives and lighting up fine, but I still haven't had a chance to blow an OS on it. I plan to run my XP1700+ at 166 FSB. I'll keep you posted how it works. I might also try a few benchmarks, but I am not a gamer and I don't much care about 3D performance, so I don't know which BMs are most useful. I've mucked around with SiSoft Sandra, but that doesn't seem to great for video. What are some freely downloadable meaningful video benchmarks?

 

[bambam]

I got one from eebuy.com too . For me this board is a good value . It is too early for me to say much about performance but the onboard video is adequate for my intended use . Much better than a K7S5A with a TNT2 video card ( my K7S5A died in months ) .

 

[Praxis]

Post some benchies for that Asus if you get a chance, I'm curious how it's 3D performance is, thanks

Right, I finally got around to installing an OS on the box (W2K Sp 4, though I think that's just until I see how SuSE 8.2 works) and I did the Mad Onion's 3DMark2001SE and ran the default standard battery of tests. Here's the result with an Athlon XP1700+ CPU & DirectX9b:

Biostar M7VIG (early version, not the Pro, KM266 chipset, Savage video):
626

Asus A7N266-VM (early version, not AA, if there is a difference, Geforce2 MX Nvidia, drivers downloaded from MS Update):
1763

Asus A7V8X-MX (at default speed, drivers that came with the board):
1105

For reference, a Shuttle SN41G2 reference on the Mad Onion site (Nforce2 IGP, Geforce4 MX):
~3600

Clearly the Nforce2 kicks if you want a gaming rig with integrated video. Then again the cheapest Nforce2 IPG board out there is about $23 more expensive than my board and might balk at using the cheapo RAM I've got in this KM400 box (I tried it on a Nforce2 FIC AU13 & it would spin the fan, but wouldn't post).

What's more, I kicked up the FSB with the mobo jumper to 166 FSB and increased the DDR speed on my cheap PC2100 to PC2700 (333 MHz) in the BIOS and the board seems perfectly stable and happy. I'm at 39C on a cool day with a $6 GC68 fan. I haven't run Prime95 or Memtest86 all night on it yet, but it seems perfectly content squeezing out SETI units as I type. Curiously, just increasing the CPU speed had no effect whatsoever on my 3DMarks, but when I boosted the memory speed my 3DMarks increased quite substantially 1341, about a 21% jump.

Oh, and the onboard sound seems excellent, much better than on my Biostar M7VIG. As of right now I'm quite content with the board and the chipset.

 

[Boonesmi]

why didnt you download the newest video drivers?

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: Praxis

Post some benchies for that Asus if you get a chance, I'm curious how it's 3D performance is, thanks

Right, I finally got around to installing an OS on the box (W2K Sp 4, though I think that's just until I see how SuSE 8.2 works) and I did the Mad Onion's 3DMark2001SE and ran the default standard battery of tests. Here's the result with an Athlon XP1700+ CPU & DirectX9b:

Biostar M7VIG (early version, not the Pro, KM266 chipset, Savage video):
626

Asus A7N266-VM (early version, not AA, if there is a difference, Geforce2 MX Nvidia, drivers downloaded from MS Update):
1763

Asus A7V8X-MX (at default speed, drivers that came with the board):
1105

For reference, a Shuttle SN41G2 reference on the Mad Onion site (Nforce2 IGP, Geforce4 MX):
~3600

Clearly the Nforce2 kicks if you want a gaming rig with integrated video. Then again the cheapest Nforce2 IPG board out there is about $23 more expensive than my board and might balk at using the cheapo RAM I've got in this KM400 box (I tried it on a Nforce2 FIC AU13 & it would spin the fan, but wouldn't post).

What's more, I kicked up the FSB with the mobo jumper to 166 FSB and increased the DDR speed on my cheap PC2100 to PC2700 (333 MHz) in the BIOS and the board seems perfectly stable and happy. I'm at 39C on a cool day with a $6 GC68 fan. I haven't run Prime95 or Memtest86 all night on it yet, but it seems perfectly content squeezing out SETI units as I type. Curiously, just increasing the CPU speed had no effect whatsoever on my 3DMarks, but when I boosted the memory speed my 3DMarks increased quite substantially 1341, about a 21% jump.

Oh, and the onboard sound seems excellent, much better than on my Biostar M7VIG. As of right now I'm quite content with the board and the chipset.

I think the Uni-Chrome was made more for decoding (Like DVD, Divx, Mpeg?????) then 3D if I remember correct. Same video as the M10000 board.

 

[Praxis]

why didnt you download the newest video drivers?

I'm not aware that there are any more up-to-date video drivers for the A7V8X-MX. At least a casual glance at the Asus download site doesn't evince much evidence that there is a newer video driver for W2K (though there are drivers listed for NT & Win9X). I guess I could try and dig up a Unichrome reference driver from VIA, but again, I'm not a gamer and marginally increased video performance isn't my Holy Grail. I just ran the benchmarks because some folks on this board seemed curious about the KM400's video performance and I think that the single benchmark is indicative that for gaming the Unichrome is in the same category as Geforce2, Radeon VE or maybe a souped up TNT, pretty lame by modern standards. That said, I think if you ran most games at 16 bit vs. 32 bit color, the onboard video would be reasonable.

 

[Boonesmi]

the video is part of the northbrige, so via's website has regular driver updates (at least for the km133/km266 savage3 they had new drivers every couple weeks)

but here is a link just scroll down to the unichrome km400 drivers

 

[bambam]

Overall I would say I got what I paid for with my Asus board (ok but not great) - a KT400 with marginal but usable 2D/3D onboard video with the opportunity to upgrade to better video . I most like the idea of being able to use just about any brand of memory (Kingston Value RAM etc) and the price of the board ? Anyone know anything about the Epox or the Gigabyte KM400 motherboards as to available OC options (settings) ? If nothing else maybe this board and the hopefully to come better performing KM600 will drive down the Nforce2 prices.


Edit - 8-18-03

After using the board for a couple of weeks , I am somewhat disappointed with the lack of performance and problems with getting DirectSound to work . Upgrading the BIOS to v1004 and to the newes VIA 4-1 drivers made for no improvement . I wouldn't recommend this one unless Asus/VIA can work out some BIOS./ Driver solution to improve things . I will keep this board for a home office setup but will be buying Nforce2 soon .

 

[RagingGuardian]

I see the Gigagbyte board on Newegg. I'm waiting for some user reviews to see if I can overclock. I need overclocking features.

 

[Macro2]

I have an nforce2 board that runs like a champ with cheapo PNY DDR PC2100 with nanya chips. So what's the problem with Kingston?

The only ram that seemed to have trouble was micron PC2700 with micron chips running at 166 FSB or more.

 

[DieHardware]

Originally posted by: Praxis
Looks like Asus has hit the market with the KM400 A7V8X-MX. Their web site lists a cross sections of drivers & a BIOS for the board. It appears to be available for $68.99 with free shipping from Eebuy.com in California. I think I may give it a shop.

Heh, looks like a P4 socket on the board in the link Praxis posted.

 

[optimistic]

I just bought the Asus KM400 today for $63, I'll tell you how the install goes.

Reason why I bought it.

1. $40 less than nforce2, and dual chan architecture can only be taken advantage of if using onboard video.
2. I have my own R9500 >9700 to put in there.
3. Soundmax sound. (Is that better than Soundstorm?)
4. 166 support. USB 2.0 over nforce1
5. Have had no problems with my Biostar M7VIG Pro (KM266) board
6. Have had no problems with VIA in general. (This coming from an owner of SBLive Value who has never installed updates like 4in1 drivers:Q)

 

[Praxis]

I also got the Asus A7V8X-MX, but being (for once in my blighted life) a relatively early adopter, I paid a little more, $74 after tax.

It was easy to set up and seemed stable, even overclocking my XP1700+ to 166 FSB and my cheapo PNY Specktek DDR PC2100 to PC2700. I was running cool (42C CPU) under load and cranking. However at one point my board just started shutting down for no apparent reason, even in DOS and even with the FSB dialed down to 100 FSB and a stick of Crucial at default SPD speed. I seemed to cured the problem by flashing the latest BIOS, the ver. 1004 (I tried the 1002 and it didn't help). My guess is that my $5 GC68 relatively quiet 80 mm fan wasn't spinning fast enough for some sort of onboard built in protection (I kept getting messages at boot about very low fan speed until I disabled them in the BIOS). However memory timings with the chipset may have also been the culprit. I noticed this warning at the MSI KM4M-L web page:

Due to the High Performance Memory design, motherboards or system configurations may or may not operate smoothly at the JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council) standard settings (BIOS Default on the motherboard) such as DDR voltage, memory speeds and memory timing. Please confirm and adjust your memory setting in the BIOS accordingly for better system stability.

Maybe the new BIOS cleared up some memory problem, though it is odd that it didn't show up right away when I set up the board.

The board is back to running at 166/PC2700 and seems quite content, but I'll reserve judgement until I've got a few more weeks of stable operation under my belt. An other thing that I found annoying was that the manual has the Clear CMOS jumper positions reversed. Asus didn't update the manual with a supplement PDF on its web page until about August 14th. Also, the clear CMOS jumper is right next to some USB jumper, making it hard to grab and easy to get confused. Also, I would prefer to set the FSB speed in the BIOS, rather than using jumpers (which require me to open the case). Plus, there are no multiplier options on this board and only three FSB settings (100, 133, 166). Finally, the panel connectors were kind of a pain to set up, being grouped in to two rows (Epox manages to generally lay them out in a single row, which really simplifies set up as far as I'm concerned).

More companies seem to be introducing KM400 boards. In addition to Asus, Gigabyte & Epox, who have had boards on the U.S. market for a few of weeks now.there is the Abit VA-10, the Biostar M7VIZ, & the Microstar board that I mentioned. They all seem fairly similar, 3 PCI slots, 2 DDR slots, AGP slot, lots of USB 2.0 ports, etc., with a few differences (CNR slot, red PCB, different audio CODECs, etc.) The one KM400 board that seems really to stand out is the Soyo SY-K7VMP. It has 5 PCI slots and 3 DDR slots, plus it includes a 2 port IEEE1394 Firewire bracket, as well. I guess after the DRAGON series Soyo decided to specialize in fuller featured boards. However the price is also higher, starting at $86 (though it should come down, since it has only been on the market less than a week), almost as much as an IGP Nforce2 board (though still substantially cheaper than any IGP Nforce2 with Firewire & 5 PCI slots).

For those of you who were wondering, the 3D performance of this chipset is mediocre and definately shouldn't be considered by anyone who plays 3D games much. I ran MadOnion's 3DMark2001SE on it & got a score of about 1100, both with the Asus provided driver and the latest VIA reference driver. Increasing my XP1700+'s FSB from 133 to 166 (running at XP2233 speed) had almost no effect on the score, but running my memory at PC2700 did kick up the bench to about 1350. Compare that to 1700 or so for my Asus A7N266-VM (Nvidia1 chipset), which has onboard Geforce2 200 MX video and the score of about 3400 that I saw posted for a Nforce2 IGP board, which I gather has Geforce4 level video. That said, since I don't even keep Freecell or Solitaire on my machines, the video seemed just fine.