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Asus A7V

A

AMB

Platinum Member
Is this any good, I am planning on getting a 950MHz Thunderbird in about a month. Will anymore manufactures sell this like Abit or someone.

Where I live in the UK, I think it will be very hard to get a slot Thunderbird so it looks like it will have to be a socket, this benefical in one way as the KT133 officially supports it.

Is the Asus a good choice, I would prefer 6 PCI slots, but I will put the modem in the other and use ICS I think:

PCI #1 - Sound Card
PCI #2 - Network Card
PCI #3 - SCSI Card
PCI #4 - HW+
PCI #5 - WinTV
PCI #6 - Modem

Is there any compatibilty problems with a GeForce DDR?
 
If the A7V BIOS is like most of the new Asus boards, you are headed for a mess with that PCI slot array.

I assume you will use the AGP slot for your vid card? If so . . . you will find that each PCI slot has designated "sharing" of IRQs. Some work . . . some do not. Most AGP vid cards cannot share. Neither can SCSI cards. This is what you can expect with a 6-slot Award BIOS:

PCI Slot 1 is shared with the AGP slot . . . so forget about using it.
PCI Slot 2 is not shared with anything.
PCI Slot 3 is shared with the on board USB controller. That shares OK with a NIC . . . put it in 3.
PCI Slot 4 is not shared with anything.
PCI Slot 5 is not shared with anything.
PCI Slot 6 . . . ???

This is only a guess based on the Award BIOS settings for the K7V. The PDF file for the A7V manual is not yet posted on the Asus web site.

I would find out all about this before deciding. Check the same details for the Abit board.

You may end up having to shed one of those cards. I would suggest getting rid of the modem and use an external on Com1. I don't know what HW+ is . . . but I see your biggest problem is the sound card in PCI 1. That shares with AGP . . . not good.

Also, you might check out www.computernerd for cooers, heatsinks, etc. They are excellent . . . especially for overclockers.
 
Corky-g, thanks for the advice, but what you are suggesting I think I will be OK using all 5 PCI slots as I will disable the IRQ's for the LPT1, COM 1 and COM2.

The HW+ is a Sigma Designs Hollywood Plus, a Hardware DVD Decoding card.

I think I will put the modem in another computer and use ICS.

I canot find any information on Abit's web-site with reference to a new KT133 mobo, are many companies reluctant to use this chippist?
 
you would be wise to make sure you are scrounging all the IRQ's you can get. looks like you are already thinking about that so good!

I have had experience with 6 devices in my ASUS P5A.

AGP - Voodoo 3 2K AGP (though doesn't use AGP to the fullest)
PCI Slot #1 - Voodoo Banshee (works like a charm with my second monitor)
PCI Slot 2 - Sound card (Aureal Vortex 2)
PCI Slot 3 - ATA-66 Cark (Promise)
PCI Slot 4 - Hollywood Plus
PCI Slot 5 - Modem

As you can see, my 5 PCI slots are loaded, and my AGP slot taken AT THE SAME TIME. I personally had no problems whatsoever. It's more likely that I was lucky.

You have a winTV card right? that most likely won't require an IRQ on it's own, so that will help. the Hollywood + as well might not need an IRQ.

I've looked at my IRQ assignments, and I noticed that 2 or 3 IRQ's are shared between devices. it doesn't matter much, I don't see any errors or the like when running DVD's, unless I try doing alot more at once then just playing the DVD.. hmm, maybe that's the reason why..

Anyway, I wish you luck. You'll need it, you are almost guarrenteed a long hard battle to get the devices working properly! Grr I hate this archaic IRQ..... Mac's are superior in that way! they don't have em!
 
Nope, that hollywood plus actually wants an IRQ all of its own...I used to have one, but if you are building a 950tbird, you can ditch the card cause the CPU can soft decode DVD just fine. I ditched my HW+ when I went from my PIII600 (katmai) to my Athlon 600@750 and then to my 700@900. Soon (knock on wood) to be a 700 core tbird at 900+ I want a GIG!
 
Is the KT133 compatible with the GeForce

I think I am sold to an Athlon Thunderbird, it is just a mobo to go along with it.
 
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