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Chaintech Socket-A board $33.50 at Compgeeks Edit: SOLD OUT

This board looks kinda cool for a low end home theater PC. However, I've never had luck running from a spid-if out on a mobo to a digital coax in on my JVC RX-888v reciever. Can anyone with a similar situation help me out on this one? I was running a digital coax cable to my reciever from my Santa Cruz (with the 1/8" stereo adapter into the spid-if out) under xp. I got NO sound on DVD's or MP3's. Will this be the same problem if I get this board?
 
On the Chaintech website, there is only one CT-7AJA2 - this one is a CT-7AJA2E. If these are indeed 7AJA2 with the KT133A chipset, there is a BIOS upgrade to take a XP2000. For $33.50 (don't forget the 10% too) it would be a great deal!

Also, there are Vcore adjustments and 1Mhz clock speed adjustments.
 
jTEK, here is a link to the CT-7AJA2E at Chaintech's Taiwan site, and a link to the most current BIOS. Includes XP2000+ support (BUT SEE EDIT2, BELOW).

EDIT: Here is a link for the board at Chaintech's USA site (I got this link from the product page at Compgeeks').

EDIT2: It appears that the KT133e chipset doesn't officially support 266MHz FSB processors. The BIOS at Chaintech's site is for both the 7AJA2 (KT133A chipset) and 7AJA2E (KT133E chipset). The 5 minutes that I've spent researching the KT133e chipset seems to indicate that it will unofficially support the 266MHz FSB chips, though.

EDIT3: In case anyone cares, you can read about the differences between the KT133, KT133E (chipset on this motherboard), and KT133A chipsets here. The link is actually to a review of an Abit board with KT133E chipset (Abit KT7E), but you can get a fairly good idea of what the chipset on this Chaintech board can do.

E.
 
Anybody know if you can change multipliers w/ unlocked AMD Chips on this board? Can't tell from anywhere I've looked.

 
Great price! My question is apart from the good chipset on this board... Ive heard some bad things about a few Chaintech boards,but never owned one. What is the quality of Chaintech boards overall? Stablility? A year or so from now?... thanks
 
r those dimm slots ddr or sdr? i thought ddr was 184 pin. the specs say its 168 pin, which i understand to be sdr. how do u get 266mhz fsb with normal sdr? can someone please clarfy this for me? thanx 😀
 
I've actually owned this board. I found it to be quite nice, actually. The C-media sound is excellent, it has some "pretty good" overclocking options - ran as stable as expected. I'm tempted to get one, even just to have an ISA slot again! 😀

But I'm in Canada..... Maybe I can convince GeoffS to get a couple and save on shipping. 😉
 
got mine today! board looks pretty nice and it can support xp 2000+ if you update the bios (133 X 12.5), now I just need to find
xp at low price... weird thing is CPU Bus frequency is already soldered to 100 and there is no pin for you to cap! anyone got the same problem?
 
What kind of overclocking options are you guys seeing in the Bios? I haven't gotten my board yet but I'm just curious to know what to expect. Also, are the audio ports in the standard motherboard placement or is there a slot piece that plugs into the board internaly to accomodate the extra audio outs?

Thanks,

- J
 
Just got my board today guys and I must say I am less than impressed. I don't remember if Geeks listed 6-channel sound as a feature of this board when I bought it but it's not going to happen. The headers aren't even on the board... just empty solder bumps where they could be. Plus the 100mhz/133mhz jumper isn't possible either since those headers aren't even there. I am going to hook it up tomorrow and see if the Cmedia sound chip is even on the board but I doubt it. This hot deal isn't so hot anymore is it? Just letting you guys know..

- J
 
I have this board http://shop2.outpost.com/product/3050589 from Outpost and it has the 100/133 jumper on it.
Of course the onboard sound isn't anthing very exciting and it only has SDRAM, but there are some overclocking features in the BIOS. Bus speed stuff only though, no multiplier changes are possible.
It is a cheap new board and it's new, that's what I like about it. Newegg refurbs are even more expensive.

 
Ok guys, this sucks.

The board DOES NOT have 6 channel audio and it DOES NOT have SPDIF Out! The CMedia chip isn't even on the board and the headers for the SPDIF and the 6 channel output are just solder bumps.

When I orderd my board the one line description in my orders list shows 6 channel Audio as part of the description. If you follow the link to the board that is nowhere to be seen. This is going to sound stupid but can you guys check your cache and see if you have the original description of this board in there? I want to know if geeks listed 6 channel audio in their list of features.

Let me know!

- J

 
Good news guys, the Geeks came through for me. I called them up to address the lack of multi-channel audio as advertised. The tech that I spoke to said they were aware of the mixup and he is sending me a Cmedia PCI 4 channel sound card free of charge 2nd day shipping. It's not a 6 channel but it's definately a great gesture on their part. If you have the same concern that I did give them a call and talk to them.

- J
 
Thanks for the info JHeiderman. The sound is an issue. I also have a problem with the way the FSB was advertised on the board. They still list it will take up to a 1.4 Tbird (these must be 133/266 FSB?) and the link also lists a 1.4 Tbird. Looking at it, not a chance to run anything over 100/200 FSB. I think our questions could have been answered if we could have just been able to download a manual from the lamo Chaintech website.
 
I updated the latest bios, have a 512MB PC133 from Crucial, plus XP 1500+, and computer still boot up as 1Ghz only!! someone please help, thanks
 
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