does a7n266-vm & ecs k7s5a support thoroughbred core

[galaxyboy]

hi !

i am planning to buy 1700 xp thoroughbred core processor .my choice for Mother board are A7N266-VM or ECS K7S5A .does these mobos support THOROUGHBRED CORE 1700xp.
if i get ecs board then what psu specifications should i watch for.

thanx in advance .

 

[Peter]

K7S5A: Yes. (New 166 MHz bus types not supported)
A7N266-VM: No idea. Someone else please.

For either, watch your power supply unit. You need to feed the beast properly, else it will not be happy.

 

[mechBgon]

A7N266-VM supports up to a 266MHz-bus 2600+ with BIOS 1004 and later, definitely into the Thoroughbred territory there. Link to Asus' 2600+ support chart, and this was in existence before the 333MHz-bus 2600+ came out, so don't take this as evidence that the A7N266-VM supports 333MHz-bus models.

 

[galaxyboy]

thanx for the info.it was a great help .
but which mobo would be good choice among these two.
also what psu specifications should i look for .will 300w be sufficient .

sorry for my late reply . ok

thanx

 

[mechBgon]

A good 300W unit should do fine, or you can go a little further in case you upgrade later and need the extra power. Sparkle Power, Antec and Enermax are three widely-available brands worth looking at for sure.

If you want to use the onboard sound, be aware that the K7S5A and the A7N266-VM are on opposite ends of the sound-quality spectrum (K7S5A = not too hot, A7N266-VM = Dolby-certified 6-channel). The A7N266-VM has onboard video too, possibly useful to you now, or possibly useful later when you go to retire the board to your mom/dad.

The A7N266-VM has only three PCI slots, however, while the K7S5A has five, and the A7N266-VM can't take regular PC133 SDRAM, whereas the K7S5A has slots for both DDR and standard PC133.

The A7N266-VM comes with a bracket for an additional pair of USB ports too, if there are lots of USB devices in your plans.

 

[AnandtechViolator]

Remember the power supply is the foundation of your system. If you load up a small supply, it will run hot. Better to go with a bigger supply and have it run cooler. It will also ride the transients much better.

 

[Harvey]

Originally posted by: AnandtechViolator
If you load up a small supply, it will run hot. Better to go with a bigger supply and have it run cooler.

Actually, that isn't right. The actual variable is the efficiency of the power conversion, but watts are watts, so regardless of the supply's power rating, it will always dissipate the same amount of heat to supply the same amount of power to your system. The efficiency of current power supplie designs are around 80% - 90%, so 10% - 20% of the power your system uses is lost as heat in the power supply. The rest of the power is also eventually dissipated as heat in the rest of your system's components.

It will also ride the transients much better.

True. A better power supply with a higher power rating will be designed to dissipate more power without failing, as well as do a better job of handling extreme transients.

Nothing negative intended in my comments. Just clearing up some details.

 

[optimistic]

If you get the Asus you can run your new setup with a 180w PSU:Q. And I'm pretty confident the XP 1700 will run on a 145 too!

This guy was able to Search for 180w on that page.

 

[Scottee]

I have the A7N266-vm with a XP1700+ Palie. If you're planning on using ddr, I highly recommend this board, especially over the K7S5A. All the onboard features work great. The sound and ethernet, and especially the video. If you need just decent video for medium gaming, the integrated GeForce2mx with two ddr sticks outperforms your normal GeForce2mx, because of nvidia's dual memory controller. IMO this is the best budget board on the market.

 

[Peter]

Originally posted by: optimistic
If you get the Asus you can run your new setup with a 180w PSU:Q. And I'm pretty confident the XP 1700 will run on a 145 too!

This guy was able to Search for 180w on that page.

Hardly. I recommend you head for the Patent Office, you're pulling more power from the PSU than goes into it. Read the power requirements of all your devices, and do the math. There's even an application note document from AMD on how to calculate this.

 

[LS20]

I dont know all the fuss about power supplies... my K7S5A ran perfectly on a generic (turbolink?) ~300w that came with my generic case... then i ran it for a while with another generic ~300w powersupply that came with my screwless Evercase... never had a problem... used 2 HD and 2 CD with extra case fans and stuff... never gave me a problem


also, I help administer the computer lab for my co-op/dorm and we use a bunch of k7s5a with cheapsh*t case/PSU and havent ran into any issues there either

 

[mechBgon]

Personally, I would rather err on the high side when it comes to power supplies. I wouldn't try running an AthlonXP-based system on anything below 300W, any more than I'd try running my car on 3 quarts of oil when it's spec'ed for 5. One engine later, it becomes evident that it was false economy.

For the record, Compaq's plain-vanilla T315 nForce220-based business desktop system, with one memory module, one hard drive, one CD-ROM drive, one 80mm fan, no AGP card and no sound card, is equipped with a 220W PSU. Add the ~50W drawn by a Radeon 9700 Pro... hmmm!

 

[Adul]

A7N266-VM 1700+ tbred and a good quality PS

 

[keyeye]

Just built a 1700 tbred with a A7V-NM. Even used the retail HSF (looks like a generic coolermaster- and not the big ones either).
Works great. No bios flash needed. 1.5V Core and the heatsink doesn't even get warm. I think it is a really nice setup (though no O/C). I haven't used the ECS, so I can't do a direct comparison. We used a generic L&C 350-without problems so far.

 

[fxsts]

I have just got an A7N266-VM (Newegg refurb) for my second microATX system, and I really like it. With good integrated sound and LAN, having only 3 PCI slots should not be a problem.

 

[Wiz]

I just put a 2400+ Tbred in my A7N266-VM
It's purring right along. I flashed the latest bios onboard before I upgraded to this cpu.

 

[galaxyboy]

Originally posted by: Wiz
I just put a 2400+ Tbred in my A7N266-VM
It's purring right along. I flashed the latest bios onboard before I upgraded to this cpu.

if i use the onboard video ,then should i go for one stick of ram or 2 sticks.also which brand of ram should i get.is 256 mb sufficient .

 

[mechBgon]

With the 220D chipset, there's no inherent advantage to using two memory modules. You might want to start with one 256Mb module and add a second one if your system runs out of RAM with the programs you use. For my office users, 256Mb is plenty (I devote 16Mb of it to video memory, leaving 240Mb for Windows2000 and programs). If you use WinXP, more memory might be called for.

I'm using Crucial PC2100 in our A7N266-VM's.

 

[Wiz]

I had an old Geforce2 64 meg ddr card in an older system that I swapped into my A7N266-VM system. That way I'm not sharing video on the memory bus. I don't mind doing this on my wifes system but I need mine to be just a bit faster than hers
Wow, that new detonator driver makes the overclocking of Geforce2 sweeter than ever. I tried running mine up to 250 core and 420 memory and it worked fine!! I don't leave it there, I leave it at stock memory & core for daily use but I wanted to see what it would do.