ECS K7S5A HDD Limit?

[bob4432]

does this board support hard drives larger than 137GB drives with the onboard ide channels?

thanks 🙂

 

[gsaldivar]

I'm sure it does. But check for a BIOS upgrade just in case!

 

[ZippyDan]

im wondering the very same thing! want to put a 160gb drive into a k7s5a. bios updates dont mention anything about >137gb drives, but knowing ecs they couldve added that and not documented it.

i have two controller cards, one a Promise UltraATA100 and the other the same but Maxtor brand, and both of them had troubles with the k7s5a (ive read of others with k7s5a with same problem so its a board problem). if i have to use a controller card, anyone know of a controller card that works well with the k7s5a?

and the only reason u have to use a controller card with drives >137gb is if the board bios doesnt support it right...?

~Zippy!

 

[JackBurton]

Here you go guys. Cheapoman's BIOS chb0327 supports 160GB+ hard drives. I'm using this BIOS and it works perfect. Solid as a rock. He basically takes the original ECS BIOS and adds overclocking features, but the core is original. VERY solid stuff.

 

[JackBurton]

Originally posted by: ZippyDan
i have two controller cards, one a Promise UltraATA100 and the other the same but Maxtor brand, and both of them had troubles with the k7s5a (ive read of others with k7s5a with same problem so its a board problem). if i have to use a controller card, anyone know of a controller card that works well with the k7s5a?
~Zippy!

I have a Promise Ultra 133 TX2 and it works perfect. I have it because I have 2 120GB drives and 2 160GB drives hooked up to it.

and the only reason u have to use a controller card with drives >137gb is if the board bios doesnt support it right...?

You'll need a controller card if you want to hook up more hard drives than the onboard controller can handle (4).

 

[KristopherKubicki]

i had 2 200's on my k7s5a pro's, i dont know about the normal ones though.

Kristopher

 

[0roo0roo]

running a 160gb here. works fine. also using a silicon image ata card too, well not for thatdrive, but u can use off board controllers to add more capacity if u want. i got 6 drives😛 2 optical

 

[hahher]

Originally posted by: KristopherKubicki
i had 2 200's on my k7s5a pro's, i dont know about the normal ones though.

Kristopher

dude, you use k7s5a? can't you get a leftover asus or msi from a review?

 

[KristopherKubicki]

haha there isnt anything *wrong* with ECS boards; that is if youre just using them for file servers in the closet.

Sadly, i think i spend more at NewEgg than i would if i didnt write for a hardware mag.

Kristopher

 

[Nickel020]

My K7S5A wouldn't even take an IBM 120GB HD that worked fine in every other PC I tried it, no matter which channel I tried it (and I didn't get the jumpers wrong). I did flash the BIOS to the newest version but that didn't help either. I got me a MSI K7N-L and the IBM 120GB works fine with that motherboard, I am still using it as I write.

 

[frogster220]

I have 200gig, 120gig, and 250gig drives using the ECS onbouard drive controller. Works just fine.

 

[ZippyDan]

just fyi, i successfully installed a 160gb seagate hdd on my ecs k7s5a and it works fine. the board is running the latest bios even though as i expected the ecs bios page says nothing about any bios fixing the 137gb issue. so anyway with latest k7s5a bios and winxp sp1, the drive works great, both board and os recognize the full 160gb

~Zippy!