GA-F2A75M-HD2 + AMD A10 A6700 & Windows XP

[William Gaatjes]

Hello everybody, since very soon, the discounts will start here at my geographical location and i am still saving money to buy an official windows 7 OS license, i have a serious question.

I have this Motherboard and this APU in my sight to buy.
Although i know performance will be subpar, i want to know if it is stable enough to run Windows XP + SP2 for the time being. It is just for 2 months.
My alternative option is that i can just test the hardware and wait until i have the money for a windows 7 home version.
Gigabyte has windows xp drivers, but will windows xp work stably with the APU A8 A6500 ?
I have downloaded the drivers from Gigabyte.
And i have downloaded the drivers from the AMD website.

The motherboard is an A75 chipset based motherboard from Gigabyte.
The APU is a 3,5GHz ; 65W version.
The reason why i have chosen this motherboard, is that it can also support a 20 pins ATX. I have bought an Enermax 365W version(EG365AX-VE(G)) once. It is an active PFC version with >80% efficiency. And it can deliver almost 400W peak power for a few seconds if memory serves me right...

And since this powersupply is still doing great, i would like to reuse it. When reading the manual, i get the impression that the motherboard while having a 24pin powerconnector, the MB can also support a 20 pin power connector. Even while not, i can still buy an adapter cable for a few euro's ( 20pinmale to 24 female molex minifit Jr connector). I am choosing for the APU because for me it is very decent and has a low power envelope.

My question is, has anybody such a setup or similar while running windows XP ?
I am planning to buy a windows 7 version, but as everybody else i must play the accountant to keep my "AArrrr pot of gold " on a healthy level.
For the time being, i would like to run windows xp.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Although i know performance will be subpar, i want to know if it is stable enough to run Windows XP + SP2 for the time being. It is just for 2 months.

If there is drivers for it, sure it will run. But you're going to miss a lot of features with XP and be limited to 4GB of RAM. But you should be good for a few months.

And a little tip, before you do anything manually download XP SP3 and save it to a USB stick or similar. This will save A LOT of time doing windows update...

And since this powersupply is still doing great, i would like to reuse it. When reading the manual, i get the impression that the motherboard while having a 24pin powerconnector, the MB can also support a 20 pin power connector. Even while not, i can still buy an adapter cable for a few euro's ( 20pinmale to 24 female molex minifit Jr connector). I am choosing for the APU because for me it is very decent and has a low power envelope.

What you really need to pay attention to is how much power your PSU can output on the 12v rail, since modern hardware put a lot of strain on the 12v rail, not the 3.3v and 5v rails. I checked and your PSU is rated for 26A on the 12v rail, so you should be fine with a 20-to-24pin adaptor. I'd properly look into eventually replacing it, since its an almost 10 year old model and PSU caps do degrade with age. You can get a new Corsair CX430 fairly cheap, and its a good deal better and more efficient.

 

[William Gaatjes]

If there is drivers for it, sure it will run. But you're going to miss a lot of features with XP and be limited to 4GB of RAM. But you should be good for a few months.

Thank you for your reply.

And a little tip, before you do anything manually download XP SP3 and save it to a USB stick or similar. This will save A LOT of time doing windows update...

I was not aware that microsoft allows a download for SP3 without windows update ? I am going to download it.

What you really need to pay attention to is how much power your PSU can output on the 12v rail, since modern hardware put a lot of strain on the 12v rail, not the 3.3v and 5v rails. I checked and your PSU is rated for 26A on the 12v rail, so you should be fine with a 20-to-24pin adaptor. I'd properly look into eventually replacing it, since its an almost 10 year old model and PSU caps do degrade with age. You can get a new Corsair CX430 fairly cheap, and its a good deal better and more efficient.

That is my worry as well : Degraded electrolytic capacitors. Bit since i am an electronic enthusiast, i have been thinking of replacing the electrolytic capacitors , giving my good old cpu an revision overhaul. It has never been stressed in those 10 years, neither has it giving me any problems at all (GO Enermax ). I have a lot of cooling to keep working temperatures as low as possible (Between 25 degrees celcius and 35 degrees celcius).

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I was not aware that microsoft allows a download for SP3 without windows update ? I am going to download it.

Welcome to the unintelligent world of the old windows update. It will download all appropriate updates for SP2, only then will it download and install SP3. After that a whole round of downloading and installing SP3 updates... hilarious...

Here's the link, just make sure your pick the appropriate language. The installer will not work with a different language, then the one installed.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=24

 

[William Gaatjes]

Welcome to the unintelligent world of the old windows update. It will download all appropriate updates for SP2, only then will it download and install SP3. After that a whole round of downloading and installing SP3 updates... hilarious...

Here's the link, just make sure your pick the appropriate language. The installer will not work with a different language, then the one installed.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=24

Ah thank you for the link.
I already had downloaded it and all driver for windows xp. I should be able to use and test it.

From a power envelope vs calculation power perspective, i decided to buy an A10-6700.

This model is for me the best choice as can be seen in this chart.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7028/amd-richland-desktop-apus-now-available

It is a 65W model Running at 3.7Ghz. With 384 calculation units running at 844MHz for the GPU section. I know i am going to make sopme people scared, but i decided to not use the turbo option and just keep the CPU running at it's stock clock (3.7GHz).

I ordered the board already and will order the APU from a different sales source since my usual Store (www.alternate.nl) does not seem to have it yet.
I always order at www.alternate.nl or www.gistron.nl (Handy if you live in western europe).

 

[William Gaatjes]

I even found it in the FAQ section of gigabyte, that a 20pin connector is supported.

http://www.gigabyte.co.nl/support-downloads/faq-page.aspx?fid=1682&pid=4393

What is the difference between a 24-pin and a 20-pin motherboard power connector?

The 20-pin connector belongs to older ATX standard while 24-pin connector follows newer ATX standard. The 24-pin connector just the 20-pin cable with 4 extra wires to provide extra current. As long as your power supply can provide sufficient power to the motherboard, you can still use 20-pin power supply.


GA-F2A75M-HD2 (rev. 1.0)

 

[Insert_Nickname]

It is a 65W model Running at 3.7Ghz. With 384 calculation units running at 844MHz for the GPU section. I know i am going to make sopme people scared, but i decided to not use the turbo option and just keep the CPU running at it's stock clock (3.7GHz).

The 6700 is actually a great little chip. 5800K level performance in a 65W TDP is nothing to scoff at...

I even found it in the FAQ section of gigabyte, that a 20pin connector is supported.

I remember it used to be that way, but I thought more modern boards required the 24-pin connector. Oh well, you learn something everyday.

 

[tcsenter]

You're going to run into a problem during install unless you either use IDE (legacy) mode for the storage controllers, have a floppy drive to supply third-party drivers for AHCI mode (if they even fit on a floppy anymore), or create a customized install CD with drivers already slipstreamed (e.g. using a utility such as nLite)

 

[VirtualLarry]

You're going to run into a problem during install unless you either use IDE (legacy) mode for the storage controllers, have a floppy drive to supply third-party drivers for AHCI mode (if they even fit on a floppy anymore), or create a customized install CD with drivers already slipstreamed (e.g. using a utility such as nLite)

Can't easily or realistically use an SSD on XP, without a lot of work. But other than that, if he has a regular HDD, you don't really lose anything putting the SATA controllers into IDE mode.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

You're going to run into a problem during install unless you either use IDE (legacy) mode for the storage controllers, have a floppy drive to supply third-party drivers for AHCI mode (if they even fit on a floppy anymore), or create a customized install CD with drivers already slipstreamed (e.g. using a utility such as nLite)

The ASUS UEFI BIOS in my XPBOX has a very nifty feature that allows you to emulate a floppy drive from a USB stick or card reader. I'd be surprised if Gigabyte doesn't include something similar. Anyway he'll be fine running IDE mode on a harddrive for a few months.

 

[William Gaatjes]

You're going to run into a problem during install unless you either use IDE (legacy) mode for the storage controllers, have a floppy drive to supply third-party drivers for AHCI mode (if they even fit on a floppy anymore), or create a customized install CD with drivers already slipstreamed (e.g. using a utility such as nLite)

I do not understand.
Can you be more specific about this problem with the drivers ?

 

[William Gaatjes]

I have received the motherboard : GA-F2A75M-HD2 (rev. 1.0).
Does anybody know what the difference is between the (rev. 1.0) version and the (rev. 1.2) version ?
Did a quick glance at the specifications, but did not see anything different ?
Has it something to do with timings for 2133 DDR3 support ?
I am guessing here.

I have the board and measured the pins with my multimeter.
As expected, the 3V3 pins are tied together, as are the 5V pins and the 12V pins for the 24-pin ATX connector. Just as described in the manual.

The ATX12V connector has a electrically separate 12V connection (with repsect to the 24 pin connector) but of course GND is connected.
The ATX12V connector is an 8 pin but indeed supports 4 pin connectors.

Now it is time to buy the 65W version : A10-6700 (DDR3-1833).
And memory.

http://www.gigabyte.eu/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4393#sp

 

[tcsenter]

I do not understand.
Can you be more specific about this problem with the drivers ?

Un-modded install bits for Windows XP don't have AHCI (or nearly any RAID) drivers, so if you're installing to a drive on a controller that is configured (in BIOS) as AHCI or RAID, you need to supply AHCI or RAID drivers somehow during setup (Ye Ole "press F6 to supply third-party storage drivers" prompt).

XP setup also doesn't support most removable storage devices at this stage, so you're limited to a floppy drive and just a couple particular USB floppy drives unless, again, the XP install bits have been modded to include support. The install bits for SP1 and later should support any storage controller configured (in BIOS) for legacy IDE/ATA mode or emulation, no need to supply any extraneous drivers.

What install bits for XP do you plan to use? Do you have a genuine MS install CD? If so, what is the MS part # on the CD. e.g. X08-xxxxx, X10-xxxxx, etc. SP1, SP2, or SP3 already integrated?

 

[escrow4]

Why are you using a decrepit relic of an OS that is 12yrs old and has more holes than swiss cheese that doesn't support modern hardware properly if at all?

 

[William Gaatjes]

Why are you using a decrepit relic of an OS that is 12yrs old and has more holes than swiss cheese that doesn't support modern hardware properly if at all?

As has been written in my OP post, i wanted to postpone buying windows 7 or even windows 8 until my accountant (which is just me wearing another coat with a pencil in my pocket and a silly pair of spectacles) agrees that a substantial amount of mönéh, is available.
As anybody else, i have to keep a balanced pot of gold. My parrot is the real accountant by the way...

Anyway, i ordered the A10-6700 and memory from GEIL (which means horny in dutch, by the way)...

http://www.geil.com.tw/products/show/id/390

http://www.geil.com.tw/products/showSpec/id/390

I bought a set of two of these (2x 4GB DDR3-1833MHz):

GEL38GB1866C9DC - CL9 10-9-28.

 

[William Gaatjes]

When i have the system assembled, it will be running memtest for a while for a burn in test and reliability test.
Anybody got a good tip what memtest and cpu test is best ?

Something like prime95 or so ?

 

[William Gaatjes]

Yahooo, after a day of stress and worrying where my parts are... I finally received my beloved APU and beloved memory to plug into my beloved Mainboard.

Here are 2 (very lousy quality) pictures :

After assembling, i unplugged the power rails from my current system and plugged in the ATX12V connector and the 20 pin connector.
After that, it did not start. Oh the horror... D:
I was shaking so much the whole building shook.

Suddenly a revelation...
I remembered that i had to push a button, a power button on a pc.
I took a little jumper and plugged it on the pins...
And the Board started !
And turned off again. Oh the horror... :'(
Then i remembered that the switch is a momentary switch and not an on/off switch.

I took zhe little jumper and made a momentary electrical short between the pins. And the board powered up and booted... Bliss... :wub:

I noticed the memory was running on 1600MHz but i have 1833MHz memory.
For now, it is running and i will have to swap everything later this week when i have the time.

Now i am enjoying a little cup of strawberry tea with a little drop of karvan cevitam (strawberry flavour) added to it.

 

[zir_blazer]

You may want to use nLite and check all the old guides (2008 and previous) and the like that may still be around. With it, you can preintegrate SP3 and the AHCI Drivers to a WXP ISO and use it to install.

 

[Sheep221]

He can install 64-bit XP to get full RAM addressed.
But otherwise I would rather just download some cracked vista or 7 install it, try the hardware, get cash than buy retail and reinstall it.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I have not tested it yet, but i have been doing some research before i bought the board :

Gigabyte has from AMD, SATA RAID/AHCI drivers available for download [version 3.3.1540.33].

The board has no FDD connector but floppy disks are supported in the bios as bootable device.
Perhaps an USB floppydrive can work.
I am looking into it.
I have a slipstreamed windows XP + SP2.
It is possible it will work. I will find out soon.
Perhaps an usb stick can be masked to emulate (By use of bios support) an FDD ?


At the moment i am doing reading about how to optimize windows 7.
making a list of things to turn of or remove or to enable.
For windows xp i made a vbs script and a special registry file to modify a lot of settings to make windows xp behave more as i like it.


I always found this website to be helpful.
For those interested : http://www.blackviper.com/\

 

[William Gaatjes]

It is mentioned in the manual of the mainboard, that a usb floppydrive will work :

Configuring SATA Hard Drive(s)
Before you begin
••At least two SATA hard drives (to ensure optimal performance, it is recommended that you use two hard drives
with identical model and capacity). If you do not want to create RAID, you may prepare only one hard drive.
••Windows 7/Vista/XP setup disk.
••Motherboard driver disk.
••A USB floppy disk drive (needed during Windows XP installation)
••An empty formatted floppy disk (needed during Windows XP installation)

You will find it in Chapter 4 (page 43).

 

[William Gaatjes]

More text obtained from the manual :

Making a SATA RAID/AHCI Driver Diskette
Before installing Windows XP, connect a USB floppy disk drive to your computer first because you need to install
the SATA RAID/AHCI driver from a floppy disk that contains the driver during the OS installation. To copy the
RAID/AHCI driver for Windows XP, copy all files in the \BootDrv\Hxp folder in the motherboard driver disk to
your floppy disk. To install Windows 7/Vista, you also need to install the SATA RAID/AHCI driver during the OS
installation. To copy the RAID/AHCI driver for Windows 7, copy the whole Hw7 folder under the BootDrv folder
in the motherboard driver disk to a USB flash drive.

Installing the SATA RAID/AHCI Driver and Operating System
A. Installing Windows XP
Restart your system to boot from the Windows XP setup disk and press <F6> as soon as you see the message
"Press F6 if you need to install a 3rd party SCSI or RAID driver." Insert the floppy disk containing the SATA
RAID/AHCI driver. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the driver that suits your operating system. When
completed, proceed with the Windows XP installation.

B. Installing Windows 7/Vista
(The following instructions use Windows 7 as the example operating system.)
Boot from the Windows 7 setup disk and perform standard OS installation steps. When the screen requesting
you to load the driver appears, select Browse. Then browse to the USB flash drive that contains the driver and
select the location of the driver. The locations of the drivers are as follows:
RAID driver for Windows 7 32-bit: Hw7\RAID\x86
RAID driver for Windows 7 64-bit: Hw7\RAID\x64
AHCI driver for Windows 7 32-bit: Hw7\AHCI\W7
AHCI driver for Windows 7 64-bit: Hw7\AHCI\W764A
After loading the driver, continue the OS installation.

 

[Sheep221]

I have not tested it yet, but i have been doing some research before i bought the board :

Gigabyte has from AMD, SATA RAID/AHCI drivers available for download [version 3.3.1540.33].

The board has no FDD connector but floppy disks are supported in the bios as bootable device.
Perhaps an USB floppydrive can work.
I am looking into it.
I have a slipstreamed windows XP + SP2.
It is possible it will work. I will find out soon.
Perhaps an usb stick can be masked to emulate (By use of bios support) an FDD ?


At the moment i am doing reading about how to optimize windows 7.
making a list of things to turn of or remove or to enable.
For windows xp i made a vbs script and a special registry file to modify a lot of settings to make windows xp behave more as i like it.


I always found this website to be helpful.
For those interested : http://www.blackviper.com/\

Floppy is same exchange media just like flash storage, if you can boot from floppy so you can do same thing regular USB stick. The only technical difference being there is that USB device is plug and play type, which means once you insert it, computer recognizes it till it is removed, when floppy diskette is inserted to the drive, computer does nothing because floppy is accessed only when reading/writing commands are called.

The bridge of 2 technologies used in portable USB FDD drive is recongnized by computer as always online, but diskette is still accessed only when required.

But technically, form software view it is same thing, just a removable storage media

 

[tcsenter]

It is mentioned in the manual of the mainboard, that a usb floppydrive will work:

As I mentioned, only some USB floppy drives are supported by XP setup (unmodded), namely those with the following HW ID:

VID_03EE&PID_6901 (made by Mitsumi)
VID_057B&PID_0000 (made by Y-E Data)
VID_0644&PID_0000 (made by TEAC)

There are several others on the market that aren't supported by XP setup (umodded). e.g.

VID_03F0&PID_2001 HP
VID_054C&PID_002C Sony
VID_057B&PID_0001 Y-E Data
VID_0409&PID_0040 NEC
VID_0424&PID_0FDC SMSC

And even a few more not listed here. Conceivably, you could add support by editing/replacing the relevant XP setup file (i386\txtsetup.sif) then burning a new install CD. I could help with that as I already have the edited file(s).

 

[William Gaatjes]

As I mentioned, only some USB floppy drives are supported by XP setup (unmodded), namely those with the following HW ID:

VID_03EE&PID_6901 (made by Mitsumi)
VID_057B&PID_0000 (made by Y-E Data)
VID_0644&PID_0000 (made by TEAC)

There are several others on the market that aren't supported by XP setup (umodded). e.g.

VID_03F0&PID_2001 HP
VID_054C&PID_002C Sony
VID_057B&PID_0001 Y-E Data
VID_0409&PID_0040 NEC
VID_0424&PID_0FDC SMSC

And even a few more not listed here. Conceivably, you could add support by editing/replacing the relevant XP setup file (i386\txtsetup.sif) then burning a new install CD. I could help with that as I already have the edited file(s).

I think i am in luck :

It is a TEAC.

From my handy program SIV :

[Hub 2.2 Port 3] <- [USB Bus] <- SIV - System Information Viewer V3.33

Information for [Hub 2.2 Port 3] State Connected at Address 3 with 3 Pipes (51) Device TEAC USB-diskettestation

Device USB V1.10 LangID 0409 1 Class 0.0.0 Class 0 SubClass 0 Protocol 0 Maximum Packet Size 8 (EP0) Configurations 1 Descriptors 5
Vendor 0x0644 TEAC
Product 0x0000 TEAC USB Floppy
Revision 0x0000
Manufacturer (1) "TEAC"
Product Name (2) "TEAC FD-05PUB"
Serial Number (0)
Configuration Interfaces 1 Bus Powered Maximum Power 500 mA Attributes 0x80 Configuration 0x01 (0)
Interface 0.0 MI 00 Endpoints 3 Storage 4.0 Class 8 SubClass 4 Protocol 0 Alt 0 Name (0)
Endpoint 1 Address 0x81 (In) Bulk Maximum Packet Size 0x0040 (64) Attributes 0x02 Interval 0
Endpoint 2 Address 0x02 (Out) Bulk Maximum Packet Size 0x0040 (64) Attributes 0x02 Interval 0
Endpoint 3 Address 0x83 (In) Interrupt Maximum Packet Size 0x0002 (2) Attributes 0x03 Interval 255

It seems to be supported. Thank you.


With respect to the programs that i use and if they still work when i migrate...
I am still checking which programs have a 64 bit version and which run anyway on windows 64bit through the compatibility modus.

P.S.
I do not like double boot systems.
Used it before but i am not fond of it.
I want everything running on one windows and that takes time to find out.