Help with these 2 Socket 7 boards

[thecoffeeguy]

Hello everyone.

Well, im trying to find some information on the following 2 socket 7 motherboards. Here they are:

Soyo SY-5SSM/5

and

Gigabyte GA-5AX

It will hold a 500mhz AMD k6-2 processor.

Does anyone have/know anything about these 2 boards? FYI, the soyo is going for $23 and the gigabyte for $10.

Its not going to be doing a whole lot except run a CD-Rom, HD, 3.5, some RAM and run Linux.

ANyone care to update me on these 2 boards?

Thanks everyone.

TheCoffeeAddict

 

[Vette73]

Have you gone to their sites. There might be a Bios update, so you can run a K6-2+, its the mobile chips with L2 Cache and runs cooler and a lot faster than a K6-2

 

[thecoffeeguy]

Ya, actually I have gone to both websites. They do have BIOS updates. From what i've seen, they both support the 500mhz CPU's.

But, I have no knowledge on how good these boards are.

I would imagine they are both decent. I'm not looking for anything fancy, just a decent mobo to hold the CPU, run the system basically.

Thanks for the input. Any input is always great.


Coffee

 

[Vette73]

The Soyo board uses the SiS all in one chip. It will not be a power house by any means, but it will make a good internet or file computer. It should be able to take a 550Mhz K6-2, I don't know or think iw will take a K6-2+ though.

The Gigabyte board uses the Ali chipset. This is the chipset in my laptop. I am able to Run a Mobile K6-2+ but it reads it as a K6-2. It should also be able to take up to a 600mhz K6-2. But to do 600Mhz you will need a K6-2+ as the K6-2 do not overclock Really well, compared to the K6-2+

Don't put to much time or Money in these boards. If you need a new rig get a KT266a or KT333 board and a Duron for the cheap.

EDIT: I see you are going to run Linux, these would make good linux testing computers.

Marlin

 

[thecoffeeguy]

Yep Yep...going to be running Linux on both machines...here are some snips from the websites for the boards:

Soyo board:

Processor
321-pin ZIF Socket 7
Supports Intel Pentium processors with MMX technology (up to 233 MHz)
Supports AMD K6 (166~300 MHz) and AMD K6-2 (266~550 MHz)
Supports Cyrix/IBM 6/86MX (PR200~266) and Cyrix M II (300~350 MHz)
IDT WinChip C6 (180~240 MHz)

Interface
Socket 7
Chipset Type
SIS 530

Chipset Description
SiS 530 Chipset
Graphics Info
Embedded SVGA graphics chip
High Performance 64-bit GUI accelerator with excellent video playback capability
Supports 8MB SDRAM memory configuration (optional)
Flexible design for shared frame or local frame architecture
True color operator up to 1280x1024

Memory Description
Three 168-pin DIMM sockets
Supports up to 768MB EDO and SDRAM
512KB / 1MB Pipelined Burst SRAM on board with Write Back Function
Expansion Slots
Four 32 bit Bus Mastering PCI slots (v2.1 compliant)
One 16 bit ISA slot (one PCI/ISA shared slot)

Gigabyte Board:

PROCESSOR Socket 7 for Intel® MMX?, AMD K6®-2, K6®-3, IBM®/Cyrix®, IDT? processors
Supports CPU multiplier 1.5/2.0....../6.0 for future processors
66/75*/83*/95/100/105*/110*/115*/120*/125*/130*/135*/140* MHz FSB
CPU voltage 1.3V~3.5V


CHIPSET
ALi Aladdin V (M1541 & M1543C) AGPset



DRAM 8MB to 768MB SDRAM size
3 x 3.3V DIMM sockets
Supports 8/16/32/64/128/256 MB EDO/SDRAM DIMM module
Supports ECC Type DIMM module (72 bits)

CACHE MEMORY 512KB PB SRAM on board

SLOT 1 x AGP Slot Supports 66/133 MHz speed
5 x PCI slots supports 33MHz & PCI 2.2 compliant
2 x ISA slots



From what I can see, the SOYO has imbedded VGA where as the Gigabyte has a AGP slot. Either way, these boards are not going to be doing anything fancy. Just running Linux servers. I have 2 AMD K6-2 500mhz CPU's and it appears that both boards will hold them.

What do you tyhink about the prices? $28 for SOYO and $15 for Gigabyte?

That fair?

These are going to be test machines really.

Thanks Marlin1975

TheCoffeeBrewer

 

[MrBumpy]

Here are a few reasons to consider the Gigabyte board:

1. My computer is based on the ALi Aladdin V chipset; my Fianceé used to have a computer based on the SiS 530 chipset. My computer slaughtered hers in memory benchmarks.

2. Check to see how much L2 cache is included on your motherboard. This will decide how much maximum RAM you will want to install on your system. The SiS 530 chipset can only cache half the amount of RAM that the ALi chipset can. If you have 512KB L2 cache on the motherboard, the ALi chipset will be able to cache 128MB RAM, while the SiS chipset will only be able to cache 64MB. With 1024K (1MB), the ALi chipset will be able to cache 256MB RAM, and the SiS, 128MB. Any RAM used above the cacheable limit will be accessed very slowly, and will have a noticeable performance impact, especially in games. The problem is that Windows loads itself into memory from the top down, so the performance hit is seen right away, not after you've already filled up the said limit of RAM. This is because Windows loads into the uncached area of RAM first.

If you have an AMD K6-III processor (and maybe the AMD K6-2+, I can't remember), you will have L2 cache on the chip itself, which doesn't have such a limitation (in this case, the L2 cache on the motherboard becomes a L3 cache).

3. The ALi Aladdin V chipset has no problems with the Sound Blaster Live! or certain network cards. This is because the PCI bus doesn't get interrupted like it does with VIA chipsets. I can't vouch for or against the old SiS chipsets, since I have never tried a Sound Blaster Live! with them.

4. This is the most stable motherboard I have ever owned (BCM VP-1541, very similar to the Gigabyte board).

Things to be aware of:

1. People have reported problems on many Super Socket-7 mainboards using 3.0-volt AGP graphics cards (3.0-volt AGP cards are not very common these days). Most new cards are 1.5-volt, and should pose no problem. The GeForce 3 Ti200 graphics card in my system does not pose any compatibility issues with the ALi chipset, although my older TNT2 card had a few issues on my motherboard (BCM VP-1541). They were all resolved by setting the AGP data rate to 1X. When I gave the card to my sister (Gigabyte GA-5AX, same chipset), she didn't seem to have any problems running it in 2X mode.

I hope this information helps. Just let me know if you have any more questions about either of these boards.

 

[thecoffeeguy]

MrBumpy,

Thanks for the detailed information. I was planning on buying the Gigabyte board. However, after you recent post, i've decided to just buy the sucker.

I appreciate your input. All I need now is a AGP card (nothing fancy really) a NIC and sound card. I have the CPU and memory. Then im going to load on Slackware and run it as a Linux server (havent decided all the details yet)

THanks again for your input.

TheCoffeedude