K7S5A questions

[Ilmater]

I'm looking to get an intermediatry upgrade for my computer before the Hammer comes out and I was thinking of using this board. I have an old Dell with an Intel 440BX chipset mobo and a PII 450. I have NO intentions of overclocking, as I said, it's just a fill-in. I have a few questions first:

1) Will I HAVE to do a fresh install of Win2k, or will I be able to use my current version?
2) Will my PS work with this mobo? It's a 300W PS, so I am assuming that it'll be enough, but I'm concerned about the connections.
3) Can I run an Athlon 1600+ at 133MHz FSB with PC100 SDRAM, both running at spec? I'd rather not buy RAM yet if I don't have to.
4) Are there any other recommendations for a cheap mobo from a different company? The reason is, when I wrote into ECS's tech support, this is the crap they sent back:

Dear Sir/Madam:


1st question.

I don't Dell system , In most case , If you move Intel 440BX motherboard of power supply and cooling fan will not GOOD enough to support at AMD CPU , special is CPU.

2nd question.

K7S5a 1.x and 3.x is minor change, You can said their same.
So far I know we didn't release K7S5A2 in US market.

3rd question.

This board if you apply latest BIOS then you support up to XP2200+ in the current market what you can get from AMD .


"""""""" Please include all the previous correspondence or case number when replying """"""""

Regards,


ECSUSA Support Team

That's pretty ridiculous if you ask me.

 

[Ilmater]

C'Mon, anybody?

 

[Buz2b]

Originally posted by: Ilmater
I'm looking to get an intermediatry upgrade for my computer before the Hammer comes out and I was thinking of using this board. I have an old Dell with an Intel 440BX chipset mobo and a PII 450. I have NO intentions of overclocking, as I said, it's just a fill-in. I have a few questions first:

1) Will I HAVE to do a fresh install of Win2k, or will I be able to use my current version?
2) Will my PS work with this mobo? It's a 300W PS, so I am assuming that it'll be enough, but I'm concerned about the connections.
3) Can I run an Athlon 1600+ at 133MHz FSB with PC100 SDRAM, both running at spec? I'd rather not buy RAM yet if I don't have to.
4) Are there any other recommendations for a cheap mobo from a different company? The reason is, when I wrote into ECS's tech support, this is the crap they sent back:

I'll tackle a couple but don't get too impatient. All you have to do is use the Search function and put in the K7S5A and you will no doubt bring up numerous threads; some of which will answer your questions.

#1. Best bet; Yes, you will have to do a fresh install of your OS. The main reason is that you are going from an Intel chipset to and AMD/SIS one. That being said, I have "heard" that it is possible to "remove" and reinstall your board drivers in Win2K prior to shutting down to install a new MB and it might work. I DO NOT use Win2K so I cannot confirm this but simply state it as a possibility. However, I would again stress that your best bet would be a fresh install.
#2. Doubt it. First and foremost, the connector from a Dell PS is "non-standard". Even if it were "standard" it migh not work. However, what is the make/model number of your PS? Can you also read off the amp ratings from the side of the unit and the combined 3.3 and 5 volt rating? That is important with an AMD system. As I said though, it most likely will NOT work.
#3. Depends on your RAM. Some will, some won't. It's a "crap shoot" at best. PC133 is not that expensive though; why not get some Crucial and not worry about it. In any event, I wouldn't count on this at all; like the PS.
#4. We all get pissed from time to time when the responses don't seem to fit our questions. Please keep in mind that ECS is a Chinese company. IF they happen to have someone that speaks english to a decent degree; that is a bonus. Yes, we all know that they are making major bucks with this board here in the US, but contrary to the "normal" frame of mind that we have here, not all countries consider it a priority to have "english" speaking reps. It's a bonus,not a requirement.
Does that excuse the reply that you got; NO. But I would ask that you think hard before you condemn a company for their communication skills. Otherwise, you might be condemning most of the ones we all deal with. The reality of this is that most of the companies in this "market" are located overseas and in the asian theatre.Would it be better if they were more equipped to handle our Q&A's; Heck YES. Will it happen soon; doubt it.

 

[Ilmater]

Thanks for the help. I did notice that there were tons of questions on the board about the K7S5A (actually, I noticed you were on most of them Buz2B), but none of them addressed questions 2 or 3 at all.

With regards to question 3, my real question is, can I run the RAM and FSB asynchronously. I would think that anyone with this board could tell me whether or not it has that ability.

As for the tech support response, I didn't mean to sound quite so ethnocentric. That's the last thing we Americans need at this point is people to start talking about how other countries should confine to our way of doing things. Hell, I took two years of two different languages (German and Spanish, four years total) and I can barely speak a lick of either.

But those weren't the only classes I took in college. I also took an International Marketing class, so I understand what should be required of a company that operates in another country. As a lot of their business is from the US, and they even have a regional office here (in Fremont, CA) I believe that it is simply terrible business sense to reply to someone with an answer like that. If I still sound ethnocentric, look at it this way: a US company that was selling lots of products over there would be seen as disrespectful and ethnocentric as well if they were to reply in terribly broken Taiwanese. If I were the only American that owned the board and received it through strange channels, then I would understand if I got a response like that. I see this as simply bad business.

 

[Peter]

3) No, valid CPU/RAM speed combinations are 100/100, 100/133, 133/133.

2) Hardly ... especially because the new breed of CPUs creates huge jumps in power consumption, older power supplies that may look strong enough aren't QUICK enough to react to those and keep the voltage steady.

1) Yes, because the IDE driver for the boot drive will be different. W2K doesn't like that, and doesn't adapt either. INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE blue screen will be all you get.

4) ECS folks aren't very good at English, you should have noted this from their web page ... and no, most other Taiwan based companies aren't any better at that, and have worse boards that cost more.

regards, Peter

 

[PG]

With regards to question 3, my real question is, can I run the RAM and FSB asynchronously. I would think that anyone with this board could tell me whether or not it has that ability.

Yes, you can run asynchronously, but it really hurts the performance.

 

[Buz2b]

With regards to question 3, my real question is, can I run the RAM and FSB asynchronously. I would think that anyone with this board could tell me whether or not it has that ability.

A more specific question gets a more specific answer. Peter and PG have both answered and both are correct. Yes, you can run asynchronously BUT NOT in the combination you are asking: 133/100.

 

[Ilmater]

Thanks for the help. I'll splurge the extra money for the PC133 for now. Thanks.

 

[jackwhitter]

if you use win 2k's repair feature after putting in your new hardware, it reinstalls all the original system files, and redetects hardware... i've used it successfully a couple of times. you have to redo all the updates though, like pack 3, and all that. reinstall all hardware drivers.


you might consider ddr since the hammer chipsets will be using it... the k7s5a supports both sdram and ddr... just a thought if u plan to buy new ram.


yeah, dell power supplies ahve the same atx connector, but the pinout is different. the board would not work with the power supply and you might burn it out trying.

 

[Ilmater]

WHAT??? There is a way???? Someone please elaborate on how to use this feature, or at least point me to a site that explains this. I have no problem installing the drivers again, but I'd really like to get around the hassle of a fresh install until my bigger upgrade later. Even if it only might work it's obviously worth a try. Please elaborate.

 

[Peter]

So if you're going to buy new RAM, go DDR! K7S5A lets you do that too ...

 

[Ilmater]

There's only one problem. I'm assuming that DDR400 is still going to be the fastest RAM you can buy for the Hammer, but I don't really know that. I can imagine that either DDR II will be out (especially if Hammer doesn't make it out until January), or DDR533 will be out. If I pay money for a premium stick of RAM now (it would be Corsair's XMS CL2 DDR400 512MB stick), then I don't want to have that be the next-to-fastest solution for the Hammer chipsets. I know it's picky, but I'd like to have bragging rights for a month or two.

Now, back to the repair feature in Win2k!!!! Tell me more!

 

[cards]

see the follwoing recent threads for a workaround for the inaccess oot drive - no need to reinstall

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=29&threadid=862914&highlight_key=y

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=29&threadid=864241&highlight_key=y

sorry - i'd say ore ut several keys are no longer working -KIDS!

 

[Ilmater]

You're my hero. Sorry about your keyboard. That's all I needed to know. Thanks to all.