K7S5A

[MithShrike]

Now, I know there are the people who swear by these and I personally know people who have gone through the horrors of getting an OEM version from GoogleGear and the like. Anyways, I'm going to purchase one and it 's only $99 with an Athlon XP 2000+. So, my question is could I underclock the CPU to 1.25GHz so that I could use my PC100 ? Any help would be greatly appreicated.

 

[mechBgon]

That should work. Still a nice boost over the ol' P2 If your PC100 is recent stuff it might do 133MHz. My K7S5A has been reliable and was not dramatically slower when used with PC133 instead of PC2100 DDR (10% maximum difference in my tests, using a 1.4GHz Athlon). A quality 300W power supply seems to be a good idea with the K7S5A (and many other current boards).

 

[RossGr]

Since they are nearly giving away PC133 these days why would you worry about keeping the PC100?

 

[Scouzer]

If you got the money, get the PC133. Chances are pretty good you'll hurt your performance significantly if you stick with your PC100. But yes, you could stick with the PC100.

 

[MithShrike]

Thanx people. Yah, $$$ being the limited factor I may get some PC2100 or PC133 it just depends.

 

[Booster]

The K7S5A is great. Having read how many problems exist or may exist with this board, I had been heartily recommending it to my brother and tricked him into buying one.

I hope you won't have any problems, though .

 

[Peter]

Yes, you can (and you have to anyway) set the CPU/RAM speed manually. There is no 133/100 combination, so to run PC100 RAM, you must run the CPU bus at 100 too. The only Athlon chipset I've seen do 133/100 is ALi's btw. I faintly recall there MIGHT be a modified BIOS for K7S5A that lets you do that too. Investigate.

 

[thegimp]

I'm looking to get the same mb combo. (gonna' build a budget gaming system).
question..............
which is better 256 ddr or 512 sdram? (can get them both for about the same price)
also any one recommend a nice case i can wrap around this combo (cheap)?

 

[billtmore]

I tell you I have set 3 comps with 2100DDR and wonder is it really worth it?!?! earlier i posted... which MB would be best to use with pc 133
cus I see 133 so cheap the ecs k7s5a was recommended then you go to amdmb and read the horror stories but you have to take that with a grain of salt I got a bargain on 2100...40 after rebate(for another computer) but still not sure the pc 133 would be slower for common use...sometimes I get caught up in that speed mentality the next comp is going to the ex and it might just be the K7S5A with 512 of pc 133 with that cheap 1600XP