Socket A/XP with SDR + DDR

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: tcsenter
Finally heard back from Newegg. They're giving me a Biostar M7VIG as a replacement. We'll see how that goes...

Should be good, 8235 southbridge and 3 phase power

 

[tcsenter]

Should be good, 8235 southbridge and 3 phase power

Nope, the 8233A. The Pro version uses the 8235, but the guy from Newegg didn't know whether they had plans to carry the Pro version and, if so, when. I would have preferred the Pro.

 

[tcsenter]

Cool, I've been considering one of those for a HTPC box I keep contemplating on building since it allows me to reuse my Crucial 512mb PC133 SDRAM, Radeon 8500LE, and my venerable Aureal SQ1500 w/ digital coax output. Are you using it in a Micro-ATX case or a standard ATX case? Also curious as to whether it has any overclocking features at all (FSB/voltage/multiplier adjustments). Keep us updated!

Got the M7VIG today. I submitted my RMA on the 5th of December, it was approved on the 6th, I shipped the board on the 9th, Newegg received the board on the 12th, offered the M7VIG as a replacement on the 26th, and I received it on the 31st.

As for my case, I'm using the Evercase ECE4252 Mid-Tower in beige. Newegg's link is here. Excellent case for the money.

I've been in and out today, so I haven't installed it as of yet. Stay tuned...

 

[Booster]

It would be better in the long run and for cost-efficiency to sell old SDRAM, add a couple of $ and get a stick of DDR. Then you'd have a lot more, and a lot better options. The money you save by not going DDR isn't worth it, IMO.

 

[spanky]

ecs k7s5a is $35 shipped at newegg refurb

 

[tcsenter]

It would be better in the long run and for cost-efficiency to sell old SDRAM, add a couple of $ and get a stick of DDR. Then you'd have a lot more, and a lot better options. The money you save by not going DDR isn't worth it, IMO.

This was an RMA job, so it didn't cost me a thing. My mainboard went bad and it was still under warranty, Newegg replaced it with the Biostar M7VIG. Spending more money on DDR RAM just doesn't make sense. I don't do 3D rendering, or video production, or anything that would justify the extra bandwidth and expense of DDR. Plus, if I were to sell my 512MB of used PC133, it probably would not bring enough to buy more than a single 256MB stick of DDR, if even that. I'm fairly certain that going from 512MB of SDRAM to 256MB of DDRAM will hardly be a perceptible difference in my situation.

At the same time, I also couldn't see buying another SDR-only board, since I will at some point in the future certainly make the switch to DDR, just not today.

 

[glenn1]

IIRC Chaintech has a board which allows use of either memory type and has an AGP slot, don't remember the model # however.

 

[tcsenter]

Also curious as to whether it has any overclocking features at all (FSB/voltage/multiplier adjustments). Keep us updated!

With the latest BIOS (114), it has the following selectable FSB/PCI options:

100/33
105/35
107/36
109/37
114/38 <-- end 1/3 divider
119/30 <-- start 1/4 divider
123/31
133/33 <-- hardware jumper to set 133FSB

Although, the BIOS actually shows FSB/PCI option for 109/33, which I'm sure is just a typo/error in the BIOS text field. I don't know what options would appear for a 133FSB CPU, since I'm using a 100FSB CPU.

DDR RAM has voltage adjustment jumper 2.5v, 2.6v, 2.7v, 2.8v. No other options that I can see for overclocking, except manual DRAM timing configuration.

Curiously, the BIOS ID string at POST shows 8235 for the SB, even though the board in fact uses the 8233A. I've used two different utilities to verify the hardware/device ID.

 

[Hockeyfan6781]

Shuttle AK32A version 2.1 is a nice stable board.