Soyo K7VME Socket A microATX MoBo

[nobodyfamou]

Hi everyone....

I just got this new package deal from tigerdirect.com that has a Soyo K7VME Socket A MoBo in it.

I also purchased the recomended CPU. An AMD Athlon XP2100+ / 256K Cache / 266MHz FSB / Socket A Processor and the recommended heatsink.

I have 2 questions.

1. Is there someway to shut off the 32MB shared video memory? I've got a raedon 7500 128MB video card that I'd like to use

and...

2. I plan on swapping the memor and the HD into the new case. Will I 'confuse' the operating system? In this case it's (broken)Windows XPpro.


Any wisdom would be appericiated greatly.

Thanks,

Nobodyfamous

 

[Harvey]

Hi, and welcome to AT.

1. The info and photo for your board shows an independent AGP slot so you should be able to turn off the onboard video.

Read the manual, and check your CMOS settings. There may be a setting to select the default video adapter. If there is no setting, it may automatically detect the presence of an external AGP vid card and turn off the onboard.

2. If you have access to a spare hard drive and a copy of Norton Ghost, the safest thing to do is Ghost your drive before you start. Ghost makes a fully functional clone of your drive so if your setup gets screwed up in the transfer, you can go back to where you started and try again. You can Ghost an 80 GB drive in 4 - 8 minutes.

Your Soyo board uses a VIA chipset. If your old board was not also a VIA board, it may be a good idea to uninstall any specific drivers for your old chipset before you do the transfer. You should also turn off any restore points because whatever's there won't be valid when you're through. When you boot up with the Soyo board, the system should request your installation disk for the new drivers it requires.

I've done this successfully a few times, but it isn't a sure thing. That's why I always Ghost before trying it. There's nothing like 100% security that you can undo any bad events. I'll leave it to others to comment further on their tips and experiences.

Good luck.