Would you replace an asus a7v133 with a ECS K7S5A

Zarick

Senior member
Apr 20, 2002
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I have been thinking about getting a new motherboard. My computer keeps having little quirky problems.. I have never been very sure that this motherboard is all that great. I was thinking of spending 50 bucks and buying the ECS K7S5A motherboard and just tossing the a7v. Does anyone have an opinion?
 

Mavrick007

Diamond Member
Dec 19, 2001
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It's not a bad mobo for the price, but there are other good deals on new AMD mobos.

I would also look at the Asus nforce A7n266 board cause it's only like $70 and has great sound, as well as onboard video, or you could look at a Shuttle board for under $75, or the Epox 8k3ae with the Kt333 chipset which also looks good for under $70.

There are alot of good mobos sub-$75 now and I would take a look at what you really need for features and match it up for the best price.
 

Brian48

Diamond Member
Oct 15, 1999
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I really like this motherboard. Both mine and my brother's have been running for nearly a year now. For us, it's been very stable and very fast. The on-board LAN is especially nice. If there's only one thing I can find fault with it, it's that it's virtually devoid of any tweaking and overclocking features. Then again, this board was never mean for the enthusiasts.
 

Zarick

Senior member
Apr 20, 2002
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I should meantion that I only have pc133 ram.
So I would have to get a mobo that supported it. I would also like something that supported both pc133 and DDR.
On top of that I really do not want anything VIA. I have just had too much trouble with their MOBOS.
So if you have a suggestions other than this mobo that meets those criteria please post it.
 

Bovinicus

Diamond Member
Aug 8, 2001
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It looks like a good transition path. It has both SDR and DDR memory slots, which will allow you to transition over to DDR when you have the cash, or for that matter, the want to do so. The lack of tweaking options would prevent me from buying the board, but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to those who aren't into that type of thing. There are some other SiS735 boards that may have more tweaking options (Leadtek's for exmaple), but I cannot say for sure if they have both SDR and DDR slots, which seems like it is a necessary feature for you.
 

thorin

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
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This board is great. I've just built a 2200+ system on it and am about to build another of the same for my brother. Also one of my friends runs a 1GHz duron on this board and another one runs a 1700+. It's very stable, has a great cost/price point.

On a side note they've just released new AGP drivers for this and other SiS chipsets..
Check here for info and the download.

Thorin
 

zodder

Diamond Member
Mar 20, 2000
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www.jpcompservices.com
The K7S5A that I had ran flawlessly. You can even add a few overclocking options by downloading the overclocking BIOS at OC Workbench. I'd certainly recommend it for people who aren't going to do any hardcore overclocking. It's nice to have the SDR/DDR option, too.
 

Zarick

Senior member
Apr 20, 2002
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well. I have been having issues forever.
Right now my issue is that when I play graphically intense games my whole system just freezes.
I have traced everything down to the mobo not supplying proper voltage to the ram chips.
On top of that I have had issues with my sblive and wierd noise. I have tried the latency patch, I have tried all kinds of stuff and nothing works.
I have also had problems with the usb ports.. where they would actually stop responding when I was playing a game.

I recently upgraded my powersupply which helped a few issues, but I have had enough to make me say.. you know.. its time to rid myself of this board.
 

Zarick

Senior member
Apr 20, 2002
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board is too old.
When I bought the board I had 128 ram, a voodoo3 3k and an old sound card.
Things worked okay. It wasnt until I upped the ram to 512, put a geforce 3ti500 in it, then added the sblive that I started seeing issues.
 

hclarkjr

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,375
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did you try the new latency patch? version 020beta11? i had the exact same problems as you till i applied that patch now i have perfect sound and my games do not lock up anymore. i have a radeon and soundblaster sound card in my system so i had double whammy till that patch, if you can't find it email me and i will send it to you.
 

aswedc

Diamond Member
Oct 25, 2000
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If you are going to be keeping the SDRAM, I would not recommend getting the K7S5A. In my experience, while it is a great budget board when running DDR, the stability gets flaky while SDRAM is in use
 

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
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I had problems with SDRAM until I updated the bios, then it was fine.
 

thorin

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Between myself and friends we've run the K7S5A flawlessly with SDRAM and DDR.

1 Duron 1GHz w/ SDRAM
1 Athlon XP 1700+ w/ SDRAM
2 Athlong XP Thoroughbred 2200+ w/ DDR

Thorin
 

DimZiE

Golden Member
Jun 26, 2001
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my game/internet/fileserver system is using the ecs k7s5a .... no complaints from me...

it's a good board for the price ... and with a BIOS flash you can o/c it.
it,s running 24/6 for almost 4 months....



i've been using ASUS boards before i tried the K7S5A.... now i find myself sticking to ECS boards coz i can spend invest more on other peripherals
 

1999TL

Junior Member
Apr 15, 2002
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Originally posted by: DimZiE
my game/internet/fileserver system is using the ecs k7s5a .... no complaints from me...

it's a good board for the price ... and with a BIOS flash you can o/c it.
it,s running 24/6 for almost 4 months....



i've been using ASUS boards before i tried the K7S5A.... now i find myself sticking to ECS boards coz i can spend invest more on other peripherals

Which Bios lets you Overclock?