Compatibility Horrors
Written: Jun 12 '02 (Updated May 21 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: cost, onboard features, supports two types of RAM, temperature monitor
Cons: (few) compatibility problems, not easy to overclock
The Bottom Line: I recomment this for people looking to spend less money for something descent.
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| bw_me99's Full Review: EliteGroup K7S5A Motherboard |
I bought a computer kit that came with the motherboard, cpu (Athlon XP2100), and case(midtower w/300watt power) all for $320. When I received the parts in the mail, I put in my video card (Voodoo3-3000 agp), sound card (soundblaster live platinum), modem, network card, cd drives, and hard drives. After all that I tried to fire it up and it would not even start to boot, although everything had power. When I pulled the soundcard and modem, it would boot OK. Obviously that is not acceptable, so I tried a few different things. When I used a different video card it worked, but only on 16 color mode (Intel graphics card-4mb agp). The computer also will not restart properly, and won't boot up 1 out of 10 times. My solution to that is a new video card (ECS 64mb agp w/tv out). It works great and now everything is back to normal.
(NOTE: the video card compatibility was the problem... was using the wrong speed AGP port...make sure you check these when you buy parts: a 4x card cant work in a 2x port, etc)
The current setup I have is this:
ECS K7S5A, AMD Athlon XP2100 (1.733ghz)
512MB DDR RAM (mushkin.com)
Western Digital 80GB 7200rpm 8mb cache HD
Western Digital 18GB 7200rpm 2mb cache HD
ECS SIS315p 64MB video card w/tv out
DSI Broadxent 56k modem
Realtek network adapter
32x burner, 50x cdrom
1.44MB floppy, 100MB Zip drive
Windows 98SE
With about 8 programs on my startup and an extra IDE controller card installed (for support of 4 extra devices), Windows is completely loaded in about 20-22 seconds. That time can be cut down by taking out my controller card, or disabling device drivers. I am thoroughly impressed.
My personal views on this motherboard is that it is good for the price, but there are much better ones that won't have any problems, but have more features. The front USBs are very nice to have; and 5 PCI slots are plenty for expansion, considering the onboard sound and optional onboard network. Supporting DDR ram and SDRAM is good, especially for economy PCs that will use the cheaper SDRAM... but the price gap between these types of ram is closing, so the good choice is to go with DDR ram, which is twice as fast as SDRAM.
Motherboard specs/features:
*RAM support: two slots for DDR and two slots for SD, they cannot both be used at the same time. Max of 1gb installed. Timing is adjustable in Bios.
*Onboard devices: my system bios shows onboard sound, modem, and network; but I only have onboard sound, which works good.
*FSB: up to 266mhz.
*CPU speed support: autodetectable from 500mhz duron on up into the 1733mhz XPs.
*Sensors: There are two different temperature readings- system and cpu. There are two different fan rpm readings-case and cpu. All voltages are monitored as well.
*AGP: version 2.0, max data transfer rate of 4x. There is side-band support; fast-writes are not enabled.
*PCI slots: 5 slots; 32bit
*ISA slots: none, but it doesn't matter because these are old and not used anymore.
*Ports: two serial, mouse, keyboard, two rear USB, two front USB, parallel/printer.
*AMR slot: present.
*CMOS: BIOS is upgradeable and cacheable.
*IDE: standard EDIE channels...ATA33/66/100 supported.
*Floppy: standard two channels supported.
Yeah, so it's been two years later on this same board. I have a new 350 watt power supply, but that doesnt solve the startup problems i have randomly. If i restart the computer, there is no chance it will show anything on the screen. I have to power down and power up. But 1 out of 7 times when i turn the computer on for the first time, it does the same thing, and Ill need to shut it down then turn it back on, usually 3 times.
Other than that, I like the board still.
I've added another 256mb PC2100 ram.
Also have XP Professional (sp1) on it. format-installation of XP went flawless, and it installed every single driver i needed! works very nice still.
I also now think that this mobo IS nicely compatible with a lot of hardware. Mail me with questions.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 80
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Epinions.com ID:
bw_me99
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Member: First Last
Location: USA
Reviews written: 31
Trusted by: 5 members
About Me:
Hi. This is me.
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