GA-7VRXP
Written: Jul 26 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Price, features, quantity & quality of hardware build
Cons: Shut down automatically restarts. Poor wording in manual. Jumper for 133 speeds. NO TECH SUPPORT.
The Bottom Line: Buy board with OEM CPU and use a CoolerMaster DP5-6131A equivalent or better. Although the Boxed cooler works fine if instaled properly, I never had this trouble with CoolerMaster.
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| wilbertg's Full Review: Gigabyte GA-7VRXP Motherboard |
SYSTEM SETUP
I mailed ordered my Gigabyte board from Essential Computers with an AMD2100+ boxed CPU and XP HOME. When it quickly arrived in 1 1/2 days, I installed two{2}256K=512K of PC2100 Crucial memory and the CPU with fan. I looked, compared, and re-looked at the AMD instructions to install the Heatsink/fan. After installation, I thought that it was odd that the fan did not cover the entire CPU but believed that I had install it correctly. I installed it in a 320 watt case, with a ATI 7500 video card, 60GB and 80GB Maxtor 133A hard drives, CDRW & DVD drives on the secondary, 40GB Maxtor & 100 ATAPI Zip drive on the promise ATA plugged into a SONY 19 inch.
PROBLEM
I tried to boot up with dip switches set to auto and SW1 off, but the board would not respond (POST). I set dip SW1 back to 'on' and the board allowed me to boot my ME DOS disk. I was then able to partition my drives, format and setup XP. When I rebooted, the systems came up with AMD1500+ running at 1300 instead of AMD2100+ running at 1733MHz. I could restart the system to show AMD2100+ and the Gigabyte software would show 1733MHz, but it was still running at 1300MHz using AMD software.
My CPU temperature was 80-82 degrees C. I went to the AMD site and found that the Max CPU temperature allowed is 90 degrees C. I thought that this may be my problems and that the heatsink and fan were too small. But I also noticed that the VCore voltage of the CPU was 1.744v instead of 1.75v. I turned up the voltage 5% in the software and the CPU temperature surged to 90 degrees C. I quickly turned it off and tried to reboot but the system would not POST with the SW1 switch set for 133. I then reset the voltage and tried a 350 watt power supply which did not fix the problem. I went to a Market Pro computer show and asked a vendor if I was doing something wrong, and he said that everything should be automatic after I sat the switch. At least talking to someone made me feel better, but did not solve my problem.
FOUND PROBLEM
The board ran fine at 1500+ but it was not what I had purchased and was running too hot for CPU reliability. I decided that it must be a faulty motherboard because AMD would not sell a longer warranty with their boxed CPU/heatsink fan assembly if it were too small. Since I could not prove that the motherboard was bad, I purchase a new one from ADAMANT computers at a Market Pro show for $101 plus tax. I took the chance of removing the CPU and fan together from the old board but the HEATSINK/fan popped off the chip as I removed them together. This can be a disaster, but no damage was done.
FIXED PROBLEM
WOW!!!! The thermal pad only covered part of the 'dye' and the rest of the chip was touching the bottom of the heat sink. This was why the CPU ran too hot!! Then the motherboard is probably not bad but I did not want to chance putting the CPU/Heatsink fan back on that board to find out. Instead I purchased thermal paste and thermal strips and covered the 'dye' with paste and a larger area on the bottom of the heat sink with both. I reinstalled everything in my new GA-7VRXP, switched the SW1 to 'off' for 133MHz and the systems booted and ran at 50-52 degrees C without a problem. I now have a AMD2100+ running at 1733 MHz using 6 IDE devices, USB2, and the LAN hooked to my network. The problem most likely was with the heatsink but I cannot confirm that without mounting a new CPU/Heatsink fan combo. I may eventually try it with a cheaper DURON just in case.
The only problem I have that should not occur is that when I click to shutdown the computer, it will restart immediately after it turns off. I can live with it because I just turn off the power strip but this should not be the way the board was designed. I have not found anything in the power management section to explain why this occurs since I have the power button set for 'instant off' and AC back function set for Soft-Off versus Memory and ON. I am more than happy with my board for $101 but I actually paid for two board at $101 & $103 plus shipping in one case and tax in the other.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
wilbertg
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Reviews written: 1
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