Socket A dregs

[time]

I've just had to replace a couple of socket A boards due to capacitor failures, and boy, there sure isn't much choice left (the originals were Epox, but I insist on replacing with other brands).

The local Gigabyte supplier only had two models, one of which was superseded some time ago (eg 333MHz DDR limitation). Via only, no firewire, no SATA.

So I selected two Asus models (I think there might have been three available).

1. Asus A7V400-MX (Via KM400A mATX). Everyone knows that the onboard graphics is slow as molasses, but even with a standalone video card, CPU and memory benchmarks seemed disappointingly poor. No significant lift from tweaking the very basic BIOS settings.

I can't get the TV card to work. It worked before, it installs in another PC, but Windows can't seem to match up the driver when it's sitting in this board. Hopefully, it's just more Windows weirdness (although God knows how I'm going to fix it).

So far, it's been stable except for failing to boot on one occasion. :-?

2. Asus A7N8X-X (nForce2). Couldn't work out why it kept saying "Single Channel RAM" at POST, despite my shuffling the two RAM sticks around. Doh! Asus saved a few pennies by skipping the dual channel capability, but left the mesage in the BIOS ...

The QFan speed controller doesn't appear to work, and the reported CPU temperature of thirty something degrees C is nonsense.

Compared to the three year old Epox 8RDA+ design it replaced:

- Lost a PCI slot.
- Went from three to two phase power (I think).
- Lost a fan header, so power supply fan monitoring went west.
- Lost Firewire.
- The Epox FDD and HDD cables have clips to stop them pulling out. When I tried to use them on the Asus, I discovered that some brain-dead designer zombie had positioned the floppy connector so that one end butts right up against the the CD connector. You couldn't get paper between them, let alone find space for clips.

And here's the killer: the capacitors are unbranded. They're brown in color and if you look really hard there's a three-letter code (which I've forgotten). It may even be "RLZ".

 

[Mercutio]

It's worth holding out for GA-7VM400s if you possibly can.

I've found that the GA-7VAX (with its 333MHz limitations and all) can handle a Sempron 3000. I'd expect newer Gigabyte boards can therefore also deal with anything short of a 3200.

Also, it's the thermal protection on that Asus board makes it a steaming pile of crap, not any of the other things that are wrong with it.

 

[LiamC]

I don't understand the reputation ASUS commands (premum brand)?

Every post I've ever read over the last five years from peoples opinions that I have come to respect have always included numerous qualifiers and/or gotcha's when dealing with ASUS as a brand. If it has to be qualified so heavily, why is ASUS held in such high regard? Is it just a hangover--ASUS was worth paying a substantial premium for five or siz years ago, but now they've come back to the pack and people's opinions haven't caught up with reality?

Abit was the o/cing company originally. Then EPoX. But these days EPoX commands ASUS prices and DFI seems to have passed them by. IIRC, DFI hired all the good Abit engineers when Abit started having financial difficulties.

 

[i]

Is it just a hangover--ASUS was worth paying a substantial premium for five or siz years ago, but now they've come back to the pack and people's opinions haven't caught up with reality?

Yes. Just like Plextor.