Thoughts on the KG7 ?

[KaraK]

a mate at work just bought one, I've heard lots of vauge opinions about it but nonen of them have ever go more detailed then "its crap" or "its amazing"

So anyone out there used it ? got any tips I could pass on ? It's my mate's first system build since his Athlon classic (which was on an AMD-set based Asus mobo I believe) so is there anything he should know ?

[muckshifter]

I just finished putting a "KG7 Light" together this afternoon, well impressed with the speed. Paul's has some updates worth looking at.

http://www.viahardware.com/faq/kt7/kt7faq.htm

If I was in the market for a new board I would probable go for the KG7A Raid.

Will let you know more on the "Light" when I finish installing ME. ;)

[floppybootstomp]

Keep us posted Mucks... :) I'm considering that board myself.

You using DDR RAM and a 266 CPU on that setup?

What BIOS does it ship with?

And is it any good?

Oh, one last question - who was your supplier. Other than that - no questions :D

[muckshifter]

I do stress ... this is the "light" version; I would like the chance to work on a KG7A, big difference in the two.

Yes to “You using DDR RAM and a 266 CPU on that set-up”

What BIOS does it ship with? … Never looked, will find out for you tomorrow.

To answer your supplier question Flopps, this is "customer bought" system, not one of mine. (I can get them if you want)

The poor lad had a "beep" error on boot-up and had phoned me for advice. I told him it was a "mem beep" error and to replace the DDR stick of NO-NAME 256 (some people never learn, but to his defence he was “told” it was compatible) His supplier (internet based), I will get their name, told him it was the motherboard ... he was given the run-a-round by all. Finally brought it to me. :D

I just happen to have two sticks of 128, 2100 from Gigabyte lying around and popped them in. :D

Will finish it off installing the OS tomorrow and charge him £15.00.

:D

[floppybootstomp]

Nice one Mr Mucks, just hope your man realises he's got a bargain from you.

He complain about price, just line him up for an ass-kicking contest :)

[AmStoned]

Okay, let me get this straight, you've installed your KG7 w/o a hitch. 'Cause from some posts I saw, some people couldn't get their 1.4GHz to boot.

What speed is your CPU and what kind of component specs are we looking at? Looking forward to the results.

[KaraK]

Amstoned: interesting about the KG7 + 1.4, thats what my mate bought, I'll try find out what flavour he got and wether he had any issues (things have been mental at work and I dont know if he's had chance to do the build yet)

[muckshifter]

Just finished it off and that was boring and uneventful. No problems at all! Boy it flies though! :D

It was an AMD 1.2Mhz 266 and as I said, it was the "KG7 Light" sorry flops did not check to see what the BIOS was.

I had the Diabetic Clinic this morning and by the time I got to the workshop the young lad was waiting for me, so I did not get much chance to play. :(

Temps were 42c idle 56c on full load. Told him to get a couple of case fans (not in stock here) and maybe change the Flop32 HSF or get a better fan fitted.

Them IBM Darkstars are nice. :D

[KaraK]

my friend hasnt built his system yet but after I mentioned what AmStoned said he looked into it and apparantly its a timing issue but is supposed to be fixable

[BitBender]

Amstoned, did you fiddle at all with lower speed seetings to see if it would boot?

I too, am interested, as this KG7-R box stares me in the face, and the 1.4/DDR memory is in in the shipping pipe, I wonder what adventures await.

Braveheart, I will consult the parchment at Paul's site, but if there were any 'anomolies' that you discovered, please be sure to let us know!

And the KG7-R/1.4 that I'm building is not a customer order, but, guess what we are going to use it for!

[DragonAce]

i got mine (KG7) fired up 2 days ago now..
had a biatch of a time at the beginning and it would only boot "stable" at 1050 (10.5x100)
after messing with it a while and having the bios go all weird on me (fragmentation of the screen BIG TIME)..i hopped into the health stats and saw this puppy was running way too hot..

**something to note guys!!**
applied a big dose of AS to it..(appears that the 1.4 has shrunk in height..no longer .5mm like the lower speed chips were..and i run a shim so)

all has been fine since and doing 1595 (11x145@1.8v)..

[Darksword]

Can you get your FSB higher at lower multiplier settings? Do you think it's your RAM holding you back on the FSB or your peripheral cards?

[DragonAce]

DK..
hey amigo..how goes it??

unsure as of yet..
haven't really been pushing it all that much..just going a step at a time..
i'm sure it'll do more eventually as all i've done for voltage on the DDR is 2.83 (3 more steps to take it yet, 2.6, 2.8 i think and 3v)
and as you point out the chip'll do some more yet..
wanna get things a tad "fanned" as well to keep the temps lower..
haven't tried any of DD or OPP's ram optimizations yet either so..but so far all is steady with the pci's..(4-4-1)
guess we waits and sees...:-)