Abit kT7A MB

[jutah]

Anybody heard how the Abit KT7A MB is? Or how it works with an 1.2 Athalon? Also I saw one with Raid and one without. What is the difference?
Thanks
Jutah

[xhadow]

excellent MB, it even support for the latest AMD Athlon (Athlon4/Palomino), if you want to upgrade later :)

difference..uhmm, one with RAID controller built-in, the one without :D :D
sorry, did you mean what the difference between normal IDE and IDE-RAID?

[bdg1983]

I've got the KT7A with a 1.13 266fsb TBird though I haven't gotten around to install Linux yet. Still working on ME and W2K.

From what I've read about the board, it is supposed to be one of the better ones. I did flash the bios a few days ago with the latest bios update from Abit.

I'm not expecting to have any problems when I do install my distro.

[word]

Read this page (http://www.viahardware.com/faq/kt7/kt7faq.htm)

It covers all the KT7 models (KT7, KT7A, KT7E).

[jutah]

Thanks to all for the info :). My other question is I have never put a cpu and m/b together. I have added everything eles before like HD's floopys and cards, but I have always had my m/b and cpu already installed. How hard is it to do? Iam pretty good with computers so should I be able to handle it? Is it just a matter of setting some jumpers and setting the cpu in place?
Thanks
Jutah

[bdg1983]

The KT7A is jumperless, so just plop in the cpu and a good headsink (thermal paste if you have it) and away you go.

Getting those damn heatsink clips over the notches was the hard part especially for the PIII-733.

Next time I will install the cpu/heatsink before mounting the motherboard in the case.

[jutah]

Is Thermal paste a necessity?
thanks
Jutah

[bdg1983]

Not really unless you want to overclock quite a bit.

If you have a good quality heatsink/fan then you can do without it.

I just decided that on all my new pc's, I would use Artic Silver compound.

My PIII-733 runs at 41c and the AMD 1.13 at 39-40c with the Artic Silver. The AMD has the Global Win heatsink/fan ( I think). It's at least better than the one that came with the retail Intel PIII-733.

[word]

Most heatsinks now have themal tape already applied. Do not apply thermal paste over the thermal tape. If you use themal paste you will need to scrape off the thermal tape first (use plastic like an old credit card so you don't scratch the heatsink surface).

Also the thermal tape will be covered by a thin piece of pastic tape (mine was red). REMOVE THE PLASTIC TAPE before applying the heatsink to the CPU. Abit's website has a very good howto on installing the heatsink.

I visit several other forums and nearly every week someone will post about how they either crushed the CPU core or it burned up due to poor heatsink installation, and yes, some have left the plastic tape on.

[jutah]

Ty to all :) . I just bought the ABIT KT7A from Sunset and the Athlon 1200 266 fsb from microbarn. I'll let you all know how it all goes. Also is a 300W mid case enough?
Thanks
Jutah

[Choozo]

300 Watts should be plenty, depending on the quality of the Power Supply and how many devices you plan on hooking up (harddrives, CDroms, add-on cards, etc.)
(From earlier experience, the TNT2/Riva graphics card is quite picky on the 15Amp/3.3Volt supply.)

[jutah]

Not too many. One HD, a cdrw, a modem, sound card, and probally a cheap 32 mb graphics card.
thanks
Jutah

[Piix4]

if you flash its bios properly you should be able to get a 1.4ghz @266fsb at least it seems to be working just fine for me for the last week or so!