I have just setup a new AMD Athlon 1.33GHz PC system using the Abit KT7A motherboard. I have flashed to the latest BIOS, installed Windows 2000 SP2, NVMAX and VIA 4in1 drivers 4.32 etc etc.

I wanted to know how other KT7A users configure and think of this Athlon motherboard - good, bad or otherwise!

So far I have noticed the following:
- The Athlon C 1.33GHz CPU runs quite hot (to about 53 degrees C) when under 100% load using a BIG Volcano II HSF.
- The PC was not very stable when I enabled the following BIOS features:
Fast CPU Command Decode, Enhance Chip Performance and Enable Dram 4K page mode from the Soft FSB III Menu. I set all of these back to default (disabled) and so far 100% stable (but I guess performance may be slightly affected).
- Enabling 4-way memory interleaving works very well.
- My 32Mb GeForce2 GTS works perfectly at 4x AGP with SBA enabled.

What BIOS settings do you guys suggest for the Abit KT7A ?
Does enabling Fast-Writes help or just cause problems?
How fast has anyone dared to overclock the 1.33Ghz Athlon on the Abit KT7A using just air-cooling (eg using a Volcano II HSF like mine) - as I have run 1400MHz (10x 140FSB) but since my GeForce2 GTS is the limiting factor I decided to go 'down' to 1333MHz to save the CPU.

Regards

Greggy
Athlon 'C' 1.33GHz, Abit KT7A, 512Mb PC133 SDRAM, Leadtek 32Mb GeForce2 GTS (12.41 WHQL drivers), Intel 10/100 nic, Creative Vibra 128 PCI sound card, 40Gb IBM Deskstar IDE, Windows 2000 SP2 and VIA 4in1 ver 4.32 etc.

I just purchased a KT7A-RAID, but I haven't revieved it yet. I'd like to hear these suggestions also.

For a 1.33G system under full load, I would consider 53C very good. Mine runs at about 61 C, with an ambient temp. of 30 C.

For enabling some of the adv chipset features, you need to have CAS 2 RAM. From your signature, it is not clear that you do.

i have my 1.33/266 @ 145 x 10 and under a decent load runs at 45-50c and idles at 35c. I can't use many of the soft menu settings without instabilities also. Im using the ZT 1.11+ BIOS available at [url=www.viahardware.com]www.viahardware.com[/url] its a very good board.

I setup a system for my friend with this board, and I really liked it. So easy to use and setup. I didn't like the lack of Agp pro, had issues with that, and it ran at 53c. Now my MSI board and my 1.33 runs at 41c at full load. Course I have a better fan. I wish they made a DDR board like this I'd get it.



My 2 Cents.

Just an update regarding my Abit KT7A...

My motherboard's BIOS and MBM5 report that the CPU is getting 1.84 volts, which is almost 0.1 volts more than the CPU needs (default is 1.75 volts). I'll manually lower the voltage in the BIOS and see if I can get it closer to 1.75. This should reduce the heat providing the CPU remains stable at the lower voltage setting.

I'll report back soon...

Greggy

Getting cooler...

I lowerd the voltage in the BIOS to 1.675 which took the 'indicated' voltage to 1.76V. I then ran the 1.33GHz Athlon at 100% load for just over an hour and the CPU temp rose to a max of 46C, a good 6-7 degrees cooler than when at 1.84V.

Everything is still 100% stable so far so I'll leave it at that and enjoy a cooler running system

Thanks for the tip!