ECS DDR board

[SteveI]

I heard this is not an o/c board.. but
I also heard there is a beta bios out there that has some FSB adjustments. Does it also have a multiplier adjustment too?

The board is so damn cheap, and I could overhaul my system to a 1.4gig Athlon with this board for well under $200 (shipping included). Very tempting... If it has multiplier adjustments I don't think I could resist. (of course it would be a folding machine )

TIA,
SteveI.

[Hugo 59]

Ive thought long and hard about getting this board but I'm sorry to say that there are no multiplier adjustments.

The only overclocking that you can do is via the frontside bus with the beta bios and the adjustments are few and far between. something like 112,124,133 and so on. No 1MHz incraments. So not to overclocking friendly.

I do wonder if Multiplier adjustments could be added with a new bios but I think that a hardware mod would need to be done but I really don't know.

[William]

it is fast regardless. I am going to HAVE to get one when I get the money for a folding machine. Its a great board at an incredible price.

[SteveI]

Thanks Hugo,
Just seeing Lionfish's results w/ 1.5athlon makes me wanna do it for Folding...LOL.

BTW, is there a setting over 133 FSB? Just curious.

But right now, that's my only excuse. If someone comes up with a mod, or a beta BIOS that can change multipliers, I'll be all over it. With the performance of this board and the price, it can't be beat (cept for the oc limits).

Being patient is tough.
SteveI.

[Hugo 59]

Here is some more info for you this is from the review done by Ryan at amdmb.com

"Overclocking on the ECS K7S5A is a bit more challenging than on other motherboards. While they don't offer the ability to change the voltage or multipliers, you can edit front side bus modification with their latest bios, but the FSB selections are limited. Your only choices are: 100, 112, 133, 138 and 150 MHz. Having been spoiled by the 1 MHz increments that many other motherboard manufacturers are offering, this may seem a bit of a disappointment. They have included the option to run the FSB at 133 MHz and the system memory at 166 MHz, which is rather interesting as an overclocking option. Overall however, if the overclocking is what you plan on doing, the ECS K7S5A may not be your first choice of motherboards."

He did give the board an excelent review though with 9 out of ten stars. Here is a link to the entire review.

http://athlonmb.com/article-display.php?ArticleID=112

[SteveI]

Dang! Forgot about voltage...
oh well..
still the price...hmm.

Thanks for the info.
SteveI.

[Hugo 59]

I was thinking about getting this board and putting a 1 gig 200 fsb on it and then bumping it up to 133 fsb for a 330 MHz overclock there are probably a lot of axia's out there that could do it with out the extra voltage but you never Know.

[SteveI]

I built a sys for a friend a while back. 1gig@100fsb AXIA. Would only run 1.33 w/ an extra .075v. Don't know if it was just bad luck or what since it was my only experience w/ an Athlon.

SteveI.

[Hugo 59]

It's all luck of the draw I guess

[Phiber]

my athon sucks

[wildone]

hey if you want a cheap and the most overclocking friendly board that I have ever seen imho , then go with the shuttle ak31 rev.2 , its like 80.00 , which isnt to bad , it has more options in the bios then I have ever seen for overlocking , one thing I like is that right in the bios it has a high processor temp shutdown wich is really nice for an overclocker , my 1 gig axia is at 1450 , will do more but 45% is a good enough oc for me at the moment.
wildone

[Hugo 59]

There is now an articule out on how to do a mod to allow voltage and multiplier changes take a look:

http://www.ocworkbench.com/hardware/...k7s5amodp1.htm

[William]

bought a refurb of this board at newegg for $49 w/ shipping. Will post thoughts when I get it!

[wildone]

Originally posted by Hugo 59
I was thinking about getting this board and putting a 1 gig 200 fsb on it and then bumping it up to 133 fsb for a 330 MHz overclock there are probably a lot of axia's out there that could do it with out the extra voltage but you never Know.

my axia will do 1366 totally stable without and even below default votage ,I use to have a cheap(very cheap) mb that would only do 1.71 is how I know , but I did most with the clock multiplier because the fsb was very limited (133 chipset).

wildone

[Ploaf]

I have two of the ECS K7S5A boards with AYHJA Y 1G proc's. I never tried to find the beta bios but OC'd the proc the hard way, which is to say- I broke out the dremel/diamond bit and cut the contacts and painted the L3, L4, L6, L7(1.85=all connected) the way I needed them. This scares me a little every time I do it, but I've done it a few times, very very carefully and it's worked. It sure does make for an ugly CPU though and it's not so easy to undo once it's done. Anyway, they are both running at 1.4 now and have given me no problems.