Amptron K7-817LMR Mobo

[DBandit]

ALi Magic 1645 AGP Chipset
Supports AMD Duron / Athlon / Athlon XP processors
Supports 266/200MHz Front-Side Bus
DDR266 SDRAM support
2MB AMI modular BIOS Flash ROM


this amptron board is in my bro's rig. Originally built upon an MSI pro2a board, but had to replace it. I don't know anything about ali chipsets, but I do know that its probably better than the msi board since it can support 266 fsb. The latest bios update lists support for XP processors. It also has 2 ddr ram slots similar to the ecs k57sa boards.

he's thinking about doing some upgrading since it has a stock 850 tbird nonoverclocked in it, and regular pc133 sdram. (playing dungeon seige and wants to buy jedi knight II)

in short, compared to other mobos such as a cheap ecs or shuttle board, is it good or is it garbage performance wise? Even if he upgrades to ddr, will it be worthwhile?


update: website lists support up to xp2000+

 

[Peter]

Well for one this IS an ECS board, the K7AMA aka PC-Chips M817LR.

The board is AMD approved for pretty much any Duron or Athlon CPU, a good and stable product that has been around for an eternity. The ALi chipset isn't the fastest in RAM throughput, but it sure benefits from DDR over SDRAM. First thing you should be doing is give it a BIOS update - latest from www.pcchips.com.tw.

regards, Peter

 

[Peter]

Forgot to say, when you're upgrading to a much faster CPU, have an eye on the power supply unit. You might want to have one with 25 Amperes or more on the 5V rail, and good headroom in the 5V+3.3V combined draw (mind the fine print!).

regards, Peter

 

[DBandit]

sweet, thanks peters.

one thing, the current bios installed is the current one from amptron, 12/05/01 (date), and already list support for xp processors.

the pc-chips website doesn't mention what date their current bios is.
was wondering if those two are the same, or if pc-chips has a better one.

It should be ok to flash a pc-chips bios into this right even though its not officially branded pc-chips?
any help appreciated.

 

[Peter]

Well Amptron is just a reseller, the board is the same. ECS K7AMA, PC-Chips or Amptron M817L(M)R,
all the same. The BIOSes differ by the name string only. (The "M" just means modem card included btw.)

PC-Chips M817LR latest BIOS is 2002/04/04 ... what do you get? Support for higher clocked Athlon XPs
for sure (added in February release, see the ECS site), and maybe even UDMA133 support (the ALi
southbridge apparently hasn't been changed in hardware to support this.)

regards, Peter

 

[DBandit]

thanks, peter. i'll make sure to flash it before upgrade.