Asus A7V133

[Garet Jax]

Hello all,

I have a new Asus A7V133 winging its way to me right now from NewEgg. I picked up a cheap Duron 750Mhz so I can "pratice" OCing on a chip that is easily replacable if I screw up, but it still enough to keep me happy until I want to upgrade.

I believe it is rev 1.04.

Does any one have any up front suggestions that may save me some frustration down the road (like flash bios to XXXX. don't OC )? Thanks a lot.

 

[Fearlss1]

I am in the same boat. I have the same mobo that I have just purchased and I have never ran ran the asus boards.. I have always been an Abit fan.. with the soft touvh menu 3.. where the bios was soo easy to work with.. however the bios from the a7v133 has been much easier than prior asus boards.. But best of luck and I will be reading with you..
-Nate

 

[CollinsCollector]

Hi "GaretJax" -

I bought an A7V133 back in March or so, and it was my first experience with AMD processors and VIA chipsets. So....I'm not an expert by any means, but there are a few things I have learned, some of which can be carved in stone!

Do your homework (you've already made a good start). Look at all the posts in this forum (just for starters) that have anything to do with the A7V133. Look, look, and look again! There are a number of good responses to typical problems; some listed together with links for various drivers, articles, diagnostic software, tweaks, etc.

Use good quality components. Make certain you have a MORE THAN ADEQUATE POWER SUPPLY. I'd suggest a minimum of 330 watts (average, not peak/max). Enermax and some others make really good conservatively rated supplies.

Use "name brand" memory. Crucial is very popular, but is not the only vendor of quality RAM.

There is no way to tell in advance what version your printed mobo manual will be, but be advised that "Revision 1.02" is available for downloading (PDF) at the ASUS site. It clears up some differences between the text descriptions and the diagrams on several pages.

I have no idea what your level of experience/expertise is, so I don't want to possibly bore you with a lot of "assembly details" you may already be aware of.

Good luck with your new mobo. I think you'll like it!

 

[Plester]

go here Asus forum more info on Asus socket A boards than you could ever want.

 

[Boonesmi]

one thing that will save you alot of headaches if you plan to overclock on the asus a7v133.....

set the jumper, and the dipswitches for "jumperless" mode, but..... use the jumpers on the board to set the vcore. and in the bios leave the vcore at "default"

for some reason adjusting the vcore in bios isnt very effective (usually the system wont even post.)

 

[DoubleL]

I don't think you are going to get any frustrations with that board, I have been using one loaded down, Raid, Burner, DVD, LS-120, SoundBlaster live with none of the problems some say you get with that card, It is a good board and a fast one to

 

[gizbug]

Can you explain what I should set the VCORE to on the MB?

 

[Davegod75]

well the more you overclock, generally the more voltage the cpu needs. So if you experience instability problems while ocing raise the vcore. Start at default and inch your way up. The downside to upping the voltage is shorter cpu life and more heat.

 

[Fuzzymath]

You're gonna like that board. Do OC!

Collins covered most of it. Here are a few more thoughts.

Get latest BIOS (ver 1004) and flash utility (AFLASH) ahead of time. I flashed the BIOS first thing.

Don't make the somewhat common mistake of connecting a single IDE hard drive to one of the Ultra ATA100 IDE connectors. They're for RAID-0.

Asus Probe (mobo monitor utility) may give you false high CPU temp readings and false voltage fluctuations. I use Motherboard Monitor 5 instead of Probe.

I've used "Jumperfree" mode ever since I got this board. I adjust everything in the BIOS with no problems (including VCORE).

Some people do the pencil trick. I recommend the conductive pen (what I used) but the defogger kit sounds easier to apply.

I can't stress enough to read the users manual, read the users manual, read the users manual, read the users manual, read the users manual, read the users manual, read the users manual.......

ENJOY

 

[Davegod75]

i think fuzzy math is trying to tell us to read the users manual. BTW there is a new bios out. Check out amdzone

 

[Sharpstick]

My dad and brother have both been big Asus fan's , so I finally broke down and bought the A7V133 and am very happy with it

 

[zzzz]

<< Don't make the somewhat common mistake of connecting a single IDE hard drive to one of the Ultra ATA100 IDE connectors. They're for RAID-0. >>


Not true at all. first of all, All the ide connectors on A7V133 are ATA-100. What you are referring to is the promise controller. You can set it up in both raid and non raid mode by a jumper. Read the manual You can use the promise controller for non raid drives(read: single IDE drive)

 

[Fuzzymath]

zzzz -- I thought I might have been on shakey ground when I said that. At one time I looked through the manual trying to find out if you could that but I couldn't find anything on it. You don't have a page # do you?

What about a CD-ROM connected to the Ultra ATA100 IDE connector? I'm pretty sure you can't do that. Or am I?

Well, add one more option to the A7V133.

Thanks

EDIT>>> I've got rev. 1.04. Do all A7V133 mobos have this capability?

 

[Sharpstick]

I have user manual dated Jan. 2001, Manual revision :1.02 E704 and it is on page 20, under hardware setup. Jumper's 13 &amp; 14 on lower right side of mobo, default is ATA100.

Hope it help's

 

[Fuzzymath]

Thanks, I read that before and just didn't interpret it correctly. I did a some more reading over here: http://www.amdmb.com/faq-display.php?FAQ=4#FAQ-6 .

Garet Jax -- this would be a good site to read. It's FAQs on the A7V and A7V133

FAQ #7 describes what happend to me and some other people I know (on message boards).


Ahh... the teacher becomes the student.

 

[Garet Jax]

Linkified.

Thanks.

 

[Mamapajama]

doin 1.51 at 1.85 volts right now stable.. higher than I'd expected.. I think any higher and it might crash, but so far, it's been great.

 

[Rick25]

Don't forget to pickup the newest Via 4in1 drivers. You can find them here.

 

[ruther]

This board will support Palomino?

 

[Jorrit]

yep, you can use palomino with the a7v133, however you'll need another chipset to make use of the powernow function (but don't worry, powernow is targeted at notebooks).
btw, you should really attach the hd to the promise controller, because it's much faster than the via controller.

 

[Quad]

awesome board

 

[Boonesmi]

ive always heard that the promise controller is faster then the built in via. but ive never seen a difference, my sandra scores also dont show much difference between the two. so i disable the onboard promise.

 

[Jorrit]

boot times with the promise are much faster in my case. i have an ibm 60gxp and boot in 53 secs with the promise against 65 with the via ide controller...

 

[mstudd]

I agree with Boonesmi about the Raid 100, can't see any difference in speed in Sisoft Sandra and Windows hangs for ages while booting. I have it disabled. As he also pointed out to me in the past, you must adjust your Vcore voltage using the jumpers and not the BIOS.
Good board, have fun.

 

[cbuchach]

I will put in a third or fourth to the suggestion of setting VCore through the jumpers. I had a freak occurrence with my first A7V133. After setting the VCore to 1.85 in the BIOS, the board booted once fine but never booted again. I tried EVERYTHING to fix it, but in the end I think that something got seriously messed up on my board.

Though my case seems to be an isolated incident, it is best with the A7V133 to OC VCore through the jumpers and not through the BIOS