VHELPs MotherBoard / SPECS - upgraded 1st PC, again.

[vhelp]

Evening all !!

ok, ok. . . I know i'm gonna get ragged on with this one, but
as bad as it is and all, ...
* just how bad is this one?
* does anyone have it (and like it, or have problems with it)
* what do you use it for (ie, capping, or encoding only)

UPDATED as of 4/13/02 4:35pm
----------------------------------------
Here are the specs for my "ENCoding only" mb setup:
so, my current setup is:
Here are the specs for my "ENCoding only" mb setup:
* new, XT based mini-tower case w/power supply
* motherBoard: ECS, K7S5A, Socket-A for AMD K7, etc. proc.
* Chipset: SiS 735
* AMD XP 1800+ cpu
* Front-side bus speeds: 200/266Mhz
* I got 256MB DDR ram chips for starters
* Maxtor 60g (5400 rpm) (cable supplied by hd) (on PRIM as mast)
* 2x6x CDRW (??? rpm) (old cble) (on SECD as mast)
* Graphics card: STB Velocity 128 PCI NTSC card
* windows 98 (not SE)
** no need for separate LAN card (though I got in error)

I'll provide more details later.


---------------------------------------------------------------
I'm tired of NOT being able to encode any major projects these
days, since my second pc went on the blinks!
Currently, I have to use my main pc to do all my projects, whatever
they may be, ie capturing, firewiring, internet surfing, pc
playing, etc, etc.
And, I'm tired of this setup. It needs to be changed so I can
get back into business with all my fun projects and all.
Asside from dong "small" capping and encoding, etc. I haven't
ben able to do much FULL-TIME encoding projects w/ my current
setup. With my NEW 2nd pc setup, (when I finally put it together
which I haven't done yet) I'll be able to work on my projects
in greater detail and completion.
.
.
So, I decided (this morning, while at work. . . "I need a change!"
...I said to myself. So, at lunch, I went out and purchased some
new hardware and things (was fun)

I plan on using this NEW addition just for ENCoding purposes
only and nothing else. Or, I may use it for Capture and then
encoding only.

So, if anyone has anything to add or comment/suggestion on or vent
at, etc. I'm all ears and open to suggestions, etc.

Thank you all for your support

-vhelp

[iant]

Hi vhelp.

I've got one of these and the only complaint I have on it is heat dissipation. Although the Atlon 1600XP I have on it should run stable in the mid 50s, I find it locks up shortly after hitting 55.

If you have a small midi tower, it tends to have the CPU and heatsink obscured by the power supply. This makes for lousy cooling. I have to run mine with the sides off and the fan shifted to the side of the heatsink to get good cooling. I can't put a bigger heatsink on as it would simply hit the power supply.

One other minor point. I tried to do a BIOS update following the instructions on the main site. Miserable failure! No damage done as it claimed to be unable to find the new file to do the update. Tried contacting their technical suppot both at home base and in the U.S. Totally ignored my requests. Looks like they work on the 'ignore it and it will go away' philosophy.

That said, once you solve that problem, it behaves quite nicely. It could do with a more flexible BIOS as you can't tweak or twiddle a darn thing but for the price, you can't expect too much.

Hope this is useful,
Ian

[vhelp]

afternoon Ian,

thanks for your response

So far, I have 2 bad issues:

#1:
And, yes, I've got a mini tower, and yes, the FAN IS in the way of
my powersupply, and yes, the board's layout IS sort of reversed
and doesn't really allow me to afix it to my current 2nd pc's case.

It looks like I will have to replay the case Also...

#2:
In my 2nd pc's case, the pwer supply's connectors is the old AT
type - the ones that have the pair of plugs. So, i can't use
that power supply

So, basically, i will hvae to get a NEW case 'n powersupply.

-vhelp

[vhelp]

update
------

Ok, i ended up buying a new case/power suply $59 mini-tower.
Not a bad case, but kind of wish it was a flat-desk kind...
oh well. ...Tower it will be.

damne't, why can't they make these things more simple, instead
of making it more cryptic... sheeesh!!
I'm talking about my Maxtor 60Gig hard drive's pin setup.
I can't figure out which is slave/master, ect.
Here's the pin layout on the cover, discribing the jumper setting
for proper hd hookup:
pk-cs-ds-key
--------------
:: :
------
:: :
------
:: :

...the "|" is the jumper, and the ":" are the two pins in the diagram
My goal is to set this hd to master, and have my 2X cd-rom r/w drive
to slave.

On the pin side of the drive, it's set this way:
::.
It looks to me (per my pc experience) that its in the "cs" or
"cable select" mode. So, if I want it to be the master, I have to
move this jumper to the 4th pin, ie:
::.
and this should be the master setup for this 60g harddrive. ...I
hope!!

I think I have set right. Now on to the finishing touches w/
my i/o cards, they being just an 10/100M pci fast ethernet adapter
card and my old STB velocity 64 card. this card has an s-video
and yellow RCA jack (I didn't realise it at first) I think it
has a TV out for composite and s-video? ? ? correct me if i'm
wrong please, anyone.

Ok, so I have the:
* i/o cards in
* 256MB ddr ram (PC2100) chip in place

now on to my 60g harddrive and cd-rom r/w drives

I'm thinking about partitioning it to a 1gig (for OS) and remaining
for the video file(s).
I'll be using windows 98 (not SE) for all this.

so, my current setup is:
Here are the specs for my "ENCoding only" mb setup:
* new, XT based mini-tower case w/power supply
* motherBoard: ECS, K7S5A, Socket-A for AMD K7, etc. proc.
* Chipset: SiS 735
* AMD XP 1800+ cpu
* Front-side bus speeds: 200/266Mhz
* I got 256MB DDR ram chips for starters
* Maxtor 60g (5400 rpm) (cable supplied by hd)
* windows 98 (not SE)

-vhelp

[vhelp]

UPDATE:
-------

* I've completed building my computer desk
* new pc system is up and running (dos mode only)
* am now copying my windows 98 cd-rom files to one of
my partitions, a 4gig for software and stuff, going on 1 hour
using my 2x/6x cdrw drive

cons:
* bios is saying my speed is 1150MHz (bitch)
* had hard time (aprx 1 hour) getting cd-rom r/w to work

somehow, I don't see my windows 98 system and new faster pc
setup being any faster than my current system's speed here
I think that it will be the same (what a waist again) being
that my bios is saying i'm running at 1150Mhz... not far from
my current pc here, running at 1100Mhz

Well, this is my progress so far.
thanks for your support

-vhelp

[vhelp]

Morning to all you vcd/svcd'ers

UPDATE ! ! !


Ahhh, got it - finally!

* So, now I have my to pc's Networked
* I have dial-up
* I can now send my avi files to my 2nd pc
for encoding.

I haven't tried any whole project yet, but will (might)
over this weekend. Am looking forward to this (ben, since
this whole week of agony started [sunday])

Later, i'll be able to post my results (times, etc. )

have a great day (and weekend) all!!
-vhelp



HISTORY:
----------------------------------------------
I had many, many problems. But to spare you the details. . .
DONT FORGET ABOUT MCAFEE! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
This guy will FK you sooo hard!!!! I didn't find this out
till (by random flook) I was in the process of un-installing
EVERY software/driver I could find (about 15gigs worth)

Oh, yea, McAfee, it would seem, to make changes to your proxy
or SOCKETS. I kept getting socket error, and could NOT recieve
but only send data via my modem.
----------------------------------------------

In short, after un-installing a lot of apps, and Mcafee being
the last (at the time) I decided to give the dial-up one more
try, before I proceed to wipe my harddrive clean and re-install
windows 98 all over again (loosing everything i worked so hard
for)
When I did this, I had connection (my two way was working again)
Yeah

[menace]

I have the ECSk7S5A with an AMD 1700+--forewarned is forarmed--I am now installing my third additional fan to keep this baby cool enough to run and thats not including the two fans on the power supply. How are you liking it? Mine has been very stable with the exception of the heat issue. Of course if you're a "tweaker" you'll probably be wanting something more very soon as there isn't much room to tweak your MOBO settings

[vhelp]

menance

Actually, just last night, I gave the powersupply a feel, he, he...
It was pretty worm, but then again, my whole aptment is aobut 85degrees!!!
hot,hot, hot.
later on this evening (after work) I'll move my AC into my dinning area
and turn it on. it's off right now, and way down the other end of the
room!

This should def. help with the heat disipation and what-not.
But, it wasn't very hot (my pc) if that what you were refering to.

Tweeking, I've not even thought of it when I was planning on upgrading
my pc. so, tweaking's not really there yet with me. So, since I wont
have any room for it anyways, its no problem (so far)

I haven't really tested out the speed of this guy yet. Ben doing a lot
of planning and organizing (still haven't gotten it nailed down yet)
...be it, folders, capturing too, etc.

I may end up capturing to the 2nd pc (lanned) after all. Just haven't
decided yet.

More details later on.

Quesiton:
How do I know if i'm in the 10mbts or 100mbts (both cards are 10/100)
on a yellow RJ-45 fastest transfer cabling?????
.
.
and, can I set it to 100????????

Thanks all.


wow, i'm running late.

-vhelp

[Tbear]

The speed of the network should be automatic. Are you going thru a hub or peer to peer? You can look in device manager to look at the properties of you nic.

I have 3 puters on a LAN sharing a cable modem. All of them are using
100 full duplex on the network. All was set Automaticaly by XP and Win98se.

[vhelp]

Evening Tbear and all,

Thanks for your response.

I am using a direct cable between two pc's, NO hub, (peer to peer)

My setup is:
* windows 98
* MSI (MS-6330) Pro2-A mb, AMD XP 1700+ w/ pc133 128mb ram
* 10/100M PCI fast ethernet adapter card
networked via RJ45 cable to a...
+
|
+
* windows 98
* ESC K7S5A / AMD XP 1800+ w/ 256DDR ram
* built-in 10/100 network card on this MB

no hub needed for this setup.

MSI (MS-6330) Pro2-A mb
Ok, so far,
* networking & and dialup both work fine.
* NO IRQ confilict "associated" w/ this nic card.
though my modem and sound card are sharing IRQ 9, those
are the only confics - and I CANT get rid of IRQ 9's
conflict... no matter what I do, (move cards around,
change bios settings, use manual settings in bios, etc.
They seem to just stick to each other period!!!!!!!!!

NIC Card
But, in device mgr, I saw nothing on setting speed or anthing
close to 10M or 100M setting or similar otherthan, Driver
and Resources TAB, but no settings relating to speed.

ESC K7S5A
Ok, I bought the ESC K7S5A mb bcause the guy told me he
has one and has NO conflicts and he has all hi PCI slits
filled to the hilt. I have only one PCI slot in use by my
ATI Rage 128 PCI card and nothing else, BUT IRQ 11 is in
conflict (audio/network)
--> I'm only the onboard:
* onboard audio - (gliches/scratches due to conflicts)
* onboard network feature - (has a conflic w/ audio above)
* PCI graphics card - (no conflict)
and that's it! Why the heck am I STILL getting conflicts with
this board even though both devices are on the "onboard" mb???
The bios doesnt allow me to move the network or audio to another
IRQ
Any help on this would be appreciated.


All in all, the setup is working somewhat. I would like to get it
to work 100% normal (no conflicts, that is) ...if that's even posible!
It works and I'm happy for the most part

Now to do all those encoding projects, BUT i'm not quite ready
for this yet. I have some tests to do with
* capturing in AVI and DV format and
* encoding w/ tmpg and cce (if it will even work on THIS board??)
* and a few other things + I havent' decided on my exact approach to
which PC i'll use to capturing with (2nd pc or main pc or both or whatever)

This will be a fun weekend - better than last weekends for sure!

I welcome any suggestions/comments, etc.
Again, thans for all your support!
-vhelp

[vhelp]

Evening all.

** old subject line use to be:
(motherBoard - upgrading 2nd PC to an "ECS, K7S5A, SiS 735")

Just thought I'd share my latest endeavors with you all.

ok, just got over a bad (2nd) system meltdown. Only this time,
it was LIGHTning stricking my MOTHERboard to a hault! he, he...
So, my MSI is now OUT OF THE PICTURE! he, he... It's dead.

I just forked over another $189 for a new:
ECS K7S5A w/ 256DDR PC1200 ram chips (to match my 2nd pc)
I have the XP 1700+ cpu on this board.
Sorry all, i can't afford to wait via those mail-orders, even
if their prices are way lower than going out to my local store.
I have the lugzary of going back to the store right away, if
a problem should accorr.

Was a brise (almost) and my BIOS says XP 1700+ yipee!!
All in all, I was up and running in around 1 1/2 hours... give
or take a few glihces, such as:
* spacer on left, causing I/O cards NOT to be screwed in
* HD LED lites not working, cause I put them in the wrong way, ...what?
* speak not working, but who cares, (i've ben trying to cut the cord
on that one for some time now...
* rec'ved the blue screen of death twice during driver installations
But, I am happy to say, that I am now back in business, he, he... he, he... he, he...

Speed, well, it's STILL the same as my MSI motherboard - what a
crock!! he, he...

So, here are my NEW system(s) specs:
1st PC:
----------
* ECS K7S5A w/ 256DDR PC1200 ram chips
* XP 1700+
* ATI Rage Fury Pro (AGP)
* ATI-TV Wonder (ATW) pci
* 56k modem
* Pioneer 10x DVD-ROM drive
* I/O Magic CD-RW 16x10x32
* using built-in 10base/100base Network (networkd to 2nd pc)
* DVD players: 2 APEX AD-1500's, and 1 AD-500
* 2 VCRs, Sony, and JVC SVHS
* DV CAM, by Cannon model ZR-10
* Satalite: DirecTV
* 13" TV, he, he...

2nd PC:
----------
* ECS K7S5A w/ 256DDR PC1200 ram chips
* XP 1800+
* ATI Rage 128 (PCI)
* CD-RW 2x2x6x
* using built-in 10base/100base Network (networkd to 1st pc)

I think thats about it - hope I didn't leave anything out.

-vhelp