K8S-MX and K8V-MX motherboards

[Venom]

I have been asked by a friend to make two cheap computers using these
motherboards. The idea is that using everything on board will produce two
computers, one for the husband`s business and one for the wife`s business at
an affordable cost. CPUs will be Sempron 2800.
Question is how good or bad are these boards? Is there anything I should be
aware of? Any assistance would be appreciated.

 

[Gordy]

I have been asked by a friend to make two cheap computers using these
motherboards. The idea is that using everything on board will produce two
computers, one for the husband`s business and one for the wife`s business at
an affordable cost. CPUs will be Sempron 2800.
Question is how good or bad are these boards? Is there anything I should be
aware of? Any assistance would be appreciated.

I put a K8S-MX together and it is running fine with WinXP Pro.

The only issue I had is with the hard disk controller which is a raid
controller.

For WinXP installation, I found that I had to first create the raid
drivers on a floppy disk from the mother board CD, then install WinXP,
pressing the F? key when asked if HDD conntroller drivers are
required.

This was of course properly documented in the manual. which I read
after the first installation attempt.

The raid controller drivers are required even though I had only one
SATA hard drive.

I am very happy with this very low cost board.

Gordy

 

[Venom]

I put a K8S-MX together and it is running fine with WinXP Pro.

The only issue I had is with the hard disk controller which is a raid
controller.

For WinXP installation, I found that I had to first create the raid
drivers on a floppy disk from the mother board CD, then install WinXP,
pressing the F? key when asked if HDD conntroller drivers are
required.

This was of course properly documented in the manual. which I read
after the first installation attempt.

The raid controller drivers are required even though I had only one
SATA hard drive.

I am very happy with this very low cost board.

Gordy

Thanks for that. The only reason there are two different boards is that the
local dealer could only get one of each but the original idea was two
identical units. I don't anticipate hard drive drama as the drives will be 1
each Seagate 40Gb drives.

 

[validem]

I have been asked by a friend to make two cheap computers using these
motherboards. The idea is that using everything on board will produce two
computers, one for the husband`s business and one for the wife`s business at
an affordable cost. CPUs will be Sempron 2800.
Question is how good or bad are these boards? Is there anything I should be
aware of? Any assistance would be appreciated.

System built using a Sempron 2800+ and an Acer 1714 LCD at 1280x1024,
connected to the on-board
SIS graphics. The screen blanks out for about 3 seconds at seemingly
random intervals. It will happen
more frequently at one time than another. It does not seem to be
connected to any particular activity.
During the period of blanking sound will continue via the screen mounted
speakers. The blanking
sequence replicates what happens when the display resets when changing a
display property.
There seem to be a number of people who have experienced this problem.

I sent in a proper Tech query to ASUS and got the following reply:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
sir ,i think that is a compatible issue with onboard video card and
your LCD monitor.

some monitor has this problem ,some does not .

i suggest you ,

you can add a AGP video card to connect your monitor ,then you will not
have such problems.

you can change a monitor .

you can change the board to another model with the vendor if vendor
agree that .
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


I think that means:

'yeah, you have a problem. Some do, some don't, but you have and we
don't really know why and don't really give a toss, so tough shit'

Like most I bought this motherboard to avoid the cost of a separate
video card. Having been stuffed it looks like I have to spend another
50%-100% of the M'board cost to make it work properly.

 

[William Park]

System built using a Sempron 2800+ and an Acer 1714 LCD at 1280x1024,
connected to the on-board SIS graphics. The screen blanks out for
about 3 seconds at seemingly random intervals. It will happen

That's SiS. I think Via has better track record.

--
William Park <[email protected]>, Toronto, Canada
ThinFlash: Linux thin-client on USB key (flash) drive
http://home.eol.ca/~parkw/thinflash.html
BashDiff: Super Bash shell
http://freshmeat.net/projects/bashdiff/

 

[Venom]

Without much feedback on my original question I did build the two computers
for these people. The computers work fine and when I put them together I
used my 15" Hitachi LCD monitor with both and had no problems. The guy
bought a pair of cheap 17" Benq LCD monitors and each new computer works
well on these monitors too.
I called him at his office a few minutes ago and asked if he or she was
having a blank screen as you describe but he says no. I guess I have to go
along with a driver thing on your computer.

 

[validem]

Without much feedback on my original question I did build the two computers
for these people. The computers work fine and when I put them together I
used my 15" Hitachi LCD monitor with both and had no problems. The guy
bought a pair of cheap 17" Benq LCD monitors and each new computer works
well on these monitors too.
I called him at his office a few minutes ago and asked if he or she was
having a blank screen as you describe but he says no. I guess I have to go
along with a driver thing on your computer.

Thanks for your reply. Drivers don't seem to solve the problem in any
operating system. The response from ASUS seems to be they know this
problem exists with some monitors and if u get it u r stuck with it.
Looks like u have been lucky. The simplest solution seems to be an add
AGP card, the expense u are trying to avoid by having integrated video!!

Alan

 

[mrapathy]

Thanks for your reply. Drivers don't seem to solve the problem in any
operating system. The response from ASUS seems to be they know this
problem exists with some monitors and if u get it u r stuck with it.
Looks like u have been lucky. The simplest solution seems to be an add
AGP card, the expense u are trying to avoid by having integrated video!!

Alan

its no suprise SIS continues to be junk. got tired of working with SIS
chipset motherboards back in the days of the original pentium and pentium
mmx. VIA looks like its going downhill too. Nvidia and intel look best.

just got a Asus A8N-SLI and really not enthused with Asus. never was too
impressed with the quality or customer service. but they have hit new lows.
can remember days when this board used to be filled with information and
tech support seemed to be more helpfull. when heads swell.