Abit KT7 RAID System, your comments wanted!!

[Guest]

Hi,

I want your comments or suggestions on the system i want to build. I want comments on the components, the combination of different components and the troubles that might occur when putting it all together. And, perhaps you think i should spend my money more on one component and less on the other?!
I am going to overclock it in the future, when i get bored of it all. I will buy the components separately, and assemble it myself.

Abit KT7 RAID.
AMD Thunderbird 800.
2 x 128 Mb PC133 Memory (don´t know the brand).
ASUS V7100 Geforce2MX + TV out AGP.
2 x IBM GXP75 30Gb 7200rpm U100 harddrives for RAID configuration.
AOpen DVD1640 Pro or Pioneer DVD 105SZ (slot in).
AOPEN CD952 52 speed CDROM.
AOPEN HQ08 BigTower case.
Coolermaster DP5-6H51 CPU Cooler.
Some IrDA interface.
E-Tech Bullet 56K Hardware PCI Modem.
Printer Hewlett Packard 970cxi.
Scanner Hewlett Packard 3400C.
Samsung 17" .26 753something Monitor.

I´ll also use my "old" my Plextor 8432 writer and my SB Live! Player 1024 Soundcard.

Well, what do you think about this?


oh, and i´m going to install Win 98 on it i think...
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Arien on 11/14/00 07:21 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Guest]

I have almost this identicle system, and love it. However, if you aren't in a hurry to buy, it may be worth waiting to see what some of the newer KT133 boards with the 686B southbridge are like. You'll most likely loose the RAID functions, but do you really need it? Also, there's the AMD 760 chipset on the horizon which won't leap light years ahead but will certainly get you into the DDR ram and newer chipset functions.

One thing to consider with the Abit KT7-Raid is there is no way to turn off ACPI <sp, power management> and it eats up an extra IRQ. The IrDA may run you close on the IRQ's you have available. Just a passing thought.

Great roster of equipment for a new rig thought. GL.

Abit Kt7-Raid, Athlon 800, 256 PC133 RAM, LeadTek Geforce SDR, SB !Live

 

[Guest]

I agree, nice setup!
Good points Severe. The extra IRQ being eaten can cause a certain degree of havoc in setting the system up.

The KT7 board, in the past, has often gotten a lot of flack as being an unstable and difficult board to use. Simple fact is, as more and more devices are being crammed onto a board, there's less and less IRQ's to freely play with.
I'm the type of person who doesn't like sharing IRQs. AT ALL. Even if there's supposedly no conflict. I enjoy each item having its own window to the word.

Obviously this just isn't practical anymore. When setting up my friends KT7 RAID system it took me nearly 3 hours to work the IRQ conflicts out to get the system running right with a sound blaster live. Unfortunately for me at the time, I was unaware of the KT7 FAQ site. It give a plethora of advice and nuiances of the board. EXTREMELY helpful, I highly recommend you go there. I'll try to get the URL again, but it's posted at OVERCLOCKERS.COM.

Might I just say that board is an absoultely fabulous board?
ANd no, having to reset the system several times if overclocked to high IS NOT AN ERROR. That is a feature, and an extremely handy one in my opinion. System won't boot? Try it 3 times and it temporarly sets to default. Tinker and try again. SWEET!


The Jolly Wizened Oaf!

 

[Guest]

Could you post the URL to that web site?

 

[Guest]

Oops...I should have posted that from the get go. A truely great site for info on the KT7/KT7-Raid.

http://go.to/kt7faq

Abit Kt7-Raid, Athlon 800, 256 PC133 RAM, LeadTek Geforce SDR, SB !Live

 

[Guest]

As a comparison I recently upgraded to :-

ABit KT7-RAID
Duron 650 + TITAN Majesty TTCM5AB HS-fan
2x128Mb of CAS2 PC133 RAM
FOUR new IBM Telesto 30Gb ATA100 drives
Pioneer x24 Slot CD (old existing unit - no DVD yet)
SB1024
Voodoo2 Banshee 16Mb AGP(yes i know its old & slow... but will change it later)
Hauppauge WinTV Primio
IIyama S900MT1 19" running 1280 @ 16M
USR sportster flash @ V90 (old reliable)
Full tower case with 400W PSU + 4 fans (in & out)

... BUT the heatsink was sooooo tight to clip on it crushed the Duron, had to buy new chip .. apparently this heatsink doesn't actually account for extra thickness of Duron over FC-PGA Coppermine !
... so fitted ordinary Coolermaster but darent overclock until I find a trusty HS-fan !
ANYWAY !!!!
its configured for RAID 0 and it makes WIN98 truly FLYYYYYYYYYYYY ! (pretty fast anyway with Duron @ 650)

My recommendatuon is get more disks & overclock, then you can forget 1GHz+ chips .. at least for sometime
..the satisfying load speeds are something to be seen to be believed.

 

[Guest]

Potly brings up a good point! To avoid any unforseen issues, use only products that are authorized for use with Duron/Athlon chips. ESPECIALLY Fans and Powersupplies!

As far as the overclocking goes. Opinions will vary, but as cheap as the Athlons are getting, it may not be neccessary. Heck, a Duron 800 is less than a $100 now!

My Toy: Abit Kt7-Raid, Athlon 800, 256 PC133 RAM, LeadTek Geforce SDR, SB !Live.

 

[Guest]

I have been looking at the KT7 RAID for quite some time and was going to buy it for my next system. Now that DDR has come out I think I might want to wait a while. Does anyone know how long it will be before we can start seeing KT133 boards with the 686B southbridge?

It would be really great if the KT7 could just slap in the DDR support and have a KT7 w/ DDR that is as good if not better then the KT7.

 

[Guest]

EPOX has a new board with the New 686B! Check Anandtech.com For A Review!

 

[Guest]

What about VIA's chipset that supports DDR for Socket A Systems? Anyone have a guess on how long it will be before we can see something like that? I guess a chipset like that would be the next step for the KT7.

 

[Guest]

Hi,

well, i think í'll stick with the 2 x 30 Gigs for now.. But about those coolers, shouldn´t we just ban all coolers that are specified for FC-PGA, Socket 7 and Socket A at the same time? I mean, if it fits on FC-PGA then it can´t fit something thicker without damaging it, right? And if we break our new cpu, then it is our own fault they probably say.

So why don´t we all just demand some coolers that FIT on socket A, and NOT buy some old coolers that just have "socket A" labelled extra on it and then break our cpu's with it?

Anyone knows if the Coolermaster DP5-6H51 will fit in a normal way?
OR should i buy a chrome orb *special version* which fits on an abit KT7 mobo..? I haven't found anything else around here...

 

[TazMo]

Sounds like a good setup similar to mine:

ABIT KT7 RAID
Athlon 900
128 MB pc133 micron
ATI Radeon64MB AGP
2xIBM GXP75 15GB RAID(0)
CD-ROM Plextor 40x SCSI
CDRW Plextor 12/10/32s SCSI
DVD-ROM Pioneer 10x SCSI
Adaptec 2930c SCSI controller
3Com NIC
SoundblasterLive Platinum
NEC Multisync FE950 19" monitor
Klipsch Speakers
ANTEC Case
multiple OSes

Since the next big leap in performance is going to be DDR RAM, which means new motherboards, RAM, and CPU's unless you have to have 256MB RAM I would hold off and go with 128MB which is more than enough for win98. Also, if the system that you propose is your budget I probably would drop the CD-rom and just use the DVD. The Pioneer is an excellent choice. The IBM's are an excellent choice for the RAID array as I have heard of problems with Maxtor Drives and the Highpoint controller. With RAID(0) you'll have an effective 60GB harddrive. If you think you need 60GB then you're cool otherwise you could save some going to smaller drives. When setting up your RAID some web-sites suggest a stripe size of 16kb the default size is 64kb I have tried and tested it both ways and the default setting seems to have the best balance. Smaller stripe size=higher thoughput about a 10%gain at the expense of seek time -5% and CPU usage from 11% to 30%. The KT7 has some capacitors or resistors very close to the CPU socket so make sure your cooler fits that board.
As far as changes if it fits on your desk opt for a 19" monitor. Monitors seem boring for hardware freaks but they stay with you a long time and do make a diff you won't regret. The Geforce2MX is good but the regular Geforce2 is better and so is the ATI RADEON. As stupid as this sounds my speakers are one of my favorite things.

Anyhowz so much for my nickel.
Good Luck.

 

[Guest]

Hi,

i have done some research @ www.cdspeed2000.com and i found out that the Aopen DVD is better for audio ripping and slightly faster in DVD, but the pioneer does DVD good as well, but sucks at audio ripping. since the pioneer is much cheaper than the Aopen, i wanted to go for the Pioneer and add an ultra fast audio ripping CDRom drive, the Aopen CD952..
I am going to use my PC for backing up my audio and dvd a lot too, so i want a fast DVD drive and a fast audio ripping drive. DIVX and MP3 rule! 😉
Considering the price of the harddrives, i want the 30 Gig, because if you compare the prices and sizes with the 20 or 15 Gig, then you´ll see that those smaller drives are way expensive!!

I need the 256 Mb for some applications for my work. But the shops over here never mention any brands of these Dimms.. So would a "standard" PC133 Dimm be suitable for overclocking?

I´m not planning to overclock right away, i´ll do that when i am getting bored of it...

And at that time, perhaps there will be some good and well fitting coolers out there...

 

[Guest]

No complaints with the performance of the board - very good indeed. Hard drives likewise.

Haven't been able to get the KT7 to power on from the keyboard though....I might just be being a tool. Can anyone confirm that it is/isn't possible to power on from keyboard ?


Mcr

 

[SoulReaper]

For the extra money pick up a 1ghz athlon. Check out "www.mushkin.com". They have some of the best memory around. You might want to look at a Mitsubishi monitor vs ur Samsung. Other than that ur new system specs looks pretty jacked. The only thin i would get is all SCSI. I am a devoted SCSI user. Multi-tasking is so much better with it.

"upgrading is no longer an option...it's a necessity"
Visit www.elitehunters.com
--SoulReaper =)

 

[Guest]

Hi,

the SCSI thing will get too expensive i think. Personally i like Samsung because they make good products for less money, in almost every product category, even washing mashines! (?) I looked at the monitors in the shop and the 750PT and 753DF (Dynaflat) models looked quite good. And they were affordable too! Does anybody have bed experiences with these monitors?
The other brands i found over here were CTX, iiyama, Eizo, Sony, Philips and Belinea. They are all more expensive or have worse specifications.

 

[Guest]

The KT7 raid has problems with the some of the components you intend to use, namely the GeForce MX, the SB Live and IBM Deskstar 75GXP hard drives.

There are solutions to these problems in most cases and not everybody experiences problems but you should be aware of them before you commit yourself to this configuration.

The KT7 FAQ should be compusory reading for anybody considering configuring a system using one of these boards.

http://go.to/kt7faq

My KT7 raid runs a Duron 600 @ 950 (default voltage), GeForce 256, MX300 and 2 x IBM deskstar 15GB in a raid O setup and I am extemely pleased with it.

Aussie

 

[Guest]

mainbord, cpu and memory.
The rest is gravy!

Concentrate on getting these as your best components and the rest you can skimp on a little.

Take care!

 

[Guest]

Personally i think that if you are into gaming, a very fast video card and also a good monitor is something to look at. And if you are into digital photography, maybe you should have a good printer and scanner too... and if you are into digital video, you need the fastest harddrive around.. so, everything is important then.. but i do agree that the items you mentioned will improve performance of whatever you are using your pc for.
But, i think i can buy three regular 128Mb PC133 dimms or just two of the faster ones for the same price..!
I live in the netherlands, and i want to buy everything over here, and that fast memory is very rare and also very expensive...

Oh, a soundcard isn´t a problem, i already have a soundblaster live player 1024 and it's just great! i had an ISA Soundblaster AWE 32 PnP with 8Mb of memory before, but the live is much cooler, the 4 speakers and all the effects, it rocks!

It is so difficult, because there is like a 50-50 divided percentage of people that respectively love the KT7 or hate it. You read about outstanding performance and also about the worse troubles.. how can this be?

 

[PieterVN]

Arien,

I also live in the Netherlands and I'm looking into almost the same system at the moment. Here my usual store (Chicon, Delft) has two types of PC133 memory, 1 year and 10 year (A-brand) warranty. I don't know if there's any other difference like speed, CAS or something.
Good choice on the printer, love the thing myself.

Another store here advertises with Kingston memory, available on request. Can anyone tell me whether it's something special?
Also, would it help to use a different soundcard on this system, like a Terratec DMX?

 

[Guest]

Go with the abit SAR6 and use Intel chip set and Itel CPU. Or use the VP6. It is a duel intel CPU and has raid. It uses the VIA it has the new 694x and 686b chip set. the 815e is a far superior chip set. As well is the intel CPU.

 

[Guest]

A couple more things. You can run raid 0 with one drive. Aopen is a low end cd drive. you should be able to pay 5 dollars more and get an Asus, mitsumi, sony. All are better than Aopen. What makes them better? they are quiter and have less failur rate. Get a USR, 3com, or diamond supra modem. Make sure what ever modem you get it is not a winmodem. those kind use the CPU for function instead of it all happening on the modem. the cheap modems are win modems. Ibm drives are a good choice.