Is the Abit KT7-RAID a good combo for a Duron 600?

[Pace]

Looking at getting a Duron 800 and KT7 RAID for Christmas

Any issues with this board? I know there's been some issues with the RAID boards before, and combining this with a VIA chipset doesn't bode well

System would be:

Duron 800
KT7-RAID
256MB PC133
IBM 75GXP 30Gb
Sparkle TNT2 32Mb
Pioneer 10x DVD IDE
SBLive! (Original)
3Com 3C905[B/C] TX
Windows 2000 plus Win98/Me possibly for games.

Thanks in advance,

Paul.

Edit: I've obviously got the title wrong

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[This message has been edited by Pace (edited 18 December 2000).]

[Pace]

Just to say, that I was planning to get the Abit SA6R and an 800E but Dabs.com can't seem to get these in stock, so I thought a cheap Duron 800 would do me until a bigger upgrade next year

Dabs currently only have the KT7-RAID in stock as I'd rather go for the (cheaper) KT7 vanilla. I was going to give a list of other boards available, but there are no other Socket A boards in stock, just browsing at the moment! Well, excluding a 'TMC AK34' but it's a mATX board.

So, KT7 + Duron 800 a good combo? And I presume it's the usual VIA procedure Rags

Paul.

[Greebe]

Yes it's a very good combo

[Pace]

Yes, thanks Mike

Though are there any compatibility issues with the board? Or are they all due to people misconfiguring the thing?

Paul.

[Greebe]

No real issues at all except just those peeps who don't read what we have posted here on the subject.

I have heard that there is a clicking sound issue from the integrated raid over on the video forums, but haven't followed up on whether that has been fixed in the promise drivers yet.

[EchoWars]

Skip the RAID version...if you want RAID, spring for a Promise controller. The built-in Highpoint controller leaves a lot to be desired.

KT7-non-raid / Athlon T-Bird 900@1100
Guillemot ProphetII MX Dual
Hacked Promise FastTrack 100 RAID
2x IBM 75GXP 30Gb drives
256Mb Mushkin
Aureal2 8830 sound
Plextor 8x4x32
Toshiba 48x
Toshiba 12x DVD
Sparkle 300W PS
InWin 500 Full Tower

[Indiana]

Originally posted by EchoWars:
Skip the RAID version...if you want RAID, spring for a Promise controller. The built-in Highpoint controller leaves a lot to be desired.

Hmm, I'm quite happy with my KT7-RAID and the Duron800 (which runs at 108*9,5 = 1026MHz here with "standard" cooling). No compatibility probs with any of my cards (SBLive!, Fritz! PCI ISDN card, Initio UW-SCSI, Hauppauge WinTV, G400), and I really do need quite a few IRQs with this config, here is my Win2k IRQ-list:

IRQ-Nummer Gerät
4 Microsoft ACPI-konformes System
11 Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead - Deutsch
11 AVM ISDN-Controller FRITZ!Card-PCI
11 Creative SB Live! (WDM)
11 Hauppauge Win/TV 878/9 VFW Video Driver
11 Initio Ultra SCSI-Hostadapter
11 HPT370 UDMA/ATA100 RAID Controller
14 Primärer IDE-Kanal
15 Sekundärer IDE-Kanal
15 Hauppauge Win/TV 878/9 VFW Audio Driver
8 System CMOS/Echtzeituhr
13 Numerischer Coprozessor
6 Standard-Diskettenlaufwerkcontroller
3 Kommunikationsanschluss (COM2)
7 Druckeranschluss (LPT1)
12 PS/2-kompatible Maus
1 Standardtastatur (101/102 Tasten) oder Microsoft Natural Keyboard (PS/2)

I'm quite happy with the RAID, too. It finally allows me to capture uncompressed full PAL res videos without frame drops.
Sandra reports ~23 MB/s for a single drive and ~44 MB/s for the RAID, not too bad, I'd say.

If you're going for a RAID solution, take two identical IBM HDs, they seem to work best in those arrays. But then if you're not going to use the RAID you should as well go for IBM when buying a HD...

Disclaimer: No, I'm not a salesman for IBM or sponsored by them

[DentyCracker]

If you get a good KT7 you'll be very happy with it. I get my 700 up to 850 with a mediocre heatsink (actually I just remember that I left it running at 900 this morning). I also live in a hot country.
You should get close to a giga once you pencil unlock it, which is really easy, even I didn't screw it up. Just get the latest 4in1 (26) which improves win2k performance. A new bios (1st since Sept) just came out for it but I haven't installed it yet

[EchoWars]

Indiana...
If you check out the newsgroups you might see that the Highpoint controller is giving a lot of people fits...plus I've had my own bad experiances messing with one or two. Certainly there are bound to be those who's configuration works well, but an inordinate number of people are fighting serious problems with the built-in RAID solution. There is a reason you only pay about $20 extra for the RAID version...whereas an external Promise FastTrack 100 will cost $70-$100. The extra money is well spent...

[Pace]

Originally posted by DentyCracker:
If you get a good KT7 you'll be very happy with it.

A good KT7 - so, er, are there bad ones?

I get my 700 up to 850 with a mediocre heatsink (actually I just remember that I left it running at 900 this morning). I also live in a hot country.
You should get close to a giga once you pencil unlock it, which is really easy, even I didn't screw it up.

I don't want to try this, 800MHz should be enough for me

Just get the latest 4in1 (26) which improves win2k performance. A new bios (1st since Sept) just came out for it but I haven't installed it yet

BIOS updates are a no-no too, unless they are critical!

My supplier has now got every board in stock, including the SA6R (i815e with RAID), but the prices are hard to bear:

Duron 800 + KT7 : £188
Duron 800 w/RAID: £215
P3-800E + i815e : £293
P3-800E w/ RAID : £325

I've already got a stick of 256MB PC133 so I should be able to o/c the P3 easily, but it's still 50% more expensive more than the Duron combo.

What do you's think?

Paul.

[Pace]

Sorry, missed your reply EchoWars!

So then, from that info I believe I should avoid both RAID boards? And I don't think the SE6 (815e non-RAID) is all that great, so the big finger points to the Duron again

Paul.

PS: Do the Duron's come with a hsf?

[uberlad]

Pace, may I suggest that you check out the prices at www.scan.co.uk, they tend to be cheaper than Dabs and do some great deals on Mboard + chip + hsf most days.

Next day guarunteed delivery. pretty much.

Although it isn't free, which is the only real downside.

Damn, I sound like an advert for the guys 8-)

Uberlad

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8 out of 10 women say they would feel no qualms about hitting a man.
5 out of 10 referred to me by name.

[Taz]

Micro Direct usually have the best prices on Abit m'boards

[Pace]

Oh well, I've gone and ordered the 800E + SA6R combo! Nothing like a rush decision but I need this system up and running by Friday! Hopefully Dabs can deliver...

And I got the link so Scan after I confirmed the order but thanks anyway

Thanks for the help, and I may yet buy an AMD chip...

This is certainly the most tempted I've ever been!

Though it seems no matter what help I get from you guys o the forum, I go and ignore it anyway . Pleased to have finally upgraded though! This combo will graciously receive a G800 soon as well...

Paul.

[Indiana]

Originally posted by EchoWars:
Indiana...
If you check out the newsgroups you might see that the Highpoint controller is giving a lot of people fits...plus I've had my own bad experiances messing with one or two. Certainly there are bound to be those who's configuration works well, but an inordinate number of people are fighting serious problems with the built-in RAID solution. There is a reason you only pay about $20 extra for the RAID version...whereas an external Promise FastTrack 100 will cost $70-$100. The extra money is well spent...

Yes, sure there are people having problems with the HighPoint RAID, but if you read newsgroups or several forums (including this one) there are as many that are having problems with the promise RAID controller (look at all the Asus A7V threads...).


Besides those problems are most often due to IRQ misconfiguration (this is one possible problem I can see for people with a lot of cards that don't tolerate IRQ-sharing well) or specific to HD brands/models (Maxtor anyone?). Lots of these problem are also only reported for the older HighPoint controller HPT366, but not for the newer HPT370 found on the Abit KT7-RAID.


For some additional and IMHO quite good info on the KT7-RAID you should have a look at: http://www.apushardware.com/faqs/kt7faq/kt7faq.htm

The disks section also covers known problems with the HPT370: http://www.apushardware.com/faqs/kt7faq/faqdisks.html


[This message has been edited by Indiana (edited 20 December 2000).]