Computer gurus, I need your help (Soyo Dragon K7+ mobo)!! (1 Viewer)

[Rob Varto]

Im working on installing my Soyo Dragon K7+ mobo this evening. I have a few questions:

1) What is VIA OnChip LAN? Do I need it?

2) If I install a USB 2.0 card, does that render my other USB ports useless or will they still transfer data at the v1.1 rate? If they are useless, do I have to disable them in my BIOS?

3)If you have the same board as me, what is the Standard Infrared (SIRCON) 10 pin connector for?

Thanks so much. This is my first time building by myself and I want it to go smoothly!!

 

[Masood Ali]

1) The built-in 10/100 ethernet card. If you don't already have a network card, and you need one, than this is it.

2) You can run all your USB ports at the same time; your 2.0 will transfer at the 2.0 rate, and your 1.1 will transfer at the 1.1 rate.

3) The infrared connector is for any infrared devices/recievers you may have that make use of the port. Not many devices out there use it; I'm guessing you won't need it.

 

[Ryan Smrha]

Have fun with you're new motherboard, I have a Dragon + and love it. Another good website that I have found useful is www.amdmb.com, they have great forums. Enjoy!

 

[Wes T]

So Rob have you got it up and running yet? I hope you like this board as much as I do.

Glad to hear you are happy with yours too Buzz. 35 is nice and cool. With a cheap cooler (Volcano 6+) mine stays at 40c under load, I just wish it wasn't so loud.

Wes T

 

[Rob Varto]

I've got this bad boy running!!
It's blazing fast but that Swiftech HSF is LOUD! It sounds like a Harrier is trying to fly out of my case. And with an all aluminum case and 6 cooling fans, not only is the case cool, it's actually cold to the touch. Im not sure how to get the temperature, but I'd love to find out.
I've had a couple of problems though. Im running Win XP pro and every time I have my 3com network card installed on the mobo, XP refuses to load. It always locks up and will only go into "Safe" mode. So, I took the card out and used the on board network adapter and no problems. I have all the latest drivers, I even disabled the onboard LAN but it refuses to load with my 3Com card. Anyone know why that might be?
Does anyone overclock? If so, what do you have your MHz increment set at on the BIOS? Im running the 1800+ chip.
Oh yeah, one more thing. I got round cables throughout this case and they are a thing of beauty! They are clean, multi-colored and stay the heck out of the way. Definitely a worth purchase - thanks to Buzz's previous link for that advice.
Any other advice would be greatly appreciated if you know how to best tweak this mobo!!

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Speaking of cold...
I have 4 fans in my case now and the CPU Fan and heat sink
is doing a good job (it's not a crystal orb or anything that
fancy)
But I decided to add another fan for the hell of it.. I
added a Sanyo Denki SAN ACE (Meant for large SANs Boxes)
it's 4.5" x 4.5" x 1.5" thick and it blows more air than
a leafblower! Wow I mean the case actualy stays cold to the
touch even where the CPU resides.. But I could not live with
the noise..
I need to look up all the specs at Sanyo's web site because
I am putting these bad boys up on Ebay... A hardcore gammer
or Cad nut should have one if they can live with the noise.
There ain't no small PC fans that are going to compete with
a fan designed for industrial SAN applications
These also have a Tachometer lead.. Not sure exactly how you
could use that in home PC's (The industrial equip probably
has an RPM readout)

 

[Wes T]

Glad to hear you've got it up and running! If it were me, I would wait a week or two at a minimum before I started turning up any clock speeds. Make sure you have it all good and stable first. You can read the temps in the BIOS. Don't use the monitoring software that comes with the mobo! It causes the CPU to operate at 100 percent all the time. Search the web for Motherboard Monitor 5 or MBM5. It uses very little resources and displays your temps in the tray. Have you tried your 3com card in slots 4 or 5? Most Dragon owners have had problems with some cards in slots 1 through 3. I use the onboard LAN myself and it works excellent. I think it has been mentioned already but there is a great forum for this board over at www.amdmb.com. Anyway, glad to hear it is up and running good for you. Gotta love that blazing fast speed eh? -Wes T