k7m is now in the us !

[merchant2112]

http://www.computer-x-press.com/ 189.00

just thought some one else might want to know.

[Giz]

That's one of my fears regarding the K7M as well. I'm not sure what kind of support we will get from ASUS. I currently have a FIC SD-11 running my K7 650 (see my post "G400 Max & K7 650 w/FIC SD-11 Problems"). I'm wondering if I should return my system and have them put in a K7M motherboard now that they are available, or am I going to get myself into more trouble than it is worth?

[Gurm]

This happened with AMD's last chipset as well. The AMD640 was a wonderful Socket7 chipset, which made it onto only a couple of boards from major manufacturers. Until just a month or two ago, Shuttle didn't even acknowledge that the HOT-603 existed, unless you called their tech support and demanded a new BIOS, at which point they would tell you to load a web page from a password-protected FTP site which had a pointer to the beta BIOS.

Urk!

I hope this isn't the ill omen for AMD that it seems to be. Let's be honest here - the thing that has thus far kicked AMD's ass is support for their chosen chipsets. Win98 _STILL_ doesn't run 100% right on a non-intel chipset, even though the means to produce a driver or set of drivers for these chipsets has existed since Win95 was released.

What does this say? It says either VIA and ALI are incompetent, or AMD hasn't given them sufficient support and assistance with writing drivers. One or the other.

We can only hope that the problem gets corrected before too many people have too many problems with the Athlon.

- Ash

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G. U. R. M. It's not hard to spell, is it? Then don't screw it up!
The word "Gurm" is in no way Copyright 1999 Jorden van der Elst.

[SC]

Well, we got the ASUS K7M board here in Denmark too :-)

Was just thinking of ordering one, but then again I maybe rather go for the Coppermine...

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Best regards

René Pedersen

Primary (and only) system

ASUS P2B, Intel Celeron 300A@450 MHz, 192 MB PC100 SDRAM, IBM Deskstar 14GXP 10,1 GB, 6xDVD/32xCD Pioneer DVD-A03S, Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead 32 MB, Sound Blaster Live! Value, 3Com Fast EtherLink XL 905B WakeOn LAN, Logitech MouseMan Wheel USB, Microsoft Natural Keyboard Elite USB, 15" Hitachi CM500ET

[TheMorg]

Glad you guys can get the K7M now... it's a pretty good effort. However, I would advise against installing the K7M "1004" BIOS that's been floating around on the Web. Having installed it, my system perpetually reports a "chassis intrusion" because I have no 4-pin jumper cap to put over the chassis-door jumpers. The speaker beeps very loudly all the time, so I had to disconnect it!

There is a new "1006" BIOS reported at <a href="http://www.amdzone.com">AMD Zone</a> that you can try. I've not tried it myself yet, but they report that this one "should be working". Get it at your own risk (they don't even attach a 'readme', so how do you know what it's fixing?) here: <a href="http://www.slota.com/files/km1006.zip">Asus K7M bios ver 1006</a>

I'm also still a little concerned that Asus sill don't seem to mention the K7M on their Web site. Does this mean that K7M support is going to be by-the-back-door until Asus develops a spine?

That's it... rant finished.

[Holerith]

I cannot find the specs on this motherboard anywhere on the Asus web site. Anyonee point me in the right direction?

[paulcs]

Asus has been a bit slow in getting anything about the K7M on their websites. Here's a link to the BXBoards review:
http://bxboards.com/mainboard/athlon/asus-k7m.shtml

I hope it helps.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[This message has been edited by paulcs (edited 26 October 1999).]

[Schorsch]

According to the German "c't" magazine, Asus doesn't sell the K7M officially but only as an OEM board. This is the reason why it isn't mentioned on their website and (even worse) why there isn't any support from Asus
for this board. They must be VERY afraid of Intel... I only hope they change their mind (or someone else puts out a great Athlon board and makes all the money...)

[merchant2112]

it really is a shame, that big companys like aurs, abit and others are allowing intel (the evil empire) to dictate what they should do through scare tatics. concidering that if amd can get enough good support they could blow intel off its money grubing dictatorship high horse.

i would really like to see abit and the other manufators tell intell to take a hike when intel says do this or we will have a shorteage of chipsets for you.

im not planing to buy any thing for a nother few weeks yet. i set my target date to buy some time in november. and as things look i still plan to get a good k7 combo. but to tell the truth even though i don't like intel's bussiness pratices they make a decent and highly supported product. (i was and still am a suporter of amd but untill i switched to a slot 1 (bh6 300a/450 then p2350/464) p2350 cpu was a freebe) i didnot see agp2x or udma in action. (udma on my fic pa2013 has just refused to work for me nomater whos drivers i use.)

the k7 looks impressive im probibly going to get one for myself, but at the same time for my buddy who is also looking to upgrade his intel 233mmx cpu system to something faster hewill end up with a p3500 and a nice stable mostly hassle free bx chip board soyo 6ab iv+
more than likely itsa fast overclockable and stable with exalent support. (drivers are mature ect..... )

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EVIL IS GOOD. EVIL IS LIVE SPELLED BACKWARD AND WE ALL WANT TO LIVE RIGHT ?
INTEL EVIL INSIDE, INTEL SPYCHIP INSIDE

[TheMorg]

The scary thing is that the updated bios seems to be coming from Freeway in Japan, who seem to have their own K7M variant. I picked this up from the <a href="http://www.slota.com">SlotA</a> website.

I wonder how much collaboration is going on between Asus and Freeway on this. If the answer is "not much", then I fear we're more likely to get ropey interim bios updates than stable final versions.

Schorsch - you're dead right, the K7M is currently only a white-box OEM board. Asus don't even put their logo on the manual!

[Mark F]

Schorsch,
Is that a nickname or a familly name? My grandfather was a Schoch (nickname for Athur) from NIED right next to F A/M. Still have familly in there and in Horcht, Zielsheim, and in the Taunus (think it Kelkheim)

Mark F.

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OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a CD

[Initial D]

Asus is a chicken.
I think those Mobo Maker should work together to Fight EVIL INTEL.
I got a SD-11 now is somewhat stable but not many features.
I used to think of getting a K7M to replace my SD-11(gonna sell it to my friend)
But now.....Nah.
I don't want to get a board that even don't exist on the Maker's Web site.
Asus should act like FIC, Gigabyte, Microstar To Fight against Evil Intel.
Intel only make crap products all the time.
Just look at Pentium II/III
If K6-2 didn't came out, I bet Intel are still only selling Pentium II
II/III got no differents on the CPU
III just add the SSE in it.
If K6-2 didn't came out, there are even no Celron.
and look at coppermine.
before Athlon really starts to show up, coppermine should be here months ago.
But After AMD Athlon out, Intel are chicken and Delay All of it's " Furture " product.
They probably need to redesign the whole Coppermine and i820 to be able to Complete with Athlon. Intel first don't believe that AMD really got the power to kick their ass.
sigh......Intel Sucks.
Ooops........isn't this a Matrox Forums ?..........oooooooooops
Hehehehe

[merchant2112]

dam k7m looked good at first have to see what
happens with the board over the next 3 weeks (plan to buy something on nov 16th) if asus still fail's to list its board by then i will probibly get a gigabyte or msi board. unless the price comes way down on that k7m anyway 180.00 bucks is way to much to pay for a white box oem no support mother board.

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EVIL IS GOOD. EVIL IS LIVE SPELLED BACKWARD AND WE ALL WANT TO LIVE RIGHT ?
INTEL EVIL INSIDE, INTEL SPYCHIP INSIDE

[Schorsch]

Hi Mark F.,

my family name is Schoch, but "Schorsch" is a common nickname in Germany for people whose first name is "Georg". By the way, I live in Frankfurt but there are Schoch families all over the South of Germany - they're spreading like the plague, hehe...

[ManojM]

The reason why Asus will not post any specs for the K7M motherboard is because of the agreement they made with Intel that they will not post any info about the motherboard on their site.