FGB wrote:

The selller - this is me - FGB aka AmoRetro ;) I randomly found this thread on Vogons, the buyer didn't inform me about the thre […]
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The selller - this is me - FGB aka AmoRetro 😉
I randomly found this thread on Vogons, the buyer didn't inform me about the thread but contacted me via E-Mail for support.

So I will share my thoughs on this topic:

Please connect just the minimum required components, namely:

- CPU and CPU Fan connected to the corresponding header (But Good lord: Please do not use any pin- or whatnot modded Tualatin CPU on this board! This board doesn't support Tualatins. It's intended to run coppermine CPUs! A false CPU can cause you loads of trouble and may harm your board! I tested the boards for stability with 1000MHz coppermine CPUs at 133MHz though, they are working well and give you good speed to power your games, including V2 SLI (The chipsets divider gives you 33Mhz PCI clock when set to 133MHz FSB.).
- A good SDRAM stick, preferably PC133 (I found double sided infineon sticks working great on this mobo) but set the FSB to 100MHz for testing. I tested the boards with 133MHz bus but it also depends on the graphics cards you use because many cards are not capable to cope with the extra MHz. So you will be safe in that department if you set the FSB to the in spec 100MHz.
- Connect the VGA card
- Use only the standard IDE connectors for testing, not the connectors on the extra RAID controller.
- Connect nothing else

Generally: The BX7+ is a really good board. Yes, it may be a jumpers graveyard and there is no "Soft Menu" ala Abit but I promise you you don't need to set the jumpers once you tweaked your system well. Beside the jumpers it is a really good, very easy to set up, stable and performant board. I think I sold 7 of these boards (kept one for my collection) and got only positive feedback. And every single board I sold was tested also for stable 133Mhz operation including testing the overclocked AGP port with GF2 MX / Ti, Geforce 3 and Geforce FX cards. The board is known for its stability and overclockability. It is able to drive the BX chipset to its limits. I can show you stable 145MHz bus speed without increasing the voltages. Also that board is one of the first blue PCB boards which I consider as "cool" when you put it into some nice white or metal coloured case.

I hope the thingies work when you replace your CPUs with proper ones.
Best of luck!

Best regards
Fabian

All very sensible 😀

I do however doubt that the modded Tualatins will damage the board (even if they wont run, or run with stability issues) as long as they come from that Korean Ebay seller, his modifications are very well made. Perhaps they will use too much current if overclocked though.

The owner of this board decided to open a new thread instead of using the original one. Looks like his RAM is the problem here as the board refuses to work with modern single sided SDRAM sticks.

Here is a link to the thread: 1gb SDRam detected as 384mb?

FGB wrote:

The owner of this board decided to open a new thread instead of using the original one. Looks like his RAM is the problem here as the board refuses to work with modern single sided SDRAM sticks.

Here is a link to the thread: 1gb SDRam detected as 384mb?

Hi Fabian, I opened up a new thread as the powering on issue was due to me connecting up the motherboard header incorrectly. The included manual with the board shows a slightly different pin arrangement to the my board. Once I connected it up the way Meljor stated, it powered on just fine. The ram issue is a completely separate issue. An issue that I've since worked out. This board doesn't like single sided sticks, well it only recognises half of the ram anyway. It's recognising all of the ram now but the serial port has to be disabled to do so. Not too bothered as I won't be using the serial port anyway.

I have GA-6VXD7 , and i had problems with inserting the graphics card. The damn thing just didn't sit well at all, and because of that the motherboard did not want to start. I thought it was broken, but once i got an BEEP code for Hardware error - Video error. So, after some thinking i finally noticed how to insert it properly into the AGP slot.

Stojke wrote:

I have GA-6VXD7 , and i had problems with inserting the graphics card. The damn thing just didn't sit well at all, and because of that the motherboard did not want to start. I thought it was broken, but once i got an BEEP code for Hardware error - Video error. So, after some thinking i finally noticed how to insert it properly into the AGP slot.

I've had similar trouble to that in the past with a couple of sound cards. Usually it's just a matter of bending the slot plate a bit to get it to sit right. Some cases are just badly designed unfortunately.