K7VTA3V2 2

[beanbrain]

Does anyone know the "form factor" of the K7VTA3V2? It's not ATX I know that. The reason I'm asking is that about a month ago the local power utility somehow sent a spike in the transmission lines. This fried the on-board disk controller and sound sections. I need to price a replacement motherboard so I can submit a claim, but without knowing the form factor it's hard to know what to look for.

Would going by board dimensions be better?

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[lpblauen]

ECS K7VTA3 Rev 2 ATX Socket A Motherboard

Hope this helps.

 

[beanbrain]

It is ATX?

OK! Good to know.

Yes this most certainly helps.

And I sort of figured out the Socket A by looking at an electronic vendor site. I'm assuming the A has something to do with Athlon?

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[lpblauen]

here is the complete specs for the motherboard.

K7VTA3 V2.X mainboard is an ATX mainboard that uses a 4-layer printed circuit board and measures 220 mm x 304 mm. The mainboard features a Socket 462 that accommodates AMD® Athlon processors supporting frontside bus (FSB) speeds up to 133 MHz. The K7VTA3 incorporates the VIA® KT266A Northbridge and VT8233 Southbridge chipsets which combine support for the new high-bandwidth Double Data Rate (DDR) 266 SDRAM, and the AC 97 audio codec.
PROCESSORS
462pin Socket A supports AMD® K7 processors
Full series of Athlon XP / Athlon / Duron processors
CHIPSET
VIA® KT266A(NB) & VT8233(SB)
KT266A V-Link Host system controller and VT8233 V-Link Client to PCI/LPC bridge
Peak Bandwidth 266MB/S 8-bit V-link Host Controller
Support AGP 2.0 specification (4X)
LPC I/O - IT8705F
System Hardware Monitor: Integrated in IT8705F
AC97 Audio Codec
Compliant with AC97 2.1 specification
MEMORY
Three 184-pin DDR DIMM sockets for 2.5V DDR SDRAM (DDR200/DDR266)
Maximum: 3GB
SYSTEM BIOS
Award 2MB Flash EEPROM
Supports Plug and Play 1.0A, AMP 1.2, Multi Boot, DMI
Full support for ACPI revision 1.0 specification
I/O INTERFACE
Supports Plug and Play function
PS/2 keyboard and PS/2 mouse connectors
Dual USB ports
One - EPP/ECP mode parallel port
Two - 16550 high-speed serial I/O port
Audio Ports (Line-in, Line-out, Mic-in, CD-in and game port)
Dual PCI IDE interfaces - support four IDE devices (PIO mode 4, DMA Mode 2, Ultra DMA 66/100)
Supports 360K~2.88M Byte, 3 Mode FDDs or LS120
ATX Power Supply Connector
Ports, Headers and Others:
IrDA header
Four additional USB ports (USB2/3 or LUSB1/2)
HDD LED, ACPI MSG LED, Reset Switch, Power Switch headers
Smart Card Reader header
CPU and Case Fan headers
LAN Card Wake Up / Internal Modem Ring Wake-Up headers

RTC & BATTERY
VT8233 included 256 bytes of CMOS SRAM
With CMOS SRAM hardware clear jumper
EXPANSION SLOTS
5 PCI slots, 1 AGP slot, 1 CNR slot
FORM FACTOR
ATX (304mm*220mm), 4 Layers

 

[paparazi]

Full size ATX form factor, you can tell because of the full compliment of 10 mounting points.

http://www.hwextreme.com/reviews/motherboard/ecs_k7vta3/

Obviosly you aren't going to get a direct replacement but it could be your chance for a little upgrade, still socket "A" 462 but with a newer, faster chipset (yours is a via KT266a)
Later and better chipsets for socket A are:

Via KT400a/KT600/KT880 (last one being the latest and best)
or
Nvidia Nforce2 400

All motherboards with these chipsets will support your CPU.

I would be slightly cautious though, because obviously you will not be sure if this is the only item damaged by the spike.
Martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[beanbrain]

Thanks guys.

The spec list is right on.

I'm looking at a KT-600 as a replacement. Here's the link;

http://shop4.outpost.com/product/4083602

I don't see a KT-800 listed as other form factors have taken center stage (so to speak). It was a damned fine box until the power company zapped it. I now have a TripLite UPS on it.

I've tested all the other components on the board. Windows XP Pro reports no sound devices at all. And it worked fine before the spike.

I'm not quite as sure about the disk controller since one of the drives (the much older one) is "seen" but inaccessible. e.g. the drive type and mfr are properly reported, but when I ask to populate the drive characteristics it takes a very long time to report nothing at all. The other drive (newer one) works just fine.

I think perhaps the electronics in the drive itself took the hit not the MB.

No matter the fried sound portion more than justifies a full replacement.

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[beanbrain]

Update:

I'm looking at this one too;

http://shop4.outpost.com/product/4499846

But seems like I've heard some bad things about PC Chips. Also I'm not a big fan of SiS board products. I had some problems with their stuff on an earlier machine.

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[paparazi]

The ECS board definately is better, the KT600 chipset is rock solid and dependable with great support. Seems strange that it's cheaper.
At a budget level this is would be an economical choice.
I'm not a big fan of ECS but obviously you have had good service until now.
Other budget options if you can find them:

http://www.asrock.com/product/K7VT6-C.htm

http://uk.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=13&l3=61&model=225&modelmenu=1

http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Products_7VT600-RZ.htm

Unless you spot a cheap Nforce2 board
Martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[beanbrain]

Martin:

Thanks again. You hardware guys roc!

Being a software hack I know just enough to get myself into trouble with the hardware. Set it and forget it is what I like. But of course I want whatever I have to perform well and in as generic a way as possible. No hardware glitches to confuse me if you know what I mean.

I've submitted my "incident report" to the power company. If they don't come through I was going to just buy a new computer, but a good motherboard and a solid fixed disk will fit in this case just fine. And the MB you guys are steering me toward is all I really need...for now.

After all, the OpSys is written for an older processor and chipset. It will always be that way too.

Cheers
Bill A.K.A. BeanBrain

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