ASUS K7M AMD 750/VIA 686A Slot-A ATX

While we did not experience any problems resulting from compatibility issues with the K7M and various components and power supplies, there have been reports of compatibility problems with this motherboard in particular. The latest BIOS updates seem to correct most if not all of the issues but we have been unable to reproduce any of the issues we've read about in online forums and newsgroups as long as our test system is properly configured.

Quite a few problems that users have been emailing us about with Athlon systems most of the time relates either to their power supply or the memory used on the motherboard. We recommend the Antec PP-303X and the Delta Electronics DPS-338AB C rev.00 power supplies and Corsair PC133 and Mushkin PC133 SDRAM modules which are the only two modules we use in our Athlon test beds.

The placement of the ATX PSU connector on the motherboard has become a fairly major issue for the hardcore overclockers out there with large fans on their heatsinks. With less than 1.75" of space to work with, fitting in a decent sized heatsink and a fan while still being able to plug the ATX power connector into the motherboard is quite difficult. Be sure to buy a heatsink/fan combo that will work in this tight of an area, most manufacturers have special solutions for the K7M and are advertising them quite heavily so keep an eye out for those.

The software codec used to drive the onboard audio is always a downside when compared to the possibility of integrating a Creative Labs ES1373 chip (the same chip used on the SB PCI 128) or something like it, however the fact that it can be disabled and barely adds any cost to the final price of the motherboard keeps this downside from being one that you can't overlook.

Finally, the placement of the row of capacitors behind the Slot-A connector may interfere with some cooling devices that attach to the rear of the Athlon CPU, so be sure to look out for that as well.

USB Compatibility

• Number of Front Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 2

• Number of Rear Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 2

• USB IRQ Enable/Disable in BIOS: Yes

• USB Keyboard Support in BIOS: Yes

Recommended SDRAM

Recommended SDRAM: 1 x 128MB Corsair PC133 SDRAM; 1 x 128MB Mushkin PC133 SDRAM

SDRAM Tested: 1 x 128MB Corsair PC133 SDRAM; 1 x 128MB Mushkin PC133 SDRAM

Manufacturer: Corsair
Purchase Website: http://www.corsairmicro.com

Manufacturer: Mushkin
Purchase Website: http://www.mushkin.com