any experience with Soyo SY-K7VME mobo?

The Soyo SY-K7VME motherboard is on rebate specials seemingly
everywhere. Has anybody got any experience running this board?

http://www.soyousa.com/products/proddesc.php?id=281

 

I bought the SY-K7VM2 as a backup if my Shuttle fails but am not using it
yet.
For $10 after rebates......I could not refuse it!
Now if an AMD falls in my price range, I may put this one together sooner.
Do you have the processor yet?

Of course after I bought the AMD based board, an Intel based Soyo board went
on sale with a Celeron 2.8 for under $70 after the rebate. It appears to be
working quite well AFTER I hooked up that smaller power lead to it! lol
TigerDirect.com has been having some Soyo cases and barebones on sale with
rebates.

My vote is try it out if you have the processor! Remember that it should
run warmer than the Intel ones!
later,
dave

 

I just built a system from a barebones kit from Tiger Direct with a Soyo
black/silver case. So far, it seems to be a good board. But, the case
design sucks! The power supply covers half of the CPU fan, literally
touching it, unless you have an awfully small fan. I just checked the
temp while ago. It was running 75 C on an XP2400+ Thorobred! I'm
afraid of melting the CPU at that temp! I just dug out an old case
(from a failed ECS board with bad caps that took the power supply and
CPU with it) that I should be able to put the power supply and MB in, so
they will not block the CPU fan. I'll have to paint it black to match
the keyboard, mouse, speakers, CD, and FDD, though. And, it doesn't
have front USB connections. I'll try to remove the ones from the Soyo
case and cut a hole to mount them. That's still cheaper than ordering
another brand new case. I just won't make the mistake of getting a Soyo
case again. It'll just take me an extra day to get it ready for the
customer.

 

I just put together the Soyo case/kit (CX-5959) along with the one of their
P4VGM motherboards.
That motherboard along with CPU and fan work out very well. Plenty of
clearance.
I have not installed the SY-K7VME (yeah I bought one of those too) since I
got the P4 mobo and Celeron 2.8 really inexpensively. I would not think the
CPU fan would be in a 'blocked' area. That isn't good planning so I agree
with you.
I guess I like the Mid-Tower cases, and that is what this Soyo case seems to
be! ;-)
I will try the SY-K7VME when I get another deal on an AMD CPU. <g>

Which Soyo case do we need to stay away from?

later,
dave

 

I just received the "barebones" system from TigerDirect. For the price,
it's really slick. I need some help from someone out there, though. No
matter what I do, the system only recognizes my Athlon XP 2600+ as an 866
cpu. I have the JP3 jumper set to 133 and can't find an other jumpers or
BIOS settings to change things. Anyone have any ideas?

Joe

 

Just a thought here, but is it really a 2600?? Did you just buy that too?
Had to ask! ;-)
later,
dave

 

I'm afraid I have to amend my previous reply about this board. I cannot
get the sound, LAN, USB, or modem to work. It has the latest drivers
and BIOS. I've tried WIN2000 Pro and WINXP Home. All I get is a code
35. Only the built-in video works. The LAN and USB drivers will not
even load. The audio and modem drivers will load, but will still not
work. I have contacted Soyo and am anxiously awaiting their reply.

 

It's the Soyo black/silver case packaged with the MB from Tiger Direct.
It's called LAN party case, with a built-in handle on top.

 

Well,
I have just recently put one of the soyo kit together. With a XP2400 chip.
Which when I first booted it showed up as 1500Mhz. Went a checked and it was
because of the factory jumper setting of JP3 was on 1-2 which is 100 Mhz
FSB. Changed it to no jumper which is for 133 FSB setting and it showed up
as 1999 MHz. But, since you have the XP2600..
Last I checked that one is a 166 FSB setting which is 3-4 on JP3?
link Soyo Site for Quick k7vme PDF.
http://www.soyousa.com/downloads/filedesc.php?id=2210

Another thought is the CPU might be a mobile XP2600 1.67GHz /266MHz BUS and
not a
AMD Athlon XP 2600+ CPU ,266Mhz or 333Mhz which the board support.
Most are not really supporting M-XP chips that I know of?

 

The chip is from an other system whose mobo was dying and was recognized
(and worked as a 2600) on that system.

Thanks for the thoughts, though!

 

The XP 2600+ is the older, 266 model and worked with a prior mobo as a 2600.
Any other thoughts?

 

Well,
Then JP3 does not need a jumper on either one.
If it shows up right then it good.. if not Really don't know?

 

I double checked the Soyo case that I bought and it is a 'Dragon" model and
it looks like it has four instead of three 5.25" drive bays like your
'Party' case. So maybe my case is larger which is why I am not experiencing
any clearance problems.

Good luck and I guess I would contact Tiger to see if there are any returns
of, or problems with, these products.
later,
dave

 

There are 2 versions of those cases. 1 - has 3 5.25 bays & the
other has 4 5.25 bays. I have had both cases and the 4 5.25 bays is
much larger with a built in power supply. The other has a major air
flow problem. I installed an XP 2600+ barton core (333 mhz) and set
jp 3 on pins 3-4 (for 333 mhz front side bus). Windows wont even
boot. The only way i can get this to boot is to run at 266 mhz front
side bus which then shows the cpu running as a Duron 1800+. I have
gotten windows to boot 1 time with it set up as a 2600+xp 333mhz but
it quickly started beeping at me that the temp was way to high. 64c
and climbing. I have modified the internals of the case to add
additional fans, but to no avail. I just cant keep this mobo/cpu
cool enough to run at normal speeds. any ideas from anyone would be
greatfull.

System Conf.
3 - 5.25 bay (mid tower case - soyo) bad ventalation
Soyo - SY-k7vme mobo
2 - 256 2700 ram
nVidia MX 440 64mb video card (on board video disabled)

Thanks all for the help in advance.

==============
Posted through www.HowToFixComputers.com/bb - free access to hardware troubleshooting newsgroups.

 

I have finally gotten the drivers to load, but like you I cannot get
the modem or sound cards, which i installed on the two PCI slots to
work. It appears to me thaat the board does not "see" anything
installed in the PCI slots.

I hope you share what you learn. I am asking Soyo for help too and
will share what I get.

Is there anyone with experience using this board and getting the danng
PCI slots to recognize anything?

 

Soyo finally got back to me. The message from them follows. It did
work, except for the USB drivers. I used WIN2000 Pro. When I did all
of the MS Windows updates, a new USB driver was one of them. It took
care of it.
==================================================================================

Can you please try once again to install the Operating system. But, before that. Remove first all the added devices and double check the CPU FSB Jumper (JP3). The jumper should be set to 133MHz, remove the jumper from JP3.

Clear the CMOS memory via JP5. Please consult the manual for an info on how to do this. Make sure that there is no power connected to the M/B when clearing the CMOS. This process allows the CMOS settings to be reset to its default values.

Turn ON the system. Press the "DEL" key during POST (Power ON Self Test) to enter the BIOS Setup Program.

Select the "LOAD OPTIMIZED DEFAULT" menu, this will load the BIOS Optimal setup setting. Press F10 to save the changes and to restart the system.

Reinstall Windows, formatting the HDD.

Then after the installation. Please try once again to use the drivers from our website.

 

TigerDirect recommends the following CPO fan
:
Thermaltake TR2 M2 Tip-Magnetic Driving (TMD) CPU Cooling Fan for Socket
370 and Socket A Processors up to AMD Athlon XP 3400+ $16.00

It has an extra 10mm clearance...

BB

 

I noticed that they did change the system kit CPU fan after the one I
got. It was still not the fan you mentioned!

 

Are you saying the Tigerdirect barebones deal includes a CPU fan? Or
are they just recommending a different add-on fan now?

 

No, TigerDirect doesn't include it, they recommend it.

Here's a totally dumb question -- what should my FSB (JP3) be set to? My
CPU is an Athlon XP2800+ (333FSB), but the choices for JP3 are 100, 133,
and 166MHz. What's the correct setting?

Thanks for any info.

BTW, if anyone has seen the manual for this mobo, the pin settings for
JP3 seem to be correct numerically, but as pictured under the heading
"CPU Front Side Bus Clock Jumper Setting," the images of JP3 are
incorrect (rotated 90 degrees clockwise from what's actually printed on
the board. Anybody know which is correct?