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

While it may not resemble it, the K7M actually follows AMD's reference Fester design fairly closely. In accordance with this 6-layer motherboard design is the presence of the 3 DIMM slots featured on the K7M. According to ASUS each one of these banks can hold up to a 256MB module thus creating a maximum theoretical memory capacity of 768MB for the K7M. There are some stipulations to obtaining this memory capacity such as you cannot use registered DIMMs on the board (or any currently available Athlon motherboard) seemingly due to chipset issues with registered DIMMs.

We did manage to get 256MB modules to work such as the Corsair PC133 and Mushkin PC100 modules pictured below, both of which make use of relatively new 128Mbit Toshiba SDRAM chips. For those of you interested in putting the Athlon in a high end workstation or server setup, one of the areas that the CPU happens to excel at, then rest assured that you can use a decent amount of memory on the K7M.

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The layout of the K7M is what we've come to expect from ASUS, it is quite clean with the exception of the placement of the ATX power supply connector, the downfall to many motherboard layouts these days. The close proximity of the ATX PSU connector to the Slot-A CPU interface can interfere with some larger heatsinks including Swiftech's MC1000 Cooler. Some cooler manufacturers have been adjusting their designs to complement this layout such as the aforementioned Swiftech as they have released an SE version of the MC1000 that features top mounted fans versus the regular fans that stretch out in front of the heatsink. Regardless of what type of heatsink/fan you'll be putting on your Athlon, if you're plugging that CPU into the K7M, you've got under 1.75" (44mm) of space to work with.

One of the pressing issues the Athlon posed for motherboard manufacturers was the incredible amount of power the CPU requires. Because of this, the area around the the Slot-A connector must be taken advantage of with capacitors and voltage regulators capable of keeping the current supplied to the Athlon at a level that is safely within the CPU's operating specifications. Any fluctuation in the power supplied, especially if not enough is provided, could result in very unstable operation. ASUS attempted to tailor to this situation by surrounding the Slot-A connector on the K7M with a total of ten 1500uF and two 4700uF Rubycon capacitors, the same type used on most AOpen motherboards which are also known for their superior stability as well.

In addition to the five behind the Slot-A connector and the one next to the ATX PSU connector, two more voltage regulators are placed close to the three DIMM slots and are surrounded by five more of the Rubycon 1500uF caps. The memory banks also being a very power sensitive set of components on any motherboard are very well deserving of this preferential treatment.

One of the major selling points for the K7M was the fact that it supports a wide variety of overclocked FSB frequencies which include the usual 125, 133, and higher settings but feature more reasonable 105 and 110MHz settings as well. The entire list of FSB frequencies includes the 90 and 95MHz frequencies which we've seen on the Gigabyte GA-7IX in addition to the K7M, the default 100MHz setting and 1MHz increments from 100MHz up to 125MHz. The 1MHz increments from 100MHz up to 125MHz prove to be most useful for overclockers, especially since they allow you to increase the clock speed of your Athlon to a decent level without even having to open up your case. A handful of the FSB frequencies can be set via two dip switches located on the motherboard itself or they can be more easily controlled through the AMIBIOS setup utility.

Manual core voltage adjustment is provided by a set of three 4-pin jumpers located awkwardly between the edge of the Slot-A connector and the AMR slot. While reaching these jumpers is definitely a pain, their presence combined with the ability to adjust the FSB frequency may end up saving you $60 on an Athlon Overclocking Device, not a bad value at all. Of course die-hard overclockers will want to opt for the overclocking device, those just experimenting with overclocking their Athlons will probably prefer the K7M's approach. At the time of publication, the K7M was the only readily available Athlon motherboard with this variety of FSB settings however MSI has already announced and is beginning to ship their next Athlon motherboard with a similar set of FSB settings. It's just a matter of time before this becomes more popular, but ASUS was there from the start.

Hardware monitoring on the K7M is provided by the Winbond 83782D, a hardware monitoring solution that boasts the ability to read directly from the on-die thermal diode of any 0.25-micron or 0.18-micron Intel CPU. But, since the K7M is an Athlon motherboard solution, this feature doesn't really matter.

The chip provides monitoring for 9 voltages, 3 temperatures, and 3 fan speeds. Case intrusion is supported and taken advantage of by the K7M as is the CPU VID detection of the correct Vcore. Since there is no on-die thermal diode for the chip to read from on the Athlon, ASUS provided a thermistor header for an external thermistor right next to the Slot-A interface connector in addition to the header placed to the left of the AMR slot. Unfortunately the K7M does not ship with any thermistors so you'll have to track those down on your own.

The K7M ships with the usual high-quality user's manual and installation CD-ROM that features all of the drivers and patches you'll need to get up and running, although you'll want to get the latest drivers and updates from AMD and VIA directly. ASUS is one of the few manufacturers left that still provides a comprehensive set of written documentation in addition to on-line documentation, just another example of that ASUS dedication that we've been witness to over the years.