Tom's Hardware > Forum > Motherboards & Memory > General Motherboard > Shared PCI slots on K7 Master?

Shared PCI slots on K7 Master?

Forum Motherboards & Memory : General Motherboard - Shared PCI slots on K7 Master?

Tom's Hardware: Over 1.4 million members in 6 different countries available to answer all your high-tech questions. Sign up now! Its free!

Ask the community Add a reply

Bottom Search this thread

I'm a little worried with everything I am hearing about shared IRQ's on PCI slots on the new motherboards.

I am planning on getting an MSI K7 Master, one of the last components I need for a new system. I already have the following PCI cards which I will be using, plus one more listed below which I have yet to buy. Can I expect trouble?

- Soundblaster Live! 5.1 (OEM)
- 10/100 Ethernet Card (Linksys)

My plan was to add a Tekram 395U SCSI card as well (for a SCSI scanner and DVD drive), since it would be cheaper to buy the K7 Master plus SCSI card than to get a K7 Master-S. I can't even figure out if the K7 Master has an external SCSI port on it or not.

Would I have less troubles if I spend the extra bucks on a K7 Master-S instead of buying a separate SCSI card?

Also, I hear a lot about PCI slot 3, and in some places I hear the sound card should be placed there, and in some I hear the ethernet card should be placed there. I have both, so which do I put in slot 3?

Any enlightenment on this would be appreciated.

Wayne

Add a reply

OK, a little more info. I downloaded the K7 Master manual (Version 1.1) from MSI's site. I found this in it, apparently relating to the K7 Master-S, but presumably one can delete the SCSI references to determine the K7 Master setup (which I did below):

K7 Master:
AGP & PCI2 shared
PCI1 & PCI5 shared
PCI3 & AC97 shared
PCI4 & USB shared
PCI1 ~ PCI5: Bus Master

K7 Master-S:
AGP & PCI2 shared
PCI1 & PCI5 shared
PCI3 & SCSI1 & AC97 shared
PCI4 & SCSI2 & USB shared
PCI1 ~ PCI5: Bus Master

So, it seems to me that I am no better off by getting the K7 Master-S with regard to shared PCI slots. In fact it looks worse... With the K7 Master I can at least disable the AC97 and have PCI3 not sharing anything. With the K7 Master-S, I can't get away from that at all.

Mind you, I'm new to all this so I may have it completely wrong on how I'm interpreting all that.

I still have my choice to make, non-SCSI motherboard with a Tekram card, or the SCSI motherboard version. Either way, I have to figure out where to put my sound card and NIC, and the SCSI card as well if I go that route.

Does it even make a difference?

Wayne

Reply to Anonymous

Where can you get a K7-Master-S? Please post the link if you got it ok? Later dude!

Reply to novice

I thought this problem was only on the ASUS A7M266, *sigh*. OK, anyway what's the big deal with shared IRQs anyway? I have the K7 Master, just waiting on TBird 1.33 GHz and DDR RAM, I already have a SB Live 5.1 player. and PCI graphics card and PCI Voodoo. How iwll that affect me if I want to put those in.

If PCI4 and USB are shared, does that mean I can't use USB if something is plugged in to PCI4? That would be REALLY sh*t.

Beer is the devil's piss.

Reply to hatimh

I have no idea if it is a big deal or not...

My plan is to get the non-scsi K7 Master. (My scanner won't work with the integrated controller apparently).

I will put my SB Live! 5.1 in slot 3, disabling the on-board sound, and thus having it in a non-shared PCI slot.

I will put the NIC in slot 1, which is only shared with slot 5, so as long as I don't use slot 5 that won't be shared either.

As for the SCSI card, I have to put it in a slot shared with either the AGP or the USB controller. I think USB is the lesser of two evils here, since the only USB device I have (thus far) is my mouse. Hopefully it won't affect performance of either.

Sound reasonable?

Wayne

Reply to Anonymous

I have three PCI cards (sound, network, RAID) and one AGP card plugged into my K7-Master with no problems. I'm using the AGP, PCI1, PCI3, and PCI4 slots. I would suggest using PCI4 and staying away from PCI2.

Reply to yoda271828

i have a k7 master and i have a k7 master-s on the way (should be here by wednesday). i am using a 3C905-TX nic, a sb live! (original), tekram s-390f scsi card, promise fasttrack 100, a smg ata-100 controler, and a radeon 32mb AIW in win2k with no problems. i have almost everything on irq 9, both serial ports enabled, and i still have irq 5 free and i have NO problems at all with my system. also i have the fsb at 115 and the us is still stable :-).

-----------
Chris
ws6@kc.rr.com

Reply to ws6

That's really great to know. I've just placed my order for the K7 Master! Can't wait to get it and start putting everything together...

Wayne

Reply to Anonymous

Ask the community Add a reply

Tom's Hardware > Forum > Motherboards & Memory > General Motherboard > Shared PCI slots on K7 Master?

Go to:

Help |
Forum rules

There are 644 identified and unidentified users. To see the list of identified users, Click here.

Page generated in 0.265 seconds

Please mind

You are about to answer a thread that has been inactive for more than 6 months.
If you still wish to proceed, please ensure that your posting is original and does not duplicate or overlap any prior responses to this thread.

Add a reply Cancel

Focus On

Shared PCI slots on K7 Master?

Forum Motherboards & Memory : General Motherboard - Shared PCI slots on K7 Master?

Please mind