Asus P3V4X - Are there any updates ?

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Geneve

Asus P3V4X Acpi Bios Rev. 1005

Are there any updates out there?

Is my board stuck with ATA/66 ide?

I have One Plextor DVD drive. One CDRW 24x cdron drive.
Two 120 gig Western Digital hard drives. They are partitioned.

I am currently dual booting WIn98se (no net working software
is installed. bare bones setup.

The system under Windows 98 se is mainly for capturing video
and converting it to vcd/svcd etc. So it is not set up to use
as games.

This evening I installed : VIA_Hyperion 4IN1_V451v.zip
as well as vlatency_v020_beta21.exe

These seemed to help my frameloss for the Huffy codec I am testing.

I am using a Sound Blaster Live OEM. I figured I had better
mention this as some people with other motherboards seem to
have issues with sb live cards,

Oh I do have the SB dps sound support disabled. I forget how it
should be stated so I hope you get my drift.

The other dual botted software is Windows 2000 Pro, I do not do any
video capture work in there at all. I do convert some things but
other than that. I use it for web surfing and neews groups and chatting.
An occasional game of GTA2. So I am not cramming tons of games on the
machine here.

The CPU is Intel P3/700mhz. I have 500 megs of ram.

The machine seems very stable but I wonder about the ata/100 if is is
possible or not for the hard drives.

Oh currently the hard drives are showing up as UDMA4 for the mode if
this helps,

The software I ran for the drives was configured as UDMA5 yet the bios
keeps reporting as UDMA4.

I had tried a addon card for ata/100 but then the machine seemed to slow
down.

Geneve
 
Geneve said:
Asus P3V4X Acpi Bios Rev. 1005

Are there any updates out there?
Click to expand...

Yes, there's a BIOS 1006 beta 3.
Is my board stuck with ATA/66 ide?
Click to expand...

Unless you stuff in an additional PCI IDE controller card, yes.
I have One Plextor DVD drive. One CDRW 24x cdron drive.
Two 120 gig Western Digital hard drives. They are partitioned.

I am currently dual booting WIn98se (no net working software
is installed. bare bones setup.

The system under Windows 98 se is mainly for capturing video
and converting it to vcd/svcd etc. So it is not set up to use
as games.
Click to expand...

Hmm, video stuff with an elderly VIA chipset? Dunno whether that's such
a good idea.
This evening I installed : VIA_Hyperion 4IN1_V451v.zip
as well as vlatency_v020_beta21.exe

These seemed to help my frameloss for the Huffy codec I am testing.
Click to expand...

How CPU intensive is this codec? If the answer is "not overly much", you
apparently have trouble with the usual "great" PCI performance of older
VIA chipsets (the current KT600 seems to be quite OK).
The CPU is Intel P3/700mhz. I have 500 megs of ram.
Click to expand...

Exactly 500? ;) Hmm, with a PIII-700, you could relatively easily change
to a BX board (like a rev. 1.04 P3B-F) with an add-on IDE controller
card (say, a Promise Ultra100 TX2, use latest BIOS/drivers). Assuming
you memory would be cooperating, that is (128 MBit memory chips must be
16Mx8, not 32Mx4, and 256 MBit and larger won't work, which means 256
meg modules will have to use 16 chips of 16Mx8 each). In terms of PCI
performance, the BX has always been very good and fuss-free.
The machine seems very stable but I wonder about the ata/100 if is is
possible or not for the hard drives.
Click to expand...

Not with the 686A southbridge. BTW, that's hardly faster than an
ordinary UDMA33 controller.
I had tried a addon card for ata/100 but then the machine seemed to slow
down.
Click to expand...

Which one was that, and how did this show?

Stephan
 
Yes, there's a BIOS 1006 beta 3.
Click to expand...

Where can I locate this ?
How CPU intensive is this codec? If the answer is "not overly much", you
apparently have trouble with the usual "great" PCI performance of older
VIA chipsets (the current KT600 seems to be quite OK).
Click to expand...

It seemed to jump to 49 percent.

--------------------------------------
Video format (box)
------------------
Image Format : YUY2 Packed Data
Image Dimensions : Large (640x480)

Huffy v2.1.1 - CCESP Patch - Valid depths : 24
--------------------------
YUY2 compression method : Predict median (best)
RGB compression : Predict gradient (best)

All boxes below this were empty.

....

Frames Captured 41,455
Total time : 23:03
Tital File Size : 10.79GB
CPU usage (at halt) 49 %

Video
-----
Average rate : 29.96.922 fps
Datarate : 8010KB/s
Compression 2.2:1
Avg frame size : 273645
Frames dropped : 20

Audio
-----
Size 232.7MB
Relative rate : 44092.49Hz
Data rate : 173KB/s
Compression 1.0:1
VT adjust : -2 ms
----------------------------------------

Right now I am just experimenting with this codec.

My primary codec is Picvideo Mjpeg set at quality 18.
For a one hour capture I lose maybe 44 frames @ 720x480
screen size. (Win98se)
Exactly 500? ;) Hmm, with a PIII-700, you could relatively easily change
to a BX board (like a rev. 1.04 P3B-F) with an add-on IDE controller
card (say, a Promise Ultra100 TX2, use latest BIOS/drivers). Assuming
Click to expand...

I have a Promise Ultra100 TX2 on hand. This is the one that slowed
this system down. Well the capture drive that was connected to this
card generated more frame drops.
you memory would be cooperating, that is (128 MBit memory chips must be
16Mx8, not 32Mx4, and 256 MBit and larger won't work, which means 256
meg modules will have to use 16 chips of 16Mx8 each). In terms of PCI
performance, the BX has always been very good and fuss-free.
Click to expand...

I think I have Kingston memory. Not sure if it is PC100 or PC133 and
also not sure what type pf chips. 16Mx8 gee I don't know.

Is it as easy as counting chips to know which is which?
Not with the 686A southbridge. BTW, that's hardly faster than an
ordinary UDMA33 controller.
Click to expand...

Yeah but the strange thing is that it copies faster than My second
system which is a BX133(raid) board. something odd about that board
though. I have a one gig cpu in there and all I can run it at is 750
before data corruption starts in. Been to the newsgroup for that board
and seems one setting I play with in my bios fixes a lot of woes
and yet one of the fellas says that is not so. Ehhh I dont know
electronics so I have no way to test leads and what have you.
Which one was that, and how did this show?
Click to expand...

Promise Ultra100 TX2
Stephan
--
Home: http://stephan.win31.de/ | Webm.: http://www.i24.com/
PC#6: i440BX, 2xCel300A, 512 MiB, 18+80 GB, ATI AGP 32 MiB, 110W
This is a SCSI-inside, Legacy-plus, TCPA-free computer :)
Reply to newsgroup only. | See home page for working e-mail address.
Click to expand...

Geneve
 
The last bios:
ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/BIOS/Slot_I/VIA_Chipset/Apollo_Pro_133A/P3V4X/1006__04.zip

But no ATA100 witch is a material feature.
The .004 version included only a Patch for VCM memory.

Michel
 
Geneve said:
Asus P3V4X Acpi Bios Rev. 1005

Are there any updates out there?
Click to expand...

There's 1006 beta 4, but I'm sticking with 1005. I'm sure 1006 only fixed a
few bugs with particular hardware combinations, so unless you have problems
there's no point in a BIOS upgrade.
Is my board stuck with ATA/66 ide?
Click to expand...

Yes. ATA66 is plenty fast enough anyway.
I have One Plextor DVD drive. One CDRW 24x cdron drive.
Two 120 gig Western Digital hard drives. They are partitioned.
Click to expand...

Pointless information.
This evening I installed : VIA_Hyperion 4IN1_V451v.zip
as well as vlatency_v020_beta21.exe
Click to expand...

The newer versions of VIA drivers won't have any benefits for the P3V4X, as
the only driver updates in them would be for newer hardware. I recommend
just sticking with version 4.28.
I am using a Sound Blaster Live OEM. I figured I had better
mention this as some people with other motherboards seem to
have issues with sb live cards,
Click to expand...

I had crackling with video capture, it (mostly) went away when I increased
PCI Latency Timer in the BIOS from 32 to 64.
The CPU is Intel P3/700mhz. I have 500 megs of ram.
Click to expand...

Overclock that P3 700 to 933 (increase FSB from 100 to 133).
The machine seems very stable but I wonder about the ata/100 if is is
possible or not for the hard drives.
Click to expand...

It's not worth worrying about.
I had tried a addon card for ata/100 but then the machine seemed to slow
down.
Click to expand...

It would. ATA addon cards are useless, because whatever increase you get in
host burst rate would just completely kill your PCI bandwidth. This would
absolutely destroy video capture. You're always better off sticking with
your chipset based IDE, as it's not part of the PCI bus (has its own
seperate bus direct to the chipset/CPU).
 
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