I searched the support pages and couldn't understand what PCB version means. any help?

  • Thread starter Thread starter P.I.T.A.S.
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P.I.T.A.S.

Hi,
I have a7v333 board and the latest 1018.004 bios and want to upgrade my cpu.
But when I checked the available cpu upgrade options I noticed that my board
must be PCB version 2.0 in order to get 333mhz FSB amd athlon xp cpus. The
exact sentence was: "A7V333 with PCB version R2.00 or later can support
333MHz FSB Athlon XP processor."
Any opinion on what PCB version mean? How can I learn my board's pcb
version?
 
" Any opinion on what PCB version mean? How can I learn my board's pcb
version? "


PCB stands for Printed Circuit Board. Motherboard manufacturers might
release a new product, and for one reason or another it just isn't cutting
it in the market. It could be that it has fatal design flaws, or it could
be that it doesn't support a certain CPU that has been released around the
same time.

The next chipset design may be some months away from being a finished
product, so instead of missing out on a portion of the market they will
update the specs of a previous motherboard and release a new version.

Asustek obviously felt that the existing design of the A7V333 would be
suitable to cover the market for 333FSB processors, so they released an
updated version of it.

If you look on the motherboard itself, you should find some indication of
*A7V333* printed somewhere. However, I'm not sure what Asus printed on the
different versions of these particular boards, so someone else will need to
fill you in on that.
 
Normally, Asus prints the PCB revision level between two of the PCI
slots. It's usually a decimal number something like "1.03" or such (on
the P2B, they started with 1.00 and got up to 1.12, there were thirteen
versions of that board apparently, although only about 5 of those show
up in volume in the field).
 
Barry said:
Normally, Asus prints the PCB revision level between two of the PCI
slots. It's usually a decimal number something like "1.03" or such (on
the P2B, they started with 1.00 and got up to 1.12, there were thirteen
versions of that board apparently, although only about 5 of those show
up in volume in the field).
Click to expand...

I don't know about the A7V, but in the P2B series there were often two
revision levels for a given board - the 'main' revision level printed
between the PCI slots and formatted as 1.xx (sometimes with a trailing
period which was significant), and the 'PCB' revision on a sticker
somewhere and formatted as D0x. As an example, a P2B-DS with a main
revision of 1.06 could have a PCB revision of D01, D02, or D03 - which
is significant because only D03 has a 133Mhz-capable clock chip.

Sorry to add to the confusion...

P2B
 
P2B said:
I don't know about the A7V, but in the P2B series there were often two
revision levels for a given board - the 'main' revision level printed
between the PCI slots and formatted as 1.xx (sometimes with a trailing
period which was significant), and the 'PCB' revision on a sticker
somewhere and formatted as D0x. As an example, a P2B-DS with a main
revision of 1.06 could have a PCB revision of D01, D02, or D03 - which
is significant because only D03 has a 133Mhz-capable clock chip.

Sorry to add to the confusion...

P2B
Click to expand...

Here is an example of a revision number. The revision number keeps
track of the "copper pattern" used to make the board. Any time the
conductors are changed, the revision number changes. A revision
number can change artificially, as for example the last A7N8X of
the 1.xx series is electrically similar to the 2.0 version, and
2.0 stickers were placed on the last of the 1.xx boards.

http://www.asuscom.de/support/FAQ/FAQ_Bilder_allgemein/faq077_rev_pic.jpg

A second number used to track the boards, is the PCBA number. The
letter A stands for Assembly, and at Asus, there will be a "shopping
list" of the components used to fill the board, filed by PCBA number.
From this, Asus can keep track of which stepping of chipset was used,
what FSBs they supported and so on. PCBA changes more frequently than
Revision number, as if there is a shortage and substitution of a
component in the middle of manufacturing, the PCBA number has to be
changed, to keep track of the change. If a field recall is needed for
a product, the PCBA files determine what ranges of serial numbers would
need to be pulled from the market etc.

The PCBA is pictured here:
http://www.asuscom.de/support/FAQ/FAQ_Bilder_allgemein/faq077_pcba_pic.jpg

HTH,
Paul
 
Thanks a lot for your answers. I looked at my board and saw that it's rev
1.01. So I think I need to get a new mainboard as well. Because my a7v333
only allows 266mhz fsb. Feel sorry to notice it.
 
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