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 TMC Ti5vg+ in useThe Ti5vg+ in use has not lived up to the expectations that Baznet Solutions held for this board. First let us dispense with the good (and we mean VERY good) points of this board. Performance is simply excellent from the Ti5vg+, allowing users to get true PII power from their K6 processors. Its expansion capacity is excellent, chllenging even experienced users to fill all of the slots available with useful cards. We also liked this board's compact size which made fitting easier compared to some older ATX designs which were larger and bulkier. We at the Processor Emporium are definitely fans of the ATX form factor. Also the hardware monitoring features of the Ti5vg+ are simply excellent and very easy to use. After the good points of the Ti5vg+ we have to inevitably move onto its weaker areas, and I feel these are very noteworthy indeed. First, we feel that the layout of the Ti5vg+ could have been much better. The location of the Socket 7 CPU adaptor does not conform to the ATX specifications of being on the left hand side of the board and thus positioned in the airflow of the ATX power supply. Instead the Socket 7 adaptor is placed on the right hand side of the board away from the flow of air. This is a shame as AMD K6 and Cyrix chips have a tendency for hot running and could well benefit from this source of cooling. Also the positioning of the ATX power connector on the edge of the board is not very good. Many scraped and chipped fingernails have resulted from its proximity to the case. The main achillies heel of the Ti5vg+ (and many other Super Socket 7 boards) though has been its implementation of AGP. There have been a number of problems getting AGP display cards to work properly in this board. We were unable to achieve a satisfactory output with an Ati Xpert@Work and have experienced a number of problems with Matrox G200 cards. Most of these problems have now been fixed with BIOS updates, so newer boards will be better on this issue, though the problems we encountered have left a bad taste with us at the Processor Emporium. If users are encountering problems with AGP display cards and this board, flashing the BIOS may be the best solution. TMC Ti5vg+, the Verdict
The TMC Ti5vg+ is a good board, there is no mistaking that. What we feel is that it could just be that bit better to make it a truly
outstanding motherboard. Many of its problems relate to the fact that it was one of the earlier Super Socket 7 boards which left much to
be desired both in compatibility and reliability. It does though offer users very strong performance for Super Socket 7, but at a price
of a few annoying little problems. This board is one of the older Super Socket 7 boards and is beginning to be outclassed by some of the
newer Super Socket 7 offerings from companies such as MSI and even TMC with its new Ti5vgf. ******************* NOTICE TO USERS Please note that early versions of this motherboard with BIOS's Z1 and Z2 CAN NOT accept BIOS revisions Z3 and above. This is due to boards with Z1 and Z2 BIOS's being fitted with 1 Megabit EEPROM chips. BIOS revisions Z3 and above require a 2 Megabit EEPROM chip and so are not compatible with Z1 and Z2 binaries. TMC will fit a new EEPROM chip to older boards, although other modifications to the board need to be carried out at the same time to enable operation with the new EEPROM chip. The board must be returned to TMC for this procedure to be carried out. Z1 and Z2 boards do not support the CXT stepping of AMD K6-2 processors and have not been verified with newer graphics cards such as those based upon the nVidea TnT2 and Matrox G400 chipsets.
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