Gigabyte GA-7VAX?

[lindberg]

I need a good/cheap mobo for my new system. Anyone own this mobo?
I have two questions:
Does it support FSB@166 with remaining PCI@33MHz?
CPU Voltage, can it be set in say .5V increment or is it som stupid +10%?

..eh, and question 3:
Is it a good mobo to oc?

[Greebe]

http://www.techimo.com/forum/t37230.html

[Dr Mordrid]

If you are putting several PCI cards in it I cannot recommend any VIA based mainboard. VIA's PCI to host memory bandwidth issue causes too many problems.

This is especially the case in video editing systems, those that will have several PCI cards installed, those that will be using a RAID array or a Creative SBLive or Audigy audio card. To be sure not *everyone* has the "troubles", but the odds are high and the problems well documented enough to be not worth the risk when alternatives are available.

Recommendation: MSI 745 Ultra (mod. # 6561).

This board uses the very stable SiS 745 chipset & should only set you back ~$60-$80 USD.

I use this one in my RT.X100 editing system with the Promise SX4000 RAID5 card; both of which have high bandwidth requirements. It handles both with ease while VIA chipped boards (GA-7VRX and GA-7DX) choked miserably.

Using a board with the KT400 makes no difference. Neither does DDR400 memory, which is pretty much a dud until AthlonXP's with a 333mhz FSB arrive in quantity in a few weeks.

If these are important to you for the future then I'd wait for the new MSI board based on the SiS 746 chipset.

Dr. Mordrid

[Greebe]

Appears MSI will be releasing only the 746FX chipset based MB now... from what I hear it's better, me wants

If must have one now I reccommend the 745 Ultra also... see sig...

[lindberg]

Well; I guess that's kinda true. I'm not a fan at all of VIA, but I want a overclockable card. And I absolutely want ATA133 and no CNR (why do they put it there?! Who uses the darn thing)!

I checked out the forum link greebe posted (thanx!) and there they seemed kinda positive to the gigabyte card. I've read the tom's HW review but I don't rely that much on tom.

Hmm, Can't even remember if I even installed via-4-in-1 driver on my current mobo and it works just fine without them. The 4-in-1 really gives u headache, especially if u want to be up to date

[lindberg]

Yeah, well greebe, you seem to be running your pci at something like 42MHz then or is it just 34MHz?

I know for a fact that when connecting the CD-Rom/PCI cards I currently (almost) cannot touch the FSB. I've got 133 but 140 is way over the limit, actually I don't even use 137 any more. I'm running 133 now. So that's why it is important that the mobo can support e.g. 166MHz FSB and 33MHz PCI. I guess it should not be any problem to get an unlocked XP to run FSB @ 166 (or 333 wich ever u prefer)

[Greebe]

it's at 38mHz atm. @ 166 it reverts back to 33

[Taz]

Originally posted by lindberg So that's why it is important that the mobo can support e.g. 166MHz FSB and 33MHz PCI.

So it needs to have a /5 divider, the Iwill XP-333R has both a /5 and /6 divider so it can run a 200Mhz FSB whilst keeping the PCI and AGP in spec. There are some Epox boards which can do this as well. The Iwill board uses the ALi Magik 1 chipset so doesn't suffer from the usual VIA troubles but performance is a bit below the SiS and KT333.

[Dr Mordrid]

A better alternative to the SiS chipset is the NForce 420. It doesn't have the total NB/SB interconnect speed of the SiS 963 SB used with the 746fx (800 mb/s vs. 1000 mb/s) but it's better behaved than the VIA or Magik chipsets.

Dr. Mordrid

[lindberg]

Very interesting! I like alternatives to VIA, really! But I haven't seen the Iwill anywhere and epox is quite rare to. Although the epox card seemed to rule when I checked a database somewhere where they had overclocked xp processors, it was quite frequent in the top.

I'll start to search until next month, then...

[Dr Mordrid]

Start looking here;

MSI K7N420 Pro (MS-6373)

Motherboards.org review

Dr. Mordrid

[K6-III]

The best impimentation, according to my views, of the NForce1 would be the int-video-free NForce415D. Of boards based on that chipset, the best 2 are the Asus A7N266-C and the Abit NV7-133R. Get the Abit for features with very limited tweaking options and get the Asus A7N266-C for OC. It gives you the option to lock your pci at 33mhz and raise the fsb independant of pci/agp speed...

Similarly, there is also that excellent NForce APU onboard audio....

[Dr Mordrid]

I wouldn't recommend an ABIT to my worst enemy. They still aren't over their leaking/exploding capcitor problems of the last several years. Horrid.

Dr. Mordrid

[Wombat]

Yes, which just made slashdot this morning.

[lindberg]

Hehe, for your information:
I will never buy an abit and I will most certainly not buy another asus!
Honestly, who want to pay for the brand? And I couldn't hate my asus more. Oh, and that siren sound, it just kills me!
It would be a great relife to smash it with the sledge when I've got a new mobo to replace it with

Smashing baby, yeah!