Ga-7vrxp Mobo of the year or Steaming Pile

[Colapser]

So i'm playing Farcry the other day on a ga-7vrxp with an athlon xp 2100+ and a gf4 ti4600. I have to put the settings on medium and crank the resolution down to get a playable game. I start thinking to myself, why dont i see what kind of an upgrade i can get for ~$100. I do some research and see that I should be able to run an athlon 3000+ 333mhz version. I get the processor home, update my bios to lastest version and try to make things work. Multiplier is locked, so I set the board to 166mhz fsb and turn it on, detects as amdUnknown athlon 2600+, I'm like WOA! Its starts booting windows, computer crashes now wont boot to the OS. I play around with some stuff and eventually find out the board doesnt support anything above a 2600+. As a matter of fact, this board, the Gigabyte GA-7vrxp, Toms Hardware Mobo of the year for 2002 on the via kt333 chipset, supports a total of 0 processerors running at 166(333). Doesn't that seem a bit odd and pointless?

Anyhow, what would you recomend as an upgrade? I have corsair cl2 pc3000 so if overclocking is required, that is what i have to work with.

 

[rook]

Not to sound offensive but if you did resaerch you should know what your board can handle. It took me about a minute to find out what that MB <A HREF="http://tw.giga-byte.com/motherboard/support/cpusupportlist/CPUSupportList_GA-7VRXP (Rev 1.1).htm" target="_new">supported</A>. And if that was the MB of the year, it was 2 years ago, which was before the Bartons were even out.

Your best bet for compatibility is to buy a new MB. Even tho you component can handle the higher speeds I doubt your MB can that much of an OC and be 100% stable, even if it can reach a 166 fsb. But I don't OC so I'm not sure on the limits of it.

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=23900" target="_new">System</A>
<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=2072215" target="_new">3DMark03</A>

 

[endyen]

If the shop that sold you the xp3000+ will take it back in swap, exchange it for an xp-m 2500+. You can set the multiplier at 16.5, and raise your fsb to 140. At 2.3 gigs, this will outperform an xp3000+ easily.

 

[Colapser]

I agree, that the research on my part was not thorough enough. However, often times mobo specs arent updated on older boards, so theoretically its possible it could have worked. I mean who would have guessed that the "best kt333" board cant run any 333 mhz processors? Seems a bit absurd if you ask me.

 

[Crashman]

Blame VIA. The KT333 can't run 166MHz FSB CPU's, nor could the KT133 run 133MHz FSB CPU's.

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<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Colapser]

This sight seems to disagree with you.

http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20020509/kt333-01.html#comparison_via_kt333_vs_kt266a

 

[Crashman]

I might have gotten it mixed up with another chipset, did the original KT400 support a 200MHz FSB clock?

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[allanon1965]

go with the SiS 748 chipset based board, my board of choice is ASROCK K7S8XE+ which supports SATA Raid, 6 usb, usb 2.0, 2 more usb in front ports,great sounding onboard sound, ddr400, 400fsb, overclockable very easily,my 2500+ is running at 200fsb to make 3200+ and it runs like a rocket sled on rails!...all for 55.00 plus shipping, and not from ebay!i have 3 of these here at home and have used 4 others in customers systems, no comlaints from anyone! ask crash about the 748 SiS chipset, he will tell you!

Fat, Drunk, and Stupid is no way to go through life Son.