Like I SAID, KT333=Useless excuse for upgrade!

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I had a Abit KT266A board till I gave it to my sister. I was going to put the Iwill board in her computer, till even the RMA board gave me problems. I couldn't wait, so I tore down my water system to give her my good board. That's the kind of guy I am:) I still have the 2400 Ram and am using my KT133A. Pare that up with a gf2Utlra card and I'm in desperate need of some upgrades.

I just bought a Iiyama's Vision Master Pro 454 19 monitor. Now I need a Gf4 card, but to wait, gee. The Gf4 just came out, what would I be waiting for? GF5, 8X what? I know they come out with cards, what every six months or so. I figure Nvidia would sit tight, till ATI caught up, which I figure should be a while. I haven't heard of any new cards thought, at least from Nvidia, beside when the 8X comes out maybe it wouldn't be justified to get that. I sure don't want to wait six months, really not even three. And as for my KT133A board, that really needs to go. I'm not sure what is going on with AMDs Hammer, gee when is this thing going to come out. Again three months is to long to wait. Besides the KT266A I want isn't that much, and it will make a great second or third computer. I have a XP1800, now that might be foolish to upgrade to a 2100.

Hey Baby, want to play with my computer?
 
Competition is tough in the graphics arena more than CPUs at the moment. Matrox just announced a new card that will wipe the floor with all the current ATI and nVidia cards. nVidia and ATI are now rushing to release the RV250 and NV18 for the low-end and the R300 and NV30 for the high end.

In my opinon, there's never a good time to get a graphics card. You can expect the Ti4600 to be a low-end baragin in about 3 months if Matrox pulls this off.

:wink: <b><i>"A penny saved is a penny earned!"</i></b> :wink:
 
just wanted to ask a question about the support for pc2700 ram on the kt333 motherboards... would you get the same performance if you overclocked your fsb to 166mhz? would it be even better?

Jesus may save, but <i>I</i> invest.
 
Yea, I just saw that.

It would be nice if the latest would stay that way, at least for a little while. I thought that might be the story with the gf4. Matrox sounds great, but can and when will they pull if off and for how much? Hmm should we wait?

>>nVidia and ATI are now rushing to release the RV250 and NV18 for the low-end and the R300 and NV30 for the high end.<<<
???Any links to this, would be appreciated.

If the gf4 becomes a low-end bargin in three months, that would tick off some people, and be a shame.

Hey Baby, want to play with my computer?
 
Thanks for the sights.

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Hey Baby, want to play with my computer?
 
ok well, if you can get one for cheap, then go ahead! it isnt going to set you back that much, and will get you a bit more up to date.
that is good that you gave your sister the good stuff, makes you a better person. :smile:


-DAvid

-Live, Learn, then build your own computer!-
 
The question is:
If you were building a new AMD XP2100+ system would you use a KT333 or a KT266A based motherboard?

"Just the facts ma'am"
 
KT333 is not for people who already have a KT266A based motherboard but if you buying a new motherboard for a new system then it might be a good choice. It is just like CPU Athlon XP 1800 is not much faster than Athlon XP 1700. I already have Athlon XP 1700 and I am not going to upgrade to an Athlon XP 1800 but it might be a better choice for people getting a new system.
 
I had written down everything I wanted to get yesterday, towards the end of the day I tore the paper up. I think you were right the first time. I'm going to hold out as long as I can, maybe get other things first, like you said. I did want a couple Maxtor HDD, I wonder if there still safe to get. Back and fourth, you know your safe as long as your money stays in your pocket. lol
I figured the bottom line, was for my sister not to have problems, being out of state. And as much as I update it was no biggy. Sometimes it's weeks before I get the sides put back on my rigs, but lately have been under pretty good control. Think wanting to buy a house had something to do with that. Thank you for the kind words.

Hey Baby, want to play with my computer?
 
i have a maxtor hard drive, and i am quite happy with it.
i hope eventually something comes out that will catch your eye...and then you can have an up to date computer.
but yeah, i WAS going to get a new motherboard myself..but i decided to not, because i wanted to make sure that i have a longer lasting motherboard...
i MIGHT get a processor, but i dont know now...seeing as after the tbred, they are changing to a different socket....but i dunno..we'll see... :smile:

-DAvid

-Live, Learn, then build your own computer!-
 
So what exactly is the problem with VIA's latest two chipsets (KT266a, KT333)? I know of some of the major problems with their older chipsets, but I haven't heard of any <i>real</i> huge bugs or incompatibilities with their latest. Just curious as to what I've been missing.

Alcohol; the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems. -Homer Simpson
 
I haven't checked. But I know for certain they can't run the SB Live or Vortex 2 cards with 100% compatability. So I'm sure if I threw a slew of my other cards at such a motherboard I could find more.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?
 
The problem with all VIA chipsets to date is there shoddy implementation of the pci bus. This was first made light of by the likes of the Sound Blaster live series of cards as it is quite demanding of the bus. Later it was discovered as Raid arrays and faster drives came to the market that VIA's pci bus was also causing a very noticable performance loss here as well. This problem still exists today, although there have been several "patches" some third party that help allievate the issue it never totally corrects it and there is never any gurantee it will work. Something as simple as the PCI bus surely should have been perfected this many iterations of a given chipset/southbridge. Your not going to run out and by a brand new sports car regardless of how fast it can go if the transmission is a source of continuos problems are you? Why on earth would you buy a motherboard with such known issues? What will you be most likely to notice, a motherboard with a little better memory performance that has shoddy ide performance or a motherboard with slighly less memory performance and great IDE performance?
For god's sake, nvidia managed to make a motherboard one their first try with no such issues how can VIA be so completly incompetent?

It's not what they tell you, its what they don't tell you!
 
crash, go to the cpu overclock forum, and read my post entitled 'Midlife upgrade - bandwidth is your friend'.

you will get all the answeres you seek 😉

My Next Performance System!!! - P4 Celleron, 128k cache, SDRAM, Integrated graphics, 5400rpm HDD!
 
Notice I said 100%, there are times when it works, and other times when it doesn't.
Click to expand...
OK, but then what <i>is</i> the percentage? And how does that compare with other chipsets you've mentioned?
And both the Iwill XP333 and Leadtek 7350KDA will offer similar performance, for less money, with greater stability and compatability. Least we forget (as so many VIA jackasses do) how this company has screwed it's end users for so many years.
Click to expand...
Where are the <i>side by side</i> comparisons that show that the Iwill XP333 and the Leadtek 7350KDA have "similar performance" to the KT333.
Why would you recommend a board based on the SiS 735 chip (which does <b>not</b> support DDR333), when the 745 <b>does</b> support DDR333? If the 735 has "similar performance" wouldn't the 745 with some decent DDR333 ram outperform the KT333?
Show me the numbers!!!

Alcohol; the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems.
-Homer Simpson
 
I wanted to check out Winfast 7350KDA, but couldn't find any info on it. I read a little something on it, it didn't sound like it had Raid on it. My next board, I would like to try Raid 0 to get them MB up. Off Topic. Will two Maxtors set at 0 out do the fastest WD?
There's no doubt VIA may have some issues, there are a handful of people against them. When I try to find any info on the other chips, or board comparison, guess who keeps popping up? Yap, VIA, you sure other chips exist? Could you help me out with some links, it's like looking for a needle in a hay stack. Because these other chips aren't in the lime light, and there out numbered a great deal by VIA. I would wonder if the shoe was on the other foot, what the story would be. At the moment VIA is the chip to beat, and it's a tall order for other chips to compete with.









Hey Baby, want to play with my computer?
 
yeah
i initially wanted to go with the leadtek mobo too! it looked great

thing is i couldnt find a single one anywhere in Oz. very sad


My Next Performance System!!! - P4 Celleron, 128k cache, SDRAM, Integrated graphics, 5400rpm HDD!
 
All the reviews I've read put the 7350KDA about 1% behind the BEST of KT266A boards in performance, which would not be noticable. Remeber that the KT333 only outperforms the KT266A when comparing stock FSB, using DDR333, do to DDR333's lower real time latency. At 166MHz FSB, the 266A and 333 should be tied. And the 7350KDA also allows 166MHz FSB and beyond.

It has cheap onboard audio, which is ignored by people like me who already know which soundcard we would like to use. And it has 6 PCI slots, plenty of room for a RAID card if needed. It's price reflects the lack of a RAID controller.

And you're right, reiews are hard to find, but I found three of them last time by using a search engine.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?
 
Have you heard of overclocking?
OK. For you people who have relied on VIA for your edjumacations :smile:
The KT333 outperforms the KT266A by about 1% when used with DDR333. Why? It's not the bandwidth, it's the REAL TIME latency. In other words, at Cas2, it takes DDR333 6 billionths of a second to respond, and DDR266 take 7.5 billionths of a second to respond. Wait, that's using DDR as real MHz, since Cas Latency is measured in actuall cycles that should be 12 billionths of a second for DDR333 and 15 billionths of a second for DDR266.

The only advantage to running DDR333 with DDR266 FSB is the reduction in latency. That advantage disappears when you overclock, because you then need to back the FSB/RAM ratio down to 1:1. In other words, with a DDR333 FSB, which is 166MHz, you'll have to run your memory at DDR333 also. And the ALi and SiS735 BOTH support the 166MHz FSB. So at 166MHz FSB, the 1% improvement of the KT333 is also present in the KT266A, ALi Magik1, and SiS 735.
So why not recommend the SiS 745? Because it's not on a performance board yet. That's the only reason.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?
 
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