A7V266-e north bridge, BIOS, VIA questions

[Lioness]

The Asus.com site states: "VIA KT266A VT8366 North Bridge chipset with VT8233 South Bridge".
Isn't the VT8366 the old north bridge chipset? I thought the VT8366"A" was the new one. Is this mobo coming with the old north bridge? Or am I misunderstanding the diff.?

This is my future purchase system set-up. Sure would like your opinion on any anticipated problems.

A7V266-e Rev. 1.07 Which BIOS should I get? 1004B or 1005?

Which VIA drivers would you recommend? 4.36

Maxtor D740X MX6L040J2 hard drive? Did I read somewhere that there is a problem with this drive?

VisionTek Xfantasy Geforce 3 Ti200 6564.

Pioneer DVD-106S IDE DVD 16x, slot load
AMD XP 1700
XP Home
D-Link DFW-500 PCI Firewire, 30 port
Corsair PC2100 128mb. Can I mix this with my 2x256 Crucial? If so, do I need to make any changes in BIOS to configure this?

What driver, patches, BIOS would you recommend for the above hardware?

Thank you for your help

 

[UsandThem]

<< A7V266-e Rev. 1.07 Which BIOS should I get? 1004B or 1005? >>



I believe the 1004B are the official supported BIOS. I think 1005 are BETA. Stay with 1004B.



<< Maxtor D740X MX6L040J2 hard drive? Did I read somewhere that there is a problem with this drive? >>



No idea on this one.



<< Can I mix this with my 2x256 Crucial? >>



Yes as long as they are both PC2100.



<< If so, do I need to make any changes in BIOS to configure this? >>



The BIOS will detect it automatically. You can go in and try different CAS settings with it and try other settings, however you can cause instability unless you know what you are doing.



<< Which VIA drivers would you recommend? 4.36 >>



I use the ones that are installed with XP by default. Very stable.



<< What driver, patches, BIOS would you recommend for the above hardware? >>



It really depends on what OS you are using.

 

[Viperbob]

I'm using 1005 from the german site there was some trouble with the bios from the Tiawain site.

If your unlucky enough to get crucail 2100 ddr mem with Samsung chips (like me) it's a lifesaver it's also the first bios that lets you turn off the promise controller if you dont use it.


Whats really interesting is the new Asus A7V266 M it's a no frills board should be cheaper [sigh] still I'm real real happy with this board my only complaints where adressed in the 1005 bios release

This sound is better than my SBlive too!

 

[AA0]

crucial only uses micron chips on their RAM, since they are the same company. You must have got something that wasn't crucial.