AMD isn't worth it! Stick with Intel :(

JackHawksmoor

Senior member
Dec 10, 2000
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I love what AMD has done for prices. I think their actual processors are probably great. But the chipsets available for them stink, plain and simple.

I've spent months trying to get my 1Ghz Thunderbird + Asus A7V to work right, all the time. It dosen't, and I'm sick of messing with it.

I see dozens of other posts on here with bizare problems on AMD systems, and yet I haven't seen one post like this saying somethings messed up.

Before I bought this system, I ALWAYS went with Intel chips on Intel motherboards. Systems I built for other people using wierd chipsets and/or AMD processors always had problems (as did systems other people I know were building). I thought things had finally changed...but I was wrong.
 

LXi

Diamond Member
Apr 18, 2000
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Hm... before you blame AMD and VIA for their excellent trouble free, high performing, low cost products. Blame it on Asus's poor craftsmanship.
 

Vegito

Diamond Member
Oct 16, 1999
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I couldn't agree more... except that even the intel mobo with VIA chipsets are bad.. ie Soyo 6VBA, VH6, etc.etc. I couldn't be more happier that the i815e came out and I ditch my VIAs... couldn't believe they actually made those chipsets...

but AMD Processors are great, just the chipset isn't so hot... some people have good luck.. some just don't...
 

JackHawksmoor

Senior member
Dec 10, 2000
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I agree forcesho. As near as I can tell this is entirly the chipset's fault. The processor is blazing fast, and I doubt any of these problems would stem from it. If Intel would make a chipset for the Athlon, THEN I'd be happy with it. :D

LXi, since when did Asus have low quality products? I keep hearing how great they are, year in and year out. Regardless, I hear the same kind of weirdness with other brands too.
 

Vegito

Diamond Member
Oct 16, 1999
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So I should blame Soyo and Abit also since their mobo wouldn't work well wether it's Intel CPU or AMD CPU, anyway, my p3 works flawlessly on a asus cusl2 but not on a ABIT VH6 or Soyo6VBA and both of those are VIA chipsets..

Actually,

My Soyo works fine till I use a TV Card. So USB & one of the PCI slot I use shares so if I use USB, TV card gets F&#* BUT in the BIOS, disable USB, TV card works FINE. If I need to load a patch for that, then that's a bug and software hack fixed it.

My VH6, works excellent with celerons, plug a P3 in there and you get all sorts of error. You DON'T need to reinstall Windows for a processor change. Unless i'm wrong.
 

LXi

Diamond Member
Apr 18, 2000
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<<since when did Asus have low quality products? I keep hearing how great they are, year in and year out. Regardless, I hear the same kind of weirdness with other brands too.>>

Since about last year, their quality is still very high, but they're no longer number one. Try MicroStar K7T Pro2A. The Asus A7V and Abit KT7-RAID are known to be troublesome motherboards, good board manufacturers will make a bad board once in a while.
 

office boy

Diamond Member
Oct 12, 1999
4,210
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What are your problems?

My Asus A7V has been at least as stable as any 815, 810, BX, ZX, or GX chipset I have ever used, owned, or administered.
 

LXi

Diamond Member
Apr 18, 2000
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<<So I should blame Soyo and Abit also since their mobo wouldn't work well wether it's Intel CPU or AMD CPU, anyway, my p3 works flawlessly on a asus cusl2 but not on a ABIT VH6 or Soyo6VBA and both of those are VIA chipsets..>>

Wanna know who makes excellent VIA boards? MicroStar does.
Wanna know who makes excellent i815 boards? MicroStar does.
Wanna know who makes excellent BX boards? MicroStar does.
 

GT1999

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
5,261
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You can now consider me an AMD zealot - here I come pounding away at your Intel'ers ;) My P3-450@600 with my Abit BF6 was great but in my opinion it doesn't make sense to buy Intel right now. Look at the prices of a T-Bird 1.1GHz and a KT133 motherboard! I just purchased an AMD 1.1Ghz T-Bird retail and MSI K7T Pro2-A, IBM 45GB 75GXP and InWin Q500 case yesterday. I'll have my system Thursday and we'll see if all of these &quot;problems&quot; are specific to the chipset, or if you just don't know how to apply patches and correctly configure a system.
 

mopar360

Member
Nov 18, 2000
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Thats why I got the MSI K7TPRO2-A instead of the Abit or Asus,I was always seeing people having problems with the Asus and Abit, espesially after I heard that Abit had something like a 10% defective rate ouch! Maybe its because these boards are so popular that there are alot of people with problems but it seemed more than the norm. Seems like alot of us on this board got the MSI and there doesnt seem to me many problems relating to the motherboard, I know mine installed without a hitch and has been running great ever since. Had an issue with my zip drive but thats it. Well good luck with your board, maybe you can sell it to someone who loves Asus and get the MSI.
 

JackHawksmoor

Senior member
Dec 10, 2000
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Geekish Thoughts et. al., this is most certainly NOT user error, so please stop implying it is. Anyone who thinks they could get this working where I can't...why not go see my original thread about the problem in the tech support forum? Otherwise, don't claim this is my fault.

Could this be a problem just with the Asus board? Yes. Could this be a defect just with MY particular board? Yes. But from what I'm seeing and hearing, the VIA motherboards in general are flaky.
 

GT1999

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
5,261
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71


<< Could this be a problem just with the Asus board? Yes. Could this be a defect just with MY particular board? Yes. But from what I'm seeing and hearing, the VIA motherboards in general are flaky. >>



True. It is still not out of the realm of possiblity that user error is the cause - you can never deny it no matter what has been tried, or what the setup is.
 

LXi

Diamond Member
Apr 18, 2000
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<<the VIA motherboards in general are flaky.>>

Your chances of getting that right is about 0.1^10%.
 

Subversal

Senior member
Aug 22, 2000
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The K7T pro2-A is not a flaky VIA/Amd board... so it cannot be the chipset. If it were, why this is one super stable? Guess MSI got a lucky batch of chipsets.
 

Dulanic

Diamond Member
Oct 27, 2000
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#1 Your blaming AMD on a problem on a problem you have with a specific MB which is wrong. But #2 you didnt even try many ways to fix it.... Did you try moving the modem to another PCI slot? That would be the first thing to try. #3 You using WinME which has lots of problem try 98 I bet it probably works. #4 Try BIOS 1005A ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/BIOS/Socket_A/VIA_Chipset/Apollo_KT133/A7V/1005a.zip and make sure you flash it with the latest aflash... ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/BIOS/BIOS_FLASH_UTILS/aflash131.zip
#5 You didnt even try asking on a more Asus oriented site like this one...
http://members.tripod.de/Juggernaut/index.htm ask around on the discussion forums and im 99% sure your problem will get fixed....
 

hans007

Lifer
Feb 1, 2000
20,212
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there are hundreds of people running via chipsets here just fine. I've run VIA and AMD chipsets since the k6-200. I wont call it user error you have, maybe we'll call it incompetancy.
 

cmaMath13

Platinum Member
Feb 16, 2000
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I agree that the user is most likely the problem, too. And unfortunately, sometimes I can't get things to work correctly. That is why I paid someone else to build my Asus AV7/Thunderbird. I have NOT had any problems, just fantastic performance.

HOWEVER, I like Intel, too! In fact this is my FIRST AMD based system.