Anyone with knowledge about the KT880 plz read

[reallyscrued]

on sunday i plan on ordering my new next-gen machine. KT880 chipset (finally 4 dual channel dimm slots and AGP\PCI lock) a 6800NU, a mobile barton (unlocked), 512 megs of kingston ram, and a WD 80 gig 8 megger. on newegg, two weeks ago the only two kt880 mobos were the asus and the soyo. soyo was out of my price range but the asus hit the sweet spot at 82 bucks. (its now 76). now, a few new boards came to the scene and the one that caught my eye was the ASrock K7V88.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-157-033&depa=1

i read somewhere that asrock is a part of Asus and have near the same quality. it has all the same features as the asus and then some. (a 4pin 12v connector for extra voltage and more cpu heatsink room for my slk-900A) it also costs 15 dollars less than the asus at a total of 51 buckaroos. is it wise to get the asrock instead of the asus? im confident in low-cost mobos as i bought a KT266A by Pc Chips for 32 dollars and have been running it for 6 months straight.

BTW, anyone with a KT880, could u plz answer me a question. i dont remember where but i do remember reading something that said that all KT880's are unstable in the single channel memory mode. can someone verify this for me?

 

[imported_Flux]

AsRock is not part of Asus.
They may or may not have been at one point, but they certainly aren't now.
I don't know how good AsRock is, but if you are worried about memory problems this chart can give you a good idea of how Asus compares to the competition with potentially difficult or quirky memory controllers.
(I know the chart is an A64 comparison, I'm just using it as an example of how Asus can cope with troublesome controllers)

As for the KT880, maybe it does have problems.
However, it if does have problems, Asus seems to have circumvented them.
A friend of mine just got an A7V880.
He was forced to run in single channel mode until his new memory arrived.
(This lasted about the entire time to install his healthy portfolio of pragrams and games)
When he got his new memory, he tested with two stick. (2x512MB Kingston value ram dual channel set)
When he was satisfied, he stuck the other two stick in. (same as above)

To clarify, he has comfirmed that the board will work with:
512MB single channel (Crucial)
1024MB dual channel (Kingston 2x512MB)
2048MB dual channel (Kingston 4x512MB)

 

[reallyscrued]

Thx. I guess it runs in single channel fine. anyone else with any info plz respond as i am gonna buy the rig today

 

[nemesismk2]

Originally posted by: Flux
AsRock is not part of Asus.

Someone needs to tell Asrock tech support then because they think Asrock is the budget label for Asus!

 

[reallyscrued]

k, ill just go with the asus. i like the peace of mind of paying 16 dollars extra for the 4 letter brand name.

 

[krose]

KT880 chipset does not have an AGP/PCI lock, only the A64 K8T800 Pro does, and that is non-functional at times.

 

[Wahsapa]

iv been reading around that no via chipset really has a agp/pci lock so i would be sketchy about what the board claims and whats actually been seen.

 

[Manzelle]

nForce2, in my opinion, is hands down the best choice for an AXP board...I wouldn't even consider another chipset for that platform...not that the others aren't good in their own respect...

 

[reallyscrued]

i read the agp\pci lock from not only ASUS's website but also here:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/chipsets/display/via-kt880_3.html

i quote:

" In conclusion I would like to point out one more thing, which will be of interest to overclockers in the first place. Speaking about VIA KT880 as of VIA KT600 + dual-channel memory controller I left out one very important fact. Namely, I have to stress that VIA KT880 has finally acquired the so long-awaited option to clock the AGP/PCI buses asynchronously, which is also known as AGP lock. In other words, now when you want to increase the FSB frequency beyond the nominal values, such as 100/133/166/200MHz, you will also be able to avoid synchronous growth of the AGP and PCI frequencies together with the FSB one, so that they exceeded the nominal 33/66MHz. This way, now it will be much easier to overclock the processors on VIA KT880 based mainboards, because you will not need to keep an eye on the proper functioning of the AGP and PCI devices during overclocking. As a result, VIA KT880 will be at least no worse than NVIDIA nForce2 from the overclocking point of view, because the latter has had the option of asynchronous FSB and AGP/PCI buses clocking from the very beginning. "

and the performance of the kt880 is only behind the nforce2 by 1-5% which is bearable and has that extra DIMM slot for a larger future memory upgrade. Soundstorm only works when SPDIF is enabled and my logitech z-640's dont have optical in. not to mention that a high quality Asus board based on the KT880 is 76 dollars and the nforce 2 board with all the same bells and whistles is 100+. VIA is lookin mighty fine now.

 

[reallyscrued]

can someone with a kt880 board or better yet, the asus a7v880 confirm AGP\PCI lock? and a side question, is there the AGP lock available in the Abit's NF7-S2?

(not the -S V.2.0, thats a slightly more feature packed board.)

 

[Silkwormsgnr]

All nForce2 boards have locks, including the NF7-S2. It doesn't have multiplier control though, so if you get a mobile you'll be stuck at x6. No VIA KT880 board have locks. Xbitlabs was wrong, VIA said the KT880 doesn't have it, they say that in their website and some users of the A7V880 confirmed the non functional lock with this board.

The memory controller in the KT880 chipset is very, very picky about RAM. Here's a thread:

ASUS A7V880
http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=343250

and another:
MSI KT880 Delta
http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=343807

Xbitlabs also had problems with both KT880 boards they tested.

As for the four DIMM's ASUS states in their manual that dual channel is not stable in that configuration. YMMV.

And last, pricing: the A7V880 is not comparable in features with the A7N8X(-E) Deluxe. More like the ABIT NF7-S2, which costs about the same.

note: ASRock multiplier control don't work on Mobiles.

Good luck,