Are the VT266A boards extremely stable/reliable?

[beefkake]

I'm a non-overclocker building my own system. I'm looking for a supremely stable and reliable motherboard for the system I'm building. Via notoriously has more compatibility problems than their Intel counterparts, but I'm hoping that's gotten better recently. How do people like their VT266A boards, and how stable and reliable have they been up until now? Have you had any problems with USB or with any components that you might attribute to the southbridge? I'm thinking about either a VT266A board, or waiting for an i845D system.

Thanks for the input

 

[beefkake]

bump

 

[Workin']

I've been really happy with my Shuttle AK31A (VIA KT266A) setups. I have 2 that I use myself (1.4GHz and 1.0GHz tbirds) and I've built 8 more for other people. No problems so far, after about 9 weeks.

 

[Aquaman]

I've had my MSI K7T266 Pro with an Athlon XP 1500+ (1.33ghz) for 2 months............. no problems. I'm also running an SB Audigy with it. Smooth sailing so far.

Cheers.
Aquaman

 

[NelsonMuntz]

The chipset is very mature now because it is a variant of the KT266 which has been out for a while, and they have had time to work out the bugs. I think it is a very attractive solution. I have only built one system on a KT266A, and it went very well, so I was pleased with it.

 

[Quixfire]

I have been using both the SIS 735 and the KT266A chipsets recently to build/upgrade systems. If you not going to overclock then I would recommend the Shuttle AK31A, a great board that has potentional if needed.

 

[Demonicon]

Shuttle AK31A is a very good board, I recommend it.

 

[Rahminator]

I have the Shuttle AK31A and it's an awesome board and very stable.

 

[SnowPunk98]

I would pay a little more and get a Epox 8KHA+ if I were you Shuttle is good but epox is better

 

[Demonicon]

<< SiS 735/745 would have been far better than the shoddy KT266a. It will turn your comp into a crapbox that will cause you infinite headaches. >>



Are you Pabsters lackee?

 

[Demonicon]

lackey lackee you get the point.

 

[Mem]

<< SiS 735/745 would have been far better than the shoddy KT266a. It will turn your comp into a crapbox that will cause you infinite headaches. >>



Hmm with remarks like that you must be on Pabster`s payroll ,anyway I`ve the Epox 8KHA+(KT266A) and it`s very stable all my USB works fine and yes I`m also using the SB Audigy with no problems.

 

[LXi]

Well, the fact that Orcish argued avidly against the SiS chipsets last time shows how believable his comments really are.

 

[anime]

the chipset is only as good as the mobo manufacturer ability to build a quality mobo.

 

[xWeston]

Funny that in the midst of a bunch of people saying how reliable their kt266a is one person comes in and calls it "shoddy." It just doesn't seem to fit correctly. Kt266a outperforms the SiS chipsets also, even though people claim otherwise.

 

[scoobydooby]

To Orcish: That's a stupid comment to make, I have no problems if you can back up your claim with evidence of some kind but you can't just say that so and so is crap. And SnowPunk: can you tell us why you think it's worth the extra money? That would probably be more helpful to beefkake. Thanks
Scoob

 

[Pabster]

xWeston wrote:

"Kt266a outperforms the SiS chipsets also, even though people claim otherwise."

That's the kind of baloney I like to refute. While KT266A 'outperforms' SiS 735 in synthetic benchmarks, it has zero real-world performance difference. So unless you like running benchies and staring at fps differences in the 0.xx range...

 

[NFS4]

<< xWeston wrote:

"Kt266a outperforms the SiS chipsets also, even though people claim otherwise."

That's the kind of baloney I like to refute. While KT266A 'outperforms' SiS 735 in synthetic benchmarks, it has zero real-world performance difference. So unless you like running benchies and staring at fps differences in the 0.xx range... >>


Keep telling yourself lies, and you'll start to believe them

KT266A owns the SiS735 in real world benches.

Look at Anand's own benchmarks and see for yourself:

http://www.anandtech.com/chipsets/showdoc.html?i=1535
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1528&p=10

Where are you getting your numbers from, b/c Anand seems to make you out to be a liar with his benchmarks

 

[Slapstick]

I got a Soyo dragon+ with 1600XP running on the shelf, put it together for a friend as a Christmas present for his kids. Been running 3Dmark, RC5, Sandra in burn in mode and any other thing I can throw at it for the last 4 days to make sure it?s stable. The latest 4in1?s fixed the only problem it had with the Leadtek G3ti200 and the 23.11 drivers. It?s impressed me enough that I?m going order one for myself to replace a K7S5A. From my limited experience the KT266a is a winner.

 

[novon]

soyo dragon + and athlon xp here as well, rock stable.

 

[Pabster]

NFS4 wrote:

"Where are you getting your numbers from, b/c Anand seems to make you out to be a liar with his benchmarks "

From REAL WORLD testing. I've tested several KT266A boards, and in real-world performance (let alone the other requisites like stability), the hype is just that -- hype. Anand's benchies were conducted at 640x480. Who the hell plays at that resolution? I realize he used the lower resolution to isolate the other system components from the video card, but that isn't the issue. No one plays at 640x480.

For example, in my most recent real-world test (Shuttle AK31A), using identical components to my K7S5A rig, I scored a mere 30 points higher in 3DMark2K1, 1fps faster in Q3 TimeDemo 1 (1024x768x32), and a mere 20-30MB/s give or take on memory bandwidth. I'll also add the AK31A was terribly unstable, particularly with a Radeon 8500. That said, I wasn't too impressed with the voltage trouble (only 1.69v to the core on 'default' setting) and, as with the last several AK31A's I've toyed with, it failed miserably with all 4 DIMM slots populated.

I don't just read benchmarks. I get the boards, put the rigs together, and run the apps/games I do on a daily basis. So let me repeat, again: There is zero REAL WORLD performance difference between KT266A and SiS 735. Zero. Nada. Zilch. Unless, of course, you happen to game at 640x480 and can honestly discern 202fps from 220

 

[Budman]

Why compare the KT266A that's newer to the older SIS735,wait a few weeks for the SIS745 board to arrive (k7s6A)& then compare the NEW Via KT266a to the New SIS 745 chipset.

 

[Super6]

I've built several systems with the Shuttle AK31A without any problems including one with a Radeon 8500.

Super6

 

[Priit]

I wouldn't call anything extremely stable/reliable before it has ran at least half a year without any gliches. But generally, most of the KT266A-based boards seem to be very good so far....

 

[BFG10K]

If they're anything as good as the KT133a chipset then they're completely rock solid.

Unless, of course, you happen to game at 640x480 and can honestly discern 202fps from 220

That's a very weak strawman. The fact is that 640 x 480 is testing the CPU & platform performance. If the CPUs are the same, it's the difference between the platform. That means that the KT266a has 10% stronger performance than the SiS.

Let's take a notorious KT133A, for example. What causes the SB conflict?

I don't know; I never have that problem.

Why does the sound popping occur on some Intel chipsets too?

Probably because of Creative's drivers and/or poorly written BIOSes.

Why not a single SiS chipset ever had these problems?

And why has the SiS chipset had a crapload of problems (especially stability & performance) that no-one else had?

The same thing with Intel's hub architecture used in i815 - it cannot overload it too much, thus no corruption, but the same cracking of sound.

To suggest that SiS has a better chipset design than Intel is just plain zealotry. Nobody beats Intel in the chipset business. Nobody.

Keep in mind that SiS 735 doesn't have any issues with the latest nVidia drivers under Win XP and no known issues at all - and you get the picture, I think.

Keep in mind that my KT133a has never had any issue with nVidia's drivers. Ever.