are VIA chipsets still a PITA?

[OS]

You know what I'm talking about.

 

[NFS4]

This is '02, not '99. They are just as good as anything else out there.

 

[Pink0]

I'm going to have to disagree. Aceshardware has a dimm view of their AGP optomization and ability to handle data used in 3d rendering. I personally have an athlon xp with a 266a northbridge. I initially had the infite loop problem which was resolved after months of blame shifting between the companies. To this day, there are still issues between my audigy platinum and via chipset which immediately dissapear in either my intel system (intel chipset) or ECXK7S5a (SIS chipset) I also find VIA's reliability with all banks full of memory rated at the speed of the chipset to be not-satisfactory. SIS can get it right, why can't via? I don't think that their quality control is up to par yet. I know that the 266a isn't exactly brand new but It's still a relatively modern system and with all the problems I've had specifically atributable to the chipset (TV wonder compatibility too) I couldn't recommend them as of yet.

 

[Bovinicus]

My last two motherboards have been based on VIA chipsets, and I have had no problems at all. VIA makes quality chipsets, and you cannot convince me otherwise. Yes, there was one bug between a specific sound card and one of their south bridges. However, it is not the end of the world.

 

[nuller]

I would recommend avoiding anything to do with AMD all together just because of all the chipset problems.. I've seen many bugs and incompatibility problems with all AMD chipsets that you just never run into with Intel. Maybe if AMD had some type of specific guidelines, and strict testing/licensing, things wouldn't be so bad. At least VIA probably wouldn't still be making crapper chipsets.

there was one bug between a specific sound card and one of their south bridges

Sorry dude but there's tons more problems than that. Almost all VIA chipsets have PCI timing issues, and all of VIA's chipsets up till about KT266A had a massive flaw that caused data corruption on the IDE bus. And have you ever heard of the infinate loop error? Most of the time it's caused by VIA/other AMD chipsets. Also, here's a funny quote from Epicgames, the marker of UT2003.. on their support web site they say "VIA chipsets in combination with NVIDIA cards and AMD CPUs seem to be a constant source of trouble". VIA/AMD just suck if you want a truly stable/problem free system.

 

[JeremiahTheGreat]

all of VIA's chipsets up till about KT266A had a massive flaw that caused data corruption on the IDE bus

which only occured if you used Soundblaster Live cards which didn't conform to the pci specs..

VIA/AMD just suck if you want a truly stable/problem free system

which is why i have a SIS/AMD system

 

[Bovinicus]

I've seen plenty of problems occur with Intel chipset based motherboards. The reason a lot of people have the misconception that VIA is of such low quality is because of the extremely high rate of enthusiasts who use their boards. Take a poll and see how many people on these forums are using AMD CPUs and VIA chipsets. A higher percentage of total users leads to a higher percentage of problems.

 

[abaez]

What major problems not user controlled do intel chipsets have?

 

[nuller]

which only occured if you used Soundblaster Live cards which didn't conform to the pci specs..

No, the problem was just most common when Sound Blaster Live! cards were present, it happened in other cases too. But, that's irrelevant anyway, it's still a flaw in VIA's chipsets..

which is why i have a SIS/AMD system

SiS isn't any better... look at AGP 3.0/8x. SiS launched their latest chipsets touted as being AGP 3.0/8x compatible, while support was really broken. There were problems with cold boots, freezes, lockups, hangs, etc. This affected all AGP 3.0 cards, including ATI's Radeon 9700 Pro, and even SiS's own line of cards, Xabre. VIA also had similar problems.

What major problems not user controlled do intel chipsets have?

I would like to know this too.

 

[XMan]

I would recommend avoiding anything to do with AMD all together just because of all the chipset problems.. I've seen many bugs and incompatibility problems with all AMD chipsets that you just never run into with Intel.

The NForce chipset is superb.

 

[Adul]

nforce rocks

 

[Bovinicus]

What major problems not user controlled do intel chipsets have?

I've seen a good number of posts on these very forums about BSODs, random lockups, and jittery performance with Intel chipsets. Besides the 686B/SBLive fiasco (I had that combination and it worked fine), what problems do you see VIA chipset users suffering from consistently?

 

[nuller]

Um, how about posting some actual known massive flaws and bugs in Intel's chipsets, that span multiple generations and never get fixed, and that affect even todays chipsets, not common PC problems that are caused by software, and system misconfiguration.

 

[BD231]

I had an EPox8KHA+ give me hell due to that one south bridge that caused all the problems(cant remember the modle # of the south bridge). I recently got an MSI KT333 board with a newer South Bridge and it's been running flawlessly, even overclocked. KT266A = PURE CRAP WITH THAT PROBLEMATIC SOUTH BRIDGE. I've used a few KT333 boards (asus and the msi I have) and they have been awesome, so I can at least say the KT333 chipset and the current south bridge is tops.

 

[Blain]

VIA Chipsets are like = Dating the hottest girl around... she looks great but she's very "high maintenance".
Intel Chipsets are like = The girl down the street that you grew up with... she's not the greatest looking, but she doesn't complain and she overlooks your bad habits.

 

[FishTankX]

I'll put it in by saying this. If you demand year long uptimes, loko elsewhere. For every person who has shaken all the bugs out of their VIA based system, there are 5 who are struggling with getting their rig perfect. If you don't care if you have year long uptimes, don't care if your rig crashes 5 times a year, and don't try to use ALL DIMM slots and could do with a little price break, Via is fine. If you have the time to spend with your rig, Via can achieve 90% of the stability of Intel. After about 20 million 4-in-1's that is. But the fact of the matter is that VIA is a workable sollution. It depends on your needs, really.

 

[MrGrim]

As far as I'm concerned people can keep buying VIA chipsets and claim that they are excellent, I couldn't care less. All they are doing is bring the price of decent chipsets down, for me to buy. However this doesn't mean that I'm not going to warn somebody that asks for my opinion, I've had nothing but problems with all my VIA chipsets, both new and old, and I'd never recommend them to anyone.

If you need some more proof, do some google searches with the following keywords
VIA KT400 ATI RADEON 9700
VIA ZIP DRIVE
VIA SOUND BLASTER LIVE
VIA INFINITE LOOP

 

[MadRat]

Intel licenses a bit of technology to SiS but not to VIA that is used by just about every bus mastering PCI card although it is not in the standards. The piece I am talking about is a master override of the register that allows logjams to be diffused. VIA has tried to do it with software but it is necessary at the system level. That and VIA is just now getting the thoroughput opened up between north and south bridges with the latest 533MHz V-Link.

 

[aircooled]

KT333 and XP1600+ here.

Not a single problem.

 

[passign]

via aint for most people that's for sure,


i'd say for every 1 person who has a stable via system there's 20 people who dont. those 20 people probably haven't found all the perfect settings they need yet.


I think I finally got mine stable.. not sure yet but it's been 2 years! so my next chipset will be the nforce i think

 

[Toxic]

Hmmm, other than the SB problem, I haven't had any problems with VIA chipsets. That wasn't a big deal because there are better soundcards than the SB stuff anyway.

I look at it this way....Maybe intel based stuff has more stability, but I'm not running a buisness server here - I don't need 24/7 uptimes. So I use VIA and AMD, save a little change, and have fun with my system(s). If Intel lowered their prices, maybe I'd go that route, but I doubt it. I've had alot of sucess with AMD and VIA.

 

[Siddhartha]

Originally posted by: Bovinicus
My last two motherboards have been based on VIA chipsets, and I have had no problems at all. VIA makes quality chipsets, and you cannot convince me otherwise. Yes, there was one bug between a specific sound card and one of their south bridges. However, it is not the end of the world.

That has also been my experience with VIA for the last two years or so.

 

[Nemesis77]

Originally posted by: JeremiahTheGreat

all of VIA's chipsets up till about KT266A had a massive flaw that caused data corruption on the IDE bus

which only occured if you used Soundblaster Live cards which didn't conform to the pci specs.

What sort of problems? I have KT133-based MoBo and SB Live, and I haven't seen any problems.

 

[Mem]

As far as I'm concerned people can keep buying VIA chipsets and claim that they are excellent, I couldn't care less.

I couldn`t care what people think about VIA or any other chipset,the fact is I`m speaking from my own experience and in the end that`s what counts.

After going from Intel to my first VIA board two years ago, first on a MSI VIA KT133 board for gaming(no problem period) and a year later with my second VIA KT266a board(Epox 8KHA+)which I also use a lot for gaming and general use,my open minded verdict is both boards have been excellent on stability ,even with my SB Live & Audigy Sound cards.

Just remember users build PCs and there will always be people that don`t like certain companies and will always put them down from video cards to boards,stability comes with user skill & using and building with the right tools,having said that remember no board chipset is perfect,that`s why you`ve a flashable BIOS which can be updated to fix and update hardware.

 

[sak]

Originally posted by: nuller
I would recommend avoiding anything to do with AMD all together just because of all the chipset problems.. I've seen many bugs and incompatibility problems with all AMD chipsets that you just never run into with Intel. Maybe if AMD had some type of specific guidelines, and strict testing/licensing, things wouldn't be so bad. At least VIA probably wouldn't still be making crapper chipsets.

there was one bug between a specific sound card and one of their south bridges

Sorry dude but there's tons more problems than that. Almost all VIA chipsets have PCI timing issues, and all of VIA's chipsets up till about KT266A had a massive flaw that caused data corruption on the IDE bus. And have you ever heard of the infinate loop error? Most of the time it's caused by VIA/other AMD chipsets. Also, here's a funny quote from Epicgames, the marker of UT2003.. on their support web site they say "VIA chipsets in combination with NVIDIA cards and AMD CPUs seem to be a constant source of trouble". VIA/AMD just suck if you want a truly stable/problem free system.

your taking BS...nothing more..I have been using this chip set for like 2 years and never had a problem.