RDMustang1, why do you assume I don't like any of the motherboards that are out there (specifically the 7VRXP) as never once have I said I didn't like the motherboard, I have only pointed out its shortcomings. My board can't be used to judge the entire line, but there are enough boards like mine out there that Gigabyte did some serious work to _try_ and correct _known_ problems. Whether or not that worked, remains to be seen. I'll get a new board, it _should_ work, and I'll be able to use that computer again, of this I am sure. You wanted to buy one, I merely pointed out what others _should_ be telling you.
The more people look the other way and bash someone for calling it as it is, the more these guys who make the product can get away with. Gigabyte had to have known their board had issues before it became public, I mean they were the first out there with a kt333 MB, they rushed it and it shows. But in the process, they have caused the buying public inconvenience. My issue is also with the testers, they had multiple boards to test, they would have had the same problems, they never said anything, shame on you testers. No longer will I read their reviews and take it for granted that the product is good, their 'awards' are quite frankly, meaningless.
10 addon cards in a 'development' system, dude, you need a second computer
We can all make reasons why we need more, but you gave me yours and I will give you what I would do. If you are using that many devices in your computer (for development) your entire system has no choice but to be unstable, there are going to be IRQ/DMA collisions and that will bring down even WindowsXP.
Video cards (plural) why not just use an ATI or some other card that supports multiple monitors?
ATA controllers (plural) why not just use the existing 4 channel one that comes with all boards?
USB controller the chipset will usually have this built in, if VIA wasn't in a rush to release theirs...
Firewire there are other MB's that have this built in, but add in a card, what the heck.
SCSI Now we're talking, with multi-channel scsi, 15 devices per channel, this is the way to go, eliminates the need _totally_ for IDE, and it only takes up one IRQ, how perfect for stability.
Sound card Let's be real, my issue is with the MB makers putting crap sound on the board just to say they have it, why not use a chip that supports EAX or A3D at least?
Modem Well, we already paid for the USB, why not use it? USB modem to the rescue, mine works, and hey, empty slot.
Lan card for those that need more than one, this is alright, one is built in. For the rest of us, there is a device called a hub/router/switch (take your pick) that could eliminate most needs for a second card.
To have an equal setup, I would have one agp and 4 pci cards (firewire, scsi, sound, lan) and less chance of collision problems, thereby making the whole system more stable.
In fact the 'features' do add to the cost of the motherboard, the cost of all that is not negligable. The problem is Gigabyte adds these 'features' into the board and uses the cheapest parts they can source and you guessed it, none of them are worth using, but it looks good on reviewers papers. Promise has many good ide raid chipsets, why use the worst one in your flagship MB? Creative has much better sound chips than the one Gigabyte chose to cheap out on their flagship MB.
So when you use the cheapest parts, you can make the cheapest boards, but are you making the best boards? Gigabyte can do better, and they will have to to keep up with Asus. And it's problems like they're having that gives everything AMD a bad name, the cpu is decent enough, but everything around it screams REBOOT!
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