Gigabyte GA-7VAXP KT400 Motherboard Review!!

[Mem]

Review at TweakTown .

 

[Insane3D]

As I keep saying...there really is no point in getting a KT400 board over the faster KT333 boards. The Epox 8K5A3+ in the review with only DDR333 beat or matched the "faster" KT400...even when the Giga-Suck was running DDR400. Add to that Giga-Suck's decision to take the holes away around the CPU socket so no Alpha's or Swifty's will work, and it just seems to be a big letdown. I think the Epox KT333 boards are the best "enthusiast" choice for the Athlon right now unless you "need" AGP 8X.

 

[Mem]

Only being able to use one DDR400 ram sucks big time,yep no real reason to go to KT400 unless you want 8X AGP support.KT333 boards are doing fine at the moment.

 

[RideFree]

Anyone know why Newegg is closing out the Epox boards?

 

[BeerGod]

Great Review..
getting one now!

 

[BarMan]

Well the reason you'd even get a KT400 board is for 8x support, but you failed to mention...

Onboard Firewire
Onboard USB2
and Serial ATA

3 main features all KT333 baords don't have on top
of the AGP 8x support!

Also the KT333 boards aren't FASTER in all aspects, but think
about it anyway... with 4 MAJOR add-ons in just ONE chipset
I'm surprised that the KT400 is even with the KT333 chipset.
I bet there's gonna be a KT400A or something with a major
performance jump over the latter.

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: BarMan
Well the reason you'd even get a KT400 board is for 8x support, but you failed to mention...

Onboard Firewire
Onboard USB2
and Serial ATA

3 main features all KT333 baords don't have on top
of the AGP 8x support!

Also the KT333 boards aren't FASTER in all aspects, but think
about it anyway... with 4 MAJOR add-ons in just ONE chipset
I'm surprised that the KT400 is even with the KT333 chipset.
I bet there's gonna be a KT400A or something with a major
performance jump over the latter.

Do some research man..

Onboard USB 2.0 on KT400 boards is courtesy of the newest Via Southbridge, the 8235. This same southbridge can be found on the newer KT333 boards. Also, there are a few other KT333 based boards with USB 2.0 courtesy of a seperate controller chip...the Giga-Suck GA-7VRXP comes to mind. Onboard firewire is not a product of the KT400 chipset , but controleld by a add in controller chip on ALL KT400 boards. This can also be had on certain high end KT333 boards like the A7V333 and the Soyo Deluxe Dragon boards. There are already several cheap Firewire controller cards you can buy. As far as S-ATA goes, all the KT400 boards that have it use a seperate controller, usually from Promise for the S-ATA. This also can easily be had in a PCI card format.

So, basically, like I said...the only new feature of the KT400 boards is AGP 8X. Plain and simple..

 

[BarMan]

That may be true but what KT333 board have you seen with ALL the
features in one board?!?

Plain and simple.

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: BarMan
That may be true but what KT333 board have you seen with ALL the
features in one board?!?

Plain and simple.

Asus A7V333

USB 2.0, Firewire, AGP Pro, LAN...

Abit AT7

USB 2.0, Firewire, Lan, RAID

Only thing they are missing is S-ATA..and a PCI card can fix this..


So, like I said...AGP 8X is all that is added by the KT400...


Also, the Asus KT400 board is the only one with S-ATA IIRC...

 

[BeerGod]

who cares..
why worry about the kt333 when you get better tech with the kt400
its like saying
"hey, the new geforce5 is out, but the geforce4 is just as good right now, until games come out that support the geforce5"

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: BeerGod
who cares..
why worry about the kt333 when you get better tech with the kt400
its like saying
"hey, the new geforce5 is out, but the geforce4 is just as good right now, until games come out that support the geforce5"

Wow! I certainly can't argue with that logic...

 

[darkmo0n]

I think what he meant that even though agp 4x is more than enough now, agp 8x would better once graphics cards start needing more than 4x agp's bandwidth (dunno when that'll be).. so a board that supports agp 8x, all other things being equal, would be a better buy for the long term.

 

[merlocka]

Originally posted by: Insane3D

Originally posted by: BarMan
That may be true but what KT333 board have you seen with ALL the
features in one board?!?

Plain and simple.

Asus A7V333

USB 2.0, Firewire, AGP Pro, LAN...

Abit AT7

USB 2.0, Firewire, Lan, RAID

Only thing they are missing is S-ATA..and a PCI card can fix this..


So, like I said...AGP 8X is all that is added by the KT400...


Also, the Asus KT400 board is the only one with S-ATA IIRC...

A7V333 doesn't have onboard lan. Not a big deal but just wanted to clarify.

The GA-7VAXP seems like a decent board for $115 from newegg.

Insane3D, can you elaborate why it's gigasuck? I'm pretty close to buying something and I have moved from the A7V333 as my prime candidate to the GA-7VAXP because it's 1) has both FW and lan on board, and 2) $20 cheaper.

I really don't care too much about SATA, and not an extreme overclocker although my plan was to get an XP1600 and run it at 166MHz fsb until the next gen (Bartons?) athlon's are available with 166MHz fsb and 512k cache. I know you have beaten many of these boards around and you seem to be pretty stoked about epox right now. Is that mainly because they overclock so awesome?

Is there something about gigabyte boards which suck in general? So far, I've been an Asus kinda dood because I don't mind spending the extra bucks for quality but anand's review of this board seemed OK. Anandtech complains about the need for dip switches to get 166Mhz and above, but I'd be "setting and forgetting" the FSB (assuming I get an XP1600 which can run at 10.5x166)

Thanks for any input. I'll probably stick with Asus in the end but this board seemed like a good deal to me.

 

[Insane3D]

Insane3D, can you elaborate why it's gigasuck? I'm pretty close to buying something and I have moved from the A7V333 as my prime candidate to the GA-7VAXP because it's 1) has both FW and lan on board, and 2) $20 cheaper.

Sorry about that. Many people have had great experiences with GB...however, I have not. I bought two P4 boards from them, one was DOA, and the other had faulty sound. I then snagged their KT333 board, the GA-7VRXP which was even more of a mistake. The latest 2.0 revision seemed to be ok, but the earlier 1.0 and 1.1 boards were EXTREMELY problematic. So, I gave Gigabyte several chances and I had nothing but bad luck with them, so I refer to them as Gigasuck now. For instance..I had a AGOIA 1600+ XP that would not run over 150mhz FSB, with the max voltage of ~1.9v on my 7VRXP, but I pop the same chip in my 8K5A2+, it does 166mhz FSB with no additional voltage.

As a rule, Gigabyte boards tend to run great at stock speeds, but not o/c the best. However, some of their latest P4 boards seem to be great..so it's a toss up I guess. It boils down to this..I have had several bad experiences with Gigabyte boards, so I am done using them for awhile, but that does not mean that board won't work good for you. I just can't recommend a GB board based on my experience with them.


You also might want to consider holding off since the KT400A will be coming....

 

[merlocka]

Thanks for the input. Those types of problems are exactly what I try to avoid. I think I'm gonna hold out a bit and see how the first batch of beta testers for the nForce2 react.