Gigabyte GA-7VTX ..KT266 chipset based mobo without the 686B....

[Insane3D]

I just noticed that Newegg has these in stock. They are a bit pricey...$189, but it has 3 DDR slots, no 686B southbridge, and a AGP pro slot. Has anyone heard anything about this board...?

 

[kennyG]

Here's a review for ya..Check it Out!

 

[Insane3D]

Thanks..looks bad. It says it does not allow multiplier adjustments or Vcore adjustments...AAAACK!

 

[Informant X]

Hey Insane, perhaps you should edit your signature. The devils are down 2-1 right. And oh by the way, they ain't gonna win this year. I'll get ya some kleenex! 🙂

 

[Insane3D]

Thanks...but by "3 down...1 to go" I mean teams...

 

[grimreap]

I picked up one from jinco.com for 95 bucks... BUT They called today and said they shipped the wrong motherboard and I need to refuse the payment, and that theyre out of stock of them now... so I dnuno whats going to happen now

 

[goul]

I'm also thinking of getting this Mobo. any comments?

 

[Doomguy]

No kt266 mobos use the 686b. They all use a new southbridge.

 

[robg1701]

Thats correct,sicne the KT266 employs V-Link so the 686B in useable...i remember reading from the digit-life AMD760 roundup that theres even a version of the new southbridge which can communicate over the PCI bus instead of V-Link, so unless its got a different pinout or somit, perhaps the mobo manufactureres could get rid of 686B altogether...wouldnt that be nice 😛

 

[Pabster]

And, unfortunately, it's VIA. 😀

I think SiS 735 and the recently announced 740 look very appealing, but we'll have to wait and see. Reference boards and shipping boards are often two different birds, and while initial results are great, mobo manufacturers can easily defeat that 😀

KT266 is a mixed bag, nothing to hoot and holler about, and it's VIA. So I'm not jumping on it.

 

[Modus]

You sholdn't be worried about the 686B on a new board. Any person building a system these days will use the proper drivers for their hardware, and the latest VIA 4-in-1 (4.31) includes the SBLive patch.

Modus

 

[Pabster]

That's true, 686B isn't all that horrible. KT133A does have some glitches however, and VIA continues to deny them and place the blame on others. For example, I'm still wondering just how many KT133A-based mobos were sold with defective north bridges? (i.e. early revision) You know, the ones that have cold/warm boot problems, etc, etc. I never experienced the 686B "issues", but it's rather sad that hardware as popular as SB! Live could have been overlooked. And the data corruption was pretty ridiculous too. All in all, 686B is a good product that could have been great.