I've got an idea about this 686B thing . . .

[MGMorden]

OK, we know that most (or rather all) of the mobo makers making AMD760-based boards are using the Via 686B southbridge instead of the AMD766 southbridge b/c it's cheaper but still pin compatible. most people seem to agree that the 686B is crap so this is a bad thing. HOWEVER, could this process work the other way around . . . as in having a motherboard with the Via KT133A northbridge but the AMD 766 southbridge? This seems like it might would work well. The KT133A itself isn't really bad, and with the AMD southbridge a lot of problems would be solved. What do you guys think? (not that they'll come out with such a best but hypothetically . . .)

 

[S0me1X]

OR Get the new SiS 735 chipset mobos

btw, the new 735 doesn't have north and south bridge, it's got just 1 IC.

 

[sandorski]

Hmm, is the 686B crap because it had problems that were fixed. Or is there some other problem no one posts about?

 

[Noriaki]

The Via 686B and AMD766 are not pin compatible.
Via engineered the 686B to be a generic south end of the PCI bus, the specifically designed it so it could work with any North bridge (provided that North bridge connects to a south bridge through the PCI bus).

I don't think the same is true of the AMD766, so I don't think you could pair up a KT133A northbridge with AMD766 south.

But I think that the 686B is pretty much in the clear with the newest 4in1 pack. I had some problems that for a while I thought were the fault of the 686B, but I swapped Video cards, upgraded from 6.5 to 12.4 (det drivers), and bumped up to DX8 and suddenly my system is running great again. No problems at all

 

[knutp]

And I haven't heard much complaining from users with amd 761 and via 686b. And via also stated that the problem was kt133a+686b. Not only the 686b.

 

[MGMorden]

Well it didn't work with my SB Live! correctly (crackling that didn't happen on my 440BX) and I've heard several people reporting that they don't work correctly with most ATAPI Zip drives. That's not a good thing.

 

[knutp]

Are that amd 761+686b or 133a+686b?

 

[Noriaki]

Worked ok with my Live! and ATAPI zip drive at the same time

But I think the biggest problem with the 686B is that it is inconsitant. I know people that are quite tech savvy and can't get their 686B to work, whereas others (like myself thankfully) are fine....