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KT133A northbridge stepping A1???

B

Biggs

Diamond Member
"The KT133A Northbridge is now being produced in stepping A1 which does FSB 266 better than the older/original A0 stepping ... or so says an article of Jan 31, at VIAhardware. They speculate that re-hashed KT133 mobos (ABIT and ASUS which bought up all the initial supply of KT133A in the A0 stepping) will not handle the new higher speed TBIRDS as well as the completely redesigned mobos like IWILL. Not sure which the MSI turbo uses but you should probably check it out!"

-drjefft


How true is this?
 
Hm... Iwill does 166MHz, Asus/MSI/Abit do 150MHz+, is that really a big difference? It would be if all the Tbirds max out at 160MHz+, but I see no point in searching for a board with A1 northbridge because its very unlikely that any Tbird will exceed the 150MHz range.
 
Assuming all KT133A mobos today can do Palominos and also assuming Palominos can reach higher bus speeds, wouldn't it be an advantage to have the A1 stepping? It may not be much but it is still an advantage.
 
RAM speeds, AGP speeds and PCI speeds, all start to become a problem after 150-155 anyway for most people.
 
You also have to keep in mind at 166 your PCI cards are running at 41.5Mhz.... ALOT of cards cant handle that. But yes it can be an advantage if you want to go that high... but with multiplier adjustments Im PLETY happy with 150FSB, and my cards can handle that.
 
Neimseter: PCI devices typically run at 33 MHz. So for a board with a 100 MHz bus, the PCI runs at 1/3 FSB speed running at 33 MHz. With a 133 MHz bus system, there is a different divider, 1/4, keeping the PCI bus at 33 MHz. But there is not another PCI divider as you OC, so the PCI still runs at 1/4th FSB.
 
Biggs:

Do you know for sure the Palominos can do 160MHz+? I doubt it. Like Dulanic said 150MHz+ is plenty satisfying for most people. Personally I wouldnt bother to look for A1, A0 works just fine, and if you really wanted an A1, wait a month or something then most manufacturers will start using A1 instead of A0.
 
Anyway, the question I wanted to know is if there really is a newer A1 stepping or is this just plain marketing horsesh!t?
 
Nobody knows for sure, but since there is some overclocking differences, I would assume that its not BS.
 
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