motherboards and SB Live compatability

[MIDIman]

I'm upgrading from an old Intel BX system - the world of semi-perfect compatability! Since I'll probably be buying a KT266a mobo, I just wanted to doublecheck that my age old SB Live Value will still work ok. I had traded my previous soundcard for this SB Live because the trader was using an AMD system and couldn't get the SBLive to work in Win2000.

I'll be using WinXP or Win98SE most likely - looking at the anandtech recommended motherboards in their latest review and probably going to start with a Duron and move up to an AMD XP later.


Also - has anyone had any experience purchasing these refurbished KT266a motherboards from Newegg.com?

 

[Peter]

The original SB!Live series have a timing issue on the PCI bus. They don't work too well on some chipsets and mainboards - they make some boards hang, cause data corruption on the PCI bus on others, and work just fine on the rest.

I suggest you retire it along with your old system. The sound engine in KT266A isn't exactly bad, I suggest you try that first (it's for free, after all ) and then get some less troublesome card if it doesn't suit your needs.

regards, Peter

 

[Mem]

SB Live should work fine in the VIA KT266a boards,my friend is using one in his Epox 8KHA+(VIA KT266A) & I`m using one in my KT133 board,and SB Audigy in my Epox 8KHA+ board,it was only a problem with certain VIA boards mainly KT133A that use the 686B southbridge,latest VIA 4 in 1 drivers have fixed the problem for 99% of people.

 

[MIDIman]

Well the main problem is I like using the SB Live's "fan re-designed" drivers from other SBLive users...granted, I'm not using them now, but its a nice feature for composing music and since I might be building a cheap PC-DAW for someone soon, I thought I might find a motherboard that works well with it...

Sounds like I may not have a choice tho. Thanks

 

[Deanodarlo]

I've got a sblive! value (one of the very first released cards with the so called PCI hog issue) and it has ZERO problems with my 8KHA+ KT266A motherboard. I think this chipset combined with the new via drivers have ironed out most issues.

The whole setup works like a charm. I have yet to experience one blue screen or crash and I'm using Windows ME. This is the best system setup I have ever built for stability, although I'm very careful how I overclock if at all.