Opinions on Soyo K7V Dragon?

[TastyCakes]

I've read all over the place about it and I'm seriously thinking about getting one. Every place that's reviewed it says it's a stable mobo, but lacks a little in speed under some similar models, but the difference is really negligible. So the reviews like it...but I wanted to know if any of you have used it and had any experiences with it (good or bad).. any help is appreciated. I'm thinking "yes" to purchasing it now, but I just wanna make sure it doesn't have any horrible flaws that I'm not too aware of. So theoretically it's supposed to be alright for OC'ing, stable, not as fast as some of the competition, but the difference is negligible at best, and well, it looks cool

Linkaroo

Rest of the system that it'll be going onto...

GeForce2 Pro
Athlon T-bird 1.4 @ 266mhz
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound
Maxtor 40.0 gb 5400 rpm hd
Lite-On 12x dvd rom
Philips 8x4x32 CDRW800
512mb Crucial PC2100 DDR memory

I've been looking everywhere and haven't heard many negatives, but user experience is always better than what a webpage tells ya. Thanks everyone.

 

[tazdevl]

DO NOT BUY IT NOW. The KT266A based boards will be out in a week or two. Their performance will be much better than the KT266 based boards. Anand, Tom's, Hardocp all have reviews up of boards (plus several other sites as well). The KT266A chipset pin design is the same so all the manuf have to do is smack them in the boards.

Review on Anand.

Review on Tom's Hardare.

Review on HardOCP.

Chances are the boards will cost the same or even less because Nforce based motherboards will be coming out soon.

Might also want to take a look @ nforce based boards. Wait for reviews before you buy an nforce board... but the previews indicate it should be the fastest AMD motherboard out there with GOOD integrated sound (no need to buy sound card) and ethernet (no need to buy NIC).

If you bought those components already but haven't opened the boxes, you could still send them back if the reviews are favorable.

Here's a preview of an nforce based motherboard.

Just wait 2 weeks and see what happens if you can. The introduction of these two boards will also drive down prices of the current version of the Dragon... so you win if you wait to buy the Dragon and win if you wait and buy one of the new chipset based boards.

FYI the KT266 based boards (Dragon etc...) have a bug in the chipset. If you overclock it to 138+ MHZ the USB ports stop working.

 

[TastyCakes]

See? So much for trusting all reviews, hehe. I might just wait till the A's or the NForce comes out, yeah. The prices would surely drop on 266's. I know the NForce is supposed to be real impressive...

As for the OC issue, is it at 138 or 138 AND over where there's the bug? I'm still thinking about getting it, but maybe when prices drop...you have a point there. The NForce sounds good but it sounds like total overkill for what I do. I already have the stuff I listed, cept the mobo, and I don't do anything so intensive that the speed increase from the NForce would make a big difference. (I'm talking CS, TFC, and muds more than anything else really)

If the prices on the 266's or the 266A's go down enough I think I'll probably get one of them, unless the NForce is surprisingly real cheap. But for what I do, (homework, Photoshop, notepad for HTML, a couple older 3d games, text based muds, and Tribes 2 occasionally) would a 266 or 266A be a decent solution for what I do?

I guess I worded my first message badly. All I'm looking to see is if I order a 266 or 266A Dragon is if in comparison to other boards using those chipsets it's a good deal, and if the chipset, paired with my hardware, would run the apps I use smoothly and stable. So I guess my real question is...

Is the K7V Dragon a good board compared to other boards with similar chipsets for uses like light gaming, the net, music, and slight OC'ing? (other than the 138mhz bug)

 

[tazdevl]

138 and over. Nforce would help all of the things you do... especially if you use your GF2 Pro. It means the graphics core on the Nforce isn't utillizing memory bandwidth. Also... the way the board is set up... everything is faster. If it's the same price or slightly more. I'd honestly go for the Nfrorce. I'm betting the Nforce will come in around $150-170 which is the same price as the KT266A based boards... unless Via is selling them butt cheap.

The Dragon is a good board... just wait two weeks and see what happens. I think you'll be very happy.