What do you guys think of Soyo boards?

[Noriaki]

I'm looking at Anand's new review of the Soyo K7VTA SocketA board.
It got 7.5s and 8s all across the board (no pun intended ) except two places. Document and Software bundle, I don't care about...and board layout, well the location of the power connector is kind of annoying but I'm not an extremist overclocker so I'm not that worried about airflow.

What I'm wondering is just a general quality concensus on soyo board. Anand seemed to like it well enough, and I know a place I can get them cheap locally. Seems to have all the features I want and good performance...I've been looking for MSi K7Tpro but I can't find it locally..and I sort of want to buy my mobo local because I'll be getting rid of my old quickly so if there are problems I want replacements ASAP and this place has good warranties...I don't want to have to wait 3 weeks while I send my board back to an online retailer you know? Without a mobo I'd be pretty fried for a computer...I've got spares of most things, but I've only got my one mobo and CPU that I will be offloading right away..
Normally I'd go Asus but I've heard quite a few complaints about the A7V besides..it's expensive compared to the K7TVA, so I'm not sure...I also don't personally trust ABit boards...so that's out to...

So what do you guys think of soyo boards in general?

 

[fkloster]

Soyo has always made pretty high quality boards. More stable than Abit boards in my opinion. Second only to Asus.

 

[nino]

I've built several systems on Soyo's boards and they have treated me awesomely.
3 w/ Soyo BA+IV
2 w/ Soyo BA+III
2 w/ Soyo BA+

I've liked them all on the BX platform. The only thing that I didn't like was their lack of a real voltage adjustment. It would only allow you to increase voltage 10% more than the default.

 

[Noriaki]

the KT7VA will let you go default +.25V in .025 increments.
That should be enough for any overclocking I do, like I said, I'm not an extremist. If i had a duron 600@800 I'd be quite happy. I woudln't push for a Ghz..so 1.85V should be lots
Chances are I'll probably just get an 800-900Mhz TBird and not OC at all...I'm into stability over performance, Don't get me wrong I'll take all the performance I can get, but not at the cost of stability. I'm sure an 800+ CPU would give me more than enough juice. Hell I'm sure my 550 classic athlon gives me more than enough juice, I've just got a chance to jump on the SocketA path without it costing me too much cash so I think I'm going to take it.

 

[Raincity]

I have built a few machines with the Soyo 6ba+4 mainboard and it was a great board to work with. Soyo has been in the business longer than any of the others and keeps putting out a good product. Soyo does have a quality control issues so you may get a bad board so buy from a good vendor with a no hassle return policy.

Rain

 

[Noriaki]

Thanks for the tip Rain, that's one reason I want to buy from LD. They give 3 year warranties on Mobo's if I remember correctly, they also have 5 different branches in Calgary (city of ~900,000 people), they have 3 in Victoria (~300k ppl) they even have 2 in nanaimo (measly town where I had the misfortune to grow up, it's only about 70k).
They are all over the place in canda..and they have good service and warranties, they even have a 15 day 100% no-questions-asked return policy (there's not even a restocking fee, they give you back 100%, and the salesmen work wage or salary, not commision so they are honest).

I won't want this board for 3 years I'm pretty sure, so pretty well they guarantee it works for as long as I use it, and in damn near any city I might live in in that time. Works for me

but thanks for the note on QC issues, I'll keep that in mind.

 

[Noriaki]

*punt* come on I know some more of you have used Soyo boards

 

[Kanly]

Well, I've only used the 6ba+iv but it's been rock solid for me.

Could overclock any chip I put in there much higher and with more stability than my Asus, from a C300, multiple C366s and a 600E.

Never had a quality problem and never heard of them having quality control problems.


There was another thread asking about Soyo's recently, check in there for the miltiple positive opinions.

 

[ArkAoss]

yeah i got the 6ba +4 just gotta find a good chip to over clock in it, and also some people suggest getting a better heat sink on the chip set than the normal green one, hardocp did a soyo review and they changed the hsf, and got better results, they are NEARLY impossible to crash with an unoc'd chip, only crashs i can get it to do are either oc'd or when my brother has touched it recently. My brother could crash an Imac that was off. I'm gonna wait to see if they offer a dual socket A w/ddr before i my next major upgrade.

to put it simply, GO with soyo, if ya dont want built in raid or what features other boards have, (you're probly out buying the board now)

 

[Noriaki]

Thanks for the help guys.

I'd never use IDE RAID (software RAID just doesn't do it for me) and I have a Promise Ultra100, so I have no need for built in ATA100 (not that I have need for ATA100 at all I just have 5 IDE devices ), should the need arise I have ATA100 capabilities.

I think I'm pretty well set on the Soyo K7VTA, it even has multiplier adjustments if I want them.


Edit:
Would this be the thread you are reffering to? A big whack of Soyo vs Asus vs ABit?
Holy positive response to Soyo...I think I might just have to get me a K7TVA, again thanks for the responses guys.

 

[BAMAVOO]

I owned the 6ba+4 and it was very stable..Fast..Good all around board...Course hardly anything stays for more than 2 weeks..

 

[WetSprocket]

I've built 4 machines using the Soyo 810 7IWML, and have had no problems, I just had to spend a little time getting the onboard sound to work. But found all I needed on their website and no failures or incompatibilities. I rate them high, along with Asus and Abit. They were really giving Abit a run a while back with their BX boards.

 

[Kanly]

Noriaki,

yep, that's the thread.

 

[Raincity]

Dukeleto, Soyo has a high return rate for bad boards like Abit. Ask around with some var system builders that use Soyo boards and they will confirm the same thing. Builders who use Soyo swear by them in reliability and stability but are aware the high rate of defective boards. Soyo is tops also when getting a board RMA from them under the 1 year warranty agreement.

Rain

 

[Vegito]

I have 13 Soyo boards. I like them because they were actually pretty good design till they rape me on RMAs. Afterward, I gave them away for LOW prices..

I had a board where the floppy didn't work, 1 out of the 10 board I ordered and they wouldn't RMA that for me. They were saying I hooked them up wrong, so whats with 9 out the 10 thats working ? Afterward.. no Soyo for me.

 

[Moffat Cafe]

Way back in the olden socket 7 days I had a Soyo SY-5EMA (AMD K62-350). Never had any problems whatsoever. About 6 months ago I built two Micro ATX machines using Soyo SY-71WM/L MoBo's . They worked OK except for Soyo's hardware monitoring which was pathetic (Mother Board Monitor would not work with these boards). After installing Soyo's software and rebooting into win, warning lights and sirens pointed to a second fan's low RPM (0). I had no second fan installed so I disabled it, saved the settings and rebooted. Again noise & lights, Soyo save did not work. After downloading Soyo's latest version this bug was gone, but I found that when win opened, HW monitor could not be set to auto minimize. Each time win opened you had to click X to pop it to the tray. The worst was yet to to come. Occasionally I kept hearing what seemed to be the CPU fan slowing down and speeding up (both machines) so I yanked off the machine's covers and could see the fans changing speed. Later in the day noise & lights - CPU heating up on one of the machines. I saw the fan at a standstill. I rebooted and saw the fan spin until win opened then it slowed, came up to speed then seemed OK. Noise & lights on second machine- CPU heating. I then disabled CPU fan monitoring on both machines and fans ran at full speed. Incredible as it sounds, the software slowed and eventually stopped the CPU fans! I uninstalled the Soyo HW monitor software and delivered both PCs.

 

[novice]

My experience follows Wetsprocket's with my Soyo Intel 810 SY7WML. A little bit of problems getting the onboard sound to work, eventually replace with a Diamond Impact S90 sound card, also ditched the intel integrated video for a Voodoo 3 3000. Certainly this particular board is not for overclockers, but it has run my Celeron 366 quite nicely and has worked well for the 6 months I have been running it. I like the Microstar boards a little better, but that is just my opinion.
Chuck

 

[Mustanggt]

In my opinion Soyo is right up there with Asus.

 

[novice]

Hey Duron Boy, I have hadmy PIII 600 running at 129 fsb with factory cooling, but I have recently installed a new creative annihilator 2 mx video card so I have been running at default for the last couple of days. I have had a few lockups in UT with the new card and am not sure why. I also just got in a new MSI-6309 and retail Celeron 600 to upgrade a P233, so that is my upcoming weekend project. Curious to see how the Celeron II overclocks and how it compares speedwise to the coppermine in the "old" 6309. I think enough of the MSI-6309 to buy another one, but boy it was hard to turn down the siren song of the K7T Pro and Duron 700. Familiarity won out, though so here I am.
Chuck

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

My roommate's work order 25 6ba+iv and out of that batch 17 were DOA. some quality control!

Also I've built machines with Soyo's. The first was a P2-350. The board lasted about 3 months before it decided that it would not run stable anymore.

I replaced it with another Soyo(worked for CrapUSA at the time and got them hella cheap) That board worked for 4 months before it crapped out.

SOYO CAN SUCK MY NUTZ!!!!

 

[Lalakai]

I've been torturing an old Soyo SS7 board for quite a few months now and haven't been able to kill it yet. Love the flexibility of voltage and multiplier ranges. downsides have been poor layout and bios updates aren't the greatest. I'm in the same upgrade boat you are and also seriously considering the same board you are. Overall I would have no problem going with them again and the price is attractive.

good luck and let us know how you settled.

edit: FYI, just browsing and found the mb w/Thunderbird 800A for $281 (not certain how this compares other places). I've purchased from these folks before and been very satisfied.

Krex's

 

[|TOAST|]

Built two 6BA+IV boards and both run P3 500's @ 750 or 775!!!
No problems here.

 

[LXi]

Raincity:

Are you sure you're absolutely accurate on this? I highly doubt the Soyos are being unreliable as Abits, they've always made excellent boards with quality in mind. I can hardly imagine they can be rated as low as Abit.

 

[LarryJoe]

Another thumbs up for Soyo here. I have built 2 machines with the 6BA+IV and they both are fast and overclock well.

LJ

EDIT: I also got my first one from Krex and highly reccomend them.

 

[Eli]

The Soyo board looks awesome, but I think I'm going to get the MSI K7T Pro2. I'm going to get my brother motherboard+Duron for his birthday, maybe I'll get him the Soyo board. I'll probably end up getting him whatevers cheapest, and has multiplier support. lol