Why did Anand chose to test the MSI board? (KT 266)

[C1eaN]

In his KT 266 chipset review here he uses the MSI board and states the board had trouble even posting.... then he uses it to test the KT266 chipset and uses it's results as proof of the shortcomings in the chipset....and shows benchmarks that clearly display it to be an inferior chipset to the AMD 760 (and even the KT133A)

I am in the market for a DDR solution and am seriously considering the Gigabyte GA-7VTX which uses this same chipset. In all five reviews of this board here they find that the KT 266 is slightly BETTER than the AMD 760. I always take Anand's reviews seriously but this seems to be a glaring oversight using this troubled board to measure the chipset....

problem is newegg.com has the GA-7DX (AMD760) in the $130 range but it does NOT have an AGP Pro slot and I am prolly gonna get the MSI Pro 64 GF2 board... The 7VTX has an AGP Pro slot...

any ideas? thoughts? ways to get him to review the GA-7VTX? opinions? links?

Thanks in advance

ps- several of the reviews have the 7VTX w/ an ami bios but the GA site says the board ships w/ Award.... experiences?? also what rev do you guys have of the 7VTX?

 

[amb#cog]

Read why this happened here. I'd also do some more recent research man. That's from the beginning of April (3 months ago). Things do move fast in the puter world.

For what it's worth. I went AMD 760 myself (Epox 8K7a), and am quite happy so far.
VIA does have a history of it taking a while for their chipsets to mature, where as the AMD seems to be there already.

Either way. Good luck.

 

[MisterPants]

That GF2 uses a regular AGP slot, not an AGP Pro Slot.

 

[C1eaN]

amb#cog,
tx for the reply.... what is weird is that the article you linked to is titled "SECOND round KO" dated 4-16-01

the one i linked to is titled "THIRD times a charm?" dated 4-10-01

the 4/10 article i linked was a follow up to the one you linked ut dated before....the plot thickens....


mrpants,

tx for the tip...... why would a PRO card not use a PRO AGP slot???

 

[amb#cog]

Mine is a follow up detailing the problem in your article. Read em through, and you'll see what I mean.

GF2 Pro is just a name, like GF2 Ultra. AGP pro is a whole different story.

 

[C1eaN]

will do....tx 4 all the info....hope i can help out sometime!

 

[Rand]

<< That GF2 uses a regular AGP slot, not an AGP Pro Slot. >>



There are a small number of AGP Pro based GF2 cards available. The vast majority are just regular AG4X cards though.

 

[bevo]

Rand...What GF2 cards are AGP Pro now? I thought it was going to be some time before any were to be available...

 

[Maverick215]

Love MSI boards, they're GRRRREEEEAAAAAT!

 

[NCstateBen]

Do not get that MSI kt266 board.

I gust got one to put together a new system. It is the most unstable thing I have ever used. Just about 30 mins ago it crashed for the umpteenth time, this time screwing up windows 2000 beyond repair. Now I have to reinstall windows and all the extra software I already put on. Before I do that however, I will be getting a new board.

Besides being unstable, it also had low memory scores in sandra. Couldn't even beat ALi.

When I get a new board, it will not have the via chipset.

I hope I can send it back to Mwave on the fact that it's unstable, but if I can't, I can always say that 2 of the 3 fan headers will run the fans but will not show the RMPs of them.

 

[Doomguy]

NCstateben: Upgrade your bios and your problems should go away.

 

[jimmygates]

I heard something about VIA working with motherboard manufacturers on rotating the KT266 NB chip 45° so it can get better signals from the CPU. Heard this produces a significant performance boost and fixes some stability problems. Might want to check out later revisions of MSI's KT266 board and see if they have made this revision.



-Jimbo

 

[Mattster]

If you swapped your motherboard out and didn't do a fresh installation of the OS, especially Windows 2000, that isn't the motherboard's fault. Blame Microsoft for that problem.......

Just my .02

 

[yazz]

we have built over 50 systems with these MSI KT266 PRO boards in them and we have not had one failure or bad install yet....

 

[Coligeon]

<< Do not get that MSI kt266 board.

I gust got one to put together a new system. It is the most unstable thing I have ever used. Just about 30 mins ago it crashed for the umpteenth time, this time screwing up windows 2000 beyond repair. Now I have to reinstall windows and all the extra software I already put on. Before I do that however, I will be getting a new board.

Besides being unstable, it also had low memory scores in sandra. Couldn't even beat ALi.

When I get a new board, it will not have the via chipset.

I hope I can send it back to Mwave on the fact that it's unstable, but if I can't, I can always say that 2 of the 3 fan headers will run the fans but will not show the RMPs of them. >>


I don't know what you're talking about here, but I have had nothing but Praise for this motherboard. I had no such problems at all, first time builder too. I have had a few problems, but I do Think they aren't relating to it, only thing I cna say that is relating to it is that it will hang sometimes, and I did have some problems with botting up, but I don't even have a real windows98 cd, it's running on this darn emachines one, and I'm sure that doesn't help it too.

 

[Bingo13]

The Gigabyte 7VTX is a very good board, running two of them currently and like it better than the Asus A7M266. Go here for further information- link

 

[iamthesystem]

*shrug*

i've got the MSI K7T Turbo (non-R)...other than the fact that i have the KT133A glitch (where I cannot tweak the FSB much to overclock) and the other fact that i obtain very low memory scores (PC133 RAM)...

..it's not a bad board...

heh heh heh...wish i would have picked up a better overclocker..........