VIA KT266A Motherboard Roundup - January 2002
by Mike Andrawes on January 18, 2002 4:48 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Gigabyte 7VTXH
|
Gigabyte 7VTXH |
|
|
CPU
Interface
|
Socket-A
|
|
Chipset
|
VT8366A
North Bridge
VT8233 South Bridge |
|
Form
Factor
|
ATX
|
|
Bus
Speeds
|
100
- 200 MHz (1MHz increments)
|
|
Core
Voltages Supported
|
+5%
/ +7.5% / +10%
|
|
I/O
Voltages Supported
|
Not
Configurable
|
|
DRAM
Voltages Supported
|
Not
Configurable
|
|
Memory
Slots
|
3
184-pin DDR DIMM Slots
|
|
Expansion
Slots
|
1
AGP Slot
5 PCI Slots |
|
Onboard
RAID
|
N/A
|
|
Onboard
USB 2.0/IEEE-1394
|
N/A
|
|
Onboard
Audio
|
Sigmatel
STAC9708T AC 97 CODEC
Creative Labs CT5880 |
In the AMD 760 roundup we noticed that the Gigabyte 7DXR was a pretty nice solution. In the recent 845 DDR roundup, the Gigabyte P4 Titan even won our Editor's Choice Gold award for its long list of features. However, when it comes down to their KT266A solution, the 7VTXH seems to be a step backwards.
First of all, Gigabyte went back to their old AMI BIOS setup, which again has problems running the system stably with all DIMMs populated. We were forced to reduce the memory settings for a stable system.
Secondly, there is a 100/133 jumper separating the FSB speeds, and the multiplier ratio settings are also done using a set of dipswitches instead of inside the BIOS. When it first came out, the 7VTXH used the BIOS version M3B dated 10/18/2001. However, flashing it to newer version F4 (12/24/2001) actually reduced the performance of the board. After consulting Gigabyte, they claim that the F4 BIOS is still buggy and they will be releasing another update soon to resolve the problem.
One very special feature about the 7VTXH is the integrated on-board RealTek8139/8100 LAN. It performed very well during our testing and it's definitely useful for all users. Moreover, Gigabyte also released a newer version of the board, called the 7VTXH+ that supports Ultra ATA133, although that's more of a marketing push than anything.
With the 7VTXH Gigabyte has definitely given up too much room for other competitors. In order to compete with others, they should come out with a more aggressive product in terms of features and performance. Stability is also a very important issue with Gigabyte when all DIMM slots are populated. We will hopefully see all that changed in their next motherboard as their 845 DDR solution was quite impressive to say the least.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
3 Comments
View All Comments
Anonymous User - Monday, September 29, 2003 - link
How do I get my Engine to Memory clock to run synchronous for my Epox 8kha+ boardxrror - Saturday, August 14, 2021 - link
This was such an exciting time in PC hardware. Intel was still trying to cram Rambus down the industry's throat - and obstinately trying to strong arm the mobo makers and force chipset makers to Rambus licensing. We still had VIA, SiS, ULi, and even nVidia in the chipset market, and with AMD's Athlon line still extraordinarily competitive and Intel in full attack they could no longer just consider AMD as a side-show - this was their leverage against Intel and they had to treat Socket A as premium platform.NegativeROG - Wednesday, June 15, 2022 - link
I still have this board. AND, I invested all of a $10,000 inheritance in Rambus RDRAM. I'm smarter now (I hope). But, you are right about exciting times in the PC space. I navigated away from AMD for a bit, but came back, and will stay forever. Team RED!