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GA-7VRXP: rev. 1.0 or 2.0? And FSB 333?



 
 
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  #1  
Old April 15th 04, 10:33 PM
Mike
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default GA-7VRXP: rev. 1.0 or 2.0? And FSB 333?

Hello,

I have a Gigabyte 7VRXP, bought in july 2002. No problems (except Top
Performance won't work) and I'm quite happy with it. But after some searching I
still cannot the answers to some questions. Maybe someone here can help me?

1. How can I see if I have the 1.0/1.1/2.0 version? The board itself says
2.0~~~~~~~~~~~ but both WCPUID and SiSoft Sandra 2004 say 1.0 What is it?
2. How do I know if a 333MHz processor (like a Athlon 2800) will work on this
board? Can I just increase the FSB to 166?

The reason is that I would like to upgrade, not too expensive. A new processor
is 'nessessary' but Athlon 2600 is too slow. 2800 is cheap, FSB 333 together
with my DDR333 wil give a nice boost. I understand that the 7VRXP officially
doesn't support a FBS of 333 but the KT333 should, right?

Can anyone help me?

Greetings and thanks in advance,
Mike (from The Netherlands)


  #2  
Old April 16th 04, 12:55 AM
Nikolaos Tampakis
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Posts: n/a
Default

Mike wrote:

Hello,

I have a Gigabyte 7VRXP, bought in july 2002. No problems (except Top
Performance won't work) and I'm quite happy with it. But after some searching I
still cannot the answers to some questions. Maybe someone here can help me?

1. How can I see if I have the 1.0/1.1/2.0 version? The board itself says
2.0~~~~~~~~~~~ but both WCPUID and SiSoft Sandra 2004 say 1.0 What is it?


Always trust what is printed on the board itself. Software that
apparently reports PCB revisions either fills in random numbers or reads
the DMI config table, and I doubt anyone filled real values there
(typically only large OEMs care to properly update the DMI config table
to properly reflect the aspects of the hardware they sell you). 1.0 is a
standard default for 'first shipping' revisions so if the software finds
an empty DMI value there it might well assume an 1.0 revision as a
default. Plus, there's no mention of an 1.0 revision on Gigabyte's site.
Therefore, you have a 2.0 board.

2. How do I know if a 333MHz processor (like a Athlon 2800) will work on this
board? Can I just increase the FSB to 166?


For 100% proper operation you need:
a) a BIOS that can identify the processor and adjust to its
peculiarities (if any).
b) proper voltage regulation and signal paths
c) proper chipset support

I don't own the board but chances are you'll at least be able to boot
with the FSB at 166 MHz.

The reason is that I would like to upgrade, not too expensive. A new processor
is 'nessessary' but Athlon 2600 is too slow. 2800 is cheap, FSB 333 together
with my DDR333 wil give a nice boost. I understand that the 7VRXP officially
doesn't support a FBS of 333 but the KT333 should, right?


Yes it should. But there might be good reasons Gigabyte doesn't
officially support 333 MHz on this board. See b) above.

Can anyone help me?

Greetings and thanks in advance,
Mike (from The Netherlands)




Regards
Nikos
  #3  
Old April 16th 04, 12:59 AM
Homer J. Simpson
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

This board only supports 266MHz FSB CPU's (133MHz CPU Clock). That is the
limitation of the VIA KT333 chipset.

The memory can be run asynchronously at +33MHz higher than the CPU giving a
166MHz memory clock (DDR333). There is an SDRAM Frequency setting in the
BIOS Chipset Features Setup menu where you can choose 333MHz if you so
desire.

"Mike" wrote in message
...
Hello,

I have a Gigabyte 7VRXP, bought in july 2002. No problems (except Top
Performance won't work) and I'm quite happy with it. But after some

searching I
still cannot the answers to some questions. Maybe someone here can help

me?

1. How can I see if I have the 1.0/1.1/2.0 version? The board itself says
2.0~~~~~~~~~~~ but both WCPUID and SiSoft Sandra 2004 say 1.0 What is

it?
2. How do I know if a 333MHz processor (like a Athlon 2800) will work on

this
board? Can I just increase the FSB to 166?

The reason is that I would like to upgrade, not too expensive. A new

processor
is 'nessessary' but Athlon 2600 is too slow. 2800 is cheap, FSB 333

together
with my DDR333 wil give a nice boost. I understand that the 7VRXP

officially
doesn't support a FBS of 333 but the KT333 should, right?

Can anyone help me?

Greetings and thanks in advance,
Mike (from The Netherlands)




  #4  
Old April 16th 04, 01:32 AM
Nikolaos Tampakis
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

(snip)

doesn't support a FBS of 333 but the KT333 should, right?


Yes it should. But there might be good reasons Gigabyte doesn't
officially support 333 MHz on this board. See b) above.


Well, it should according to http://www.via.com.tw/en/apollo/KT333.jsp
but apparently this isn't the whole story since in the chipset's white
paper only up to 266 MHz bus is mentioned.
Apparently official 333 MHz support was added with a later revision and
VIA conveniently choose to not mention it in the link above.

Regards
Nikos
  #5  
Old April 16th 04, 12:26 PM
Mike
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Well, it should according to http://www.via.com.tw/en/apollo/KT333.jsp
but apparently this isn't the whole story since in the chipset's white
paper only up to 266 MHz bus is mentioned.
Apparently official 333 MHz support was added with a later revision and
VIA conveniently choose to not mention it in the link above.


So, you're saying probably the KT333 will work with a Athlon 2800 @ FSB 333 but
it's not guaranteed by Gigabyte and VIA. Just increase the FSB in the BIOS
manually to 166MHz.

Mike


  #6  
Old April 16th 04, 12:29 PM
Mike
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

This board only supports 266MHz FSB CPU's (133MHz CPU Clock). That is the
limitation of the VIA KT333 chipset.


Why is it then that VIA says it KT333 supports FBS333?
http://www.via.com.tw/en/apollo/KT333.jsp

And why does other boards with KT333 support FSB333? Am I missing something
here?

TIA
Mike



  #7  
Old April 16th 04, 01:59 PM
Nikolaos Tampakis
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Mike wrote:
This board only supports 266MHz FSB CPU's (133MHz CPU Clock). That is the
limitation of the VIA KT333 chipset.



Why is it then that VIA says it KT333 supports FBS333?
http://www.via.com.tw/en/apollo/KT333.jsp

And why does other boards with KT333 support FSB333? Am I missing something
here?

TIA
Mike




As I commented in the other post,
http://www.via.com.tw/en/apollo/KT333.jsp is apparently not the whole
story. The whitepaper for KT333 does not list 333 MHz bus support.
Also, two Asus boards with the KT333, the A7V333 and the A7V333-X, are
listed with 266 and 333 MHz bus support respectively.
And the latter has a 'CF' designation for the KT333 chipset, so it's
rather obvious that (a) specific revision(s) of the KT333 add(s) the 333
MHz bus support.
VIA really ought to have mentioned this disparity between different
revisions in the page above.

Regards
Nikos
  #8  
Old April 16th 04, 02:00 PM
Nikolaos Tampakis
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Mike wrote:

Well, it should according to http://www.via.com.tw/en/apollo/KT333.jsp
but apparently this isn't the whole story since in the chipset's white
paper only up to 266 MHz bus is mentioned.
Apparently official 333 MHz support was added with a later revision and
VIA conveniently choose to not mention it in the link above.



So, you're saying probably the KT333 will work with a Athlon 2800 @ FSB 333 but
it's not guaranteed by Gigabyte and VIA. Just increase the FSB in the BIOS
manually to 166MHz.

Mike


More or less. The bottomline is you'll have to try and see.

Regards
Nikos
  #9  
Old April 17th 04, 02:03 AM
Homer J. Simpson
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

With this particular Gigabyte board, the KT333CE chipset is what Gigabyte
used. I haven't heard of anyone successfully maintaining a 166MHz CPU clock
on a GA-7VRXP Ver. 2. After a reboot it always reverts back to 133MHz.
There is no BIOS support, even in the last official BIOS version for this
board, that will enable the 1/5th divider required to maintain a 166MHz CPU
clock without it reverting back to 133MHz after a reboot.

The KT333CF chipset does support 333MHz FSB, but that doesn't help here.

"Nikolaos Tampakis" wrote in message
...
Mike wrote:
This board only supports 266MHz FSB CPU's (133MHz CPU Clock). That is

the
limitation of the VIA KT333 chipset.



Why is it then that VIA says it KT333 supports FBS333?
http://www.via.com.tw/en/apollo/KT333.jsp

And why does other boards with KT333 support FSB333? Am I missing

something
here?

TIA
Mike




As I commented in the other post,
http://www.via.com.tw/en/apollo/KT333.jsp is apparently not the whole
story. The whitepaper for KT333 does not list 333 MHz bus support.
Also, two Asus boards with the KT333, the A7V333 and the A7V333-X, are
listed with 266 and 333 MHz bus support respectively.
And the latter has a 'CF' designation for the KT333 chipset, so it's
rather obvious that (a) specific revision(s) of the KT333 add(s) the 333
MHz bus support.
VIA really ought to have mentioned this disparity between different
revisions in the page above.

Regards
Nikos



  #10  
Old April 17th 04, 02:05 PM
Mike
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

As I understand correctly, the KT333 is just a KT266a with DDR333 support,
right? And that's why it will not support a 166MHz CPU clock. Alltough later
versions of the KT333 do support that.

But I read here that the CD will not support FSB333 and the CE will:
http://groups.google.nl/groups?hl=nl&lr=lang_en|lang_nl&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&output=search&frame=right&th=d483a10 f6991934d&seekm=E_sQ8.46940%24s82.3743755%40news1. calgary.shaw.ca#link1
I am sorry if I sound stubborn, I am not trying to troll or so, but I am trying
to understand (Technicaly I'm quite a newbie...). Are you sure I have the
KT333CE? The Gigabyte site speaks only of a south bridge CE.

Thanks for your help,
Mike




"Homer J. Simpson" schreef in bericht
news:Pn%fc.146786$oR5.30305@pd7tw3no...
With this particular Gigabyte board, the KT333CE chipset is what Gigabyte
used. I haven't heard of anyone successfully maintaining a 166MHz CPU clock
on a GA-7VRXP Ver. 2. After a reboot it always reverts back to 133MHz.
There is no BIOS support, even in the last official BIOS version for this
board, that will enable the 1/5th divider required to maintain a 166MHz CPU
clock without it reverting back to 133MHz after a reboot.

The KT333CF chipset does support 333MHz FSB, but that doesn't help here.

"Nikolaos Tampakis" wrote in message
...
Mike wrote:
This board only supports 266MHz FSB CPU's (133MHz CPU Clock). That is

the
limitation of the VIA KT333 chipset.


Why is it then that VIA says it KT333 supports FBS333?
http://www.via.com.tw/en/apollo/KT333.jsp

And why does other boards with KT333 support FSB333? Am I missing

something
here?

TIA
Mike




As I commented in the other post,
http://www.via.com.tw/en/apollo/KT333.jsp is apparently not the whole
story. The whitepaper for KT333 does not list 333 MHz bus support.
Also, two Asus boards with the KT333, the A7V333 and the A7V333-X, are
listed with 266 and 333 MHz bus support respectively.
And the latter has a 'CF' designation for the KT333 chipset, so it's
rather obvious that (a) specific revision(s) of the KT333 add(s) the 333
MHz bus support.
VIA really ought to have mentioned this disparity between different
revisions in the page above.

Regards
Nikos






 




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