Gigabyte 7VT600 1394 (KT600): More Fun with KT600
by Evan Lieb on July 26, 2003 10:44 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Final Words
Overall, the Gigabyte 7VT600 1394 fits a certain niche very well. That niche is the value market, hovering around the $90-$100 range. For these types of users, the 7VT600 1394 does an excellent job of meeting their needs. In that sense, the 7VT600 1394 can be considered the right motherboard for the job. There certainly are other motherboards that come very close to matching the 7VT600 1394 on a feature by feature basis, such as Epox’s 8RDA+. However, the 7VT600 1394’s primary advantage comes from VIA’s new 8237 South Bridge with native Serial ATA support, something nForce2 motherboards cannot match, since NVIDIA has not yet released their new Serial ATA South Bridge. However, some users may prefer to wait for motherboards based on NVIDIA’s single channel nForce2 chipset (dubbed nForce2 400) that is expected to be cheaper and, supposedly, still maintain a performance lead over KT600 motherboards, just as dual channel nForce2 motherboards (nForce2 Ultra 400) are able to do today.
Where the 7VT600 1394 really falls short is in the enthusiast market. The lack of an AGP/PCI lock is a glaring disadvantage for overclockers, especially compared to mature nForce2 motherboards with adjustable AGP/PCI locks. The 7VT600 1394’s overclocking disadvantage is best exemplified by the relatively low 205MHz FSB overclock we achieved; nForce2 Ultra 400 motherboards reach considerably higher FSB overclocks, mostly over 218MHz FSB and as high as 235MHz FSB. At stock speeds, the 7VT600 1394 is also slower than nForce2 Ultra 400 motherboards, although the difference does not become severe until you reach our workstation benchmarks. Still, VIA has had more than enough time to tweak the KT600, and so the fact that KT600 is still slower than the 9+ months old nForce2 chipset is unacceptable for enthusiasts.
Stay tuned for more Socket A coverage in the coming weeks, as we take a look at one of the first nForce2 400 (single channel DDR) motherboards to find its way into U.S. retail channels.
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Anonymous User - Saturday, August 2, 2003 - link
I don't get why people blame VIA for the SBlive issue when pretty much every other companies sound cards work flawlessly. Face it, VIA or Nforce you're gonna have issues with your SBlive. Right now on my "NFORCE2" the stupid control panel keeps crashing out on me and sometimes retarded sound has this annoying occational reverb crap which updating drivers seems to not fix. Man, if they didn't have the best gaming sound card i'd drop creative products in a heartbeat.Anonymous User - Tuesday, July 29, 2003 - link
This guy read my mind!, all VIA chipsets I ever had were plagged with errors, KT133, KT133A and KT266A, this one stills make noices with the SB live!, no mather the filter installed. Never again VIA!, nVidia did a better first try with the nforce1 than VIA with the 3tr KT chipset.Locutus4657 - Tuesday, July 29, 2003 - link
I'm not sure if I'll ever buy another VIA chipset again. Ever since I checked their developers white pages on my KT133 chipset and found out it has over 200 pages of Errata. My next system will be either an nForce 2 system of a Operton system.Anonymous User - Monday, July 28, 2003 - link
2 Things I wanted to say.Good rather unbiased review, except that I dont really a gree that the KT600 is a value board. if people were interesting in SERIOUS value they (if they knew what they were doing, sadly most people out for a cheap computer wont) would still go with a NForce2 motherboard because you get a Geforce 4mx built in! I mean computer shops will probably sell the KT600 with the cheapest video card you can get and the end consumer would of been WAY better off having a geforce4mx built in. I mean at least you can taste even the latest games with gfmx4...which is really important.
Secondly I can't express how disgusted I am in the MB makers that reck the Nforce2s reputation for good sound via the MCP-T sound storm technology by putting these crap realtek chips infront of them and ruining the sound quality of the nforce2 MBs, as far as I am concerned this should almost be illegal!
Anonymous User - Sunday, July 27, 2003 - link
Ok review, but would have been better with a few backplate shots and memory bandwidth benchmarks.ViRGE - Sunday, July 27, 2003 - link
It's worth noting that audio port switching isn't all it's cracked up to be. Nvidia for example, discourages the practice, which is why you won't find a SoundStorm board that uses it, even if most are using the 655 codec. This is all of course because it results in poorer sound quality(or so Nvidia claims), so in a sense, you're worse off with the 655 than you are with the 650, although with anything Realtek, you're doing worse than the reference(SigmaTel/VIA) solution.Anonymous User - Sunday, July 27, 2003 - link
Poor VIA, cmon DawgsDennis Travis - Sunday, July 27, 2003 - link
Very good review Evan as usuall. Thanks!!Anonymous User - Sunday, July 27, 2003 - link
Ya know, if via would fix their stupid drivers packaging problems, they would do much better, at least as far as i'm concerned. I don't care if one size fits all, I just want to run the package for the product and have it remove the old and install the new and get it right. I'll never waste my time fooling around with their stuff until I've heard that's been fixed.