About to buy new motherboard - need advise fast...

[Flying dutchman]

Hi videofans,

Our company has some Gigabyte 6VX7 (via) boards in stock. I can get one quite cheap and trade in my old BX board (which unfortunately doesn't supply the correct voltage for a faster Celeron/P3 CPU which I need). So essentially the upgrade is just about free for me. But would it work?

I have a Marvel G200 which I use often. Will it work with this board, or am I running into a dropped-frames nightmare? Is the on-board soundchip usable, or will it cause similar problems as a SBLive? Is UDMA working OK with this board?
I need to decide before friday, so it's rather urgent...

[Flying dutchman]

To be more specific, it's a GA-6VX7-4X with Via 694X + VT82c686 A chipset, Revision 3.2

[The Scientist]

Hi FD,

Some of the SlotI ==> S370/FCPGA adapter slockets will let you control the CPU Vcore directly with dip switches / jumpers. The Abit Sloket III certainly does because I've got one

This might mean that you don't have to give up your BX board which has got to be a good thing in the world of NLE

- Simon

[wkulecz]

I recently used a "slotkit" to put an 800MHz FPGA PIII in place of my PIII-500.

The "voltage" jumpers do not set anything, they "lie" to the MB regulator as to what voltage to supply so it'll run if the chip asks for something it can't supply, otherwise the system does nothing since the regulater refuses to start.

My PIII-800/100 is spec'd to run 1.7V but my old ASUS P2B can only go to 1.8 so that's what I set the jumpers to. Technically over voltage, but I think the CuMine chip specs say 1.85 as Max voltage. In any case the heat sink is noticably cooler than the old PIII-500 was. And I'm editing and burning CDs without problems using it.

PIII-500 to 800 is probably not worth it for most people.

I used an MSI slotkit. I think they are all pretty much the same.

If you do this, make sure you get the correct bus speed version unless you want to underclock or overclock -- neither of which do I recommend. YMMV

--wally.

[lovepeace]

I would be interested in your old p3-500
I've got a SL2W8 p2-300@450 (100Mhz Bus)
at default voltage since day 1 running rocksolid on my p2b...
please email me at jkropveld@yahoo.com

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by wkulecz:
I recently used a "slotkit" to put an 800MHz FPGA PIII in place of my PIII-500.

The "voltage" jumpers do not set anything, they "lie" to the MB regulator as to what voltage to supply so it'll run if the chip asks for something it can't supply, otherwise the system does nothing since the regulater refuses to start.

My PIII-800/100 is spec'd to run 1.7V but my old ASUS P2B can only go to 1.8 so that's what I set the jumpers to. Technically over voltage, but I think the CuMine chip specs say 1.85 as Max voltage. In any case the heat sink is noticably cooler than the old PIII-500 was. And I'm editing and burning CDs without problems using it.

PIII-500 to 800 is probably not worth it for most people.

I used an MSI slotkit. I think they are all pretty much the same.

If you do this, make sure you get the correct bus speed version unless you want to underclock or overclock -- neither of which do I recommend. YMMV

--wally.</font>

[wkulecz]

lovepeace,

Its already moved on to update a Linux box. Linux is getting to the point that soon I'll be willing to waste a little time trying DV on it.

--wally.

[Fred H]

FD
Your question (or a similar one) is quite a common problem.
Nobody touched just the GA-6VX7-4X board.
Or did I misunderstood your Q ?
Is the BX board so damn superior in comparison with other boards?

[Flying dutchman]

My current BX board is a Gigabyte BXE (rev 1.9) and won't run any of the FCPGA chips, even with an adapter. I'd like to get a Celery-800 to run, later possibly something faster.

So, what's the verdict on VIA boards? Are they usable AT ALL?

[wkulecz]

If its "essentially free" why not just try it. All you risk is wasting some time.

Via is still a crap-shoot in my opinion. The newest 4-in-1 drives have helped many people.

If your MB is that old your RAM is probably not PC133 either, but I've seen 256MB of PC133 at Fry's for $70.


Personally I'm not buying anything major or making any significant changes in my systems until after XP is released.

--wally.

[mits]

Hi FD,
I have the same problem with you (an Elite P6-BX-A+) and i did a little research about slotkets and now i'm in the process of ordering one. To cut the long story short it seems that the only slotket supplying the correct voltage is the PowerLeap PL-iP3, have a look at their site http://www.powerleap.com/ .
Also you must consider a BIOS upgrade for supporting your new PIII cpu, and check if your RAM is PC-133.
I don't have any experience from the 6VX7 but I wouldn't trust a VIA chipset for video editing.
Hope that helped, good luck

------------------
mits

[Luminescent]

I highly recommend this motherboard, very stable (even at 140/150 MHz fsb - Pentium 833/133 @ 910/975 and 2-2-2 memory latencies - Mushkin rev. 1.5, ). No problems with SB-Live!, DMA, Promise Ultra100, Marvel G400 (GigaByte BIOS rev.F36). With latest VIA 1-4 drivers, SiSoft Sandra 2001 memory test results better then my new MSI i815 Pro R.

[wkulecz]

The powerleap slotkit is the one to get if your MB regulator can't go below 1.85V as it has an on-board regulator.

Still might have trouble getting a BIOS update for the CuMine microcode.

I buy and recommend ASUS because of their good track record updating old MB BIOSes for the newest CPUs for as long as the chipset hardware permits.

--wally.

[Flying dutchman]

OK, I'll give the board a try.