VIA - Will you buy and AMD board based on their chipsets again?

[Novdid]

Saw this thread over at the Anandtech forums.

I couldn't agree more!

[William]

Maybe. For me, it really depends on the chipset itself, rather than who made it; however the current AMD chipsets from my perspective:

Via KTs have issues and mediocre features

NForce2 has issues, features are fair however

Sis I can't get hold of easily, so can't comment on issues, but feature sets seem mediocre to me.

Ali/AMD I don't think there are enough boards on the market to make even an educated guess.

[RichL]

In all honesty, the only times I've ever had issues with a Via chipset mobo was when I didn't install the Via drivers under Win98 for a TMC socket 7 mobo with the Via MVP3 chipset. But I know enough people who have had trouble that I'm wary of Via.

My KT133a chipsetted system (Epox 8KTA3+) has run perfectly well for years, even running 145fsb on a palamino cored XP that the board isnt supposed to support.

That said my current main rig runs an MSI745, the shuttle SK41 I'm building has a Via KT266a chipset and the mobo for the games box will probably be another NForce2, although the Epox 8RGA+ I had recently gave me so much gyp I wound up RMAing it as faulty.

[Evildead666]

my KT7A RAID chpset board ran stable, thats true.
Then i put my AXP 1800 into a Nforce2 and saw the power i was missing...
Then put it back again, and now it crashes randomly maybe once a day...not due to heat....have to reinstall again...again....
i'm only keeping it for the Highpoint RAID sake...

[The PIT]

Via always make for an interesting life.
If they admitted to bugs rather than claiming everyone else has the same problem I'd have more time for them.
Generally it's "Intel has the same problem it's not our chipset". Then briefly they admit it's a design fault and then deny it again.

[Tempest]

My first VIA board was the VIA KX-133 equipped Abit KA7-100. It was a nightmare in every way you can imagine. But when the caps on it exploded (Abit, you know), I thought maybe this was what it had been all about, and decided to give VIA another chance.

Now, my VIA KT333 board (Epox 8K3A+) is fast and rock solid. The system is the most stable I've owned since the DOS days (and probably even more so, because I never needed 30+ day uptimes in the DOS years). The KT333's PCI implementation is not ideal for high throughput I hear, but I don't need high throughput. I just need a stable and well-performing home system, and that is what I currently have. I have a lot of different peripherals, and they all run without problems on this board.

So, I've had both good and bad experiences, but I'm currently very happy with my VIA board, because I can now finally concentrate on USING the computer instead of FIDDLING with it. I've not heard much bad things about the KT333 though, more about the KT400's.

Conclusion: I would investigate the options, but since I have no complaints about my current board, I vote for YES.

[Technoid]

Only Via mobo I can claim to have had enourmus problems with was a dfi mvp3 mobo.
My kt133 board runs happily and has to date no signs of the 686b "bug"

I like my MSI745 more due to APIC suport and super quick ide controllers

[GT98]

My old man has a Kt133 board and its a POS, doesnt detect the ZIP drive he has. I had a run in with the 686b on my KG-7 RAID and that turned me off also. I'll stick with a SIS board or try an Nforce board in my next motherboard I get.

[Marshmallowman]

Very happy with my epox 8kta3+, until I tried to put a Xp chip in it.
Early revisions of the kt133a chipset will NOT run XP's later ones do...that is one of the real pains with via they don't conform enoght to published specs so when new stuff comes out it breaks until the do a chipset revision.

While I was happy I did have some PCI isdues, and other peole I knew with kt133(a)'s went through hell...

Via is not all bad, but it has bad enough hiccups for me not to even want to try the lottery again.

[Gurm]

As long as SiS keeps making chipsets, no.

And when their chipsets start to suck, I'll switch back to Intel. Never again will anything by VIA darken my doorstep.

- Gurm

[Topha]

I actually like my MSI KT266Pro2-RU, It runs fast, stable and all the problems I had with it so far were due to other hardware. Even Video Capture works nicely (not so on my dads board, and he uses the same mobo )

[Gurm]

That, Topha, is the problem. The "hit or miss" nature of VIA, and the fact that they CAN'T fix it (or won't, which amounts to much the same thing).

- Gurm

[[GDI]Raptor]

Yes, nVidia also have some issues on their chipset, and perhaps VIA also have, but I have never had any problems with VIA chipset. I have used KT133, KT266A, KT333 and now KT400 and so far no problems.

KT600 looks promising on tests, keeping up with nVidia nForce 2 Ultra on many test, even though it's a single chanal solution

[Dr Mordrid]

My problem with VIA chipsets: very limited PCI to host memory bandwidth, which is a royal pain in the rump when you have several PCI devices that have to work together, meaning any of the following: USB, IEEE-1394, RAID, PCI IDE/SCSI controllers, audio card, editing card etc. etc. Not at all unusual at all in audio and video editing systems.

This is why many hardware editing devices (RT.X100 for one) will not work properly with VIA chipsets; even in nice (read $$$$) boards with the KT333 & KT400 chipsets. Matrox has this on their system recommendations/chipsets page;

These VIA chipsets for Intel and AMD processors are not recommended for use with a Matrox RT.X system because they do not work well when editing or playing back segments on the Timeline that contain two video layers, one graphics layer, and a 3D effect. These chipsets have all demonstrated a PCI bandwidth limitation when reading from host memory (RAM). This is seen when heavy PCI bandwidth (such as for video, graphics, and effects) is required by several PCI devices at the same time.

Other companies posting similar warnings are Canopus and Steinberg (makers of the Project Card).

At the very least their problems with bandwidth prevents realtime exports and at the worst it renders the system very unstable. No thanks.

Even retailers selling editing hardware have gotten into the act. VideoGuys has this on their Systems page;

VIA Chipsets

We don't really recommend these chipsets, because of PCI bottelnecks. If your motherboard uses the VIA chipset, it is important that you download and install the latest 4-in-1 driver, version 4.23 or later. You can download this from your motherboard vendor's sight. Note: Installing the latest 4-in-1 driver will improve your system performance, but it may not solve your NLE compatibility issues. If you have a choice, do not get a VIA chipset.

Now substitute in a $65 USD MSI 745 Ultra mainboard with the SiS 745 chipset or the $50 USD ECS K7S5A Pro with the even older SiS 735 chipset. EITHER works like a charm with the RT.X100, having gobs of bandwidth, and the newer SiS chipsets have even more.

VIA who?

Dr. Mordrid

[bsdgeek]

I might consider another VIA based board, seeing as I don't really stress the PCI bus anyway. (And I will NEVER EVER buy from Creative again ) The KT600 seems pretty good, especially compared to the KT400A which, I don't think, should have even come to the market. (Are there even any KT400A boards available for purchase? Yet they release another chipset...)