SiS 745 vs. VIA KT600

[Gurm]

Well? Which would it be? I have an opportunity to potentially trade "up" from my tried-and-true-but-not-the-fastest MSI 745 Ultra to a Gigabyte KT600 with USB 2.0, 1394, etc. all on board.

So whaddya all think? Has VIA at least "sort of" gotten their shit together, or will I just regret switching and end up putting it back after a week?

- Gurm

[Taz]

You could always get an SiS 748 board and have the best of both worlds

[Wombat]

I think you'd regret it. Think about it, really. You've had VIA in the past. You're taking the SiS stability and performance for granted if you think about switching

[bsdgeek]

Then again aren't you guys are always complaining about MSI's BIOS problems? I don't have one myself so I really don't know.

Of course, with the latest Hyperion 4.5 problems, I doubt I would choose the VIA.

[Wombat]

No, actually I'm not. The one problem I've had is my freaky MB behavior when I try to overclock. That's not exactly an instability. After all, the machine even recovers on its own and sets the clocks to safe values, so I don't have to open the case.
Yeah, it sucks a little, but I can't really complain about not having an unsupported feature I guess. And the board sure does perform.

Still, much better than VIA hell.

[TransformX]

I've had an Asus A7V333 (KT333) working flawlessly for quite a while here and now I have an Abit A7T MAX2 (KT400) which is also doing fine.
At least for me, VIA = so far so good...

[Marshmallowman]

Depends how cheap the tradeup is, I would think the kt600 SHOULD be reaonable, it is only there 5th atempt at a socket A mobo...but it snot something I would buy unless it was a bargain.

Gigabyte make quite a cheap 748 board?

[DentyCracker]

But it has problems with reporting too high temps.

[rugger]

Meh,

I don't think I would risk trusting my computer to via chipsets again.

Not yet, anyway

/me pats old SiS735 board that works flawlessly, even when abused with extra PCI hard drive controllers, sblives and lots of heat.

[rugger]

As for usb 2.0/firewire, buy add in PCI cards for them. They are cheap and can be used on a new computer whenever you decide to upgrade. (can never get enough USB ports IMO)

[Dr Mordrid]

Re: SiS 745 vs. VIA KT600

Originally posted by Gurm
Well? Which would it be? I have an opportunity to potentially trade "up" from my tried-and-true-but-not-the-fastest MSI 745 Ultra to a Gigabyte KT600 with USB 2.0, 1394, etc. all on board.

So whaddya all think? Has VIA at least "sort of" gotten their shit together, or will I just regret switching and end up putting it back after a week?

- Gurm

I agree with those suggesting you check out an updated SiS board. AFAIK the VIA KT's still have a screwed PCI burst mode. This makes them near useless for high bandwidth use such as running a realtime board or having several high bandwidth PCI devices (mulitiple NIC's etc.).

I hate 'em so much I just gave two almost unused VIA chipped Gigabyte's away. Couldn't morally justify selling 'em

Dr. Mordrid

[Kooldino]

Originally posted by Taz
You could always get an SiS 748 board and have the best of both worlds

Who makes the best 748 board. Gigabyte?

[rugger]

Re: Re: SiS 745 vs. VIA KT600

Originally posted by Dr Mordrid
I agree with those suggesting you check out an updated SiS board. AFAIK the VIA KT's still have a screwed PCI burst mode. This makes them near useless for high bandwidth use such as running a realtime board or having several high bandwidth PCI devices (mulitiple NIC's etc.).

Still!

I thought they fixed that with the KT400A ... but I could be wrong.

[Dr Mordrid]

Re: Re: Re: SiS 745 vs. VIA KT600

Originally posted by rugger
Still!

I thought they fixed that with the KT400A ... but I could be wrong.

You are. Maybe things will improve with their Athlon64 chipsets since they're new from the ground up, but VIA's just been tinkering around the edges with their KT southbridges.

Dr. Mordrid

[Wombat]

I thought the Athlon64 chipsets from VIA still used the same crappy south bridges as the SocketA chipsets?