[Brian Frank]

I feel that Im in the minority of people who have not had problems with, or hate, Via. I want to see how many people really have had issues with a Via based board, because it seems that many people dont like Via. I personally have not had a problem with a Via chipset, but obviously, others here have.

[DosFreak]

These are all of the problems I have experienced with VIA boards.

1. IDE
2. AGP
3. Instability
4. Low performance

My latest VIA board:

VP6

IDE
I still experience problems with the onboard IDE but that was finally fixed in SP2 but using the 4-IN-1's busmaster is as always problematic so I'll stick with Windows drivers.....

That's the only problem with the VP6!

My next board will be a duallie. Either Palamino or P4. I'm betting that the duallie P4 board will be vastly superior to the duallie Palamino board considering this is AMD's first duallie. I'm gonna get one of those 2 but I'm gonna wait for reviews first.

[thestickman]

You couldn't pay me enough $$$ to deal with another via made MB. My BX chipsets here at the house have NEVER EVER given me a bit of trouble. But EVERY time I have tried a via board (just last month with a new box for the wife no less) they have caused me nothing but trouble.

[Brian Frank]

Dual Athlon 4 (Paliamino, what the hell is with Athlon 4, other than marketing?) will be sweet.

[sapiens74]

I have had issues with mine but mostly caused by SBLIVE!. THe BX board was a sweet board but even Intel has had their problems. I just think its all the damn hardware configs and people rushing their products out the door. I got another via MB incoming. Via makes the perfect OC board, gives us a challenge :P




Just my 2 Cents

[ThC 129]

most of the problems lie with the lack of well made drivers and the fact that windows 2000 is completely different driver base than 9x is. I have not had a problem with any of my chipsets or any configs ive had maybe because i do my homework on these things, and this board is pretty much a good place for advice on what works and doesn't

[PsychoSword]

I can't even begin to list all the issues the Asus A7V had when it first came out. And still many of them remain unfixed. It seems mostly the people that want functionality out of their computers or the ones that try to use them to their full potential have problems because basically these VIA boards won't do what they were advertised as being able to do. The people that play solitaire and check email once a week aren't going to notice any of the problems that professional/power users will notice. Example: The data corruption on the Promise controller is not noticed by many people because 1) Most people only have one hard drive. 2) Many people don't enable DMA support for their hard drives most people don't even know what the hell DMA is. 3) Most people don't copy large files between hard drives. See what I'm getting at......VIA in my opinion has been selling trash for the past few years and continues to do so because they have been getting away with it. My advice to all serious computer users, avoid VIA like the plague.

[sapiens74]

I have an A7V and the SBLIVE and have had really no issues besides the locking up when certain files files were played. I honestly think the only major problem is the SBLIVE! and I think that mostly falls on Creative. I think VIA used to be just like AMD, and now that they are mainstream they offer good low cost alternative to INTEL. Notice the only 2 companies that have issues with VIA chipsets are NVIDIA and Creative. They have issues on any chipset.

Anyways I think Via is a good solution, if you own a basic internet PC all the way to the high end gamer.


Just my 2 Cents

[ValkyerieK7]

The dual amd will be interesting to look at granted it will be more expensive than we would like. mainly this stems from how the EV6 bus works with SMP. Supposedly it's better than intel's implementation because each processor gets full acess to the northbridge.

[Brian Frank]

Of course its gonna be expensive. Reasons: 1st generation system, new product, will be targeted at workstations to start with, to name the ones that come to mind. The Tyan Thunder K7 has SCSI onboard, so that gives a hint whos being targeted, and it aint the desktop market.

[ValkyerieK7]

awww drats..I was kinda anticipating rolling out dual 750 tbirds Some companies hopefully will make boards around them

[cutha2]

In the post above DosFreak was daydreaming of dualies. Perhaps I am wrong but the P4 does not support SMP.

[Brian Frank]

Not the current one. The next version of the P4 will, but the bad news is that it will most likely be in a slightly different and incompatible pin grid array. Ive also heard that Intel will be releasing both Socket 423 and 478 versions of the next P4. Cant remember the code name for the new P4 core though. The current one is Willamette.

[Dragon-Lord]

The new P4 is Northwood. :}

[Brian Frank]

Yeah, thats it, dragon-lord. I also have heard Intel will be completely redoing the Northwood so that going to something other than RDRAM wont hurt performance. P4+DDR, yeah!

[INFERNO2000]

my only problem with VIA has been with the KX133.

my KT133a boards have been fine, worked perfectly, even though they've shared MANY items on IRQ9 in W2K.

I bought an A7V133.
Sold it
bought a KK266.
happy with it.