hardware question please help me out with my doubts :)

dhkimboa · October 26th, 2001

I have such silly question hehehe here they are.
Im using a gigabyte motherboard GA-7ZX (1) with an athlon 1.100 mhz.
And was thinking about upgrading to another gigabyte motherboard this time GA-7VTX. My question is if I still can use my processor on it.
Can DDR memory slots be used for SDRAM memory ? I don't think so but if someone could clear this out for me I would greatly appreciate his or her help.
Like I said, may be silly or too dumb questions.

**Xeven** · October 26th, 2001

well there wouldn't be any point in using a ddr equipped motherboard for sdr, even if it were possible anyway..

please don't kill me..

dhkimboa · October 26th, 2001

but GA-7VTX uses DDR memory that is why my question.

**Xeven** · October 26th, 2001

Support for both DDR and SDR is mostly a manufacturer option, which is aimed at smooth transition form SDR to DDR, for example the old asus A7A266 supported both SDR and DDR, the SDR performance was about 10-13% (not exact figs) LOWER than a typical KT133A board, as such, it is NOT recommended to used SDR on DDR motherboards, even if the motherboard supports it. BTW, check out the spec of the GA-7VTX at the gigabyte site, i think it only supports DDR, so i guess the answer is NO.

**fivefeet8** · October 26th, 2001

YOu can't use Sdr memory on DDR memory slots.. The mother board has to have both DDR and SDR slots or they have a combo memory slot which supports both SDR and DDR.. Most mobo's don't have it though.. They either support DDR or SDR.. The performanced gained from going from SDR to DDR is not so great at the moment.. About 10 percent.. At anandtech they tested an sdr mobo with a 266 fsb athlon and a DDR mobo with a 266 fsb athlon.. The performance difference wasn't that great.. It was noticeable though.. But DDR prices are so low nowadays that DDR is the way to go for top performance even if only by so much.. I am planning to buy an athlon xp 1.53 gig and probably oc it to 1.6 or 1.8.. Abit is saying that its kt7a 133a raid mobo supports the athlon xps but uses sdr ram instead of DDR ram.. I have that mobo, sO i would like to see if it will work on it.. If it doesn't then I can always just get the KG7 or KR7 from abit, both have DDR..

**Xeven** · October 26th, 2001

DDR is pretty much the better choice nowadays, especially coupled with the 266A chipset. The performance advantage of DDR vs SDR wasn't justifiable awhile back, now with the prices of DDR memory so "cheap", imo there's no excuse for not getting one. Unless a really constrained budget is the obstacle, then a mobo with 133A would be the preferred choice, coupled with SDR of course.

On a sidenote, I do wish that SiS hurried with their 735 chipset, that would have been such a great alternative to AMD's chipset (back then), but they were just too slow as such when the 266A arrived (also nForce), low and behold, they were being creamed at the BMarks once again. I still think its quite a viable alternative though (being categorized as a "low end market" chip, mainly because of Sis' reputation), if ever SiS finally gets its act together anyways

dhkimboa · October 26th, 2001

a friend of mine told me that I can use sdram in ddr
I'm totally confused here....

**Xeven** · October 27th, 2001

as long as the board supports it.. no problem

dhkimboa · October 27th, 2001

oh I see !
thanks for the info, Xeven.

dhkimboa · October 27th, 2001

GA-7VTX
VIA KT266 AGPset

PROCESSOR

Socket A for AMD Athlon ¢â /Duron ¢â 200/266 MHz FSB processors

95/100/.../133/.../166.6* MHz FSB
Multiplier auto/5x/5.5x/6x/.../12.0x/12.5x

CHIPSET
VIA VT8366 System controller north bridge
VIA VT8233 V-Link south bridge
Creative CT-5880 sound chip & AC97 codec

MEMORY (DDR)
Supports up to 3GB DDR SDRAM
3 DIMMs of 184-pin DDR sockets
Supports either PC1600/DDR200 or PC2100/DDR266 DDR SDRAM
Supports 72bits ECC type DRAM integrity mode

SLOT
1 x AGP Pro slot with an extra power-in socket
5 x PCI slots support 33MHz & PCI 2.2 compliant
1 x AMR (Audio Modem Riser) slot

I/O
2 x UDMA ATA 66/100 bus master IDE ports on board
1 x FDD, 2 x COM, 1 x LPT, PS/2 Keyboard, PS/2 Mouse on board
1 x joystick, 1 x line-in, 1 x line-out and 1 x MIC on board
2 x USB ports on board, 4 x USB ports by cable (cable optional)
1 x IrDA connector

POWER
ATX power connector
Power-on by LAN, RTC, Modem & Switch
Power-off by Windows ¢ç 95/98/Me/2000/NT shut down & Switch

FORM FACTOR
ATX form factor, 4 layers PCB (24.40 * 30.50cm)

H/W MONITORING
Auto speed down and alarm when CPU overheat or fan failure (OS independent & driverless)
3 cooling fan connectors
Stop CPU fan in suspend mode
System health status detect & report by BIOS
H/W detect & report Power-in voltage, CPU voltage and CMOS battery status

BIOS
Dual AWARD BIOS, 2 x 2M bit flash ROM, enhanced ACPI feature for PC98/Win98/Win2000 compliance, Green, PnP, DMI, INT13 (>8.4GB) & Anti-Virus functions
IDE#1~#4, SCSI, LS120, ZIP & CD-ROM bootable
AC recovery ON/OFF control
Auto-detect & report system health status
Gigabyte DualBIOS ¢â and @BIOS ¢â

OTHER FEATURES
Suspend-To-RAM (STR)
Supports Wake-On-LAN (WOL)
Supports Internal / External Modem Ring On
Supports USB KB/MS Wake up from S3
Poly fuse for keyboard over-current protection
Supports EasyTune III ¢â

DRIVER
VIA 4-in-1 service pack utility
Creative PCI sound driver
Hardware monitor utility

*There speed settings are not guaranteed by GIGABYTE.
The specifiction and pictures are subject to change without notice.
All trademarks and logos are the properties of their respective holders.

Dose this mean that this board also have support for pc100 and pc133 support ? and that I can actually use my athlon 1.100 on this ? Note : my processor is not an FSB processor.

**fivefeet8** · October 27th, 2001

Nope.. It doesn't look like it will work with pc100 and pc133.. You will need to get DDR ram for that mobo.. DDr ram is pretty cheap at the moment anyways so why not go for DDr ram.. I saw on anandtechs weekly memory price guide that a stick of 256 meg of DDR ram is only 20 bucks(depends on the type and brand).. SDR ram prices have plummetted as well.. It now cost more for shipping and handling sdr ram than it costs to buy it!!

YOur athlon 1.1 gig should work fine with it.. I don't have a gigabyte mobo but I am pretty sure it will work.. FSB cpu? Every cpu has a FSB.. You probably mean that your athlon runs on a 200 mhz FSB and not 266mhz like the newer athlons..

I just found out that my abit kt7a raid via 133a mobo can't support the new Athlon Xp's.. Seems I have the 1.2 version of the mobo and not the 1.3 version.. Shucks.. Guess I will be getting either the kG7raid or KR7raid.. ABit kg7 uses amd 761 chipset while the KR7 uses the New via kt266a chipset..

dhkimboa · October 27th, 2001

so you mean it will work with my actual processor and that I only have to buy ddr ram ??? awesome !!!!
my athlon works on a 200 fsb ??? didn't know that. Guess I am totally lost about computer... And I thought i was beginning to learnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn ! :eek:
what's the difference with via 133a and via kt266a ?

October 26th, 2001	#1 (permalink)
dhkimboa BOA Join Date: May 2001 Location: Mexico Posts: 1,884	hardware question please help me out with my doubts :) I have such silly question hehehe here they are. Im using a gigabyte motherboard GA-7ZX (1) with an athlon 1.100 mhz. And was thinking about upgrading to another gigabyte motherboard this time GA-7VTX. My question is if I still can use my processor on it. Can DDR memory slots be used for SDRAM memory ? I don't think so but if someone could clear this out for me I would greatly appreciate his or her help. Like I said, may be silly or too dumb questions.

October 26th, 2001	#2 (permalink)
Xeven A BIG BAD BATARD™ Join Date: Sep 2001 Posts: 5,517	well there wouldn't be any point in using a ddr equipped motherboard for sdr, even if it were possible anyway.. please don't kill me.. __________________ Last edited by Xeven; October 26th, 2001 at 00:20.

October 26th, 2001	#4 (permalink)
Xeven A BIG BAD BATARD™ Join Date: Sep 2001 Posts: 5,517	Support for both DDR and SDR is mostly a manufacturer option, which is aimed at smooth transition form SDR to DDR, for example the old asus A7A266 supported both SDR and DDR, the SDR performance was about 10-13% (not exact figs) LOWER than a typical KT133A board, as such, it is NOT recommended to used SDR on DDR motherboards, even if the motherboard supports it. BTW, check out the spec of the GA-7VTX at the gigabyte site, i think it only supports DDR, so i guess the answer is NO. __________________

October 26th, 2001	#5 (permalink)
fivefeet8 &-)---\|--< Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Smallville Posts: 7,577	YOu can't use Sdr memory on DDR memory slots.. The mother board has to have both DDR and SDR slots or they have a combo memory slot which supports both SDR and DDR.. Most mobo's don't have it though.. They either support DDR or SDR.. The performanced gained from going from SDR to DDR is not so great at the moment.. About 10 percent.. At anandtech they tested an sdr mobo with a 266 fsb athlon and a DDR mobo with a 266 fsb athlon.. The performance difference wasn't that great.. It was noticeable though.. But DDR prices are so low nowadays that DDR is the way to go for top performance even if only by so much.. I am planning to buy an athlon xp 1.53 gig and probably oc it to 1.6 or 1.8.. Abit is saying that its kt7a 133a raid mobo supports the athlon xps but uses sdr ram instead of DDR ram.. I have that mobo, sO i would like to see if it will work on it.. If it doesn't then I can always just get the KG7 or KR7 from abit, both have DDR.. __________________ Play emulated games online Main Rig\|\|Intel Q6600@3.2 ghertz\|4x1gb DDR2 1066\|Asrock 1600sli 110db LGA 775\|EVGA 8800gtx@620/1450/975\|2x Seagate 160gb SATA150 Raid0\|250 gb Samsung SATA2 HD\|Seagate 7000.10 500gb HD\|NEC 3520 4x/8x DVD+R/RW DL burner\|Antec TP 650 watt\|40" Sony Bravia 1080p\|20.1" 5ms LCD 1680x1050 Native\|Logitec 5.1 Speaker System w/15" Sub\|Dual Boot Winows XP Pro/Vista 64bit\|\| 2nd Rig\|\|Athlon64 x2 3800+\|2x1 gig PC3200\|BFG Geforce 6800 Ultra OC @450/1250 agp\|60 gig Maxtor IDE HD 7200 RPM\|40 gig Maxtor IDE HD\|Asrock Dual SATA2\|Silver Aluminum ATX\|17" LCD\|\| 3rd Rig\|\|Athlon Xp 2800+\|1.5 gig PC2700\|BFG GeforceFx 5900 Ultra OC agp\|100 gig Maxtor SATA HD\|NF7-s rev2.0\|Nvidia Soundstorm MCP\|19" CRT\|\| Last edited by fivefeet8; October 26th, 2001 at 02:13.

October 26th, 2001	#6 (permalink)
Xeven A BIG BAD BATARD™ Join Date: Sep 2001 Posts: 5,517	DDR is pretty much the better choice nowadays, especially coupled with the 266A chipset. The performance advantage of DDR vs SDR wasn't justifiable awhile back, now with the prices of DDR memory so "cheap", imo there's no excuse for not getting one. Unless a really constrained budget is the obstacle, then a mobo with 133A would be the preferred choice, coupled with SDR of course. On a sidenote, I do wish that SiS hurried with their 735 chipset, that would have been such a great alternative to AMD's chipset (back then), but they were just too slow as such when the 266A arrived (also nForce), low and behold, they were being creamed at the BMarks once again. I still think its quite a viable alternative though (being categorized as a "low end market" chip, mainly because of Sis' reputation), if ever SiS finally gets its act together anyways __________________ Last edited by Xeven; October 26th, 2001 at 23:57.

October 26th, 2001	#3 (permalink)
dhkimboa BOA Join Date: May 2001 Location: Mexico Posts: 1,884	but GA-7VTX uses DDR memory that is why my question.

October 26th, 2001	#7 (permalink)
dhkimboa BOA Join Date: May 2001 Location: Mexico Posts: 1,884	a friend of mine told me that I can use sdram in ddr I'm totally confused here....

October 27th, 2001	#8 (permalink)
Xeven A BIG BAD BATARD™ Join Date: Sep 2001 Posts: 5,517	as long as the board supports it.. no problem __________________

October 27th, 2001	#9 (permalink)
dhkimboa BOA Join Date: May 2001 Location: Mexico Posts: 1,884	oh I see ! thanks for the info, Xeven.

October 27th, 2001	#10 (permalink)
dhkimboa BOA Join Date: May 2001 Location: Mexico Posts: 1,884	GA-7VTX VIA KT266 AGPset PROCESSOR Socket A for AMD Athlon ¢â /Duron ¢â 200/266 MHz FSB processors 95/100/.../133/.../166.6* MHz FSB Multiplier auto/5x/5.5x/6x/.../12.0x/12.5x CHIPSET VIA VT8366 System controller north bridge VIA VT8233 V-Link south bridge Creative CT-5880 sound chip & AC97 codec MEMORY (DDR) Supports up to 3GB DDR SDRAM 3 DIMMs of 184-pin DDR sockets Supports either PC1600/DDR200 or PC2100/DDR266 DDR SDRAM Supports 72bits ECC type DRAM integrity mode SLOT 1 x AGP Pro slot with an extra power-in socket 5 x PCI slots support 33MHz & PCI 2.2 compliant 1 x AMR (Audio Modem Riser) slot I/O 2 x UDMA ATA 66/100 bus master IDE ports on board 1 x FDD, 2 x COM, 1 x LPT, PS/2 Keyboard, PS/2 Mouse on board 1 x joystick, 1 x line-in, 1 x line-out and 1 x MIC on board 2 x USB ports on board, 4 x USB ports by cable (cable optional) 1 x IrDA connector POWER ATX power connector Power-on by LAN, RTC, Modem & Switch Power-off by Windows ¢ç 95/98/Me/2000/NT shut down & Switch FORM FACTOR ATX form factor, 4 layers PCB (24.40 * 30.50cm) H/W MONITORING Auto speed down and alarm when CPU overheat or fan failure (OS independent & driverless) 3 cooling fan connectors Stop CPU fan in suspend mode System health status detect & report by BIOS H/W detect & report Power-in voltage, CPU voltage and CMOS battery status BIOS Dual AWARD BIOS, 2 x 2M bit flash ROM, enhanced ACPI feature for PC98/Win98/Win2000 compliance, Green, PnP, DMI, INT13 (>8.4GB) & Anti-Virus functions IDE#1~#4, SCSI, LS120, ZIP & CD-ROM bootable AC recovery ON/OFF control Auto-detect & report system health status Gigabyte DualBIOS ¢â and @BIOS ¢â OTHER FEATURES Suspend-To-RAM (STR) Supports Wake-On-LAN (WOL) Supports Internal / External Modem Ring On Supports USB KB/MS Wake up from S3 Poly fuse for keyboard over-current protection Supports EasyTune III ¢â DRIVER VIA 4-in-1 service pack utility Creative PCI sound driver Hardware monitor utility *There speed settings are not guaranteed by GIGABYTE. The specifiction and pictures are subject to change without notice. All trademarks and logos are the properties of their respective holders. Dose this mean that this board also have support for pc100 and pc133 support ? and that I can actually use my athlon 1.100 on this ? Note : my processor is not an FSB processor.

October 27th, 2001	#11 (permalink)
fivefeet8 &-)---\|--< Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Smallville Posts: 7,577	Nope.. It doesn't look like it will work with pc100 and pc133.. You will need to get DDR ram for that mobo.. DDr ram is pretty cheap at the moment anyways so why not go for DDr ram.. I saw on anandtechs weekly memory price guide that a stick of 256 meg of DDR ram is only 20 bucks(depends on the type and brand).. SDR ram prices have plummetted as well.. It now cost more for shipping and handling sdr ram than it costs to buy it!! YOur athlon 1.1 gig should work fine with it.. I don't have a gigabyte mobo but I am pretty sure it will work.. FSB cpu? Every cpu has a FSB.. You probably mean that your athlon runs on a 200 mhz FSB and not 266mhz like the newer athlons.. I just found out that my abit kt7a raid via 133a mobo can't support the new Athlon Xp's.. Seems I have the 1.2 version of the mobo and not the 1.3 version.. Shucks.. Guess I will be getting either the kG7raid or KR7raid.. ABit kg7 uses amd 761 chipset while the KR7 uses the New via kt266a chipset.. __________________ Play emulated games online Main Rig\|\|Intel Q6600@3.2 ghertz\|4x1gb DDR2 1066\|Asrock 1600sli 110db LGA 775\|EVGA 8800gtx@620/1450/975\|2x Seagate 160gb SATA150 Raid0\|250 gb Samsung SATA2 HD\|Seagate 7000.10 500gb HD\|NEC 3520 4x/8x DVD+R/RW DL burner\|Antec TP 650 watt\|40" Sony Bravia 1080p\|20.1" 5ms LCD 1680x1050 Native\|Logitec 5.1 Speaker System w/15" Sub\|Dual Boot Winows XP Pro/Vista 64bit\|\| 2nd Rig\|\|Athlon64 x2 3800+\|2x1 gig PC3200\|BFG Geforce 6800 Ultra OC @450/1250 agp\|60 gig Maxtor IDE HD 7200 RPM\|40 gig Maxtor IDE HD\|Asrock Dual SATA2\|Silver Aluminum ATX\|17" LCD\|\| 3rd Rig\|\|Athlon Xp 2800+\|1.5 gig PC2700\|BFG GeforceFx 5900 Ultra OC agp\|100 gig Maxtor SATA HD\|NF7-s rev2.0\|Nvidia Soundstorm MCP\|19" CRT\|\| Last edited by fivefeet8; October 27th, 2001 at 07:02.

October 27th, 2001	#12 (permalink)
dhkimboa BOA Join Date: May 2001 Location: Mexico Posts: 1,884	so you mean it will work with my actual processor and that I only have to buy ddr ram ??? awesome !!!! my athlon works on a 200 fsb ??? didn't know that. Guess I am totally lost about computer... And I thought i was beginning to learnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn ! :eek: what's the difference with via 133a and via kt266a ?

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode