VIA KT133A chipset...

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Uladine

Uladine

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I was planning on buying a mobo with this chipset, but some people say to stay away from them. Why?
 
EEEK!

I didn't need to read all of those articles to change my mind. Especially that last one. Scary. Okay looks like I'm back to looking for a motherboard. Anyone wanna help me out? Any recommendations?
 
i have an asus a7v motherboard with via apollo kt133 chipset. soundblaster Live! value card. no problems with sound or recording or anything. i dunno the difference between a kt 133a and kt 133 though.

besides, that last page was about a PATCH. if its a patch, then you wont get those problems.

eddie
 
I'm also hanging with the same via KT-133 chipset ASUS a7v-e Mobo and zero problems so far. I have Duron 800 based machine with Echo Mia it runs nicely about 40 tracks (16/48) audio with plugins that I need, and no audio crackling...
 
KT-133 is okay

Check the RME website. Go to tech info and check out the hardware recommendations. These guys are all about audio and they love the Asus A7V and the KT-133 chipset. Sorry, I don't know how to post the url in this message. Silver
 
I've got the Asus A7V133 motherboard with the KT133A chipset. It was expected to be the flagship Athlon board, but it's a horrible piece of shit. Did some research on deja and confirmed that I was not the only one to have problems. Some people blamed the KT133A chipset, but I dunno. One thing is for sure, it's probably VIA's fault. VIA couldn't make a decent chipset if you paid them to...oh wait, you are...well, I rest my case. :)

My problems included: random failure to POST, unable to soft restart, incompatibility between Promise controller and a Maxtor HD, bad northbridge fan, and inconsistant or faulty VIA IDE channels.

That's with a Duron 750, 256MB of Crucial PC133, and a 300W Athlon-approved power supply. Now the promise/maxtor problem was solved by updating the BIOS and using the latest promise drivers...but it did cost us an installation after 1 month of use. The northbridge fan isn't so important when running at 100Mhz, so other than the nasty noise from time to time, it's ignorable. The IDE channel thing is weird...they sort of fade in and out of existance...but there are only CDROM drives on it so no big deal. The reboot and startup thing is fucking annoying as all hell.

Of all the machines I've built, this is the most disappointing motherboard. Once it's up & running it's fast and stable...but it's not worth the risk of headache IMHO.

Now I'm not going to go getting all down on Asus, I've built machines with Asus before and was always very impressed with the quality.

It's also common to hear from somebody with an A7V133 who doesn't have problems. Note that very few problems affect 100% of the users of a particular product. You could snag an A7V133 and have absolutely no problems.

*I did not use this board for recording*

Slackmaster 2000
 
I HAD a mobo with VIA KT133a chipset and a Delta44 installed - nothing but trouble from the day I put the card in

performed every tweak imaginable, installed 4in1 drivers, pulled 1/3 of my hair out, etc. - but still got pops/skips in my recordings

finally gave up and bought a new mobo with Intel chipset - haven't had a problem recording via my Delta44 since (no pops/skips/jumps/etc.)

just my 2 cents...
 
Slack is right. I've read many post on different forums with about 50 % having all kinds of weird problems, and the other 50% having no problems at all. Something must be fishy somewhere.

I just bought a SOYO board with KT133a for my kids computer(no audio stuff). I'll post after I get it up and running. Kt 133a was the "fixed" version of the original KT 133.

Twist
 
The KT266a is the overall improved and more stable chipset by via and supposedly has settled almost all compatiblity issues. Much faster, uses DDR, and supprts Athlon XP if you ever want to upgrade. Check out the Epox 8kha+ for a decent, stable and very overclockable mobo.
Not to imply that I own this mobo, but I ahve done a LOT of research. Tons. Hours. This chipset seems to be very very good.
 
Look like Motu's drivers dont want to play nice with the kt266a yet, but Motu is working on it.
 
Sorry to hear about the problems. I've bought several ASUS mobos myself, plus hundreds at my job, most with VIA chipsets. No problems. But I'm pretty sure I've never dealt with a A7V133.

I was recently told by a tech I trust something similar to tubedude, that while the VIA KT266 chipset had problems, the KT266A chipset solved them all and works well.
 
We installed the SOYO mobo and AMD 1.2 this past weekend and it's been working great. No problems whatsoever. It's not a music computer though.
I think many of the people that have had problems simply made unfortunate choices for their video, network card, sound card, etc. Some of them just don't get along.

Twist
 
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