GA-7VAX? How far will it go

[Doom]

Hi there I've just put in a new board and was wandering how far it will go in prosessor terms. It's a gigabyte GA-7VAX K7 Triton 400. I know that bios version F10 supports up to an athlon 3000xp barton but will there be new bios settings that'll support higher athlons?

Cheers

 

[jumpy]

I guess it depends for how long AMD will keep releasing 333fsb chips, I'm not really up to date on that. Also, if you can change your fsb to 200 in the bios, it should unoficially support 400fsb chips which I'm sure will go pretty high...

 

[Sazar]

if its a via chipset which it sounds like it will not support the 200mhz (400mhz ddr) fsb of the 3000+ therefore you will be running it underclocked...

even the kt400 chipset from via does not support 166mhz (333fsb ddr) per se... unless you flash/overclock...

the kt600 just released is the first chipset from via to OFFICIALLY support 400mhz fsb...

so yes... you should be able to run the processor but are unlikely to be able to run it to its full potential...

I would highly recommend you do a check for an updated bios and see is any further information listed

cheers..

 

[LeeJend]

The rumor is the XP chips (including Barton) will max out at about the XP3200 rating. After that the AMD product line switches to 64 bit processors which will clock at lower speeds and use the wider bus (64 bit instead of 32 bit) to achieve higher processor speed ratings.

The Athlon XP design will become the low end chips with the 64 bit architecture and multi processor designs increasing the speed rating. Note that the Palomino has been replaced by the Tbred from 1800 and up (uses less silicon so cheaper to make, and hot as hell).

So, the current set of AMD MB's is pretty much max'd out now. And here I sit with a 1 year old 266 FSB 7VRXP . Intel is looking better and better...

 

[jonifen]

Originally posted by LeeJend
(uses less silicon so cheaper to make, and hot as hell)

Thats one of the main reasons why I didnt really want an AMD system - I like having a PC rather than a jet engine next to me - the AMD would really create some noise through fans etc, and watercooling... I dont trust it, especially the way the kids slam doors etc - it shakes the house

 

[jumpy]

Originally posted by LeeJend
Note that the Palomino has been replaced by the Tbred from 1800 and up (uses less silicon so cheaper to make, and hot as hell).

Are you saying that the tbred is hot as hell? Its the other way round, palomino being the much hotter processor. (BTW, it's 1700+ and up )

 

[Shamus MacNoob]

Yes T'breds are the cooler of the 2 in both sences of the word

 

[RogerPhillis]

Yes as Sazar mentioned this Gigabyte board almost certainly will not support barton 3200+ cpus upwards as they rely on 400FSB rather than 333FSB

However as a helpful note, the 400Mhz memory used on my similar VAXP Ultra board is known to run better on the 333 DDR Clock adjustment in the Bios.