Missing The Point. DDR333 AMD Mobo's.

[lhgpoobaa]

while cruising the web, looking for my new motherboard, im an struck by the number of sites that review the new range of DDR333 motherboards comming out and seem to miss an important aspect.

currently on the market i know of 2 PC2700 certified boards, the iwill XP333 (ali magik) and the Leadtek 7350KDA (sis 735 with 1/5 and 1/6 dividers)
and soon (with luck) we shall have the kt333, kt333a and SiS745.

so with all the revies ive read so far (5 or 6) they do benchmarks at 133/133/33 and again at 133/166/33...
and wonder why overall performance and memory performance doest change much!
uhh derr...
not a single one has tried to run fsb & mem synchronously at 166/166 using an unlocked CPU!

whats preventing them from doing so?
even theregister had an article saying 'whats the difference between the kt266a and the kt333?'
higher mem bandwidth sounds good, but not if u cant use it (i.e. dualchannel nforce, kt133 with 100/133 asynch mem)

i really cant see any issue beyond closing the bridges and selecting an appropriate multiplier to give the same total Mhz. i.e.
10x133 = 1333 or
8x166 = 1333
but noone seems to be doing this

also of note, ive seen a review of the 7350KDA by leadtek, based on the SiS735 and ive also seen spec's on the official DDR333 SiS745...
and honestly i cannot see any differences.
leadtek seems to have done alot with this board, giving more performance than the ECS type, and options for 166/166/33 and even 200/200/33
definately one to keep your eyes on.
im lookin but cannot find any locally



The lack of thermal protection on Athlon's is cunning way to stop morons from using AMD.

 

[SidVicious]

You're right... I noticed a few odd thing about those 166-200 FSB capable boards reviews, no benches were made using both cpu and mem at that speed. It's weird if you take into account the fact that THG was among the first to show the world how to unlock XPs. I see no logical reason not to use the 166 fsb.

Fok Speling Misstake

 

[somerandomguy]

I hadn't hear of the Leadtek 7350KDA, sounds very interesting. Do you have links to any reviews on it (even if they don't use the extra bandwidth the way you're supposed to)?

"Ignorance is bliss, but I tend to get screwed over."

 

[lhgpoobaa]

indeed.
when i first came accross a link to it i thought "ho hum, another 735 chipset"
but the name leadtek made me look twice, as they generally produce decent stuff.

the thing which REALLY caught my eye was the digital cam shot of the BIOS, with the settings 133/133/33, 133/166/33, 166/166/33 and even 200/200/33 visible!
plus it seems to be able to handle a monster heatsink like my MCX-462.

here are a couple of reviews;
<A HREF="http://www.vr-zone.com/reviews/Leadtek/7350KDA/" target="_new">http://www.vr-zone.com/reviews/Leadtek/7350KDA/</A>
<A HREF="http://www.ocworkbench.com/hardware/Leadtek/WinFast7350KDA/7350kdap1.htm" target="_new">http://www.ocworkbench.com/hardware/Leadtek/WinFast7350KDA/7350kdap1.htm</A>

but i cant seem to find any in this country... sad

The lack of thermal protection on Athlon's is cunning way to stop morons from using AMD.

 

[SidVicious]

"but i cant seem to find any in this country... sad "

You must be talking about United States, am I right ? If it's the case, don't look for any 333 MoBo north of the border, I've been looking for an iWill XP 333 in Montréal for the last few week and all I got is weird looks from clerks. One even said to me : "What will you be doing with that 333 thing anyway ?!" That's one more reason not to let any of them get too close of a computer you'll eventually be using.

Fok Speling Misstake

 

[zengeos]

Dunno if this makes any difference, but the ECS K7S6A (SIS 745 chipset) board lists on Pricewatch at Royal Computer. Dunno if it's actually in stock or not. Price lists at $75

Mark-

When all else fails, throw your computer out the window!!!

 

[lhgpoobaa]

hahaha. no. im talking about down under... ozzieland. the land of the bouncing kangaroo.
iwill and leadtek seem to be thin on the ground here.

The lack of thermal protection on Athlon's is cunning way to stop morons from using AMD.

 

[lhgpoobaa]

mmm possibly. i saw a spec's sheet on it, and it didnt seem to have anything out of the ordinary... wonder if anyone's done any benchies on it *searches*

The lack of thermal protection on Athlon's is cunning way to stop morons from using AMD.

 

[somerandomguy]

Nice board, I'll drop you a line if I see one floating around Melbourne.

"Ignorance is bliss, but I tend to get screwed over."

 

[lhgpoobaa]

well i havnt found any yet.

GRRRR! getting mightly annoyed here. just read two more reviews, both for the ECS K7S6A (sis 745)
and guess what? despite all their crap that they say about overclocking features, once again neither of them had the brains to run it at 166/166
*sighs*

P.S. having seen the review of the sis745 and the leadtek 735, there really is no difference for the average person.
maybe IEEE interface of the 745.

The lack of thermal protection on Athlon's is cunning way to stop morons from using AMD.

 

[Ncogneto]

Attempts at running the Sis chipsets at 166/166 have been spotty. It would appear that the chipset has some problems running at this speed, although some have been succesfull by applying better cooling to the chipset itself. At this point with only the ECS board out, it is a bit early to tell if others boards based on this chipset will have the same problem or not.

It's not what they tell you, its what they don't tell you!

 

[lhgpoobaa]

SUCCESS!!!

chattin to the head honcho over at
<A HREF="http://www.tbreak.com" target="_new">http://www.tbreak.com</A>
and he's soon gonna do a shoot out of the xp333 and sis745 @ 166fsb/166ram. neato
see how they stack up!

The lack of thermal protection on Athlon's is cunning way to stop morons from using AMD.