Gigabyte GA-7VRX

[Comixion]

Some reviews praise it, some bash it.<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif" border="0"><BR><BR>Thinking about making it 1 of the 3 I buy. Any users? <BR><BR><BR>1 dumb question, I noticed the review I saw was had on the northbridge '0206CD'. Is this new newer ver.? Although on the same board on its SOUTHbridge it had '0204CE'. Ok now I'm confused

[Colin]

Sorry man, none from me this time! I don't have any experience with Gigabyte boards.<BR><BR>They seem to perform on par with others, I'm not too fond of the dip switches though... Can you adjust everything in teh bios?

[Comixion]

AS for the dipswitches, nor am I. Everything seems to be done in the BIOS. Another thing that kinda strange is they did not<BR>put a jumper to clear the CMOS. heh..you gotta remove the battery. <BR>I dunt know, it was a thought. I'm snatching up 3 boards for comparisons: the MSI KT333 Ultra. Soltek's 75-DRV5 hehe, and whatever. I didnt need or want RAID just at this time so Soyo will have to wait and come out with a non-raid mobo. I sure wanted to get one though

[Colin]

What? You have to remove the battery?!? That's rather odd. <BR><BR>Of the motherboards you're looking at, go for the MSI KT3 Ultra... It's a kick ass board man and it'll go good with your Gainward GF4 Ti4400!!! <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">

[Comixion]

uh huh...Iknow dat. Red on Red. Tis gonna be kinda..uhh...red aint it.<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif" border="0"> I figured also going allout red with some red rounded cables, then again maybe set it off with blue ones. plus with the alien laser carved Thermalright AX-7 w/clear 80mm fan w/ Blue LEDS. <BR>I dunno, I'm still doing alot of guess work and browsing. When I get her together , I'll plaster her on here.

[Colin]

Haha, you crack me up dude! I'm glad I'm not into eye candy that much. <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif" border="0"><BR><BR>YOu'd love this P4 Soltek DDR MB I'm testing, it's silver... LIke those Triplex videocards! Very cool. <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0"><BR><BR>I can't wait for the pictures man! <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif" border="0">

[Comixion]

LOL, you think maybe I got some Mexican in me..from the wife? hehe<BR><BR>naw, only the guts will be colorful, the case is a Chieftec 1030SX Silver Dragon w/420W P/S & window, and well, maybe a 'black' UV light for a final touch<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif" border="0">

[CygnusX1]

comixion, you know my vote...go RED <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0"><BR><BR>pick up the june issue of maximum pc...they have a little write up on it. it rcvd a rating of 9 and a kick a$$ award (and you know how tough they can be...) plus they have a nice article on the 333/400 chipset, along with *ntel's offerings...( i think i want one of those 533 fsb dealies...)<BR><BR>if your gonna get the uv light for the case, go with the stainless steel braided rounded cables. the reflect the uv light and look real nice...

[Comixion]

Cignus, I was just looking at those yesterday, come in red,yellow,black,green I beleive,,same ones? and they are sold by the foot.<BR>They also had a 60mm to 80mm fan adapter thats clear and turns red witn the UV light, thats if I get a heatsink that uses a 60mm and I choose to put a 80mm on it.<BR><BR>Dam, I'm gettin carried away with this.<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif" border="0">

[CygnusX1]

thats the way to do it tho...you have to get carried away...as long as you get the credit card statement before the wife does <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif" border="0">

[Colin]

Haha, you guys are amazing...<BR><BR>Man, it really makes me want to mod my stuff as well, hearing you two talk.<BR><BR>Hey where do you guys get your lights? There isnt much selection here in TO. <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif" border="0">

[CygnusX1]

my current lights are neons purched at a local auto shop. the run 12V, so it was just a matter of clipping off the lighter end, and soldering a molex on it...i have a 10 & 12 inch blue, plus 6 feet blue glow wire...all from the auto store, for about 15-20 bux a piece..

[Colin]

Autoshop... Why didn't I think of that?!? <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0"> Cool man, thanks for the heads up! <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif" border="0">

[CygnusX1]

oh yeah...the autoshop, and home depot are a DIY modders freind <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">

[GNXtreme]

I looked into buying this board but decided on the SY-KT333 DRAGON ULTRA instead. I have a cutout in the side of my case, which is black, and I didn't think that the Gigabyte board would look good. The black dragon really caught my eye and soyo has a good name for bios overclocking. I haven't overclocked my CPU yet but I know a guy that has the SY-K7VT DRAGON PLUS with a XP1900@1.8Ghz and he says that it runs as stable as a factory set CPU. I have read some good things about the Gigabyte board but no first hand experience.

[Colin]

Hey, GNXtreme do you have pic's of your computer? It sounds like it looks awesome dude! <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">

[GNXtreme]

My digi cam took a crap but I will borrow one and get some. I do have some of me working on it and the in-process mod, but no pics of the complete product. Give me some time, I have only had it running for about a week now.

[Colin]

Awesome!!! I'm looking forward to it dude! <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">

[asphix20]

I got the gigabyte ga-7vrxp. The model up from the ga-7vrx. Its only like 20 or 30 USD more and well worth it. The only down side is the dip switches but that doesnt really bother me. It comes with onboard sound wich kinda sucks and i know i wont be using but if someone is on a tight budget it works. Also comes with onboard lan and this version does have the jumper to clear the CMOS. Comes with raid with a promise ata166 controler and 8 usb ports!!! 4 usb 1.1 and 4 are USB 2.0. The only REAL downside is it still measures the CPU temp by a thermisensor underneath the CPU instead of ondie thermal measurement. But all in all its a good board. I would have gotten the soyo kt333 dragon ultra but it was a good $50 USD more. The only feature it has that the gigabyte doesnt is the 6 channel onboard sound. Also the extra USBs on the Soyo come in a 5 1/4 bay which i think sucks. That means if you want to utilize all your USB ports you have to deal with an ugly bay adapter that holds 4 of your USB ports. Of course i havnt had my hands on one of these in person this is all based off of reviews read and photos seen, so i could be misinformed and the USB slots could be rear mounted as well, but from what i saw they werent. All in all though they're both the best ddr333 boards abailable with epox the close runner up (in my opinion anyway). If you have the extra cash to spend get the soyo, but gigabyte is just as good and significantly cheaper.

[asphix20]

Also for all you overclockers who have 2100/2200+ processors and are a little weary about taking a dremel to your CPU to open up the bridges (if you dont know already the 2100+ and 2200+ and all athlon XP chips being produced as of early june arent as easy to unlock as previous XP chips) The guy at the link below will unlock them for you professionally. If your a little uneasy about sending your CPU to him, e-mail hima nd he will steady your suspicions. He connects the bridge using some method but its better than using non conductive grease and then a conductive compound to connect the L1 bridges because the way he does it is permanant. Just check out his site. Ill be sending him my CPU to get unlocked when i finish payin off the credit card bill for all the hardware i ordered 2 weeks ago <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0"><BR><BR><BR>http://ada-interlock.com/XPmod/

[zogmool]

I have a 7vrx. It is the same as the 7vrxp, accept doesn't have that sound chip from creative (though it does have that old ac97 chip), no LAN, and no Raid. The FSB and multiplier can't be done in bios. I got it for less than $100.<BR><BR>There was a question about the chipset; the northbridge is KT333, and the southbridge is vt8233ace.<BR><BR>Why are people bashing it?

[yads]

aparently it doesn't work w/ GeForce 4 cards unless you get the new BIOS.