[dhkimboa]

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]

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

 

[dhkimboa]

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

 

[Xeven]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[Xeven]

as long as the board supports it.. no problem

 

[dhkimboa]

oh I see !
thanks for the info, Xeven.

 

[dhkimboa]

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]

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]

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 !
what's the difference with via 133a and via kt266a ?