Gigabyte GA-7VAX FSB DIP switch

[time]

I've read that the latest versions of this board have replaced the dual DIP switch with a single switch to control the FSB range. That is, you can no longer select 100/133/166MHz, but only 100/Other.

Or is it the other way round? I found seemingly hundreds of clueless individuals with the GA-7AX, but very few who understood basic stuff like what the FSB is. :roll: And I don't have one here right now to check.

While I'm at it, does anyone know what the maximum achievable FSB is with this board? I'd like to hear that 182MHz is not unreasonable.

BTW, there is a reason why I want to persevere with a KT400 rather than an nForce 2 in this instance.

 

[Mercutio]

There's a 200MHz setting for mine, and the default DIP switch setting is in fact 100MHz/Other. You need to install the EasyTune app to do any real playing.

 

[CougTek]

I don't have the board here, only the manual for one I sold last Fall. There were still two DIP switch blocks back then for 100MHz/133MHz/166MHz.

 

[blakerwry]

does that make any sense?

when the CPUs most people have run at 100/133 they have a dip switch that supports 100, 133, and 166....

But when the CPU's most people have start running at 133/166 they make a dip switch to run the board at 100/other???


personally, all things being equal I'd like it the 1st way... there must have been some reason for them to redesign the board this way... my guess is stability or compatibility.

 

[Mercutio]

You're far from the only one.

 

[time]

My understanding is that EasyTune doesn't change the PCI divider, thereby making it largely useless? In any case, can you autostart it at boot?

 

[time]

Well, it's all true; they removed the ability to select 166MHz FSB if your CPU is 133MHz by default - it autodetects. So for Athlons up to XP2600+, you're stuck with 133-165MHz FSB. And as Merc discovered in another thread, that's further limited by the absence of PCI/AGP bus locking, with some cards not appreciating too much over the standard 33/66MHz.

On the upside, you can set the multiplier with any T-bred B.

A big gotcha to watch out for is Gigabyte's "Top Performance" BIOS setting. It screws up stability with lesser RAM, even to the point of refusing to POST.

It's also a good idea to override the "Auto" DRAM frequency setting, because it ignores the FSB you've set and just picks up the DRAM type, i.e. PC2100, PC2700 or PC3200. If you're overclocking the FSB, this is quite likely to push your RAM out of its optimal speed range or even into instability.

Another worry is that the voltage settings seem to be wildly inaccurate: +5% was more like 10% and +7.5% resulted in a whopping 18% overvoltage (1.89V). I shudder to think what +20% would have achieved ...

Gigabyte also failed to include hardware monitoring software on the CD. I had enough trouble finding it the first time I used a GA-7VAX. It doesn't seem to be there at all with the GA-7AX1394 I tried. :x

Finally, the thermal sensors are all out of whack with the BIOS (and the monitoring software - but ironically, Sandra seemed to sort them out). I don't know what it was monitoring, but it wasn't the CPU. :-?

So, not an overclocker-friendly board; yet once again I got slightly better results than with an Epox 8RDA+ (nForce 2) in terms of CPU clockspeed. My trusty XP1700 (1466MHz) made it to 2235MHz with 1.89V, but more impressively is stable at 2200MHz with just 1.76V.

As an OEM solution, the GA-7VAX1394 is still excellent. Heaps of features including Dual BIOS and Firewire, great layout, clearly marked, great supporting doco such as the laminated pinout diagram to stick in the case, shrouded connectors, everything color-coded; and all for about US$95.

 

[Tea]

Gigabyte boards are for people who want to bolt it in, plug in a CPU, add a little RAM, and forget about it for the next four years.

The best way to overclock a Gigabyte board iz with a screwdriver and a different brand of motherboard.

We love them. We sell heaps of them, don't ever do anything fancy with them, and they go on working forever. Or close to it. Very low return rate.

But we sell them to family people who just want something that works and shuts the kidz up till next Christmas, or businesses who want a reasonable price and no stuffing about with fancy high-performance mods.

For the overclocking fraternity, we look elsewhere.

All of which iz a long-winded way of saying: "What Time said". More or less.

BTW, thiz make-it-impossible-to-overclock ztuff zuckz! I zmell a conspiracy. Not that I ever bother overclocking theze dayz, but it'z nice to be able to not bother with it. Much nicer than not being allowed to. I don't like not alloweds!