Look, im sorry but im just speaking from personal experience. First i had an amd chipset (750/751) and had absolutly no stability problems. Then i moved to via (Abit KA7) because there chipset was significatly faster at the time, it was a kx133 which worked almost perfectly, but took some patching to get working (99% stable).
 
Next i moved to a kt133a chipset which was on an Abit KT7A, and ive never had so many problems with a computer in my life. I would consider myself to know enough about computers to get a system working stable, but no matter what i did it wouldnt not get anything close to stable. Authough i never had any problems with the SB Live! or USB like many people do, it would always crash to desktop when playing games eventually, and i tried everything. Almost all system components were replaced at some point but the problems still continued.
 
I eventually just sold that board to a friend who doesnt play any games and got my intel stuff.
 
Since then ive had absolutly 0 (ZERO) compatibility problems and guess how many patches ive had to apply....thats right none, and does it ever crash, no it doesnt.
 
As I said I can only speak from personal experience, but with this board i have had no problems with any drivers from any manufacturer including nvidia.
 
BTW you may have solved your problem by installing yet another via patch, but for others its not that simple. Also surely the fact that via had to release a patch indicates its a problem with there stuff rather than with nvidias.

You are absolutely right M4 Carbine.(Delta Force?) I couldn't agree with you more. Why do manufacturers keep putting out products with so many comaptibility issues? I guess to make more money. Because in the end, that is what happens. Mayeb I will go Intel next time. For now, I will keep plugging away with this board and setup and see what happens. Al in all, I haven't had any problems other than Video realted with gaming. All APPS and everything else runs flawlessly. Darn fast MOBO too.
 
Mike

I was expecting ppl to have a go at me for that, its not that im bias against any particular manufacturer, i mean overall i was satisfied with my KA7 but why should i have to tweak and patch to get things working when i can just buy stuff that works straight outta the box.
 
M4Carbine from many games, mainly CS and Ghost Recon.

I also know a guy who bought an ECS board, think he traded his VIA for it. Sorry. I have long preferred Nvidia, but that last ATI driver actually worked, so who knows, there may be a rumble among the titans...

VIA is dodgy. I have a 693A chipset on my comp with a Geforce 2mx and I get the occasional BSOD, even with the latest 4 in 1. Before they released the patch it was a daily event when starting a Direct X or openGL app or game. It is really annoying.

I say play with rocks and sticks

Reports abound of the Infinite Loop problem occurring with Nvidia and ATI display adapters on Via and Intel chipsets with Windows XP or Windows 2000 with Microsoft DirectX 8.x as the possible culprit. The Via Latency patch shows responsiveness to needs of the users and
tying that problem to Via hardware is unfair.
 
Windows XP should make all computers ready to work out of the box. Further patches, upgrade and tweaks allow to get the best out of the system and there is nothing wrong with Memory Interleaving, Read around Write, Bus Mastering drivers, AGP patch, register enabling HALT Command Detect, etc. Intel also offers patches and tweaks.
 
The Matrox edge was due to better quality hardware components. Since then Ramdacs have improved on most cards. ATI 7500 offers superior image quality over Geforce 3 with the Nec Multisync FE 950+ monitor. GF3 though ahead of the GF2 still looks a bit washed out. Geforce 3 for framerate & gameplay and ATI for work.

coming from someone who has had it all
i have had via: abit KT7 raid, msi K7T Pro 2, Asus A7V (all via KT133)
I have had intel: Intel 440BX, Tyan Thunder 2400 (i840 chipset)
I have had ATI: Rage Pro something, i also had an older vivo pci card from them
I have had matrox: g200 pci, g400 agp w/DV500, g400 DH
I have had Nvidia: TNT2 M64, GF2 MX400
 
after experiencing all that in various combos i like my current setup the best Tyan Thunder 2400 + GF2 MX400 (the rest can be seen in my sig)
 
All the via boards had various stability issues relating to the sound graphics and modems mostly. Also had usb problems and all sorts of diferent random fukin bsods.
 
The ati cards were ok i did not notice this great video quality infact as far as i am concerned they were the worst video quality. I would get all these goddam lines accross my screen that would appear randomly.
 
the Matrox cards were great i love them but they leave something to be desired for gamming. The visual quality is only slightly better than nvidia in my opinion.
 
The nvidia cards i have had were my favorite great for games great for working in photoshop or whatever. they were allways the cards that stayed in my workstation.
 
back to the intel via issue i just upgraded my p!!! 500 on 440bx to dual p!!! 850 in november 2001. I would use the 440bx with the 500 any day over the 1ghz on any of the via boards. With via my mp3s would skip, my file transfers were slow, the system would pause randomly, BSODs with nvidia, matrox, sblive.
 
INTEL + NVIDIA + NT = WORKSTATION/GAMING BLISS - all the headaches
 
as Jay and Silent bob would say:
Fuk via, Fuk them up their stupid asses.
 
nuff said
 
<off topic> er um one more thing: my name is treetop and i'm higher than you'll ever be!
can anyone name that song?</off topic>

I agree with Four and Twenty. Intel kicks arse. I know people with it and it gives them no probs. All the people I know with VIA have problems with their systems. I brought VIA cos I didn't have the money for Intel chipset. Next time, i'll get Intel and enjoy stability.

i forgot i had an old amd 133 that ran on an old 586 board or something like that. doesn't really matter that thing sucked.
 
i also had a couple old intel 386 that never gave me any probs.

Here's the irony: I've had trouble with the famed 440BX. On one board the USB ports worked intermittently, and the other (an Abit BE6--a big mistake right there) was just unstable.
 
Also, thanks to Wolf87 for bringing to light the fact that Intel does have problems just like Via.

Course intel have problems, but you see a hell of alot more people saying they have a problem with whatever on a 'via xxxx board' than you do with anything else.
 
Basically, you cant deny it, via stuff just isnt as stable as intel stuff.

it is all comparing apples to oranges anyway.
 
the intel lovers here like me and clutch and M4 here seem to be more interested in haveing a high end workstation where as the via lovers are in it more for gereral entertainment. Also i know that both clutch and i run some pretty nice intel servers. so yea like i said it is kinda comparing apples to oranges as most of the via users out there are mostly playing games. The only games on my box right now are the ones that come with windows cause i have been to busy to play recently with all the webdesign that i have been doing.

I have Q3A and Aquanox, but I haven't played either in the last couple of months (and even then that was beta testing a Win2K/XP driver for the SpaceORB game controller).
 
As for bringing any issues Intel may have to light, I don't think you will find one post anywhere here stating that Intel is perfect. What *is* being stated is when you see a compatibility issue, it generally has Via attached to it. Most of the Intel lovers here aren't even stating that the Intel CPUs are faster or better (because frankly, they aren't) than the AMD units; the question has always been the stability of the motherboards they are installed on. On top of that, we have had personal experience with these failures, and are simply pointing them out.

yep
gotta hand it too ya that was well put
 
my computer is not perfect and it certianly is not the fastest thing out there but it does what i need it to do well. One of the things it must do perfectly is stay on and be reliable and responsive. The way i load down my computer i need a dually and intel is the only viable option for me. I know that you can get amd daullies now but they are still not a viable option for my cause thy are unproven and i have read about alot of problems that people are having with them over at the 2cpu.com forums. I'll stick with Intel and Nvidia/Matrox not cause i am brainwashed, just because i am experienced.
 
one last thing VIA SUCKS! HAVE ALLWAYS SUCKED, AND WILL CONTINUTUE TO SUCK
 
ATI doesn't suck as much but they do suck a lot

Stability and compatability is why I go back to Intel.
About 6 weeks ago I decided to splash out on an upgrade for my main home system.
I could have quite easily purchased the fastest AMD CPU out there, slammed it along side some DDR-RAM and watched my 3DMark2001 score go through the roof.
Instead I went for a P4 setup (Not Northwood as they weren't available then) with RDRAM on an Intel 850 chipset.
The performance of this machine is excllent, faster than anything I really need.
No, not the fastest, but considering it worked 'out of the box' and I've not had one single issue with it I'd say money well spent.

yea that is a good point
Intel may not be the fastest but it is so damn fast that it is more than fast enough for me even with my dated dual p3 system

For the price i paid for this PC i also could have gone for the fastest amd system available at the time but it would have most probably been via based and ive had too many problems with them to use them again.
 
I fix computers all day at work, the last thing i need is to come home and have to fix my own 1.
 
And its not like a 2270mhz p4 is slow

Quote:
For the price i paid for this PC i also could have gone for the fastest amd system available at the time but it would have most probably been via based and ive had too many problems with them to use them again.

I fix computers all day at work, the last thing i need is to come home and have to fix my own 1.

And its not like a 2270mhz p4 is slow

Hey M4, how does that Intel run? I remember you posting before saying you've never had any real problems.
I just had some flooding in my basement and I "think" (wink wink) My PC got fried...at least that's what the Adjuster from the Insurance is getting told. Actually. My PC was still running while sitting in 3 inches of water on the florr. I shut it down, unhooked it, picked it up and water ran out of it..LMAO. It still runs though.
Anywho. I was thinking of making the switch to Intel. All I need is a Board, Processor and RAM. How do you like your setup? I also run RAID and would like a INtel Board with Onboard RAID if possible.
Translation...I don't know DICK about Intel Stuff.

Hey
 
The intel runs great Ill give you some benchies if you would like to see some, and no stability issues as of yet.
 
Only thing i would say about it is on RAM choice. You really only have 2 options, ddr or rdram, i went for rdram because at the time it was either that or sdr and authough i would probably choose it over ddr i would have a hard time recommending it to others. You will get about 1fps(ish) more in games with rambus but it can be a bit more expensive and im not sure how rdram will fair in the future.
 
As far as RAID goes, i ran raid0 for a while but it wasnt really worth it, i just prefer 2 seperate drives so i can format 1 without losing the other, and you will have to deal with highpoints awful drivers if you get 1 with a highpoint controller.
 
Overall best computer ive ever owned, fast, stable and bragging rights for having a cpu over 2ghz (only works on ppl who think mhz = everything)
 
If you know AMD systems you should have no trouble setting up an intel one, and stop watering your computer.