Gigabyte GA-7VTXH Motherboard Reviews?

[pvthops]

I am wondering why nobody seems to be talking about this motherboard. Is there anything wrong with it?

I am hoping to build a system within the next two months, an am having a hard time figuring out what mobo to go with. I am starting to lean toward the Soyo Dragon + . But I am not planning to do any major overclocking. The GA-7VTXH seem to have some good features, and some minor over-clocking ability.

I am planning to use an AMD XP 1700 and probably a Geforce 3 Ti 200, starting with 256 DDR RAM (and I think I am going to stick with the VIA 266a chipset.) I will probably be using it mostly for working with Flash, web editing, home office, watching DVDs, etc., so I know I won't need a lot now. I do like to play games though, and with newer games coming out with higher and higher system requirements (see this:Luclin requirements balloon) I definately want some play with the possibility of future overclocking. I am (could you tell?) a newbie when it comes to system building, but want to leave my door to future options open.
I have read many reviews, but there is very little going up about the Gigabyte board.

???

GA-7VTXH vs. Dragon+
stable>overclock vs. stable<overclock.

???
any impressions or other info would be greatly appreciated.

 

[senior guy]

The GA-7VTXH is a very stable board and a really good value considering that it includes Gigabyte's unique Dual BIOS + Creative 4-channel sound and Realtek's LAN chip on-board, and can be had for about $110. Actually, it was the first KT266A board out. IMHO, the only reason for its lack of popularity is that it is not designed for serious overclocking. The Soyo Dragon Plus is also a good board (better for overclocking), and has everything that the 7VTXH has plus a RAID controller and an additional PCI slot. You have to decide if those additional features make it worth $35 more than the 7VTXH to you!

 

[Parser]

I too have found the Gigabyte GA-7VTXH reviews to be a little sparse but from what I have been able to find it seems that it is a little behind the curve in performance. I think it was included in that roundup at Tom's Hardware with a little blurb on it.
I don't know bout how stable the Dragon is while overclocked but at default clock it has zero issues with the new bios and it does have a pretty full featured overclocking bios so at least the option is there.
It just seems from what I've read that the Gigabyte is just not a performance contender.

 

[senior guy]

Benchmarks aside (and mostly everyone's come out differently), I don't believe you could see performance differences between the two boards at default settings! Admittedly, overclocking is another issue. With any of the KT266A boards, you need to look for the features/options that are most important to you. Then check the forums to see if there are lots of problems (all boards will show some problems).

 

[hkctr]

These guys seem to like it. link

 

[pvthops]

I wanted to thank you all for your help.
I thought I would probably get the Gigabyte board, but after reviewing my finances, it looks like I will have a wait for one or two months before I am able to start building. That means I am going to have to wait a little longer and that the Dragon+ prices will come down some more. I don't know if I will go with the cheaper board or not. So far the quality seems good all around.

On the plus side, I will get to see how all of the 266a boards really stack up against each other. (They will also come down in price some more.)

I really hope that there are some more reviews of both boards in the near future. Oh, and thanks, hkctr, for the link to that review. The more info out there the better!