kt600 based motherboards

[Boonesmi]

my next system will most likely be based on the new via kt600 chipset... the last few days ive been searching to see what boards will soon be available

so incase anyone else is looking i thought i would post what ive found so far

abit KV7 link
acorp 7KT600 link
albatron KX600 link
Aopen AK77-600N link
Aopen AK77-600N link
asus A7V600 link
azza KT600-ALX link
biostar M7VIT Grand link
ecs KT600-A link
ecs AF1 Deluxe link
epox EP-8KRA2+ link
fic KT-600 Prolink
gigabyte GA-7VT600 1394 link
gigabyte GA-7VT600-L link
jetway V600DAP link
msi KT6 Delta link
soltek SL-KT600-RL link ** it uses the via codec, giving full advantage of via vinyl audio **
soyo SY-KT600 Dragon Plus link and Dragon Ultra Platinum link




(ABIT, Acorp, Albatron, Aopen, Asus, Azza, Biostar, Chaintech, DFI, ECS, Epox, FIC, Gigabyte, Jetway, MSI, Shuttle, Soltek, Soyo and QDI) are all supposed to have kt600 boards pretty soon


**edited to add***
gigabyte GA-7VT600 1394 link (i think this is the board im most interested in )
abit KV7 link
soltek SL-KT600-RL link
soyo SY-KT600 Dragon Plus link and Dragon Ultra Platinum link
Aopen AK77-600N link


feel free to add to the list!!

 

[mosco]

The review on the Epox says that it doesn't have a PCI/AGP lock, anyone know if this is a epox option or does the kt600 not do that?

 

[Boonesmi]

thats not an option on kt600 based boards

 

[mosco]

is there are performance loss because of it when overclocking, or does that just mean you can overclock less?

 

[Vette73]

Any of them have the NEW VIA sound chip that is supposed to be almost as good as the nForce soundstorm???

 

[Boonesmi]

Any of them have the NEW VIA sound chip that is supposed to be almost as good as the nForce soundstorm???

i believe they all will...

VIA Vinyl? is integrated into the new vt8237 southbrige, and all the new kt600 boards use the vt8237 southbrige (at least all the kt600 boards ive seen the new southbridge)

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: Boonesmi

Any of them have the NEW VIA sound chip that is supposed to be almost as good as the nForce soundstorm???

i believe they all will...

VIA Vinyl? is integrated into the new vt8237 southbrige, and all the new kt600 boards use the vt8237 southbrige (at least all the kt600 boards ive seen the new southbridge)

No I think you have to use the external VIA chip to get full use out of it. I have seen one board somewhere but I think it was a test board. Also in Evans review he pointed out that they used the weaker sound chip and not even the basic VIA one, let alone the Vinyl.
Now that I think about it I think it was a P4 board that had the FULL VIA Vinyl sound, but can't remember?

 

[Boonesmi]

i think your right.. i checked a couple of the boards and they use either the 6 channel realtek or cmedia chip

im guessing that since the new kt600 and vt8237 are so similar to the older kt400 and vt8235 that they are just reusing the motherboard layout and adding the new chipset



so i would think(hope) that the next generation of kt600 based boards will use the VIA VINYL thats on the new southbridge

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: Boonesmi
i think your right.. i checked a couple of the boards and they use either the 6 channel realtek or cmedia chip

im guessing that since the new kt600 and vt8237 are so similar to the older kt400 and vt8235 that they are just reusing the motherboard layout and adding the new chipset



so i would think(hope) that the next generation of kt600 based boards will use the VIA VINYL thats on the new southbridge

Well since the current KT600's do NOT have the updated Vinyl sound and they also do NOT have a AGP/PCI lock they better be at least cheaper than the nForce2 boards or they will be sitting on the shelf for a while. I am a big VIA fan and the Abit NF7-S is my first board in a long time that was not a VIA chipset, so I am no nForce2 fanboy by any means.

 

[pspada]

Ya, I love those Anit mobo's too!

 

[mosco]

where did you guys here that VIA Vinyl was almost as good as soundstorm? I know that Via has a good audio chip that M-Audio uses in their 7.1 cards but its not VIA Vinyl. Anyone have any reviews or anything like that on it?

 

[Chris A]

Just checked price watch, two places are selling the Gigabyte kt600 board for about $110.....

 

[Boonesmi]

Well since the current KT600's do NOT have the updated Vinyl sound and they also do NOT have a AGP/PCI lock they better be at least cheaper than the nForce2 boards or they will be sitting on the shelf for a while. I am a big VIA fan and the Abit NF7-S is my first board in a long time that was not a VIA chipset, so I am no nForce2 fanboy by any means.

neither agp/pci lock nor Vinyl really matter much to me

what i like most about the kt600/vt8237 is the single channel ddr is as fast as the dual channel ddr of the nf2
plus i really like that SATA is part of the chipset (not an additional chip that adds $$ to the cost)
not to mention that the cost will probably be around $20 less

 

[NicColt]

the A7V600-dlx will most likely have firewire and Vinyl Sound.

 

[Boonesmi]

something kinda interesting i noticed earlier today
the gigabyte boards (the site has 3 listed 7VT600, 7VT600-L and 7VT600 1394 )

but the 7VT600 1394 (the firewire version) has a totally different board layout then the other 2

at first i thought it was just an error on the web site (ie. having the wrong pic displayed) but looking into it a little it looks like they actually are two totally differnt layouts

 

[Donuts]

Anand says they have several boards now. I hope a review of all of them comes soon. I want one of these boards.

 

[NicColt]

something I just though about is this. If this board has the VIA 8237, then the south-bridge according to everything I have read should have integrated VIA Vinyl Six-TRAC six-channel AC'97 audio. If it's integrated then why are they adding a Realtek ALC655 CODEC on the gigabyte boards. The same goes with the Asus A7V600 which has the 8237 south-bridge but has the ADI AD1980 SoundMAX 6-channel CODEC.

Is the VIA Vinyl audio incorporated onto the 8237 or not ?

Then if it is, why are Asus and Gigabyte adding their own audio codec ???? or can you get an 8237 without the Vinyl Audio ???

Edit: Someone posted this on another forum.....

It's bypassed when using digital, and only used for Analog-Digital conversion. That has no performance penalty, 'cos it's still going thru the 8237 sound chip. NForce2 boards with the APU still need a CODEC too.

So if I understand this correctly, if the sound source is Digital then it will use the added onboard codecs like the Realtek ALC655 or the AD1980 to do the work, but if the source is Analog it will use the onboard Vynil Audio to convert it from analog to digital before sending it to the codec, the advantage is that it's using the 8237 instead of the CPU to do it, so there's no performance hit if the source audio is analog.

But then again I could be wrong.

 

[Remedy]

Albatron KT600.

 

[Donuts]

Anyone see any boards at Fry's yet?

 

[bilbois]

bump for useful info

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: Boonesmi
i think your right.. i checked a couple of the boards and they use either the 6 channel realtek or cmedia chip

im guessing that since the new kt600 and vt8237 are so similar to the older kt400 and vt8235 that they are just reusing the motherboard layout and adding the new chipset



so i would think(hope) that the next generation of kt600 based boards will use the VIA VINYL thats on the new southbridge

remember that the realtek and c-media are not the DSP, but only the dAC that controls the sound. They still could have a new sound processor on board

 

[Boonesmi]

the gigabyte GA-7VT600L is starting to show up at the larger, more reputable online stores
Infinity Systems Plus has it link
and so does Mwave link
both are around $80 shipped

 

[AtomicDude512]

Im interested in this new chipset combo for the integrated SATA mainly, think Raptor. And now that it has a 1GB/s bus north-to-south...

Besides, the southbridge does have the Envy24 audio, that things you guys are talking about are the codecs used. I think that may matter

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

These look like pretty sweet boards

 

[Boonesmi]

These look like pretty sweet boards

yup, i really like the look of the gigabyte GA-7VT600 1394

its a totally different layout then the 7VT600-L thats showing up at online stores