Soyo Dragon+ Kt266A?

[ShadowFox]

have any of you guys tried this MB? if you have what did you think of the integrated 5.1 audio?

 

[GRAFiZ]

Been running one for weeks... onboard audio and NIC work perfectly. I used to use a Creative Sound blaster live, and a Netgear NIC, but, the on board stuff works as well for sure. Very high quality output.

Stable board, VERY fast, lots of extra's... certainly a good board to get, I would probably get the Asus or wait for the Abit now... but, I couldn't wait, and I have been very impressed with the board.

 

[Smith]

I just had to RMA mine back to Newegg, reinstalling a new one today. Mine had a bum LAN card in it after a week. Of course, if you do have any problems with a new board it better to have it soon after setting it up rather then a failure out of warrenty.

But...this board got a bad rap when it first came out because the shipped BIOS had lots of problems that caused instability. Soyo released a version BA1 BIOS update that fixes 99% of all stability problems. I have not had any other problems since flashing, except for the bum LAN card.

As far as the audio goes it real nice. As good as or better the the SB Live IMHO, without that cards CPU overhead.

I would not have reordered the same board, beleive me, unless I thought it was a good one to have.

 

[bltst2]

Hey, glad someone started this thread. I'm about to buy this board and wanted some questions answered. Hope you guys can help:

1. In regards to cases, I've heard of issues with this mobo and the built in LAN port fitting correctly. Is this an issue? What case do you guys recommend that also takes advantage of the front USB ports?

2. I know there is a on-board sound card. I understand there are multiple connections for the speakers. Are one of the connectors for the older "SoundBlaster" mini-din or are they all the newer SPDIF/fiber connectors?

Thanks...

 

[Maki]

The motherboard comes with its own ATX back plate thingy. (you know, the flimsy metal thing that all the ports go through. The one you always run under a fingernail to about your shoulder.) Just pop out the one on your current case and use the one that comes with the mobo.

A few points about this motherboard.

1. It is very nice in general. You get a ton with this board.
2. It is very stable. (Once you install the new BIOS. It is night and day between the shipped BIOS and the current one.)
3. The onboard stuff is, for the most part, pretty cool.
4. The onboard NIC blows. I'm unable to run 100 full duplex. However, I have not checked the cat-5 for cat tooth marks. (Which would be why my phone stopped working. Cat bastard.) I will be putting a SMC in to see how it works. And if that doesn't work I'll install my old Sohoware card that could (at one point) do 100 full duplex and see if it still can.
5. If a mobo manufacturer is going to give you 3 USB headers why don't they give you 3 USB port thingies to hook up to those headers?

I went from a MSI K7 Turbo with a 1.2G athlon to the Dragon+ and a 1600 XP Athlon and, for the most part, it has been painless.

 

[Maki]

Oh, I forgot to comment on the built in sound.

It is very good. It sounds about the same as my old Hercules Game Theater XP and records far better.

The big problem I had was with the mixer the drivers install. I couldn't get a decent sound level or even a consistent one. It also liked to flip inputs on and off on me. Very irritating.

I had to hunt that thing down in the registry to keep it from running. Now that I'm using the standard mixer all is well.

 

[BeHeMOTH]

I just bought it for my new XP1900+ so I was glad to see someone started a post on this. I'll keep you posted when it come in.

 

[bupkus]

My priorities in selectings a mobo is stability, stability, value, and whatever follows.

I'm building boxes for relatives and I don't want to keep visiting them if the things hang or crash.

Do any of the KT266A boards stand out in stability? If not then do any qualify as best $value$ ?
They all need a NIC for broadband.

Thanks.

 

[GunDog]

I recently went with the soyo k7v dragon plus! also. I must say its a fine board, except for one small irratting problem, it takes 38 secs from hitting the power button to screen post. Does this happen to anyone else? Total boot time is 1:18, not a real biggy but, hate the idea of it taking so long to get to the post screen.
Would the Bios update cure this problem? Still running the shipped bio's. ( I dont update bios unless there is a problem). Still running the same cpu I had on a Asus A7M266.
1.2/266 but running @ 1.33 with the Dragon

Thanks for any input,

Gundog


Systems
Website

 

[Global1]

I have the Dragon + as well with 1800+. Antec 1040B case is good.

I like the board. I love the front USB that fitted in a floppy slot. I couldn't fit the sound plate on the 1st PCI slot though.
I had to move it to the 3rd.

I don't think the drivers work well with XP. I will change to 2000 Adv Server.

I like the XP part where you hook up a digital camera (olympus 3040) to the USB port and it will ask you to do things like to copy to a certain location and rename all the files according to what you want. This eliminate Olympus' file001.jpg naming.

I never had a nice sound card before, but this one is better than any I had.

Let me know if your Win XP is fully functional. I see a lag with the NIC to browse internet.
I don't have this problem with Win 2000 pro or Adv server.

 

[ShadowFox]

WOW, thaks for the input guys!

so the onboard audio is comparable to a game theatre xp? wow! i'll save my $100 dollars thanks! (maybe put it toward a new athlon xp )
hehe, already downloaded the newest bios is anticipation for my purchase!

 

[rondeemc]

I actually consider this a "value" board because of the money you save not having to buy the raid, sound or nic. I have recommended it to several people because I can't find anything else that has nic, very good sound, five fan headers, real raid (cough MSI cough), stability with new bios in this price range. Of course there is the smartcard reader but what do I need that for Toss in an excellent manual and your set.

And the Alpha 8045 fits on the plus version....love that boy

 

[jhites]

<< real raid (cough MSI cough), stability with new bios >>



Getting ready to set up my new system this weekend. Antec SX840 with the Dragon + and XP1600 topped with the 8045, 512MB PC2100, etc. etc. I bought two Maxtor D740X 40GIG to set up the raid0 but have been reading that the raid really does not give much performance boost. I have been thinking of just using them as UDMA 100 and not with raid0.

How is the raid controller on the board and is the raid0 worth it?

I am going to use the onboard LAN for home network with my 3Com card for cable and the onboard sound. I have 4-1 speaker thou. Will they work with the c-media? If not, can someone recommend some speakers.

 

[no0b]

What is the smart card reader. Is it a reader for digital camera memory sticks or what?

nevermind I figured it out

 

[ShadowFox]

<< topped with the 8045, >>



I read on alpha's website that the 8045 wouldnt fit on the original Dragon, so it fits on the Dragon +? or did you have to do some modifications?

 

[rondeemc]

I read that too so I posted. Several responses of users putting it on Dragon + with no mods. Do a search for more info.

 

[MSNY]

I have this board up & running. Tom's hardware has rated this "well deserved winner" of 11 other KT266a boards...
True it does not win many of the overall benchmarks but it's right up there with the big boys and has lots of nice features
and for less $$. Very stable and runs like lightning. (I know Tom is not respected by some in this forum but he is right on this one)

Tom's Dragon + review

The key to getting this stable is going with the BA1 BIOS upgrade and setting optimized defaults. The on board LAN is great & nice n' fast
with my cable modem and the sound is as good or better then an SBLive 5.1 IMHO. So before you look at the big boys Asus/Abit look at this one to.

System:
Athlon 1800+
Soyo Dragon Plus
Inwin Q-500 Tower Case
Thermoright SK-6, Sunon 38cfm fan
Elsa Gladic Ultra 64meg
512 meg Crucial RAM (2 x 256)
Viewsonic PF795 19"
2 - 30 gig hard Maxtor drives
48x Creative CDROM
24x 10x 40x Plextor CDRW
Enermax EG365P-VE PS 431w
No additional cards installed.

 

[MrCraphead]

So, in you guys opinion, should I get the Dragon+, the Abit or Asus? no Epox, Shuttle or MSi, sorrae.....

 

[GunDog]

The Dragon Plus! has alot of bang for the buck!

 

[Maki]

I like the Soyo. But then I have only used the Soyo.

My old MSI was nice. So maybe they make a nice Kt266a board. Dunno.

 

[bltst2]

Just bought the following system from AccessMicro. Total cost (no monitor) was about $1300:

AMD Athlon XP Processor DDR Bundle
- SOYO SY-K7V-DRAGON PLUS VIA KT266A AMD SKT A 200/266MHz FSB 3DIMM/5PCI/1AGP w/RAID ATX MOTHERBOARD
- AMD ATHLON XP PROCESSOR 1800+ WITH QUANTISPEED ARCHITECTURE (1533MHz) OEM
- 512MB 64x72 PC2100 ECC Non-Parity Unbuf DIMM 2.5V DDRAM
- ThermalTake A1139 VOLCANO 6 CU BALL BEARING COPPER AMD SKT 462
- ATI RADEON 8500 64MB DDR AGP 3D/DVD 2X/4X TV-OUT DVI SUPPORT OEM VIDEO CARD
- TEAC 1.44MB Floppy Drive OEM PACKAGE
- LOGITECH INTERNET KEYBOARD W/ MULTIMEDIA KEY BULK OEM
- 2 BUTTON MOUSE PS/2
- IN-WIN S506 350Watt Power Supply Mid tower ATX case 3 X 5.25 Bays 2 x 3.5 2 x 3.5 + x2 case fans
- ACER 2010A 20X10X40 CD-RW DRIVE EIDE OEM INCLUDED PRASSI PRIMO CD PLUS SOFTWARE(1YR WARRANTY)
- MAXTOR MX6L060J3 7200RPM 60GB
- CREATIVE LABS FPS2000 SUBWOOFER (5PCS)
- ZIP DR IOMEGA 250MB INT IDE

 

[ShadowFox]

i've just ordered this board for a computer that i'm building for my dad and i'm probably going to upgrade to it myself for christmas
hope it turns out well, already ready to flash the BIOS

thanks for all the info guys!

 

[Maki]

got apex? just reviewed the Soyo Dragon+, Asus A7V266-E, and EPoX EP-8KHA+. The Soyo received a perfect 10/10 over the other two.

FYI

Article is here.

 

[novon]

I'm using every feature of the board except smart card , a fine board indeed, check sig for specs.

 

[vyrt1go]

I currently have the MSI K7T266 Pro2-RU (click on v3 below) and it has been incredibly stable (a BIOS update of course) and incredibly fast (the usb 2.0 is nice, along with the onboard RAID), but the SOYO has onboard 5.1 sound and onboard LAN (very nice to have i would suspect)....im building another system and i have considered the SOYO heavily because of the 2-3% performance increase over the MSI board. im curious to hear more about this board

v