Gigabyte 7VRXP (7)
Overclocker 12 Feb 2002

Conclusion

Gigabyte is again one of the first to release the latest. The GA-7VRXP has pretty good performance which is comparable to the KT266A based board. We tested the performance of the board using various software and found out that the Content creation software benefit the most. Quake3, DroneZ indicates that this board is almost the same in performance as the Gigabyte 7VTXH+ which offers ATA-133 performance but without USB 2.0. DDR333 performance only gave a 0~2% gain in performance which is not apparent. With the F6E BIOS, we are able to attain stability at Cas 2 Ultra, 1T cmd DDR333. The performance is also increased with this new BIOS.

Features-wise, this board has one of the best features, USB 2.0, ATA-133, Creative on board audio, Promise ATA-133 RAID. It also included overclocking features in the BIOS. Easytune III can also be used to change the FSB. We were able to overclock an unlocked AthlonXP1500+ to 160Mhz easily with ease.

Installation is very straightforward, we did not encounter any major hiccups so far. In fact, it would be good that the multiplier adjustments to be put into the BIOS instead.  

In conclusion, this board is rich with features. The only disappointment could be the marginal performance gains when running at DDR333. In fact, you could see that KT333 is just as good as any KT266A boards out there with the additional of USB2.0 and other on board interfaces.

Discuss

Below, we list down some pros and cons of this board :

Pros:

• USB 2.0
• ATA-133 RAID
• FSB (1mhz), Vcore (+5%,7.5%,+10%) adjustable
• DDR333 support
• Onboard LAN
• Dual BIOS

Cons:

• No Diagnostics LED
• 4 Channel Creative audio, 6 channels preferred
• Multiplier adjustment should be in BIOS
• Marginal gain in performance from DDR266 to DDR333

Ratings

Here are my ratings out of 5 stars.

Gold Award 2002

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