Gigabyte GA-7DX AMD 761 mainboard
and introduction of the AMD Athlon
Thunderbird 1.2Ghz DDR266 CPU and memory
Wednesday, January 31, 2001
The Gigabyte GA-7DX AMD 761 motherboard
The introduction of a new type of memory, and a new family of CPUs simply demands the introduction of a new platform to take advantage of it all. Luckily for consumers, Gigabyte has stepped up to the plate, and presented us with the GA-7DX motherboard, which supports both PC2100 memory (or DDR266, if you prefer), and AMD Athlon processors designed to operate under a 133MHz FSB.
The central detail of the GA-7DX that makes all this possible is the AMD761 Northbridge, which provides the interface to the memory and the CPU, and which is married to the VIA VT82C686B Southbridge.
As a result of this union, the GA-7DX comes ready to support both ATA100 drives, and the PC2100 memory standard as well as 133Mhz FSB processors.
With this trusty board in hand then, we are now well equipped to fully test our new CPU, which we previously employed with a DFI board which lacked support for DDR266 memory.
Here are the details of our test system:
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Hardware setup Gigabyte GA-7DX
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CPU
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AMD Athlon Duron & T-Bird Socket A 200/266Mhz DDR
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Chipset
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AMD 761 + VIA VT82C686B
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Form factor
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ATX - 31.2cm X 23.2cm
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Expansion
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5 PCI - 0 ISA - 1 AMR - 1 AGP - 4 USB
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Memory
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2X 184-pins DIMM SDRAM 2Gb PC1600/DDR200 - PC2100/DDR266
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FSB
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95/100/103/105/110/115/133 MHz on SW1 + 100/102/104/108/112/116/118/133/134/135/137/139*/143/145/149Mhz in the BIOS.
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Vcore adj.
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NA
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Vio adj.
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NA
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Audio chipset
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Creative Labs CT5880 compatible AC"97
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The Chipset
First, it is essential to mention that the GA-7DX's Northbridge - the AMD761 - is manufactured by AMD.
Here, we must keep in mind that AMD is not a chipset manufacturer, and only really produces such chips in order to guarantee support for their CPUs - which in this case represents the new 133MHz FSB Athlons.
It also has to be noted that the bandwidth provided by PC133 memory really is insufficient to feed this new family of CPUs - these guys really scream for the DDR266. When coupled with the latter, with its 2.1GB/sec of bandwidth, rather than PC133 memory and its 1GB/sec bottleneck, the new DDR266 AMD processors are finally able to breath.
Normally, the AMD760 chipset consists of two distinct chips: the AMD761 Northbridge - which is included with the GA-7DX, and the AMD766 Southbridge, which is not. Gigabyte seems to have chosen to use VIA's VT82C686B in place of the AMD766 this time around. As a result though, Gigabyte is able to offer integrated AC"97 sound support, as well as integrated hardware monitoring.
Now then, with all that said, let's say we head on into the analysis.
Next: The features.
