OR said:
Hi,
I want to upgrade my old machine (anno 2001), which is running OS: Xp pro
sp2, to USB 2.0.
Mainboard: MS-6330 v.5.X based on chipset: VIA KT133A (VT8363A & VT82C686B)
I have been searching for a suitable card and have come up with this, but I
am not sure:
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=107412
My worry is: Is it compatible with the VIA chipset? Does anyone out there
have any experience with this card and VIA? I realize VIA is not held in
high regards, so I fear the installation might cause compatibility problems.
Am I being too cautious?
Are other cards you would like to recommend?
If you are going to have problems, then you may have had problems with
the computer already. Did you have a lot of trouble with sound ?
The design of the chipset is shown in pictures here.
http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/chipsets/legacy/kt133a/
The interconnect between the Northbridge and the Southbridge is done
the "old" way. The Northbridge has the PCI bus. The PCI bus is used
not only by the add-in PCI cards, but is also used to interact with the
Southbridge. The Southbridge has your disk drives connected to it.
And that means, when you access the hard drives, it temporarily uses
a bit of bandwidth on the PCI bus. That will compete with other (latency)
sensitive devices, such as the sound card.
On more modern chipsets, the PCI bus is located on the Southbridge. A
1GB/sec bus connects the Northbridge to the Southbridge. This alleviates
congestion, by using two separate busses. Then, when you access disks on
the Southbridge, at the same time as the PCI bus is doing something, there
is less of an issue (because the fat 1GB/sec bus to the Northbridge,
can handle it).
What it means for an older motherboard, is the PCI bus is pretty busy.
When you have a sound card connected to the PCI bus as well, then it
is important that the bus parameters be tuned for as high performance
as possible. For example, "Delayed Transaction" should be enabled,
and the PCI latency setting (maximum transfer size), set for
best system response, and least affect on sound playback. I had an
old system with that shared PCI bus concept, and while I could tune
it and seem to fix it on a Tuesday, I might use the system on
a Friday, and notice crackling in the sound again. So my system
had a mind of its own.
The reason I'm explaining all of this, is to set your expectations
at a reasonable level. Yes, you will likely be able to plug in
the card and get basic USB functionality. But I cannot say with
any certainty, whether all other subsystems will be unaffected
by the addition of the new card. It might be a function, of
what you connect to the card (such as an external USB2 hard drive).
Maybe your sound will start to crackle. (I find the best test
for sound, is to see if, when the Windows desktop appears, the
desktop theme music is distorted or not. That is when the PCI bus
is really busy.)
If you've owned the computer for some time, you have probably
been through all of these tuning exercises before. So I'm probably
"preaching to the gospel".
If you're looking for people with similar chipsets, try entering
A7V133 in the search engine here. That is an Asus board that uses
KT133A. Set the max age since last post to 2000 days, so you
can access the depth of the forums.
http://www.a7vtroubleshooting.com/forum/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=;action=search
I tried searching, using "A7V133" and "USB2" as search terms. This poster
has a USB2 card installed in a A7V133. So it can work.
http://www.a7vtroubleshooting.com/f...ard=a7v;action=display;num=1207938016;start=0
Paul
