This might sound kinda stupid

[Michael]

This might seem like a dumb question to most of you guys but I'm new here and I need to know. When someone writes KT133A motherboard, what does the KT133A stand for. If you could explain some other abbreviations and acronyms, please. Sometimes when I try to read the posts I can't figure out what the heck their talking about. Thanks.

 

[Phil]

The kt133a is a chip known as a northbridge, the northbridge controlls memory functions and sends information to the cpu etc...
basically there a lot of differant type of northbridges and the kt133a is the most popular athlon one

 

[Eriksson]

There are only two types of chipsets avalible for socket durons and Tbirds using SDRAM. (I might be forgetting something).

Both are made by VIA and the earlier one is KT133, this one is designed for 100mhz fsb speed, and doesnt like to be oc'ed much higher. 105-115 typical max. (some cannot do higher than 100 at all)

The latter one is almost identical but is designed for 133mhz fsb, and can be oc'ed up to 140 - 160+mhz. This is the KT133A.

 

[Dutch]

CLose...but the older kt133a is meant to run at 200 fsb and the newer kt133a runs at 266fsb, to take full advantage of the kt133a, you need an Athlon CPU that is designed for 266fsb

 

[Goldwing]

In this day and age & the small difference in price the kt133a would always be prefered over the kt133 imho. It does everything as well or better than the kt133.

 

[UnseenMenace]

Dutch (Jun 14, 2001 01:10 a.m.):
CLose...but the older kt133a is meant to run at 200 fsb and the newer kt133a runs at 266fsb, to take full advantage of the kt133a, you need an Athlon CPU that is designed for 266fsb

The 200 FSB is actually the internal clock speed of the CPU and is double the FSB ( 2 x 100 ) and the 266 fsb refers to a double pumped 133 mhz FSB... the physical bus speed of the KT133 is not 200 it is 100 mhz as Eriksson correctly stated, likewise the KT133a has a physical bus speed of 133 mhz not 266

 

[SickBoy]

The KT133A can run 100 or 133 MHz FSB chips. The KT133 can run only the 100 MHz FSB chips.

It is possible to run an older, 100-MHz FSB spec chip at 133 by unlocking the multiplier and running a lower multiplier and higher FSB. My duron will run at up to 140 MHz FSB (that I have tested, so far).

There is one other SDRAM chipset for socket A - the AMD 750 series. It'll only run the 100 MHz generation chips, though.

SickBoy