12 Socket 370 Motherboards using VIA’s Apollo Pro 133A – THG.RU

Introduction

Only six weeks ago, we compared 21 motherboards which all make use of VIA’s Apollo Pro 133A chipset. They may be the last representatives of a motherboard generation, which is meant to die out. Yes, I am talking about Slot-1, which has become obsolete with the introduction of the Pentium III Coppermine. Thanks to a new production process, 0.18 instead of former 0.25 micron, this new CPU core made the die size even smaller than Katmai’s – even though Coppermine comes with 256 KBytes of so-called Advanced Transfer Cache.

Usually, a new CPU requires a new motherboard. This affair is a bit different with the Pentium III FC-PGA, so let’s check some basic questions.

Back To The Roots

As I already mentioned, the latest Pentium III processors have much finer structures. That’s why the L2 cache could be integrated into the processor again. Again? Yes. Please remember the good old Pentium Pro CPU. Back in 1996, this was the first processor coming with an L2 cache memory that was both integrated into the CPU and running at full CPU core speed. The reason for doing this was of course better performance. But this new way also had two handicaps. First, the whole processor became extremely big, because the internal L2-cache was on a huge extra die that was placed into the housing of the processor, making the Pentium Pro very big and the production very expensive. Second, the 0.5 micron process used back then kept Intel from getting Pentium Pro CPUs any faster than 200 MHz.

Back To The Roots – Continued

Intel had to find a compromise. As they did not want to relocate the L2 cache back onto the motherboard and integrating it into the CPU die was not possible at that time, the Slot-1 was introduced. A little PCB was designed to carry the CPU and the additional L2-cache chips, which were now allowed to run at only half the processor clock.

The original Pentium II Klamath was soon replaced by the Deschutes, which was also the first CPU designed for 100 MHz FSB. Last year, Intel introduced the Pentium III (with Katmai core), featuring their new Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE). Only a few months later, they introduced the Coppermine core, which finally came with on-die L2-cache running at core clock.

AMD is currently undertaking the same move from a cartridge solution with extra L2-cache chips running at 1/3 – 1/2 of the core clock to a socket solution for the upcoming Thunderbird core, which also hosts full speed L2-cache on the processor die.

This photo shows the Socket 7. It was first used for the second-generation Pentium processors (75 MHz and above) and later for Intel’s Pentium MMX CPUs (up to 233 MHz). AMD has also been making use of Socket 7 for their K6 processor family (K6, K6-2, K6-III). Cyrix/IBM sold low end CPUs (6×86, 6x86MX) for this socket.

That’s the socket you need for all Celeron and FC-PGA Pentium III CPUs.

This photo shows AMD’s new Socket A, which will be required for the new Thunderbird CPU.

The Chipside Story

As you know, there is Intel’s i820 chipset (which requires RDRAM). It is up to date and offers acceptable performance, but the memory is incredibly expensive. Moreover, many people don’t trust Intel any more, as this chipset has left quite negative impressions. First, Intel had to delay Camino’s original release date, as it had trouble running three RIMMs. As a result, the third RIMM slot was simply removed from the design. Of course there is/was the alternative to use SDRAM. To do so, the so-called MTH chip (Memory Translator Hub) has to be either on the board, or on a DIMM raiser card. Only some weeks ago, Intel found a bug in this MTH chip and production as well as shipments of this chip were discontinued and Intel started a big recall. The story isn’t over yet, but I think it’s more than understandable that most users don’t want i820.

The second choice is over two years old, but has proven its qualities over and over again. Everybody should know now that Intel’s 440BX chipset is still the fastest product for Intel processors. Overclocked to 133 MHz, it is as fast as Intel’s high-end chipset i840. But it comes with two handicaps: First, the AGP card has to run at 89 MHz when running the FSB at 133 MHz. Second, the BX chipset only supports UltraDMA/33. To get the pleasure of having UltraDMA/66 support, an additional controller chip must be present on the board. Alternatively you may also use a PCI IDE controller (just as the Promise Ultra66 or FastTrak 66, or ABit HotRod 66). That’s an advantage, even if you lose a PCI slot, because almost all PCI IDE controllers can run two IDE channels with only one IRQ. All on board controllers require two interrupts (14 and 15). Some of you may be concerned about the missing AGP 4x support of BX as well, but so far hardly any mainstream application is making use of it. Even though a BX overclocked to 133 MHz FSB is still the fastest solution and absolutely mellow, it is not officially meant for 133 MHz FSB.

The one and only chipset which fulfils all wishes and requirements right now is the VIA Apollo Pro 133A. VIA has successfully improved its image, and started to supply a lot former Intel following OEMs.

Quick Overview

All motherboards make use of VIA’s Apollo Pro 133A chipset (VT82V694X) and come with four or five PCI slots – except the Asus, which is a MicroATX motherboard. All boards support 66, 100 and 133 MHz FSB. Usually, the FSB speed is auto detected. Almost all boards also allow a FSB speed to be forced. Other (faster) settings can mostly be chosen in the BIOS setup.

I’m happy to say that there were no stability issues with the boards. Just the Lucky Star did not want to run stable even with the slowest BIOS settings. As this one is still a pre-release product, I don’t want to overvalue this.

Some boards have an integrated speaker, which I personally like, as fewer cables reduce the cable chaos inside the case. All boards came with three DIMM sockets, as four can only be used if at least two modules are only single sided types. That’s because the chipset is only specified for six memory banks. All boards come with Suspend-to-RAM, making it possible to wake up quite fast from power saving mode.

This time, I did not include motherboards with the older 694A chipset, as the Socket 370 motherboards will usually be used with Pentium III or fast Celeron processors (533+MHz). Using the slower Pro 133 chipset (without the ‘A’) means to give away about 10% performance!

Asus CUV4X-M

Board Revision: 1.1

BIOS Version: 1002 (March 16, 2000)

The CUV4X-M is a MicroATX model. Actually it’s out of competition, as you shouldn’t compare it to standard ATX motherboards. But as Asus was winning one recommendation after the other, I wanted to see how a low end product would perform compared to other motherboards which are situated one level higher.

Due to the small MicroATX size, the little Asus board comes with only two PCI slots and the AMR. That’s not really much if you want to use lots of multimedia expansion cards. Asus included the standard three DIMM sockets, while two would have been enough for a MicroATX motherboard. I also don’t really understand why it comes with an AGP Pro slot, as hardly anybody will plug in a high edn graphics card into a low end motherboard.

Everything else can compete with the others: Four USB ports, UltraDMA/66, BIOS soft setup, AC97 sound with three audio headers, Wake on LAN and on Modem, three fan headers, ECC support for up to 1.5 GBytes SDRAM, FSB speeds up to 150 MHz and the option to change the processor voltage.

As you can imagine, the Asus manual is as good as ever. It’s comprehensive, detailed and easy to understand. I was quite amused after reading that they still call the L2 cache of Coppermine a pipelined burst cache… 😉

There’s nothing new from the benchmark front. Asus did excellent work once again, but this time another candidate is slightly faster, putting the CUV4X-M in second place. Nevertheless, you will get a very fast, reliable and great-featured motherboard from Asus once again – even if this MicroATX model won’t be a good choice for most people.

Azza 694TX

Board Revision: 1.1

BIOS Version: March 7, 2000

Azza’s Socket 370 motherboard wants to be configured by two DIPswitch blocks. A power LED indicated standby or power-on mode. The board features the usual three DIMM sockets, four PCI slots, one ISA slot, AMR and AGP 4x. Two USB ports can be used directly, while two others can only be activated by purchasing the right adapter cable.

Modern systems require a sound system as well. To fulful this requirement, the board has an integrated AC97 codec with two internal audio-in headers. All connectors are described sufficiently in the manual as well as directly on the board. Even if other manuals may be even better, Azza did quite good work with it.

This board can be equipped with up to 1.5 Gbytes SDRAM, which can also be ECC modules. If you should have some old memory modules you can reduce the memory speed by 33 MHz. So you can run a 133 MHz processor while using PC100 memory or a 100 MHz processor with PC66 memory.

After checking the design there’s no reason to complain: The AGP card can be installed without the necessity to take care of the DIMM locks, all PCI slots can be equipped with full-size expansion cards and no cables will be interfering with other components.

Last but not least, a look at our benchmarks attests the Azza 694TX to be an average performer with average features. All tests were absolutely painless, as the board gave me no reason to complain.

Biostar M6VCG

Board Revision: 1.1

BIOS Version: 0314B (April 24, 2000)

I’m sorry to say, but the Biostar board was the slowest candidate in this motherboard round up. Even though it comes with the VIA 694X chipset, the benchmark results can hardly exceed the level of 693A motherboards.

The board looks promising, as it comes with five PCI amd one ISA slot, AMR, three DIMMs, AC97 sound, UltraDMA/66 and AGP 4x. I think we got the basic motherboard, as there’s some space left for a better featured sound chip as well as two audio headers. Other versions may also be equipped with the connector for two more USB ports.

All CPU settings have to be done via two jumper blocks. In the BIOS, you may raise or lower the SDRAM speed by 33 MHz, and you can also use ECC memory. The board supports 256 MByte modules max., so the total amount of memory can be 768 MBytes.

All hard- and software issues are explained in detail, e.g. the FSB speed selection. You may chose between 66, 100, 103, 112, 124, 133, 140 and 150 MHz. As a matter of fact, this board does not support 75 or 83 MHz FSB, so overclocking a Celeron processor can only be done by selecting 100 MHz at least. That will prove to be too much in most cases.

After all this board left quite mixed impressions. Basically it’s not bad, as it offers all standard features and was rock stable. But I am missing real innovations, which could make us forget that this board is no good performer at this point.

Elitegroup P6VAP-A+

Board Revision:

BIOS Version:

Elitegroup sent us their P6VAP-A+, which is the only board of this round up coming with a real sound chip. It’s comes from Sound Pro, and provides better compatibility and more functions (including a SPDIF connector) than the standard AC97 codec. The board comes with only four PCI and one ISA slot. Of course the AGP is present (supporting AGP 4x), but a fifth PCI slot could have been great. Three DIMM sockets are standard, but will only host 768 Mbytes max. Most other boards support up to 1.5 Gbytes, nevertheless I don’t think that many of you will make use of this option.

This board allows the processor voltage to be set manually in 0.05V increments. Moreover, you may chose FSB speeds up to 150 MHz, making this board suitable for overclocking as well.

The manual is comprehensive, details and easy to understand. What I missed again is the connector cable to make use of the 3rd and 4th USB port. If you already took a look at our benchmark you may have seen that the ECS board is not able to rock the boat. It worked stable and comes with some nice features including an on-board speaker, but that’s not enough to win a recommendation.

Gigabyte GA-6VX7-4X

Board Revision: 1.2

BIOS Version: F2 (March 1, 2000)

Gigabyte is a company which still makes intensive use of DIP swichtes. That’s okay, as setting them is done much faster than setting jumpers. The best solution is of course a soft setup, but Gigabyte may have their reasons to hang on to the DIPswitches.

One DIP block is used to set the multiplier. Luckily, all settings are printed directly besides the DIP block. The second DIP switch block is used for the FSB setting. Here you may also chose overclocked settings like 112, 124, 140 or 150 MHz FSB. 75 and 83 MHz are present as well, just in case you want to overclock your Celeron.

The board has five PCI slots, one ISA slot, the AMR and the AGP slot, which supports AGP 4x. Three DIMM sockets will support up to three modules with 512 MBytes each. Those modules can be standard SDRAM DIMMs, ECC modules or VCM types. Gigabyte installed an on-board speaker, which is situated close to the BIOS chip in the lower left corner. The latter comes without a socket, so you won’t be able to exchange it if a BIOS flashing procedure failed.

Three fan headers have been placed on the board, which should be enough even for high-end systems. The AC97 sound system has been revalued with three line-in headers. Other versions of this board may also come with a different sound chip, as there is some space left. This board features Gigabyte’s AGP card retention mechanism: The card will be locked after pressing it into the slot and can only be removed by pushing the lock lever.

Two additional USB ports can be used, but I’m sorry to say that the required cable is not included. Getting it could possibly become problematic, as Gigabyte uses a special pin out.

Some of you may be surprised to see that the performance winner does not come from Asus this time. Gigabyte’s 6VX7-4X is slightly faster than the competition, fast and great featured. If you can live with some minor disadvantages, you will certainly be happy with this motherboard.

Gigabyte GA-6VX7-1394

Board Revision: 1.1

BIOS Version: F1 (March 9, 2000)

As you can imagine, the 6VX7-1394 comes with Firewire. Gigabyte included three ports instead of a sound system. The board looks pretty much like the 6VX7-4X, just with this difference. Please take a look at the evaluation of the ‘little brother’, as the features are the same.

This board is an excellent proof that looking like the 6VX7-4X does not necessarily mean that it performs the same. In fact the Firewire model is slightly slower, but still among the fastest boards of this test.

The Firewire interface allows you to connect external hardware with high bandwidth requirements such as video equipment. I don’t expect this board to be much more expensive than the standard model without 1394. It’s good to see that this interface is starting to make its way into standard computers. I’m just missing Gigabyte’s Dual BIOS(tm) feature, which has neither been used for the 6VX7-4X nor for the 6VX7-1394.

IWill VD133 Pro

Board Revision: 1.2

BIOS Version: 34231A (March 6, 2000)

The Slot-1 motherboard VD133 makes use of the older 693A chipset, while this Socket 370 model called VD133 Pro comes with the Socket 370. It is equipped with three DIMM sockets for up to 1.5 Gbytes SDRAM, five PCI slots and the AMR slot. The manual makes clear that ECC modules may be used, but the ECC function will not be available. Of course AGP 4x and UltraDMA/66 is supported as well. Wake on LAN or Modem ist also supported.

IWill included a secondary IDE controller chip, the HighPoint HPT368. Thanks to this, the board comes with two additional UltraDMA/66 ports, which can also be used in a RAID configuration. You may either use striping (RAID 0) or mirroring (RAID 1), or a combination of both. Using two or four hard drives will improve the disc subsystem’s performance considerably. Still you won’t benefit much as long as you don’t have applications, which really need high bandwidth. That’s e.g. video or audio editing.

But this RAID solution can also be useful if you should have some older hard drives. It’s possible to use all of them (up to 4, of course) as one partition by spanning them. For more information about an IDE RAID system, please check the review of Promise’s FastTrak66.

Both connectors for the IDE ports 3 and 4 are situated at the very bottom of the board, which will force you to use quite long IDE cables. On the left, you will find the header for two additional USB ports. IWill did not include the corresponding cable, but at least you will get two UltraDMA/66 cables.

The complete CPU setting is done in the BIOS via IWill’s Smart Setting. Here you can select FSB speeds between 66 and 166 MHz. Please take into account that the HighPoint chip won’t work at FSB speeds higher than 150 MHz. The sound system comes with one line-in header; other boards feature two or even three.

I liked the almost jumper-free design, as only two jumpers are important: one for CMOS reset and another to disable the IDE RAID chip. Everything is illustrated pretty well in the manual, making the VD133 Pro an excellent featured motherboard, which is easy to handle. I was really disappointed after the benchmarks, as the IWill board was about 15% slower than most other boards in BAPCo’s SYSmark 2000 suite first. After upgrading from the initial BIOS (March 6) to the latest one (April 28), performance became considerably better. The charts at the end of this article contain the benchmark results of the slower BIOS. Please check the latest VIA Motherboard round up for the latest results, as they make this great featured board quite interesting now.

Lucky Star 6VA694

Board Revision: 0.1

BIOS Version:

The board we received is revision 0.1, so it’s still a pre-release. This may be the reason why it was not able to complete even one benchmark run. Nevertheless, the board left positive impressions. Five PCI and one ISA slots can be equipped with expansion cards. Three DIMM sockets, AC97 sound, AMR, UltraDMA/66, Wake features, two USB ports and well labeled connectors are standard as well.

CPU setup has to be done via Dipswitches (FSB & multiplier) and jumpers (voltage). We did not get the final manual but only a sheet with the most important jumpers/connectors, so I cannot tell you anything about the manual.

I was glad to see that the board’s design is really well done. Everything can be accessed even after system assembly, no connectors are placed in ridiculous places and all components can be installed easily.

The final board will most likely be a cheap and good-featured product. I hope we will receive the final version soon.

MSI MS-6309

Board Revision: 1.0

BIOS Version: 0314F (March 15, 2000)

MSI’s package contains one 40pin and one 80pin IDE cable, FDD cable, an excellent manual, the driver CD and a little booklet, which is meant to explain the D-LED(tm) feature. Hardware, BIOS and setup are elaborately explained. MSI uses the AMI BIOS, which also included all CPU setup items (FSB, multiplier and Vcore). I think, MSI originally wanted to use DIPswitches, as there’s a description on the motherboards – without any DIP switches being present.

Those settings can be found in ‘Hardware Monitor Setup’. 66, 79, 85, 87.5, 92, 95, 100, 110, 115, 120, 124, 129, 133 and 138 MHz FSB speed can be chosen. Particularly 87 and 92 MHz are quite uncommon and perfectly suited for Celeron overclocking. The CPU voltage can be set between 1.50 and 1.85 for Coppermine and the new Celeron processors at 566 and 600 MHz, while you may chose between 2.0 and 2.8V for the old Celerons up to 533 MHz.

The SDRAM frequency can be 100 or 133 MHz in case a 133 MHz FSB CPU is working or 66/100/133 MHz in case you are using a 100 MHz FSB processor. 66 MHz processors can make use of 66 or 100 MHz SDRAM clock speed.

There’s an item in the BIOS which is very interesting for overclockers: After enabling the item ClkGen Spread Spectrum, you get the option to rise the FSB speed some more. 143, 147, 152, 154, 157, 159, 162, 166, 171, 180, 190 and even 200MHz can be set. Please consider that the VIA chipset usually does not bear more thatn approx. 155 MHz clock speed, so every setting which exceeds 166 MHz may look great, but most likely will fail. We got lock ups even at 162 MHz FSB.

D-LED(tm) consists of four LEDs, which signalize the system state during boot up. If your system should hang, you will be able to trace the reason. The board also comes with two more USB ports, offering a total of four. Once again, you will have to obtain an adapter cable yourself.

MSI found quite a smart battery retention system. It is not lying in a special socket, bzt just plugged in into a retention mechanism making it much easier to exchange the battery. Of course that won’t be necessary too often, but it’s the small things that make your life easier!

After a look at our benchmarks you will see that the MSI board is not amonst the fastest, but still reaches the performance that we expect. I think the results could be better if the BIOS featured some more options to alter the memory timings.

QDI Advance 10

Board Revision: 1.0

BIOS Version: 1.0 (March 11, 2000)

The QDI motherboard differs from all others by being green instead of standard brown. Even the chipset cooler is green. According to the meaning of green colour, it stands for hope. Let’s see what’s behind it!

The Chinese company did good work when labeling the on-board connectors. Two ISA and four PCI slots are waiting for your expansion cards as well as three DIMM sockets for up to 1.5 Gbytes SDRAM. QDI also supports ECC and ships an excellent manual, which covers all topics of interest.

Interesting is QDI’s Recovery Easy(tm) function. That’s a little BIOS sub-program, which lets you make a copy of your boot partition to another partition. Of course you may abuse this funtion to switch between two, three or four active partitions. That’s great for users who regularly use several operating systems and don’t want to trust boot managers or don’t want to install two operating systems onto the same partition.

In the BIOS there’s also the Speed Easy(tm) setup which lets you chose all CPU setup parameters, including common FSB speeds between 66 and 150 MHz.

QDI included a header to make use of two more USB ports. And voilб, the required cable was inside the package! That’s how things have to be, as USB ports can today be used by almost all kind of hardware. Starting with keyboards or mice, printers, scanners or digicams.

In my opinion the Advance 10 has the best motherboard design of this round up. Just make sure that you get PCB version 3.0, as the capacitors have moved a bit away from the socket. QDI had to do this, as some coolers just could not be attached.

The performance you will get from the Advance 10 is quite good. Again, there may be faster boards, but this one comes with the useful Recovery Easy(tm), a very good design, excellent manual, complete shipment including an ATX cover which may be needed in some cases and likely a good price as well. That’s why I’m recommending this one.

Soltek SL-65KV

Board Revision: 1.0

BIOS Version: F4 (April 17, 2000)

Soltek’s motherboard comes with stickers on both the North and the South Bridge. The designers did really good work; everything is where you would expect it. CPU setup is done via jumpers and DIPswitches. Afterwards, you may raise the FSB speed some more in the BIOS if you want. Up to 150 MHz can be set, which did not cause problems during a quick test.

The board comes with two fan headers, AC97 sound, AMR, AGP 4x, UltraDMA/66, five PCI slots, one ISA slot, Wake up features and a connector panel for two additional USB ports. Once again you it’s your business to get a proper adapter cable to use them.

All connectors have been labeled adequately. Some of you may still remember my Slot-1 motherboard review. I tested the Soltek SL-67KV back then with a manual, that included data of all Soltek motherboards. As you can imagine, the same manual is included in the package of the SL-65KV as well. I can only repeat that all basic information is provided, while I missed detailed instructions again. The package also contains Norton Ghost and Norton Anti Virus as well as the common driver CD.

This time, the Soltek motherboard is an average performer with good features and perfect stability. Good work, but I’d still like to see something special (excellent performance, innovative features or add-ons) before recommending a motherboard.

Soyo SY-7VCA

Board Revision: ?

BIOS Version: 2AA3 (May 9, 2000)

After a quick look at the photo you will notice the unusual placement of the floppy connector. That’s not very convenient, as the cable could make it difficult to use large PCI expansion cards. The DIMM sockets could have been placed some centimeters higher, as the lower locks need to be closed in order to use a long AGP card.

Just like MSI, the Soyo 7VCA comes with four diagnostic LEDs. I couldn’t find any description, so I guess that their only function is to illuminate the inside of your case. I hope that the final version will include a better manual. The one, which was included with our sample, was certainly not too bad, but it’s very short and only describes the most important steps during system setup.

Let’s take a look at the hardware. Five PCI slots are present, whereas the last one is shared with an ISA slot. Soyo included the AMR directly between two PCI-Slots, basically wasting one PCI slot. Two fan headers are provided for system or CPU fans, and two line ins are available for audio connectivity of the AC97 sound system. In the lower left corner, you can find a header for two additional USB ports – but your will have to get the adapter cable yourself.

The complete CPU setup is done in Soyo’s Combo Feature section in the Award BIOS. It allows to freely set FSB, multiplier and to raise the CPU voltage by 1.5, 3, 4.5, 6, 7.5, 9 or 10%. That’s absolutely enough for overclocking and safe even for beginners.

The latest BIOS version 2AA3 adds the item ‘SDRAM Bank Interleave’, which also had a little impact on performance. This function requires at least a double-sided DIMM (a standard 128 MB SDRAM DIMM, for example), or two DIMMs, which are at least single sided. Talking about DIMMs you should know that this board supports ECC as well.

I finished my tests without any stability issues and got good performance results. This board did not make it to the very top, but the relation between price and performance seems to be quite good, particularly because Soyo includes a CD with Norton Anti Virus, Ghost and Virtual Drive.

Feature Comparison

Feature Comparison – Continued

* Board is a pre-release

Feature Comparison – Continued

Test Setup

Benchmark Results – SYSmark 2000 – Windows 98 SE

Both the Gigabyte GA-6VX7-4X and the Asus CUV4X-M get identical benchmark scores in Windows 98. Most boards are quite close together, whilst the Iwill and Biostar boards cannot reach the high scores of all others.

Benchmark Results – SYSmark 2000 – Windows NT 4

In Windows NT the Gigabyte board is one point faster than the competition. Both the second Gigabyte board and the Asus are practically even, while most boards got fast results as well. Again, Iwill and Biostar are a bit slower.

Benchmark Results – Quake III Arena – Demo001

Quake III shows similar differences than the SYSmark results. Gigabyte gets the first place, Asus is almost as fast. Again, Biostar and Iwill perform as if they were using the older 693A chipset.

Benchmark Results – Expendable Timedemo

The differences between the Gigabyte GA-6XV7-4X and the Elitegroup motherboard are less than 10%.

Recommendations

I hope you don’t get bored with so many motherboards we’ve reviewed in the last few weeks. If you liked it, you may be pleased to hear that a last BX comparison will follow within the next weeks. But let’s get back to business now.

The clear performance winners are the Gigabyte GA-6VX7-4X and the Asus CUV4X-M. Both generated really good results, which can almost be compared to some slower BX133 motherboards. Stability was not an issue this time; all candidates were very reliable.

I also want to recommend the QDI Advance 10, as it left a great impression. It reaches good performance, is excellently featured and should not be very expensive.

The best overclocking boards are the Elitegroup P6VAP-A+ and the Asus CUV4X-M.

Conclusion

Going to the next computer shop and buying a VIA Apollo Pro 133A motherboard using Socket 370 seems like a safe affair today. None of the boards caused any problems during our tests. Only two did not reach the expected performance, but those deficits might get fixed with BIOS updates.

Looking back at the test, I’m missing a real overclocking champion! Of course there’s the little Asus board, but as this MicroATX motherboard cannot provide enough flexibility for most home users. Elitegroup comes with all important features, but the P6VAP-A+ still lacks performance. All boards let you chose FSB speeds up to 150 MHz, but as long as you cannot increase the processor voltage, overclocking might be a rather disappointing affair. IWill even offers 166 MHz FSB, which did not run stable though. I doubt that the additional IDE controller chip will ever tolerate heavy overclocking.

Motherboards with Intel’s 815-chipset will become available sometimes in June, but I’m not sure if this new chipset will bring Intel back BX’s market shares. As Tom already explained in a first Solano preview, Intel might not really want to sell too much of a chipset that makes use of SDRAM, as this will most likely interfere with their policy of pushing RDRAM at all costs. Short supplies of i815 chipsets will keep its price quite high. That’s why I think that VIA will continue increasing Pentium III chipset sales. Particularly OEMs can make excellent margins using VIA based motherboards: People have realized that i820 + RDRAM is far too expensive, while i815 might not be available in quantities anytime soon.