Introduction

First of all I want to apologize for the long time you had to wait for comprehensive motherboard reviews. Tom’s Hardware Guide is of course more than just a website for technical information. The growing amount of similar products makes it very difficult to pick the right one, that’s why unbiased advice and recommendations are becoming more and more important. There have been various changes inside Tom’s Hardware Guide including the establishment of our lab in Germany, which enables us to cover new topics as well. We don’t claim to be perfect, but we will continue to distinguish between good and bad – unreservedly.

Why Apollo Pro 133?

An answer is quite easy: The VIA Apollo Pro 133A is currently the best chipset for the Pentium IIIEB. All 133 MHz chipsets from Intel do have deficits: The i810e has an integrated graphics logic, making it totally uninteresting for most users interested in 3D-performance. i820 requires PC800 RDRAM to be fast enough, but this memory is expensive and doesn’t live up to its performance claims. As an alternative, the chipset can be combined with a special memory translator chip (MTH) to support PC100 SDRAM. But even the older VIA 82C693A is faster than that. Last but not least there’s i840, Intel’s workstation and entry-level server chipset. It sports two Rambus channels that double the bandwidth and reduce latency while driving costs into the sky again. Thanks to the Rambus disaster, for the first time in history Intel has no proper chipset for their mainstream processors, which would make use of fast and cheap PC133 SDRAM DIMMs.

AGP, IDE-Controller, Memory Interface

The last comprehensive motherboard review was the BX motherboard comparison in fall 1998. Some things happened on the stage, which I want to illuminate.

AGP

Intel’s 82440BX chipset was the first one featuring AGP 2x. At 66 MHz, the AGP bus is able to transport 533 MByte/s. Even today this seems to be enough, but games coming with large texture scenes and professional 3D-applications require more bandwidth. That’s why the faster AGP 4x has become standard today, making it possible to move up to 1066 MByte/s from the main memory to the graphics board. The BX chipset was never meant to be used at 133 MHz FSB, thus it cannot provide the AGP divisor 1/2 to get the required 66 MHz AGP clock. Your graphics card will have to cope with 88 MHz AGP clock – which is tolerated by only a few models.

VIA’s VT82C693A chipset does not support AGP 4x (only 2x, just like BX), no matter what others may want to make you believe. You will have to get a motherboard with the VIA Apollo Pro 133A (VT82C694x) to have full support for AGP 4x and AGP Fast Writes.

The connector of graphics card for AGP 2x has only one nick…

…while all graphics cards supporting AGP 4x can be identified by the second nick.

IDE-Controller

The South Bridge of Intel’s 440BX chipset (82371EB) hosts an UltraDMA/33 controller providing the common two ports. Its performance might be just about fast enough for today’s hard discs (modern drives do hardly achieve 30 MByte/s), but all hard drives have their own cache memory, which can be only some kilobytes or up to 2 MBytes. The memory chips for this kind of cache naturally are much faster than the physical media, providing data rates of many dozen MBytes/s. The ‘ICH’ of Intel’s i8xx chipsets and both VIA South Bridges include an UltraDMA/66 controller. Obviously there are two reasons that makes such an interface interesting today: Better peak performance for hard disc drives with large cache memory and of course future disc drives, which offer a physical bandwidth that surpasses the 33MB/s

Memory Interface

Our latest platform comparison shows clearly that Intel’s 440BX is – overclocked to 133 MHz – still the king of SDRAM performance (Showdown at 133 MHz, Part 2) and thus currently the king of memory performance altogether. VIA’s 694X chipset is the first non-Intel chipset providing good memory performance, but still not good enough to beat the two years old Intel chipset at the same clock speed. Please don’t forget however that BX is only a real alternative for advanced users, since the chipset has not been designed for 133 MHz FSB and it takes some fiddling to make it run at that speed.

The Chipsets

Originally we wanted to do a complete Slot-1 review including all available chipsets. As i820 continues to be an extremely expensive (RDRAM) or ridiculously slow option (PC100 SDRAM) and the BX chipset does not officially support 133 MHz FSB, this review will deal with VIA chipset boards.

VIA Apollo Pro 133

The VT82C693A chipset is available since fall 1999 and was the very first chipset designed for 133 MHz-CPUs. It supports 133 MHz SDRAM, UltraDMA/66 and AGP 2x, but the memory performance at 133 MHz is just about good enough to compete against a 100 MHz BX platform.

VIA Apollo Pro 133A

That’s the latest VIA chipset for Pentium III processors or their upcoming Cyrix III. Its performance was notably improved, making it fast enough to challenge Intel’s i820. In addition, AGP 4x was added as well.

Both chipsets can be combined with two South Bridge chips from VIA:

VT82C596B offering ISA and keyboard controller, an USB root hub offering two ports, UltraDMA/66 controller and PC98 power management.

The bigger brother VT82C686A has the same features plus PC99 power management, an I/O controller, AC97 sound support, four USB ports as well as voltage, temperature and fan speed monitoring. More details on VIA’s website.

Test Setup

All motherboards were equipped with the following hardware:

We did only benchmark with the GeForce cards. In order to check compatibility, we installed both the ATI and the Diamond graphics cards under Windows 98 and Windows NT and checked their proper functions with one single Quake III benchmark run. You won’t find any notice on the graphics card check, since all three cards worked properly in all 21 boards.

Feature Overview

Three boards do additionally have a Socket 370 (DFI, Jetway and Tyan). Of course they are no dual boards, which means that you can either use Slot-1 or Socket 370. All boards have at least three DIMM sockets each, four PCI slots and one ISA slot. Most candidates using the 694X North Bridge do also have the AMR slot (Audio Modem Riser).

Award Modular BIOS is absolutely dominating. Only Gigabyte, MSI and Q-Lity use a Megatrends BIOS (AMI). However, there are two types of Award BIOS. Most 693A boards use older versions, while some others make use of the latest version 6.0.

It’s great to see that everybody is making use of switching voltage regulators to reduce heat emissions. After all, fast CPUs and graphic cards are hot enough. Coloured status LEDs seem to be absolutely “in”, so that many boards have one (Chaintech, DFI, FIC, Gigabyte, Tekram). Only MSI features a diagnostic LED system that makes it possible to trace every step during system startup.

Only four boards are basically not a good choice for overclocking: Eüpa, FIC, Lucky Star and Tyan. They do not allow an arbitary bus speed grade (66/100/133) to be set up, so that you will hardly get a 100 MHz CPU running at 133 MHz. Example: A Pentium IIIE 700 will be identified as 100 MHz type, thus the board uses the PCI divider 1/3 and AGP divider 2/3. Even if you raise the bus speed afterwards to 133 MHz, those boards will keep these dividers! So your AGP will run at 88 MHz as well as the PCI bus at 44 MHz. Maybe this cosmetic bug can be fixed with a BIOS update or with the ‘A14’-procedure, which is the 100-to-133-MHz-FSB operation comparable to the well known B21-procedure that does the 66-to-100-MHz-FSB change.

A-Trend ATC6240V

Board Revision: 2.0

BIOS Version: 2.1r01 (January 31, 2000)

A-Trend sent us their 6420V-01 motherboard, which makes use of the VIA Apollo Pro 133 (693A) and the standard South Bridge 596B. Coming with two ISA and five PCI slots it should provide enough options for future system upgrades. This is also one of only four motherboards featuring four DIMM sockets. That’s interesting for all who want to keep using their PC100 DIMMs. A-Trend provides the option to clock the memory 33 MHz faster or slower than the FSB. So you can run a 133 MHz CPU while using 100 MHz memory or vice versa. By the way, ECC/parity is supported as well.

Some DIP switches have been placed on the board to set the multiplier as the FSB will be detected automatically. Overclockers may open JP11 to allow the FSB to be set in the BIOS – independent from the installed CPU. Everything else is just like we expect it: Wake On Modem, Wake On LAN, infrared connector, three fan headers, two USB ports, two serial ports and one parallel.

I like the board’s design, since everything can be accessed even after assembly. There are no jumpers between the expansion slots, and no cables (except SB-Link) which cross add-on cards. The power switch connector can be found easily thanks to its white colour, but the other pins could be marked more accurate.

More than 50% of the manual deals with the BIOS setup, even the BIOS update procedure has been included. I think many people would like to see a better explanation on how to install the processor, RAM and maybe add-on cards as well. As with some other boards, the CPU retention brackets have not been installed by default. That’s only great for motherboard reviewers or maybe for computer freaks, since the CPU can be removed in less than a second. The average user will prefer a securely mounted processor.

At first both 3D games did not want to run, but after enabling “AGP Master 1WS write” in chipset setup everything went fine: The performance is second best. Regarding the 693A boards, this model is doing very well. Just one unimportant bug made me smile: The BIOS doesn’t know the Pentium III 800 yet, so the display shows Pentium III CPU at 797 MHz.

AOpen AX64 Pro

Board Revision: ?

BIOS Version: March 2, 2000

Looking at the hardware, the AOpen motherboard seems to be one out of many. It provides the common three DIMM sockets, one ISA slot, AGP 4x and four PCI slots. In addition, AOpen also integrated the AMR-slot. In my opinion, a fifth PCI slot would have been wiser, since it can be used both for a modem/sound card (like AMR) and for other expansion cards. Of course you will also get Wake On LAN, Wake On Modem and Wake on Timer, which can be quite useful.

AOpen is known for performance and overclocking abilities. This particular model isn’t the greatest performer, since the fastest board is 6% ahead. There are certainly some settings, which still can be optimized.

CPU configuration has to be done by setting jumpers for the right FSB. Afterwards, you can select a multiplier within the Chipset Features menu of the Award BIOS. AOpen also provides an item to alter the core voltage. Here you can chose a voltage between 1.3 and 3.5V (in 0.05V instances). Be careful with this option, since you can easily toast your Coppermine or Katmai CPU by choosing the wrong setting. The BIOS lets you raise or lower the memory clock speed by 33 MHz each. Thanks to this, you can run a 133 MHz CPU while using PC100 SDRAM at 100 MHz. Or think about a reversed configuration: 100 MHz CPU and SDRAM running at 133 MHz. In case you should have PCI cards, which require their own IRQ, you may assign one interrupt to every PCI slot if you want.

The AX64 Pro has also been equipped with AC97 sound, including two analog audio inputs. Thanks to the “big” South Bridge (686A), you can use up to four USB ports by default. Two are situated in between the connector panel, while the other two have to be recruited by using the included connector cable. Actually there is no need to complain about the delivery volume, since it includes two IDE cables (one 40 pin, one UDMA/66 80 pin), Norton Crash Guard, Norton Anti Virus and a very detailed manual, which is also suited for beginners.

Last but not least, AOpen makes use of two BIOS chips (upper left corner). The second is merely a backup BIOS, in case the main BIOS gets lost by virus or by a power blackout during the flash process. Just activate the backup BIOS by setting JP30 to 2-3 and you will be able to boot again.

Asus P3V4X

Board Revision: 1.02

BIOS Version: 1003

There’s hardly anybody who wouldn’t know the name Asus. One of their rather enjoyable habits is to make excellent motherboards, although this habit goes along with a less enjoyable higher-than-average price tag. Due to lots of features and fast performance, the P3V4X is heading towards the very top again. From the features side of view Asus also seems to be one of the top candidates: The list starts with the common wake stuff (Wake On LAN, Wake On Ring… each one can be enabled individually), temperature and voltage monitoring, I/O connectors (2 serial, 1 parallel, two USB), IR connector and six PCI slots (instead of only five plus the AMR) and AGP 4x. According to the manual, all of them are PCI masters. As an alternative, the board can also be equipped with five PCI slots and two instead of one ISA slot. The PCI slots can be assigned one single IRQ each.

Asus also provides the maximum of four DIMM sockets (supporting ECC) and the option to set the CPU parameters either by using the DIPswitches or directly in the BIOS. The list of FSB speeds is quite long indeed: 66, 68, 75, 80, 83, 100, 103, 105, 110, 112, 115, 120, 124, 133, 140, 150, 155, 160 and 166 MHz. As the VIA chipset does not bear really high bus speeds, 150 MHz is the fastest setting which works reliably. The core voltage can additionally be modified in 0.05V increments.

Two DIPswitches are for the AGP speed setting: Auto, 1/1, 1/2 or 2/3 are your choices. This way you get the option to specifically overclock the AGP. In case you should have PCI cards, which do require their own IRQ, you can assign an IRQ to every PCI slot. Further you may enable or disable the AGP Fast Writes and configure the power button: Do you want it to activate suspend mode or to power down the system? The next feature is described best with another question: Where do you want to boot (from) today? Chose between FDD, HDD, LS120, CDROM, ZIP, MO, Network or SCSI.

Asus provides a full set of cables, including both 40 and 80 pin IDE plus an excellent manual. Just the CPU retention brackets have not been pre-installed. Still I have to complain about the place where Asus placed the FDD connector. Usually the cable will cover the front section of the graphics board. As most cards produce a lot of heat, this could possibly become a hot affair. Last but not least I think that a better labeling of the connector panel would be quite helpful for the assembly.

Once again we have to congratulate Asus, since the P3V4X was the best performer, rock stable and ready for all manner of expansion.

Azza PT-6VAX2

Board Revision: 2.1

BIOS Version: January 14, 2000

You can clearly see on the picture that this board did originally host Slot-1 and Socket 370. As Intel introduced differing specs for their FCPGA CPUs, Azza decided to remove the Socket 370. I think this decision was right, so nobody can try to run a FCPGA processor on the Socket 370 in vain. However, this company seems to have specifically focused on dual-architecture motherboards. If this sounds interesting to you, take a look at their website.

Our test sample makes use of the older 693A chipset, even though Azza is also offering a 694X motherboard, the 694TX. Three DIMM sockets will host up to 384 MByte RAM supporting ECC. The manual wants you to start plugging in your memory at DIMM socket 2, but it also worked without any difference in socket 1. Four PCI and one ISA slots have to be enough in case you plan to get this board.

Configuration has to be done via jumpers (FSB) and DIPswitches (multiplier). The BIOS item is only interesting in case you want to overclock your system. For this purpose, you may rise the bus speed up to 140 MHz which worked fine.

It seems as though we got the most simple test sample, since there are jumpers to enable or disable a sound chip, which was not present. Instead of it, you will get the standard features: Wake functions, IQ port, I/O connectors and merely one header for additional fans.

This all wouldn’t be very tragic, but as a matter of fact the board is one of the slowest in this comparison, even though all important BIOS settings were enabled. I cannot dissuade anyone from buying this board since testing it was pretty painless and all features are standard (except the non-present Socket 370). There were no instability issues at all and the board may be basically fine, but some more performance is definitely needed to sell large amounts of this board.

Chaintech 6ATA4

Board Revision: 1.03

BIOS Version: February 25, 2000

Chaintech ships its latest VIA chipset motherboard with the latest North Bridge (694X) and the better equipped South Bridge (686A). Five PCI, AGP 4x and one ISA slot should be enough for most purposes. The AMR slot is present as well, but shared with the ISA slot, which means that you can either use an ISA expansion card or the AMR slot. Not bad, since you don’t just “waste” a slot by having the AMR. Three DIMM sockets are standard today, and the remaining features are common as well: Two serial, one parallel port, UltraDMA/66, temp and voltage monitoring, Wake On LAN/Modem/Timer, ECC support and on board AC97 sound. You’ve certainly noticed the free space in the upper left corner. Here’s the position for an optional Creative sound chip. DIMM and PCI power LEDs are to indicate their status.

The connector panel’s description is adequate, but could still be better. Like Gigabyte or AOpen, Chaintech provides a so-called Twin BIOS: After a failed BIOS update you will be able to boot the system after setting a jumper. There are only two functions which would require jumpers. First enabling the option to change the processor’s core voltage. The second jumper set is responsible for the FSB selection, which can also be done in the BIOS together with the multiplier setup (Chaintech calls this SeePU).

Friends of external multimedia hardware will be delighted about the four USB ports. As usual, the first two ports are located in between the other external connectors, but you will require a USB riser to enable the two other ports. Chaintech did not include this cable into the package, so you will have to start hunting for it. Why hunting? It’s been my experience that it’s usually not that easy to get such a cable, since the connector pins can be differing from one company to another. The corresponding pins have been placed between two PCI slots – not really smart, but the majority of all users probably won’t use this option anyway. You will have to close the DIMM locks to install an AGP card. Besides that, there is nothing else, which would prevent using large expansion cards.

Chaintech did install the CPU guidance parts, so you only have to press in the two plastic locks. Their manual contains a detailed feature description, sufficient installation instructions, some surprising neutral overclocking information and a detailed BIOS guide. Overclockers: The FSB can be chosen MHz by MHz.

To summarize, this board comes with lots of nice features, making it very interesting. I think it’s important to say that I only got a SYSmark result under Windows NT in the third attempt. After the first crash, I reduced timings and disabled some features, but the blue screen came again. The achieved performance fulfils the expectations of a 694X motherboard, and apart from those two crashes this board has left quite a good impression. Nevertheless there could be some weakness regarding Windows NT.

DFI TA64

Board Revision: 4

BIOS Version: ?

Here we have the second hybrid motherboard, featuring both Slot-1 and Socket 370. You have to choose the right one by setting a jumper. With regard to this feature, the DFI board is a real flexibility winner, since it is one of only two boards (Tyan), which can host a Slot-1 Pentium III as well as the FCPGA versions. An Aureal sound chip is on board as well as five PCI and one ISA slot. DFI doesn’t seem to be a supporter of AMR, which currently is no disadvantage at all. Besides the usual features (I/O, monitoring, UltraDMA/66, IR, Wake On LAN/Ring), it offers a connector for two additional USB ports, Wake on RTC capability and both PCI and DIMM power LEDs. Luckily, the USB connector pins are listed in the manual. This could in fact be helpful when trying to get a riser cable. Thanks to the 694X chipset, it supports AGP 4x as well.

The memory clock can be reduced by 33 MHz in order to use PC100 SDRAM with a CPU running at 133 MHz FSB. The TA64 also supports ECC and up to 768 MByte. Reading the manual you will be recommended to use identical SDRAM modules (in case you’re using more than one). Mixing two different DIMMs did work properly, but DFI may have reasons to recommend this.

CPU configuration requires you to set two jumpers (FSB) and four DIPswitches (multiplier). In addition you may alter the adjusted FSB in the BIOS. AGP Fast Writes can also be disabled in the BIOS setup. Four audio line-ins are available for the sound system.

DFI is prepared for the upcoming Cyrix III CPU as well: JP18 has to be changed in order to use it. Besides the normal CPU and chassis fan headers, this board comes with a third one specifically for cooling the graphics card. What I really like is the exemplary descriptions for the panel LED and switch connectors. Since the board is quite wide, there’s nothing negative about the design. All expansion slots can be equipped with full size cards and no cables will cross other components.

After a look at the performance numbers I’ll come to the end of my evaluation: The board works quite fast, offers the best CPU flexibility and decent features including a great manual. More importantly, it did not cause the slightest trouble – which is something that I appreciate more than just high benchmark scores.

Eüpa VP1

Board Revision: 1.2

BIOS Version: 1.20 (January 3, 2000)

This is the first time I have ever reviewed a motherboard from Eüpa. It is a Chinese company, which concentrates on motherboards, situated in Shanghai and to be found at www.eupacomputer.com. They sent us their VP1, based on VIAs 693A North Bridge and the 686A South Bridge.

Features: Four PCI, one ISA, AMR, UltraDMA/66, AC97 sound system, two USB, two serial, one parallel, three DIMM sockets and three fan headers. Up to 768 MByte SDRAM can be installed, but the board cannot make use of ECC. Wake on LAN, Ring and RTC is supported as well as standard monitoring features. Great to see that the connector panel pins have been marked very clear.

I could not find a manual in the package – only a single sheet, printed on each side. Here you will find all necessary information, but no installation guide, no BIOS description and no additional information. Also the processor retention system has to be installed by the user, what could take some time in case you don’t know what these parts are for.

CPU configuration is done by jumpers only. At least you can also adjust the PCI and AGP dividers by one jumper each. Supported bus speeds are 66, 75, 83, 100, 103, 112, 124, 133, 140 and 150 MHz, so overclockers should basically be satisfied. As with many other boards, the memory clock can be reduced by 33 MHz. Not the best news regarding the board’s design: Both IDE connectors are in front of the AGP and the first PCI slot.

So far so good – if there wasn’t the unfortunate instance that the board did not want to start at all with a Coppermine. It worked both with an old Klamath as well as with Deschutes and Mendocino, but I couldn’t convince the Eüpa to work with the latest Intel processor.

FIC KA11

Board Revision: 2.2

BIOS Version: qm413

First International Computer offers their KA11 motherboard using the VIA Apollo Pro 133A. I’ll start with the manual this time, which is well structured and rather comprehensive, making it also suited for beginners. The package also contains Norton Ghost, Norton Anti Virus and Norton Virtual Drive, which some people could really appreciate.

This board seems to be able to fulfill most users’ requirements: 5 PCI slots, two ISA slots, four DIMM sockets (1GB max.), Creative sound chip, standard I/O (2 serial, 1 parallel, 2 USB), UltraDMA/66, ECC support, three fan headers, Wake on LAN, AGP 4x and FSB speeds up to 150 MHz are pretty good. The FSB speed type (66, 100, 133 MHz) is detected automatically. Still you can change this setting in the BIOS, but the AGP and PCI dividers cannot be altered this way. So I couldn’t run a 100 MHz CPU at 133/33 MHz, but “only” at 133/44 MHz, with the AGP running at 88 MHz. As a result, the system didn’t want to start. Of course the ‘A14’-procedure would have got me around that.

Multiplier and CPU voltage can be set by DIPswitches (multiplier) and some jumpers (Vcore). Voltage can be altered between 1.3 and 2.05V in 0.05V increments or between 2.1 and 3.5V in 0.1V increments. FIC makes use of a BIOS write protection system called BIOS Guardian. It is enabled within the BIOS Features Setup. You are given the option to disable AGP Fast Writes. In addition, the board comes with FIC’s LogoGeenie, which allows the user or admin to create their own startup logo. This bmp-picture (640x464x4) will be displayed while the system is initializing and booting.

Our sample board is not equipped with the additional USB connectors. If they were present, you could make use of two more USB ports by obtaining the right cable. FIC already installed the CPU retention system and locks. Removing the CPU is not as easy as with other boards, since the locks have to be retired manually until the CPU has been removed.

The KA11 is definitely one of the faster boards that you will see in the benchmark charts later. I’m a bit upset that these good results are blurred by the fact that Windows NT benchmarking failed. Even with the slowest BIOS settings I repeatedly got blue screens. It seems as if Windows NT benchmarking is becoming a stability test for some motherboards, since the Chaintech board had some problems also.

Gigabyte GA-6VX-4X

Board Revision: 1.1

BIOS Version: F4 (February 21, 2000)

Gigabyte’s board uses the 694X chipset and makes use both of AC97 sound and of two additional USB ports. It comes with AGP 4x, , UltraDMA/66, four DIMM sockets and five PCI slots. One ISA slot has been left for older expansion cards. This board does have the AMR, but only a few BIOS settings to exert some influence on performance. For example, there’s a general setting called “top performance” which worked fine under Windows 98, but provoked blue screens in Windows NT. I would have liked to know about the settings, which are changed by “top performance”.

Maybe you’ve already seen this plastic part around the AGP slot. This is a card lock to prevent the AGP card from loosening, for example during system shipment. Two DIPswitch blocks are situated on the board: One for the multiplier and the other for the FSB setting. Here you can set 66, 100, 112, 124, 133, 142 or 152 MHz, which can be seen as “basic repertoire” for overclocking.

Gigabyte provides a DIMM LED and three fan headers to ensure proper cooling options. CPU locks have been installed, but also seem to be meant for one-way use. As with the FIC board, getting the processor out of the slot is quite an affair. Taking a look at the board’s design, it seems to be quite good except for the audio line-in connectors, which are widely placed. The same applies to the second USB connector, which is situated on the wrong side of the board, unless you want to place the two additional USB ports somewhere at the computers front side.

The best feature of the 6VX-4X is Gigabyte’s DualBIOS: If the first BIOS got damaged while flashing or due to a virus, you may switch to the second one and get your system working without time loss. The ECC support does contribute to reliability as well. 1.5 Gbyte SDRAM can be installed but be careful: The chipset only supports six memory banks. This means a maximum of three double-sided DIMMs or two double and two single sided.

Gigabyte’s manual is easy to understand and almost complete. It is just missing some words and pictures about CPU installation. Finally, performance is a very important topic. Regarding Windows NT, the Gigabyte is the second fastest after the Asus. I believe that the board could still be somewhat faster, since I had to disable the “top performance” BIOS setting for NT benchmarking due to instabilities. Game performance is excellent as well, while the board gets third place in Windows 98.

IWill VD133

Board Revision: 1.4

BIOS Version: December 29, 1999

The VD133 has been available for some months now and makes use of the 693A chipset. Due to this older chipset, the board does not support AGP 4x. It would be great to see a 694X-motherboard from IWill as well, since the VD133 looks quite good. You only have to set jumpers to choose the bus speed (Auto/66/100/133 MHz), to clear the CMOS password or to alter the core or I/O voltage. Overclocking and multiplier settings are done in the system BIOS, using IWill’s Smart Setting.

IWill provides the option to rise the core voltage by 5 or 10%. This makes sense for overclocking beginners, since 5% of 1.6V (Coppermine) is much less than 5% of 2.8V (Klamath). Critical over-voltaging can be avoided this way. Experienced overclockers will likely prefer the direct way of setting a certain voltage. Moreover, the I/O voltage can be adjusted as well. Using 3.6 or 3.8V instead of the 3.4V default can often improve the stability of overclocked systems.

The processor is locked by retention brackets, which allow you to remove the processor quite fast by moving up the sliders. Other systems require much more patience. The board’s design allows up to four DIMM sockets while only three are equipped. Either this layout was originally designed for another chipset (e.g. Intel BX) or IWill decided to stay with three sockets. Most boards cannot manage four DIMMs with more than 16 chips each, so using only three would indeed be the best solution.

From the performance point of view, boards using the 694X chipset are the clear winners. Still the IWill motherboard belongs to the upper third of the 693A boards regarding Windows performance.

Jetway 994AN-L

Board Revision: 1.0

BIOS Version: A03 (January 6, 2000)

Here we’ve got another Slot-1/Socket 370 motherboard. As with DFI and Tyan, you can only use one of them, but this Socket 370 can merely host a Celeron CPU. In case you want to get a Pentium III FCPGA, you’ll have to look for another board.

The board makes use of the faster 694X chipset, but Jetway doesn’t seem to be able to take advantage of it; the benchmark numbers are low as if the board was equipped with the older and slower 693A chip.

Still the board is interesting due to several features including 10 FSB speeds, max. 1.5 GByte SDRAM (supporting ECC as well while the memory clock can be lowered by 33 MHz) using all three DIMM sockets, AGP 4x, UltraDMA/66, Wake On Ring, Power On Ring, RTC power on, two USB ports, two serial ports, one parallel port and optional IR capability. Also the CPU retention parts have been installed. Two plastic caps are inside the package, which have to be put on both retention brackets to save the CPU.

In spite of the very compact design, the position of the floppy and HD connectors is not ideal. Of course they won’t jam the installation of full size expansion cards, but all cables will be covering the graphics card. Since actual GeForce models are getting very hot, be careful when plugging in the drive cables.

Beside the fact that this board’s performance is not great, there were no other disappointments. You will have to set your CPU parameters by some jumpers. The manual is quite short but provides adequate information about hardware setup although the BIOS options are not described completely.

Jetway’s 994AN-L comes with all the features we expect from modern motherboards. Besides, you can also use the cheaper Celeron CPUs without getting a CPU converter board. The only deficiencies are the mediocre performance and the board’s size/design, which should at all costs be as small as possible. Both factors prevent this motherboard from becoming a winner.

Lucky Star 6VA693A

Board Revision: 3.0

BIOS Version: D4 (September 22, 1999)

6VA693A already tells you which chipset has been used for this motherboard. The package contains the CPU retention parts, which have to be installed manually, an FDD and one 80-pin IDE cable and as with all other boards: driver CD and manual. Although the latter describes features and installation, most BIOS items are not explained.

You are given the option to change the multiplier (in case your CPU allows this) by the red DIPswitches. FSB is detected automatically. Of course you can chose another FSB: 66, 75, 83, 100, 103, 112, 124, 133, 140 or 150 MHz are your choices, which can be set using the first two switches of the DIP block.

Lucky Star equips their board with two ISA slots, four PCI slots, three DIMM sockets and the AMR slot. Thanks to the South Bridge VT82C686A, this platform does also include AC97 sound with the common line in, line out and microphone jackets as well as a game port. ECC is not supported, but two additional USB ports are instead. As usual, the required cable has to be obtained separately. Of course the board can wake on LAN or on modem ring.

All connectors are clearly labelled. I was quite surprised to see that there is a jumper, which has to be set for Coppermine CPUs (JPX2 to 2-3). Lucky Star provides three fan headers, which has still not become standard. As most of today’s components become quite hot and therefore unstable, cooling is a topic, which shouldn’t be underestimated.

The memory clock can be increased or lowered by 33 MHz, either to use a 133 MHz CPU with 100 MHz memories or vice versa. Of course you may abuse this feature for overclocking as well. Regarding performance, the Lucky Star 6VA693A is an average board. There’s nothing to complain about this board, but nothing exceptional either.

MSI MS-6199

Board Revision: 2

BIOS Version: 3.3 (March 16, 2000)

This is one of the very few boards that come with two IDE cables. The manual provides a lot of information regarding hardware and BIOS setup. Let’s take a quick look at the “usual” hardware before going into more interesting features: Five PCI slots, two ISA slots, three DIMM sockets, decent CPU locks, IR port, 2 serial, 1 parallel, two USB ports, three fan headers, and an optional sound chip.

MSI is the only company, which really makes use of their status LEDs. The four LEDs can indicate 16 different statuses, depending on which LEDs light. This way you can easily see what the computer is doing when booting: Memory test, initialization of the keyboard controller or CPU initialization are only three examples.

This board also has an on-board PC speaker, which can be enabled by setting a jumper. It’s a pity that this board only uses the 693A chipset. That’s why it does not know AGP 4x. MSI tries to impress by even more features: FSB speeds can be chosen in quite small increments between 66 and 153 MHz. The monitoring features are very detailed as well. Apart from the usual voltage and temperature monitoring, you can also plug in the 20cm thermistor to check the temperature of the chipset North Bridge or the AGP chip. This feature is called Top Tech II and can be enabled in the BIOS menu “CPU Plug & Play III”. That’s where you can also raise the I/O voltage to 3.4, 3.5 or 3.6V.

I really liked the design as everything has been placed where you would want it to be. According to the manual, 512 MByte DIMMs are supported to enable a maximum SDRAM size of 1.5 GByte. If you want, you may also use ECC memory.

Looking at the performance numbers you will see that the 6199 is the second fastest 693A motherboard. In combination with lots of attractive features, this board is one of the hotshots indeed. If only the 693A chip would be replaced by the 694X..

Q-Lity P3V-T

Board Revision: D

BIOS Version: 4B31 (February 2, 2000)

Q-Lity is quite an unusual name, just as it is unusual that it achieves great performance. Despite using the slower 693A chipset, the board reaches the scores of other 694X boards. It’s even faster than some 694X motherboards. I don’t want to play hide and seek, so here’s the reason for those great results: The AGP bus runs at 2/3 FSB instead of only 1/2, making it run at 88 instead of 66 MHz. As you can see, this action is extremely effective in getting better performance. Nevertheless I would be careful: First you should only get this motherboard if you know for sure that your graphics card will support 88 MHz clock speed. Second I want to remind you that clocking a 694X motherboard this way will provide even better performance numbers.

The board can be easily recognized by the blue capacitors. It has five PCI as well as two ISA slots. Three DIMM sockets are waiting to be equipped with 512 MByte DIMMs for a maximum memory size of 1.5 GBytes. Of course you will get the common stuff like two serial ports as well as two USB ports, UltraDMA/66 controller, AGP 2x and the possibility to set the CPU speed in the Hardware Monitor Setup page of the AMI BIOS. You will also get the option to directly assign an IRQ to every PCI expansion slot.

You shouldn’t be surprised to hear that this board doesn’t feature any other bus speed than the standard 66, 100 or 133 MHz. The reason for this is the AGP bus, which is overclocked by default (to 88 MHz): Choosing, for example, 140 MHz instead of 133 would make the AGP run at 93 MHz. The probability that graphics cards will support such high bus clock speeds decreases with increasing FSB.

All connector labels are suited for beginners as well and a PC speaker has been included directly on the motherboard. Besides the fact that an overclocked board of course performs better, there is nothing really interesting with this board. During this test, the Q-Lity board ran very stable, but I cannot assure this for video cards other than the three tested.

RioWorks PSVA

Board Revision: W44 ?

BIOS Version: 1.30 (March 31, 2000)

Rioworks mainly dedicates on high-end workstation or server motherboards, so this board seems to be a mainstream product. It features the AMR slot, which is shared with one of the ISA slots, four PCI slots, AGP 4x, three DIMM sockets, UltraDMA/66, on board PC speaker, easy-to-open CPU locks, three fan headers, two USB ports and almost jumper free CPU configuration. There are two jumpers to set the FSB speed (66/100/133 MHz). Overclocking can be done in the BIOS, where you may chose lots of settings up to 150 MHz.

You can install up to 1.5 GByte SDRAM. ECC is not supported, but as the Rioworks board is not meant for high-end servers, its exclusion is not a problem. As an option, the board is available with a Creative sound chip to meet the AC97 specs. Common wake features like Wake On LAN, Ring or Modem are supported as well as standard monitoring functions.

Testing this board was not particularly exciting, since there was nothing exotic, which I could look forward to. Though using the fast 694X chipset, the board does not achieve better benchmark results than optimized 693A motherboards. Of course this would be no problem, but I was quite upset as the board failed the SYSmark in Windows NT over and over again, so that I cannot present you with a result.

I’d like to say that it’s much more important to work on stability than on performance – if there were those numbers. The manual may be comprehensive and easy to understand, but at this time the PSVA is neither fast nor really stable.

Shuttle AV61

Board Revision: 1.4

BIOS Version: S027 (November 10, 1999)

This time I will give you the performance rating first: I’m sorry to say, but the Spacewalker board is definitely the slowest of this review, even though this mainboard has been available for some time now.

The hardware makes quite a good impression: Five PCI slots, two ISA slots, UltraDMA/66, two USB, two serial ports, one parallel port, common wake features and the choice of either setting jumpers or doing all the setup in the CPU Features menu of the Award BIOS. As with most other board, this one does also allow the DRAM frequency to be reduced by 33 MHz. Hence you can use a CPU running at 133 MHz FSB while using memory at 100 MHz clock speed. 768 MByte SDRAM can be hosted max. Shuttle did not include ECC support, by the way.

To summarize, the hardware outfit is average, while the performance is not quite acceptable. This is the second board, which does not perform as expected. As with RioWorks, Shuttle’s manual is great as well. At least the Shuttle board was absolutely stable during all tests.

Soltek SL-67KV

Board Revision: A7

BIOS Version: F3 (January 14, 2000)

When opening the package, I noticed a yellow manual and CD, which was a Symantec CD and manual for Norton Ghost (Windows recovery software) and Norton Anti Virus. Despite having over 70 pages, the manual does not include much information besides the necessary configuration stuff. No installation instruction, not even a little BIOS guide. Instead of that the manual offers information for all Soltek motherboards. Maybe I will learn to appreciate this as soon as we have the others here for reviewing as well. The SL-67KV’s features are: Five PCI slots, one ISA slot, AMR slot and AGP 4x. Three DIMM sockets are present and can handle three DIMMs at 256 Mbytes each, making a total of 768 Mbytes RAM. The modules can also be 72 Bit types to use ECC. The BIOS gives you the option to assign IRQs to every PCI slot if necessary.

You will have to place two jumpers for the right FSB speed and set four DIPswitches to adjust the right multiplier. Soltek provides an additional connector to make use of two more USB ports. But you will need to get the right cable. Of course the board does support all wake features and is also equipped with AC97 sound including all jackets and a game port.

Last but not least some great news: The Soltek board performed well in all benchmarks without real difficulties. I was almost becoming a bit depressed after two boards that couldn’t show real benefits but this one made me happy again!

Tekram P6PRO-AU

Board Revision: 1.0

BIOS Version: 1.01 (December 27, 1999)

Here we have another board which makes use of VIA’s top model, the VT82C694X or Apollo Pro 133A. Tekram also uses the better-equipped South Bridge (VT82C686A), resulting in two additional USB ports (total of four) and AC97 sound using an Advance Logic sound chip. Moreover, you don’t need an I/O chip when using the 686A South Bridge.

The P6PRO-AU comes with one ISA slot, five PCI slots, the AMR slot and AGP 4x. 768 MByte SDRAM can be installed by plugging in three modules with 256 MByte each, ECC is also supported. As Tekram also provides SCSI adapter cards, their P6PRO-AU comes with an integrated Symbios SCSI BIOS.

Of course Wake on LAN and on Modem are on the features list as well as the basic system components like UltraDMA/66, both serial and one parallel port, IR header and the sound system’s audio jackets. Our test sample did not include a manual, so I have to leave this topic unanswered. Taking a look at the board’s design does not reveal any weakness. All slots can be equipped with full size cards and all connectors are well placed throughout. A little green LED is to indicate a normal operation. Only the CPU settings apart from non-standard FSB speeds have to be done completely via jumpers. As you can chose up to 150 MHz FSB, the board seems to be interesting for overclockers, especially due to the fact that the basic bus speed grade (66, 100 or 133 MHz) can be forced by the jumpers.

This candidate wasn’t among the fastest boards, but ran relatively fast. Windows NT seems to be a real problem for some boards, and this one was also not able to complete the SYSmark run. As with the FIC and Gigabyte boards, the Tekram prevents itself from being a top candidate by quite poor NT stability. Of course we want to see boards with plenty of features, but reliability has to be the very first aim.

TMC TI6VG4

Board Revision: 1.20

BIOS Version: 1202B3 (December 2, 1999)

The TMC motherboard makes use of the 694X chipset as well as the 686A South Bridge. That’s the reason for the long list of features: Five PCI slots, one ISA slot, AGP 4x, AMR slot, three DIMM sockets (max. 1.5 GByte SDRAM) with ECC support, two serial ports, one parallel, AC97 sound, UltraDMA/66 controller, IR port, 2+2 USB ports and the wake up stuff. Beginners will be happy about the detailed manual. It’s just missing some installation instructions.

As the board supports bus speeds up to 150 MHz, it’s quite suited for all who want to overclock their CPU. Only two jumpers have to be set to define the FSB speed. All other settings (overclocked bus speeds and multiplier setting) can be done in the CPU Speed Setting Section of the Award BIOS. The only missing item is the option to alter the CPU voltage.

DRAM Clock can also be altered within Chipset Features Setup: You may raise or lower the memory clock speed by 33 MHz each. Thus you will be able to use older PC100 SDRAM while running a CPU at 133 MHz or vice versa. TMC did very well when they designed this motherboard. Besides the CPU fan header, there are two additional ones to ensure proper system cooling. Connectors have been placed quite smartly, so that no cable will cross heat-sensitive components. Last but not least, all expansion slots can be easily equipped with full size cards.

This board’s performance matched my expectations. It was fast, stable and very easy to test. That’s what we want to see!

Transcend TS-AVD1

Board Revision: ?

BIOS Version: 1.03.12 (December 16, 1999)

The TS-AVD1 makes use of the 693A chipset and comes with five PCI and one ISA slot as well as AGP 2x. Three DIMM sockets are available and will host up to 768 MByte using three DIMMs at 256 MByte each. Memory modules can be 64 or 72 bit for ECC usage. Regarding I/O features, the board comes with the standard equipment: two serial, one parallel, two USB, IR header, UltraDMA/66 controller and the SB-link connector.

Transcend does also use the best CPU retention system available, which makes it very easy to unlock the processor. Be careful with the DIMM locks though: As you can see on the photo, they have to be closed before installing an AGP graphics card. To compensate, the connector panel has been labelled excellently.

You will need to set two jumpers for your FSB selection as the multiplier has to be chosen by setting four DIP switches (red item on the lower edge of the photo). To overclock your system, Transcend provides several bus speeds up to 150 MHz. Besides that, you are given the chance to have influence on the memory clock: FSB + 33 MHz or FSB – 33 MHz. After reading the previous evaluations, you should now know that this makes it possible to run a 133 MHz CPU with 100 MHz memory or the other way round. Another useful option is the PCI IRQ assignment: If one card needs its “personal” interrupt, you may allocate it.

After a quick look at the manual you will be informed about CPU installation, hardware features and setup and of course, how to change the various BIOS settings. Our test package contained two IDE cables – one 40 and one 80 pin (for UDMA/66 devices). I’m not sure if this will also be in standard retail shipments, as the manual was a pre-release as well.

Good news from the benchmark runs: This board is the fastest one (not overclocked) using the 693A chipset. Basically, you will get a very reliable motherboard with some good details.

Tyan S1854 Trinity 400

Board Revision: D

BIOS Version: 1.06 (February 11, 2000)

The last but not least board in this comparison comes from Tyan, who are based in California, although the motherboards are actually manufactured in Taiwan. You may have already noticed the two striking features: Six PCI slots (all masters) and an additional Socket 370. Earlier board versions had been equipped with a jumper to select either Slot-1 or the socket. Our test sample (rev. D) does not have this jumper any more and is able to detect the used interface.

This slot monster doesn’t require the FSB to be set manually, since it will be detected automatically. Afterwards, you can still alter this clock speed in the BIOS. Only the multiplier has to be set via some jumpers – which seems to be a tradition at Tyan. This board supports clock speeds up to 140 MHz and along with the widespread option to increase or decrease the memory clock by 33 MHz. This gives the best flexibility if you want to keep using some hardware or a processor. As with the Transcend motherboard, you will have to close the DIMM locks before installing an AGP card. Cooling seems to be an important issue for the people who designed this board, since it features four fan headers. There’s also some free place left on the board: It can be equipped it with a Creative sound chip for multimedia purposes.

According to the amount of slots I would have expected to see four DIMM sockets. I can think of two reasons why Tyan is content with three: First there’s hardly enough free space to place a fourth socket and second, it’s not possible to use four double-sided DIMMs anyway. Most chipsets cannot handle such large amounts of memory chips.

It is good to see that Tyan did not only do great work regarding the software but also with the manual. Everything is distinctly described even with photos showing the installation process. Maybe most of you are expecting the Tyan board to be super fast, as its features are extremely interesting. The board scores fine, but it’s not really fast. Most other 694X perform better. I really hope that future board and BIOS versions will bring along some performance increases, since this board could have easily been the winner.

Motherboard Feature Comparison Table

* This motherboard is only rated “good” as the AGP is running overclocked by default.

Performance

Please take a look at the benchmark charts to get a better impression of the performance of the boards. When reading about excellent, good, average or mediocre, please take into account that the difference between the fastest and the slowest board (except Shuttle) is about 12-13% regarding the SYSmark runs and between 25 – 30% for the game benchmarks.

As power gamer, speed freak or professional user, you should take a closer look at the benchmarks. Standard Windows applications won’t show any differences, so they should concentrate on their favorite features.

Reliability

A board is excellent if there was not one single issue during the tests. Good boards caused a maximum of two minor problems which were not important, e.g. stability issues with a heavily overclocked CPU or hang ups at hardcore timing settings. Mediocre means that there were at least three hang ups or blue screens. Poor boards did not even complete at least one benchmark run.

The Benchmarks: SYSmark 2000 – Windows 98 SE

I was surprised when I first saw the benchmark scores of the Soltek motherboard. It is the only one, which is capable of almost achieving the performance of the Asus. Most Apollo Pro 133A-boards score almost the same – the differences are smaller than 5%. Just AOpen, RioWorks and Tyan cannot keep up with the others.

You will see the Q-Lity P3V-T scoring fifth best. As described in the evaluation, the AGP bus is overclocked by default. Obviously this does push up the board’s performance into the 694X league. There’s practically zero difference between the other 693A motherboards, except that they score much worse (as expected).

The Benchmarks: SYSmark 2000 – Windows NT 4.0

You will notice that four scores are missing: The Eüpa board caused several hang-ups. Each board got several chances, even with absolutely reduced timings and BIOS settings. It seems as if they’re having some other problem.

The differences between the candidates are smaller under Windows NT. Now all 693A motherboards do score exactly the same result, while the differences among the 694X community are still present.

Again, the Asus board clearly takes the lead.

The Benchmarks: Direct 3D Performance – Expendable Timedemo

The first game benchmark results look quite the same as the NT benchmark. Asus is on top, followed by Gigabyte this time. Again, most 694X chipset boards score fairly the same – just the overlocked Q-Lity board appears among them.

Shuttle is losing again, as the AV61 is performing clearly worse than all others. The PSVA by RioWorks also doesn’t seem to be a fast runner, since it cannot hold up to the performance expectation of the Apollo ‘A’ motherboard.

The Benchmarks: OpenGL Performance – Quake III Arena

Nobody can deny that Asus seems to have the very best engineers. Dominating Quake III as well, the Asus has proven to be the clear performance winner of this review. Once again Q-Lity is able to score very well with their P3V-T.

Quake timedemo seems to be the best benchmark to spot even tiny performance differences. I ran the benchmark several times each, giving all boards the chance to perform as best as possible. The difference between the lowest and fastest 693A motherboard is smaller than 4% (again except Shuttle).

Taking a look at the differences among the 694X boards, they are clearly larger (about 15%). This is clear proof that there’s still a lot of margin for performance improvements.

Recommendations

Now we get down to our final opinions as a result of the extensive reviews carried out – no doubt you will have your own requirements from the motherboard you use, we set out below which boards fared better in different areas.

Best/Fastest Boards

My favorites in this review are Soltek SL-67KV, TMC TI6VG4 and Asus P3V4X. All three offer excellent performance and useful features. The Asus comes with 6 PCI master slots instead of the AMR, perfect stability, best performance and excellent conditions for overclocking. Soltek provides four USB ports, AMR and also works rock stable like the Asus. The same can be said for the TMC board, I just want to mention the excellent design again. These three motherboards support ECC and proved to be very reliable and fast.

Winner among the 693A motherboards is the Transcend TS-AVD1. It is no feature king, but is extremely stable and fast.

Flexibility Winners

The Tyan S1854 can only be recommended if performance is not your primary requirement. Six PCI slots and the option to use a FCPGA CPU without requiring an adapter card as well as the comfortable FSB auto detection make this board quite attractive. Four fan headers provide enough cooling options. Moreover, the board did not cause any problems during the test.

DFI TA64. This one doesn’t have as much slots and fan headers, but it is the only one which is able to run a FCPGA-Pentium III. All other hybrid boards of this review can only cope with Intel’s Celeron. It comes with four USB ports and an integrated sound system . Performance and stability finalize its list of benefits.

Overclocking Boards

The best boards for overclocking come from Soltek, Asus and AOpen. FIC and Chaintech do also represent great overclocking platforms, but I’m not going to recommend products, which did not convince me as a result of to stability issues.

Final Thoughts

It’s quite a long time since we did the last big motherboard review. This one was quite heavy, since benchmarking 21 boards takes a lot of time. Nevertheless, I think that the results made the following things clear:

1. Boards using the VIA Apollo Pro 133 (VT82C693C) are quite a bad choice for gamers, performance-hungry users and of course all who have to run high end applications. However, such a board could still be interesting for all who have some hardware left and want to assemble another PC (e.g. web or fax server, game server) which certainly will not require high bandwidths.
   
   Those boards should also be very cheap, since I expect the 693A chipset to vanish from the market – thanks to the faster and better brother. For example I could imagine getting such a board to bridge the time until i815 is available in the following cases:
   • Your old motherboard got broken, but you don’t want to get a new CPU and new RAM as well
   • Your old motherboard is not suited for a new component you just bought (e.g. a GeForce graphics card with its heavy power consumption), but you don’t want to get a whole new system
2. Combining a brand new and fast Pentium III processor (667 MHz or faster) with a quite slow 693A-board is like throwing performance away. A 694X mainboard will give you much better performance (5-30%). I think if you want to spend a lot of money for a fast CPU, you will certainly have some bucks left to get a decent motherboard.
3. Performance is an issue again. That is something you should consider carefully. As long as most companies did not have time to optimize their boards and utilize some experience with the latest chipsets, power users should not buy a motherboard without having read performance comparisons.
4. Check your requirements!
   • Maybe you won’t need a USB Hub in case the board offers four USB ports.
   • Do you really need high performance now? What about a hybrid board? You could get a cheap Celeron now and upgrade to a Pentium III as soon as you can afford your model.
5. Overclocking is a hot topic. On the one hand, the VIA chipsets are all but overclocking champions. Most boards bear 150 MHz, but no board offers higher FSB speeds as they wouldn’t work reliably. However, the VIA 694X is definitely an excellent combination for overclockers as well as non-overclockers: FSB can usually be selected freely. The AGP can be run at saft 1/2 FSB or overclocked 2/3 FSB. Your main memory can usually be operated 33 MHz below or above the selected FSB.

Follow-up by reading the article ‘Slot-1 VIA Motherboard Update‘.