Mega Test: 14 Boards with KT266A and nForce 420D – THG.RU

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14 Boards with KT266A and nForce 420D” –>

Chipset Duel – VIA vs. Nvidia

The selection of chipsets for Socket 462 (Socket A) is growing wider. Having presented an under-performer in the KT266 chipset, VIA followed up straightaway with a newcomer dubbed the KT266A. The only difference between it and its predecessor lies in the KT266A’s memory interface, which was designed to be a real speed demon. Rumor has it that it has been copied from the SiS 735. However, there’s no official statement to that effect – not from VIA itself, anyway.

The idea behind it, however, is sound: until recently, the benchmark results had been labeling the SiS 735 the best performer with AMD Athlon & Duron. The VIA Apollo KT266A chipset is clearly intended for use en masse, while the Taiwanese competition SiS and ALi have a much smaller slice of the pie, installing considerably fewer chipsets.

Now there’s a new kid on the block joining the three Far East incumbents: Nvidia, well known for its graphics chips, is offering a highly integrated chipset by the name of nForce. It’s available in various flavors, the most important difference being support for either single or dual-channel memory. Both of the boards we tested use the nForce 420D (formerly known as Crush 12), which has optimum performance with classic DDR SDRAM in a dual-channel configuration.

VIA Changes Their Naming Convention

Good bye old cryptic VT… something. The old KT266 northbridge is still known under VT8366 whereas the new baby KT266A is also called KT266A.

Four CPU types for socket A are available. All of them are now supported by KT266A and nForce 420D.

Comparing the Chipsets – VIA vs. Nvidia

* depends on clock generator

UltraATA/133

Some manufacturers are gradually updating their KT266A based products, as there is one controller with ATA/133 support already available: HighPoint’s HPT372. It is pretty much the same chip than the HPT370 ATA/100 RAID controller, supporting RAID modes 0, 1, 0+1 and JBOD (spanning). Of course you can also attach any other ATA drive without any RAIDing. Just be careful with CD-ROM drives, DVD ROMs or writers: All of them use the ATAPI interface which is not supported by most IDE RAID controller chips.

More about the nForce – 128 Bit Memory Bus

One of the main characteristics setting the nForce chipset apart from the VIA KT266A is its dual-channel DDR SDRAM interface. This means that two 64-bit DIMM modules are merged to create a 128-bit wide memory bus.

But there are a few snags: The Nvidia chipset will only reach peak performance with two identical RAM modules. If, however, a third RAM module is added to the fray, the dual-channel mode, with its 128 bits of bandwidth, is automatically deactivated. That fact alone makes upgrading RAM tricky at best, pumping up the price as well.

What’s more, there’s no way to determine which mode the board is running. Asus is planning to address the problem by integrating a special display feature in future BIOS versions.

The graphics integrated into the board are derived from the GeForce2 MX, which addresses memory according to the shared-memory system. All told, up to 64 MB RAM can be reserved for graphics functions.

12 Boards with VIA KT266A – Fastest Chipset for AMD & Duron

Abit KR7A / KR7A-133

Board Revision: ?

BIOS Version: Dec 27, 2001

We received Abit’s KT266A motherboard too late, hence the update to this article.

The KR7A comes with six PCI slots, AGP 4x, ATA/100 standard controller plus IDE RAID controller, and four DIMM sockets for PC2100 DDR modules. Please note that if you insert double sided DIMMs, only three slots can be used. If you want to use all four, you will have to purchase registered DIMMs. However, four sockets are an excellent basis for large amounts of memory: theoretically, you could equip this motherboard with the maximum amout of RAM that is supported by the KT266A, which is 4 GB! The only problem could be to obtain 1 GB registered DDR DIMMs.

Thanks to Soft Menu III, all CPU-related parameters such as FSB clock, multiplier, CPU core voltage and some other timing values can be set directly within the BIOS. Generally, Abit has more items that can be manually configured than the other manufacturers.

The latest version of this motherboard is called KR7A-133 and already comes with HighPoint’s new HPT372 chip, which supports ATA/133 RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1 and JBOD (drive spanning in order to use several drives as if they were only one). As this new chip has not been changed externally, motherboard companies can integrate it without changing current designs, which is what Abit is doing. Thus, the IDE connectors for this controller are in front of the PCI slots, which may cause problems if you want to use several large PCI cards.

In terms of performance and stability, the KR7A is an enjoyable product, as it runs fast and reliably. No application crashes, hang-ups or configuration problems occurred during our tests.

Asus A7V266-E – No Surprises Here

The Asus A7V266-E.

Board revision: 1.07

BIOS version: 1005b003

The Asus is delivered to the end customer in this packaging.

The new Asus board comes packaged in brighter colors that set it off much better from the competition than their old boards. For all its pretty packaging, though, the Asus A7V266-E didn’t exactly bowl over the testers – the board is hardly different from the previous boards furnished with the KT133A and KT266 chipsets. Functionality is also pretty much old hat. A hold-over from the previous model, the A7V266 with the VIA KT266 chipset is the jumper block, which allows you to switch between an Athlon XP/MP with a Palomino core and a classic Athlon with a Thunderbird core. The real beauty of this feature lies in the activation of the overload protection, so that the signal sent by the thermal diode on the Athlon XP/MP can be evaluated. Seemingly as a matter of tradition, Asus includes an AGP Pro slot and a less useful ACR connector. At this point, every user will be asking himself or herself where in the dickens components for the ACR slot can be acquired.

Jumper to switch between newer Palomino and older Thunderbird cores.

The test board came furnished with a BIOS that provided for an FSB clock speed of 134.4 MHz. Setting BIOS to a standardized 133 MHz FSB speed was out of the question. We owe it to our good contacts at Asus that we received a BIOS with an almost specified clock speed in nearly no time. All the benchmark measurements have the A7V266-E in the upper third of the ratings. In fact, it even pummels all of the competition at compiling a Linux kernel, and in Sysmark 2000.

Azza 366A-AV – Plain Jane

The Azza 366A-AV.

Board revision: 1.2

BIOS version: 26.09.2001

The packaging for the Azza motherboard.

In features and other characteristics, the Azza 366A-AV pretty much blends in with the rest of the candidates in this test group. One eminently practical idea was that of leaving out the fan on the North Bridge, since only a modicum of heat is generated there anyway. As the benchmark results show, the Azza places between the middle and the lower third in the rankings. The manufacturer was very circumspect about setting the clock speed for the front-side bus – our reading was precisely 132.91 MHz. At this speed, our CPU ran at barely 1595 MHz, instead of the official 1600 MHz. Less useful, however, was the integrated CNR slot, for which there are no freely available components on the market.

View of the ports on the Azza board.

Chaintech CT-7VJDA- Ideal for Overclocking

The Chaintech has multifarious overclocking features.

Board revision: ?

BIOS version: no information

This is how it looks at your local computer store.

An enormous passive cooler is installed on the Chaintech’s North Bridge. The integrated PCI-3D sound feature was a plus in the test. For this feature, the manufacturer provides a fitting slot bracket with audio parts for the second and third sound channels (bass-booster and center). The concurrent integration of an ACR and CNR slot was rather unnecessary. With this gambit, Chaintech hopes to attract customers in the OEM segment, and pocket a fat premium to boot. A conspicuous feature is the stable voltage supply provided by 8 fixed-voltage regulators. Hardcore overclockers will love it – the board allows you to pump the core voltage to up to 1.85 volts, making it an ideal pick to overclock the AMD Athlon XP. The Chaintech’s performance is on a par with that of the Asus A7V266-E – they score the same in nearly all the benchmarks.

DFI AD70-SR – Inexpensive Alternative

The DFI AD70-SR with a KT266A chipset.

Board revision: A

BIOS version: AD70SR920

The packaging for the DFI motherboard.

The DFI board is a relatively inconspicuous product. The manufacturer was only interested in presenting a stable board with a KT266A chipset. And it’s part of this standard that the board be equipped with 3 DIMM and 5 PCI slots. Our collective hat goes off to the integrated RAID controller, the useful AGP clip and the passive cooler on the North Bridge. A highlight in this test group is the fact that DFI doesn’t integrate an ACR, CNR or an AMR slot. In the benchmarks, the DFI board scores in the last third of the rankings. Here’s a whiff of utopia – in BIOS, you can set a maximum FSB clock speed of 250 MHz, although this has no real practical significance. Real AMD nuts will most certainly be disappointed that the board’s core voltage settings max out at 1.85 volts. An important selling point for the DFI remains, however: its price, which is generally considerably lower than that of the competition.

Epox EP-8KHA+ – Overclocking on Shaky Ground

The Epox EP-8KHA+ is every AMD fan’s best buddy.

Board revision: 2.0

BIOS version- 8KHI1B02

Retail packaging for the Epox board.

The Epox board is all the rage with particularly ambitious AMD users. The reason is simple – it’s an ideal CPU for overclocking Athlon XP processors. And that’s not all – you can also change the voltage settings for both your RAM and the CPU core. The only caveat is that the maximum core voltage is set to 1.85 volts at the factory, making it necessary to modify the board itself if you want to set the voltage any higher. If you credit the reports of some users, this board makes insane clock speeds beyond the 2000 MHz sound barrier possible. Unfortunately though, according to all the field tests we performed at our THG lab in Munich, these claims turned out to be a load of bunk. On the bright side, we were able to hit a clock speed of 1666 MHz using the Epox and an unlocked AMD Athlon XP 1900+ (equivalent to the “2000+” rating). We found it very useful that the Epox has an integrated Port 80 card that gives error messages as early as during booting by using two 7-segment displays. The six PCI slots and the clip for the AGP slot were real plusses. The board is the leader of the pack in performance, and takes the gold in several benchmarks.

Integrated port-80 card on the Epox.

Gigabyte GA-7VTXH – Problems with Dual-BIOS

The Gigabyte GA-7VTXH with a KT266A chipset.

Board revision: 1.0

BIOS version: F2

View of the packaging for the Gigabyte.

This Gigabyte, cryptically titled GA-7VTXH, has a wide assortment of integrated components – among them are a Creative sound chip (equivalent to a Soundblaster PCI 128) and a 100-Mbit network chip from Realtek (RTL8100L). The manufacturer leaves out superfluous extras, such as an AMR slot. Also, the board makes do with a passive heat sink on the North Bridge. In practical terms, there is one significant change – the “jumper desert” that you were often confronted with on older boards has disappeared on the GA-7VTXH. Instead, Gigabyte automatically recognizes the dual-BIOS feature. If the ROM fails to flash properly, the computer automatically boots up from the second BIOS. Unfortunately, though, this was a particularly dodgy issue in our test – we were using a BIOS version from another Gigabyte board. As a result, the system froze during the boot-up and the board was rendered useless. So anyone accidentally flashing the wrong BIOS version won’t necessarily find protection from the second, back-up BIOS.

The dual-BIOS feature proved to be defective in our test.

There wasn’t any remedy until another board was sent to us. Gigabyte definitely needs to take a hard look at the dual-BIOS feature. Performance-wise, the board is at the low end of the middle third. Overclocking possibilities are limited to increasing the CPU core voltage (maximum 1.92 volts) and the front-side bus (maximum 163 MHz).

The Gigabyte GA-7VTXH comes furnished with a Creative sound chip.

Important update information added on November 30, 2001:

We sent Gigabyte the the BIOS file that we downloaded from their website. The troublemaker was called 7vtxp_f3.zip. Unzipped it contains the files 7vtxh.f2 and flash848.exe. Therefore we though it was the right BIOS for the GA-7VTXH, which turned out to be wrong. Gigabyte reproduced this problem and wrote us this email:

“The reason why it is possible to flash the wrong BIOS to a GBT motherboard is due to flash utility not correctly executed. I like to thank you for point this one out, due to our carelessness we did not set the BIOS ID auto-detect flag up in the version of flash utility, so if the user did not type the parameter /i to enable the BIOS ID auto-detect than it is possible to write the wrong BIOS onto the motherboard’s BIOS. We corrected this issue by providing the new flash utility (8.51 is the latest BIOS flash utility which default is enable for the ID auto-detection) on our web site, which has this parameter set to enable always. This new flash utility will warn the user, if the BIOS is not for his board.”

Tom’s Hardware still thinks that a jumper selecting between one of the 2 BIOSes could be more effective. We have shown that it is possible to flash the motherboard with a BIOS that was actually intended for a motherboard with a similar name. The write-protected backup BIOS was not accessible afterwards. If the user can set a jumper, so that the motherboard is forced to boot from the backup BIOS, this whole issue would not have been surfaced at all. Generally, we welcome Gigabyte’s decision to get rid of too many jumpers on a motherboard. Changing settings in a BIOS setup utiltity is more user-friendly. In this particular case, it would have been better to keep the Dual BIOS jumper known from previous Gigabyte motherboards. Just image you have a flat tire but you can’t get the spare wheel out because your trunk is locked.

MSI K7T266 Pro2 (MS-6380) – Only Skin-Deep

A real eye-catcher – the MSI K7T266 Pro2 alias MS-6380 with a KT266A chipset.

Board revision: 2.0

BIOS version- V3.1B5

View of the packaging for the MSI.

All the components included with the MSI motherboard.

At first glance, the MSI K7T266 Pro 2 is really easy on the eye – the red coloring of its PCB and the delicate packaging can enthrall any user. The most striking characteristic on this board is its integrated USB 2.0 feature, which ensures the board will cope with what the future brings, too. A Promise RAID controller allows you to hook up four additional IDE devices using the Ultra-DMA/100 protocol. A very practical feature is the clip on the AGP slot, which ensures that your graphics card won’t stick in the slot. When tested, though, the MSI turns out to be another victim of marketing hype. Every time we booted up, BIOS reported a faulty keyboard, even though the keyboard was properly connected. And our D-Link network card only worked in the first and second PCI slots.

One distinguishing feature – the MSI is the only board with a USB 2.0 controller.

Cable set for the USB 2.0.

In terms of performance, the board places in the mid-range of all the test candidates. Despite our grievances, the remaining equipment is still impressive, and includes a total of 8 USB ports, with slot ports included with the board. Unlike the competition, which generally skimps on accessories, MSI includes three IDE cables with its board. Overclockers will probably be disappointed – the FSB clock speed is limited to 133 MHz, while the maximum CPU core voltage is 1.85 volts.

All the cables come with the board.

QDI KD7-A (KuDoz 7) – Standard OEM Board

The QDI is geared towards OEM customers.

Board revision: 2.0

BIOS version: V1.6LCP

QDI’s core business is with OEM customers, for whom the holiest commandment is to have a stable motherboard. The lion’s share of these boards is produced in a special economic zone in China. This keeps costs down and allows the manufacturer to pay more attention to its less-profitable project business. QDI deliberately leaves out extras such as a USB adapter or overclocking features that would draw in end customers. In the end, it came as no surprise that the board lagged behind the others in practically all the benchmark tests.

However, there is also a retail motherboard of the KudoZ 7 available, which includes everything that a home user wants, such as the USB adapter cable mentioned before and a comprehensive manual. In addition, QDI provides two interesting programs for Windows. The first is called ManageEasy and allows extensive hardware status control and management. The second one is an overclocking utility called StepEasy. Though the CPU multiplier cannot be altered on-the-fly, this utility allows you to change the FSB speed in 1 MHz increments without rebooting. You can also save profiles and load them if needed, e.g. if you want your system overclocked to provide maximum performance for a gaming session.

Soltek SL-75DRV2 – The Overclocking King

View of the Soltek SL-75DRV2.

Board revision: 1.0 (Athlon XP ready)

BIOS version: K3.5

Elaborately designed packaging for the Soltek.

Although Soltek doesn’t enjoy the image of a well-known manufacturer as Asus or Gigabyte does, we give the SL-75DRV2 board top honors. The elaborate packaging alone shows that Soltek is planning to rocket to the top.

The following software comes bundled with the board: Drive Image; Partition Magic; Virtual Drive; and PC-cillin 2000. According to the manufacturer, this software bundle alone costs $286.

The goodies on this board include an AGP Pro slot, an active cooler on the North Bridge and, an old friend from earlier boards, the “Red Storm” overclocking feature. One of the things that sets the Soltek apart from the rest of the pack is its absolute stability, even in the face of aggressive memory timing. These features allow you to eke some real performance out of this board – as the benchmark results clearly show. The SL-75DRV2 often takes first. So, it’s clearly a better deal than the Epox EP-8KHA+, as instability issues didn’t make it stick out like a sore thumb.

Our take on it? Overclockers, it’s only a matter of time before Soltek starts becoming a real headache for AMD – the foundation has already been laid. Last, but not least, a little criticism – the CNR slot is useless on the retail market and should have been left off this board.

All right! A thermosensor is included with the board.

Soyo SY-K7V (Dragon Plus!): Well-Deserved Winner

The Soyo SY-K7V.

Board revision: 1.0

BIOS version: K7VXA-2AA1

The packaging for the Soyo motherboard.

All the accessories included with the Soyo.

No other motherboard manufacturer can top this one – the Soyo comes with a 3.5″ card reader, smart cards and integrated USB ports as front outlets. And there are also three IDE cables thrown in, with a 5.25″ mounting bay for the card reader to boot. A rather odd bird is the integrated sound feature that can be accessed using the slot bracket included with the mobo. Thanks to this baby, both analog and optical (digital) input and output devices (SP/DIF format) can communicate with the board. A few of the highlights on the board are the AGP Pro slot, the integrated Promise RAID controller and the network chip. The board’s colorful port and slot design is especially pleasing – although the choice of colors is a matter of personal preference. BIOS includes a user-friendly tuning menu that allows you to overclock both the RAM and the CPU.

View of the integrated soundchip.

The Promise RAID controller.

A separate feature allows this board to be automatically run in its fastest mode without much extra effort, which helped propel Soyo to the top of all the benchmarks. Judging this board by all its characteristics, it definitely deserves the winner’s laurels.

View of the ports on the Soyo board.

Shuttle AK31 V3.1 – Lackluster

The Shuttle has 4 DIMM slots.

Board revision: 3.1

BIOS version: S2E9

The packaging for the Shuttle board.

The Shuttle comes wrapped in a generic package that doesn’t stand out from the competition. Among its positive features are its four DIMM slots and its six PCI interfaces. The manufacturer scrimped a little on the sound chip, preferring an inexpensive AC’97-Codec. Hardcore AMD fans will be happy to hear about how far the CPU core voltage can be adjusted – up to 1.85 volts. The FSB clock speed maxes out at 166 MHz. Compared to its more-established competitors, the Shuttle can’t quite keep up, and brings up the rear in the benchmarks.

2 Boards with Nvidia nForce 420D – Disappointing

In spite of its technical functionality – such as dual-channel DDR SDRAM – Nvidia’s nForce has had to cede the top ranks to the VIA KT266A. This fact is as plain as day in our benchmark results. Here are the two boards furnished with an nForce 420D chipset that we used in this comparison:

Asus A7N266-E – Room for Improvement

The Asus A7N266-E with an nForce 420D chipset.

Board revision: 1.01

BIOS version: 1000 BETA 179T

The pro-forma packaging for the Asus board. The retail packaging will get an optical face lift.

The Asus A7N266-E is by far the fastest board with an nForce chipset (dual-channel), currently available on the market. Our benchmark results show that this board scores in the upper mid-range in practically all of the disciplines. But it still can’t hold a candle to the fastest boards with a VIA KT266A chipset. Asus has integrated a Realtek network chip (RTL8100), and includes an additional ACR card with 2 hardware codec chips for Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. It remains to be seen, though, whether this set-up will also be found in the retail market. Quite often we have received emails from our readers stating that some goodies such as sound and network were only “optional” on some ASUS models.

Extreme overclockers are in for a disappointment – CPU core voltage can only be set to a maximum of 1.85 volts, while the FSB clock speed is limited to 158 MHz. With this kind of numbers, the manufacturer should offer more for the end user by, for example, modifying BIOS. More and more, Asus appears to be lining up with the mass of generic manufacturers, rather than including clever, attention-grabbing overclocking features. And while the “quantity, not quality” ploy will definitely score points in the high-volume OEM market, it’s likely a flop in the image-conscious retail segment. Although the OEM market might be considerably larger than the retail market, the head honchos in Taiwan ought to think over their strategy before they thoughtlessly risk their good reputation.

The ACR card included for 6-channel Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.

Important update information added on Nov. 28, 2001:

• 2 modells will be available: The A7N266 and the A7N266-E
• on the first picture you can read in the left upper corner “A7N266”. The board you see is actually the A7N266-E. Asus missed to label our test sample properly.
• The mainstream A7N266 uses the C-media 8738 audio chip for 6-channel audio, and includes S/PDIF-in/out card. The high-end A7N266-E will have full Dolby Digital support.
• Asus has planned to include full versions of Interplay’s “Star Trek New Worlds” and “Messiah”. Further utilities such as Micro PC-cillin 2000 anti-virus program, ASUS ASUS PC Probe for system monitoring, Cyberlink PowerPlayer SE, and Video Live Mail will also be bundled.
• The final word isn’t spoken yet. A7N266 series will participate in the next big nForce roundup at Tom’s Hardware Guide.

MSI K7N420 Pro – Targeting the End Consumer

The MSI K7N420 with an nForce chipset.

Board revision: 1.0

BIOS version: V1.0B1

The packaging for the MSI motherboard.

MSI’s strategy differs somewhat from that of the Asus A7N266 – the manufacturer has furnished the board with interesting features that are geared towards the retail market. You have the option to use the AGP adapter card included with the mobo as a TV output jack for the graphics integrated in the chipset. What’s more, you can also use the included slot bracket and cable to harness the digital output (SP/DIF) on another integrated feature, i.e. the sound function. MSI gets some well-earned praise for its comprehensive collection of accessories – a total of 6 USB ports can be connected to components via the slot brackets. Like the Asus A7N266, the MSI can also run in dual-channel mode. The MSI performs at about the same level as the Asus board with an nForce chipset – it can’t hold its own against the fastest boards based on the VIA KT266A chipset.

View of the ports on the MSI board.

A card with a TV outlet is included.

Test Setup: Comparing 14 Motherboards

Benchmarks under Windows 2000

We performed a total of 17 different benchmark tests in order to get as clear a picture as possible of how the motherboards would hold up in the field.

Our testing basis was the AMD Athlon XP 1900+, clocked at 1600 MHz. We ran four different Quake 3 tests to determine OpenGL performance. Direct3D performance from the DirectX package is determined using Unreal Tournament UTBench (based on DirectX 7). The different MPEG-encoding benchmarks portray a comprehensive testing scenario – the Lame MP3 Encoder was used to encode a 178 MB WAV file (Michael J.) into “MPEG-1 Layer 3 Format.” Still a classic, our MPEG-4 test converts a file from a commercial DVD-ROM (a current movie) into MPEG-4 format using Flask Mpeg and the Divx codec. We determined office performance using Sysmark 2000. We deliberately chose not to use the newer benchmark suite “Sysmark 2001”, because, in our experience, the values can fluctuate up to 5 percent under Windows XP. Archiving a 178 MB file (Michael J.) using WinACE determines the time taken in practice.

OpenGL Performance: Quake 3 Arena

The Epox pretty much takes the cake in both run-throughs of the Quake 3 Arena time-demo. It isn’t until we get to the MV15 demos that the Soltek gains the upper hand.

The Abit KR7A places itself in the upper third.

Direct3D Performance: Unreal Tournament

The Soltek is a nose ahead of the remaining board at both resolutions.

MP3 Audio Encoding: Lame MP3

The Lame MP3 Encoder under Windows XP is used to convert a 178 MB sound file from a WAV format to a “MPEG-1 Layer 3” format. In this test, both boards based on the nForce chipset come out on top.

MPEG-4 Video Encoding: Flask Mpeg and Divx

Again, both nForce boards have pummeled their KT266A challengers.

Office Performance: Sysmark 2000

In the “office performance” category, the Asus A7V266-E is the cream of the crop – followed closely by the Soyo and Soltek.

Compiling Linux: Suse Linux 7.3 / Kernel 2.4.13

The Asus A7V266 is the fastest board at compiling the latest Linux kernel. It only takes 187 seconds – while the QDI requires a whole 233 seconds.

Archiving: WinACE 2.04

Archiving is a very practical application. WinACE 2.04 was used under Windows 2000 to archive a 178 MB WAV file while the clock was running. The MSI K7N420 is the top dog in this discipline.

3D Rendering Performance: SPECviewperf

The benchmarks results in SPECviewperf are all over the place. The boards shift a lot in the rankings, even though the differences are minimal.

Up Close & Personal: Features for all Boards Tested

Up Close & Personal: Features for all Boards Tested, Continued

Conclusion: KT266A Trounces nForce 420D – Soltek is Front-runner

Our large-scale comparison of these two cutting-edge chipsets for the Socket 462 (Socket A) shows that despite Nvidia’s dual-channel memory technology, the nForce 420D is currently no match for the new VIA KT266A. The main reason for the VIA KT266A’s success lies in its optimized memory interface, which was designed to be a real dynamo. Coming originally from the graphics business, Nvidia is entering terra incognita with a motherboard chipset such as the nForce. But don’t underestimate the potential the nForce poses, since Nvidia’s developers have often served up some surprisingly re-worked drivers. Among the boards we tested were 11 boards with a KT266A chipset and two boards with nForce components. As a comparison, we also ran tests on an “old” board with a KT266 chipset, which can’t perform anywhere near as well as the current batch of chipsets.

First choice among the boards equipped with a VIA KT266A chipset goes to the Soltek SL-75DRV2 and the Soyo SY-K7V (Dragon Plus!) as well as Abit KR7A. The Soltek is an ideal pick for any hardcore overclocker. Even at higher clock speeds (overclocking) and aggressive memory timing, the board runs much more stably than, say, the much-hyped Epox EP-8KHA+. Another good deal is the Soyo SY-K7V, whose comprehensive array of features set it apart from the crowd, and which comes out at the head of the pack in the benchmark tests. The lab engineers were somewhat disappointed by the two Asus boards – the manufacturer has hardly even tried to position itself as a breed apart, which would have kicked up some dust in the retail market. It wasn’t until we received the latest BIOS version at the last moment that the Asus A7V266-E scored better in performance.

Abit arrived at our labs a bit late, that’s why it was not included in the first release of this article. With four DDR DIMM sockets, support for registered DIMMs, six PCI slots, Soft Menu III and an UltraATA/133 RAID controller (HPT372, only KR7A-133!), your money should be well-invested.

Another issue for AMD processors is the thermal protection. None of the boards we tested comes furnished with the protective circuit recommended by AMD. In extreme circumstances – for example, if the cooler fails – the processor might go up in smoke in no time flat. That goes for both the classic AMD CPUs with a Thunderbird or a Spitfire core, and the new chips with a Palomino or a Morgan core. All the boards measure the temperature on the processor surface using a tried-and-true method – a thermal resistor under the CPU reads the temperature. This method, however, often produces readings that are up to 50 percent off, making it impossible to obtain reliable results.

A real bright spot in this test is the new standard USB 2.0, which is only used on the MSI K7T266 Pro2. We only have cause for one gripe – all the boards had three USB channels, with two ports apiece. But only MSI saw fit to include a suitable adapter for all the ports. In other words, if you plan to use more than four devices, you’ll have to spend at least $15 on a suitable adapter from a retailer. And that’s not all – there’s no such thing as a universal adapter for all the boards, meaning that this little job has the potential to escalate into a real odyssey.

The “excessive” FSB clock speed we took offense to in one of our previous tests was a non-issue in this comparison. All the manufacturers stuck to the specifications and clocked their boards at almost exactly 133 MHz.