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This is a printable version of the article found at http://onepc.net/reviews/0019/ To print, press CTRL + P on your keyboard now. |
By Tikkler (tikkler@onepc.net) - October 30, 2000
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I've always been a fan of the two most-respected motherboard manufacturers around, ASUS and ABIT-ASUS for their renowned quality and reliability and ABIT for their overclocker-friendly boards-and my hardware collection surely shows it. Ever since 1998, every single motherboard that I've purchased for myself has either been an ABIT or ASUS. In 1998, I bought an ABIT AX5, a motherboard based on Intel's 430TX chipset for my Pentium MMX 200MHz processor. That board was one of the first-ever boards made by ABIT that featured their then-new SoftMenu technology (this is version 1.0, folks) and it worked like a charm! Then, as I upgraded my computer to an Athlon 650MHz earlier this year, I went with the ASUS K7M, one of the first-generation motherboards for AMD's Athlon processor featuring the AMD "Irongate" 750 chipset. Needless to say, the board functioned like what I had learned to expect from ASUS; it gave me no problems at all.
When I was making arrangements with SOYO about their new SY-K7VTA Socket A motherboard based on VIA's KT133 chipset, I was a bit skeptical as to what I should expect out of a manufacturer other than ASUS or ABIT. How easy would it be to set up? Would I experience reliability problems? What about compatibility? Those are just some of the questions that ran through my head as I opened the box to the first-ever non-ASUS or ABIT motherboard to enter OnePC.NET's test lab (that's right, we now have our own "dedicated" test lab!) and those are the questions that I'm going to try to answer in today's review of the SY-K7VTA motherboard.
Product Specifications
Before we start to go into detail about the motherboard, let me first present to you the specifications for this product found on SOYO's own product page for this board.
Description 200MHz System Interface Speed Socket-A based AMD-K7 ATX MotherboardProcessor Socket-A AMD AthlonŽ processors 550MHz~1GHz+ Supports AMD Thunderbird & Duron CPUs 200MHz System Interface Speed 128Kbyte L1 cache built-in 256Kbyte L2 cache built-in ECC Protection on system and cache interfacesChipset VIA KT-133 AGP chipset VT8363 north bridge VT82C686A south bridgeFront Side Bus Options Official available FSB options of 100/ 133MHzAuto PCI Clock The PCI bus speed is automatically set between 30MHz and 41MHz regardless of FSB setting.System Memory 3 x 168 pin SDRAM DIMM sockets Support up to 1.5GB PC100/PC133 SDRAM DIMM support Provides ECC (Error Checking Correction) capabilityExpansion Slots Five 32 bit Bus Mastering PCI slots (v2.2 compliant) One 16 bit ISA slots (One PCI/ISA Shared slot) One 32 bit AGP slot (v1.0 compliant, AGP 1X/ 2X/ 4X)On Chip Ultra I/O Ports Two RS-232 Serial Ports (16550 UART compatible) One Parallel Printer Port (SPP/EPP/ECP mode) One FDD port (supports 3 mode, 1.2/1.44/2.88 MB FDD) Provides IrDA port with optional cable for transceiver
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Two DMA-33 & 66 Ports Supports two independent channels for 4 IDE devices Two channels support up to PIO mode 4 & UDMA 33/66 Two PCI bus mastering ATA E-IDE ports Onboard AC97 Audio Sigmatel AC Codec chipBoard Dimensions Four Layer PCB, 30.5cm x 23cm(12" x 9.1") ATX form factorBoot-Block Flash BIOS Award PCI BIOS with ACPI function function Supports multi-boot from E-IDE/SCSI/CD-ROM/FDD/LS120/ZIP 2 Mbit Flash ROMDouble Stack Back-Panel I/O Connectors PS/2 Mini-DIN mouse & keyboard ports 4 USB ports (2 on back-panel and 2 to the front panel) 2 D-Sub 9-pin male Serial ports 1 D-sub 25-pin female printer port Audio I/O: 1 LINE-Out, 1 LINE-IN and 1 MIC Jack One Game portEnhanced PC Health Monitoring On-board voltage monitors for +5V, +12V, Vcore, Vtt and Vbatt status System health status detect System temperature sensor CPU temperature monitoring through flexible thermal sensor under processor heatsinkFCC Class B and CE EMI Regulation Compliant PC98 Compliant |
Through VIA's KT133 chipset, the SY-K7VTA is a Socket A motherboard for AMD's "Thunderbird" Athlon and Duron processors. Noteworthy features of the VT8363 north bridge include support for up to AGP 4X, up to PC133 SDRAM support and built-in audio using the common PC97 CODEC. The SY-K7VTA has 3 DIMM slots for support for up to 1.5GB (this should be enough for virtually anyone) of either PC100 SDRAM or PC133 SDRAM using the KT133's capability of running the memory clock asynchronous to the system Front Side Bus.
The VT82C686A south bridge supplies the motherboard with 2 ATA-66 channels, its hardware monitoring (temperatures and voltages) and its one parallel, 2 serial, 2 PS/2 (one for keyboard, one for mouse) and 4 USB ports (2 of them are optional).
I was disappointed to find that what was included with the motherboard is not up to the level that I'm used to seeing. Included was the motherboard itself, a thin quick-start guide, a driver CD with the manual on it, a floppy and ATA-66 cable and a SOYO 3-in-1 Bonus Pack.
First off, I prefer to have the manual printed out for me instead of being on a CD. Sure, the quick-start guide gives experienced users a quick reference as to how to install the board, but if you run into a problem and you don't have another computer lying around, you have no way to look in manual that's included on the CD! By the way, the board that I received is a pre-production sample, so there was no manual on the CD because it's not finished yet. Because of this, I'm not able to give you an insight on how detailed the manual is. Of course, there will be a manual included on the CD in all shipping products.
Another shortcoming when it comes to accessories included with the package is that SOYO doesn't include an extra USB connector so one can utilize the 2 extra USB ports that are supported by the motherboard. Contrary to this, the ASUS CUSL2 and K7M that I've worked with in the past have all included extra USB connectors to utilize those extra USB ports.
There is, however, one bright spot in what were included with the SY-K7VTA that I must share with you. Included is the SOYO 3-in-1 Bonus Pack and in this CD is packed full of 3 Norton programs: Norton AntiVirus (for computer virus protection), Norton Ghost (for creating hard drive images) and Norton Virtual Drive (to create virtual CD-ROM drives from files on your hard drive). Although these programs aren't the newest versions of each program, they do add a considerable amount of value.
Board Layout
A first glance, the motherboard itself looks to be of standard design. It has a very standard size and most of the connectors are in pretty standard places. It has a Socket 462 for sticking in that new Duron or Athlon processor and has a bunch of capacitors around the socket to add stability to the system.
From looking at the board, I see that there are very few jumpers. This probably means that everything, including processor and FSB settings, are controlled in the BIOS. Having the capability of controlling processor and FSB settings in the BIOS is not a new idea and can be found on almost any motherboard out there today, but it would be nice to also include jumpers on the board for those people who still prefer the "old way" of doing things. Not including these jumpers on their K7VTA also means that SOYO does not target this board to the OEM market where manufacturers would want to hard-set their processor and FSB settings.
I've noticed that from the boards that I've worked with that the ATX connector seems to always be placed in a bad place; the SY-K7VTA is no exception. The ATX connector on this board is placed to the left of the socket, which means that the power cable will have to be pulled across the processor fan and heatsink and could block some airflow.
There are 3 headers on the motherboard for fans. The chassis fan header is obviously meant for use with an extra intake fan at the front of the case because it's placed near the bottom right corner of the PCB. There are 2 processor fan headers placed side-by-side near the top right corner of the board, which I thought to be very strange. I haven't seen a 2-fan processor heatsink for socketed processors, so I wonder why SOYO decided to include two processor fan headers on this board. Instead of having that second processor fan header where it is, they should have used it as a second chassis fan header and placed it near the back ATX panel is so users can add another exhaust fan at the back of the case.
At the back on the ATX panel is where the usual connectors are found; 2 USB, 1 parallel, 2 serial, 2 PS/2 (1 for mouse 1 for keyboard) and audio connectors such as speaker, microphone and game port. Usually with built-in audio systems, manufacturers will include more than just the internal CD-in connector on the motherboard and include other connectors for uses such as Modem-in for connecting to a full-duplex voice modem. The SY-K7VTA has only 1 connector for CD-in.
SOYO decided to use the 1/5/1 (AGP/PCI/ISA) configuration. The AGP slot that they used on the SY-K7VTA is a universal one, which means that it doesn't have notches on it so all AGP cards can fit into it. This is a nice feature, but if you're not careful, the AGP card could slip and burn itself out (which, in fact, has happened to me quite recently). The 5 PCI slots are enough for most people and the extra-shared ISA slot is great for people who still would like to use older ISA devices such as sound cards or network cards. I would like to note that this board does not include AMR or CNR slots, which further confirms that SOYO was not targeting this board for the OEM market.
Powering Up...
I was pleasantly greeted with a boot up self-test screen that is obviously geared towards overclockers and PC enthusiasts. On this screen, you'll find the model of the processor installed in the system (in my case, a Duron), it's speed (650MHz for me) and FSB and multiplier settings currently used (for me, it's 100x6.5). Along with this information, the screen also displays your current CPU and motherboard temperatures, which can be very helpful for hardcore overclockers.
The BIOS is also very well done. The SY-K7VTA has a menu item, on top of the usual BIOS menu items, that SOYO included in their board that allows access to some of the most common overclocking settings. In this menu, it allows instant access to features such as the FSB/PCI clock speed (the SY-K7VTA allows selections from 100MHz-120MHz in 1MHz increments, although not the 0.5MHz increments that you might find on an ABIT board, but should suffice) and CPU core voltages (the SY-K7VTA allows selection of the core voltage in 0.25v increments, which is better than most other motherboards out there as the common value is 0.50v). I believe that this extra menu item in the BIOS is of great value to overclockers.
There is, however, a few features absent in the SY-K7VTA BIOS, one of which is the capability to turn on your computer using your mouse/keyboard or to automatically turn it on using a timer. This is a nice feature that I find many manufacturers implement into their boards, but unfortunately, SOYO decided to leave it out. The other feature that I feel has been left out is the capability of modifying the processor multiplier, a feature which ASUS and ABIT have both implemented on their motherboards. If these were included, they would have added a substantial amount of value to this board.
Apart from the BIOS, the motherboard worked flawlessly. Although to make the VIA KT133 chipset function properly and to its full potential requires installation of VIA's 4-in-1 driver set (a version of which is included in the driver CD), the process was quite simple and in a few minutes after loading my Windows ME image, the computer was ready for use.
The built-in AC97 CODEC sound also required an extra set of drivers that is included on the CD, and once installed, it will output some nice sounds. This feature should be adequate for casual audiophiles, but if one wishes to truly enjoy the quality audio that a computer can output, I would suggest a PCI sound card as a replacement. Of course, the built-in sound can be disabled from the BIOS to allow for the replacement sound card to be used.
Stability-wise, the motherboard performed flawlessly. After using the board and running SETI@home for days in a row, I did not experience a single crash on the machine. The SY-K7VTA is indeed a rock-solid board that can be compared to the ranks of ASUS and ABIT.
I know that many of you are looking for benchmark results, but, unfortunately, you won't find them in this review. Benchmarks are conducted in order to give a fair comparison between different products, but since I currently do not have another KT133 platform to perform benchmarks on, it defeats the purpose of conducting benchmarks in the first place.
So, after taking the SY-K7VTA through its tests and looking at every nook and cranny of the motherboard, is it a motherboard up to the standards that I've grown to get accustomed to with after working with ASUS and ABIT motherboards for such a long time? The motherboard has an overall satisfactory layout, with minor flaws such as the ATX connector being on the wrong side of the processor socket and the 2 CPU fan headers. With 1 universal AGP slot that can take any type of AGP card you throw at it (except for those controversial AGP Pro cards that nobody's seen for consumers to date), 5 PCI slots, which is enough for almost anyone and that 1 shared ISA slot for added compatibility with legacy devices, the SY-K7VTA has the right combination to make anyone happy. It's also nice to see SOYO leave out an AMR or CNR slot (you know, those little slots that you can plug in cheap devices that suck up your valuable CPU resources) because, in my opinion, these little buggers are just a waste of plastic and PCB space.
The boot-up screen is also very nice, even better than those that I've seen on ASUS or ABIT motherboards. It can display information that PC enthusiasts can actually use, such as the FSB and multiplier settings and CPU and motherboard temperatures. The BIOS is also packed full of features, including the extra SOYO menu with instantly accessible overclocking settings such as the FSB clock speed and supplied core voltage. Unfortunately, the BIOS is lacking some useful features such as the ability to set the processor multiplier and the capability to power up the computer using the mouse or keyboard.
So, the question is, would I recommend only an ASUS or ABIT motherboard after reviewing SOYO's SY-K7VTA? The answer is yes and no (don't you just hate these types of answers). Yes, because the K7VTA has convinced me that other manufacturers do have many unique features (I especially liked the boot-up screen), but, at the same time, you really can't beat the brand-name recognition and renowned quality that you get when purchasing an ASUS or ABIT.
My final verdict? If all you think about is getting a product made by the most reputable brand around, then I would still suggest either ASUS or ABIT, but if you're in it for the features, then the SY-K7VTA is an excellent choice for that new Athlon or Duron processor.
Pros
Cons
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