More Reviews...
Poster: Aron Schatz
Posted on April 29, 2002 at 4:11:20 PM
Tweaker's Australia, Soyo KT333 Dragon Ultra
In conclusion, I would just like to say I was very impressed by the amount of features, quality and performance I received from this board. The packaging is very nice, and will attract potential buyers to look twice, while the board design and layout is very aesthetically pleasing and should satisfy even the fussiest case enthusiast. With ATA133 RAID support via the Highpoint HPT372 RAID controller, onboard C-Media 5.1 surround sound, 5 fan headers, up to 4 USB 2.0 from the VIA VT6202 USB 2.0 controller, SPDIF, IrDA, and USB 1.1 and onboard Realtek 10/100 LAN, you can justify why this board is priced a little higher than the competition. At approximately $180 USD it's not exactly cheap, but when you consider the sheer performance and features on offer, in my opinion it's worth the extra.
Tekbug, Why they love chipsets. Who doesn't?
All of the Athlon XP-based platforms support DDR memory, so it is no surprise that they all performed admirably in our memory bandwidth tests. With 4.2GB/s of throughput, the NFORCE is able to sustain the fastest data transfers (slightly less than 1GB/s), followed closely by VIA’s KT333 platform. SiS’ 735 chipset upsets VIA’s KT266A chipset by transferring an average of 739MB/s, according to SiSoft’s Sandra 2001 benchmark. SysMark 2001 (from MadOnion.com) generally favors platforms capable of the highest memory bandwidth. As expected, the NFORCE performs best in both the content creation and office productivity categories. The KT333 picks up a close second, followed by the SiS 735 and VIA KT266A, respectively.
Tek Sector, Socket A cooler roundup.
As you can see, this is quite an assortment of coolers we've got here. We have two all-copper sinks, two copper-cored sinks, and one copper-based sink, which means this could escalate into quite a competition. My intention of this roundup, however, is not to present a "battle of the coolers" review, but more of a "search for the right cooler that fits your preference" review. See it how you want though, because we're gonna test the hell out of them anyway.
Tech-Report, Abit's AT7 MAX motherboard Legacy free isn't the way to be!
MAX isn't a completely new idea. Intel had a prototype legacy-free motherboard back at last year's Comdex. Still, the ideas behind MAX have considerable promise, and this was a production motherboard you could find on store shelves, not some one-off trade show demo. With the AT7 MAX, not only do you get a feature-rich, high-performance motherboard, you also get rid of a bunch of old ports you probably don't use anyway. Less is more, and more is less—more or less.
Deviant PC, Hercules Radeon 8500 AIW DV
The Hercules Radeon 8500 DV is the normal ATI one but built on the quite solid reputation of Hercules. While ATI have had reliability issues with budget end cards, and only recently got into the top end, Hercules have been producing the bread and butter of the PC graphics business for a long, long time, albeit with varying infamy across the years.
Target PC, FIC VC17 (845D) Pentium 4 Mainboard
Only a few days ago FIC provided us with a sample of their newest VC17 board giving us again the chance to be the first site to provide an exclusive look at their newest Pentium 4 845D board. The VC17 is quite similar to the previously reviewed VC15 mainboard; both share almost an identical PCB and options; the VC17 however offers more features for the price.
In conclusion, I would just like to say I was very impressed by the amount of features, quality and performance I received from this board. The packaging is very nice, and will attract potential buyers to look twice, while the board design and layout is very aesthetically pleasing and should satisfy even the fussiest case enthusiast. With ATA133 RAID support via the Highpoint HPT372 RAID controller, onboard C-Media 5.1 surround sound, 5 fan headers, up to 4 USB 2.0 from the VIA VT6202 USB 2.0 controller, SPDIF, IrDA, and USB 1.1 and onboard Realtek 10/100 LAN, you can justify why this board is priced a little higher than the competition. At approximately $180 USD it's not exactly cheap, but when you consider the sheer performance and features on offer, in my opinion it's worth the extra.
Tekbug, Why they love chipsets. Who doesn't?
All of the Athlon XP-based platforms support DDR memory, so it is no surprise that they all performed admirably in our memory bandwidth tests. With 4.2GB/s of throughput, the NFORCE is able to sustain the fastest data transfers (slightly less than 1GB/s), followed closely by VIA’s KT333 platform. SiS’ 735 chipset upsets VIA’s KT266A chipset by transferring an average of 739MB/s, according to SiSoft’s Sandra 2001 benchmark. SysMark 2001 (from MadOnion.com) generally favors platforms capable of the highest memory bandwidth. As expected, the NFORCE performs best in both the content creation and office productivity categories. The KT333 picks up a close second, followed by the SiS 735 and VIA KT266A, respectively.
Tek Sector, Socket A cooler roundup.
As you can see, this is quite an assortment of coolers we've got here. We have two all-copper sinks, two copper-cored sinks, and one copper-based sink, which means this could escalate into quite a competition. My intention of this roundup, however, is not to present a "battle of the coolers" review, but more of a "search for the right cooler that fits your preference" review. See it how you want though, because we're gonna test the hell out of them anyway.
Tech-Report, Abit's AT7 MAX motherboard Legacy free isn't the way to be!
MAX isn't a completely new idea. Intel had a prototype legacy-free motherboard back at last year's Comdex. Still, the ideas behind MAX have considerable promise, and this was a production motherboard you could find on store shelves, not some one-off trade show demo. With the AT7 MAX, not only do you get a feature-rich, high-performance motherboard, you also get rid of a bunch of old ports you probably don't use anyway. Less is more, and more is less—more or less.
Deviant PC, Hercules Radeon 8500 AIW DV
The Hercules Radeon 8500 DV is the normal ATI one but built on the quite solid reputation of Hercules. While ATI have had reliability issues with budget end cards, and only recently got into the top end, Hercules have been producing the bread and butter of the PC graphics business for a long, long time, albeit with varying infamy across the years.
Target PC, FIC VC17 (845D) Pentium 4 Mainboard
Only a few days ago FIC provided us with a sample of their newest VC17 board giving us again the chance to be the first site to provide an exclusive look at their newest Pentium 4 845D board. The VC17 is quite similar to the previously reviewed VC15 mainboard; both share almost an identical PCB and options; the VC17 however offers more features for the price.