AOpen AK73 Pro (A) socket A VIA KT133A
Monday, March 19, 2001
Introduction
Truly, it seems that socket A users are in the midst of a golden age. After recieving examples of the EPoX EP-8KTA3 and other boards of its type, AOpen decided to gift us with their new AK73 Pro - a board they seem to have really poured their creative energies into. Based on the VIA KT133A chipset, the AK73 Pro sits among the new class of motherboards that include the widest breadth of Overclocking functions that a user could possibly desire. Let's take a look at the AOpen AK73 Pro (A) and see if it fits with this catgeroy of mainboards.
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Characteristics of the AOpen AK73 Pro (A)
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CPU
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AMD Athlon Duron & T-Bird Socket A 200/266Mhz DDR
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Chipset
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VIA KT133A VT8363A + VT82C686B
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Form factor
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ATX - 30.4cm X 23cm
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Expansion
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5 PCI - 0 ISA - 1 AMR - 1 AGP - 4 USB
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Memory
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3X 168-pins DIMM SDRAM 1.5Gb PC133
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FSB
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100Mhz to 166Mhz in steps of 1Mhz
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Vcore adj.
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1.100 to 1.850 in .025v increments
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Vio adj.
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3.3v et 3.50.
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Audio
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embeded into the VIA chipset
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Configuration
The AOpen AK73 Pro (A) is configured primarily from within the BIOS, though there are also several jumpers and DIP switches to be found on the board itself. Among these, we found jumper JP21, which can be used to force the FSB to 100MHz, or 133MHz. By setting JP21 to 100MHz, the BIOS will offer a FSB choice ranging from 100MHz to 124MHz, while positioning it for 133MHz will result in a selection ranging from 133MHz to 166MHz. The array of DIPs labeled SW1, for its part, can be used to select a clock multiplier value of between 5x and 12.5x.
We have to confess that this is rather questionable choice because we sure would have preferred to see the BIOS FSB selection to go directly from 100Mhz to 166Mhz without having to move a jumper onto the board. Furthermore, the multiplier can not be altered within the BIOS because this adjustment must be done on the mainboard through SW1.
All other adjustments are made from within the "Frequency/Voltage Control" menu within the BIOS.
Once inside the BIOS system, users can set the FSB frequency of the processor to frequencies ranging from 100MHz to 124Mhz or 133Mhz to 166MHz in steps of 1MHz.
Next, we have the ability to alter the Vcore and Vio voltages, as indicated by the table but here again, the Vio voltage can only be altered on the board by a jumper. Besides the choice of Vio voltages is not very generous.
As expected, a number of options related to memory timing are also offered.
And finally, the AK73 Pro includes the ability to select a memory bus frequency of either 100MHz, or 133MHz.
As a conclusion, the AK73 Pro (A) is not as users friendly as many other mainboards that we've reviewed lately as far as Overclockability is concerned.
Next: Technical details.
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