Monday, October 16, 2000

Introduction

The ECS P6VAP-A+ is a Socket 370 motherboard based on the VIA Apollo Pro133A chipset - much like the Shuttle AV18 that we recently looked at. Since this chipset has been kept pretty up-to-date with the times, there shouldn't be any doubts about its utility. The P6VAP-A+ mainboard also manages to give a little extra "oomph" for its money, by incorporating "Magic Settings IV" technology, and a CM8738-based sound-card, on top of its compatibility with the wide range of Intel PGA, and FC-PGA CPUs. Now, with that said, let's say we take a little closer look at our subject.

The features

The P6VAP-A+ is expandable via 5 PCI slots, 1 ISA slot, and an AGP port. There are also 3 168-pin DIMM slots available, which can accommodate 1.5GB of PC100, or PC133 memory. Here again we seem to have found a manufacturer with the foresight to integrate at least one ISA slot in their designs; thus conserving compatibility with the many ISA cards that are still floating around.

Configuration of the P6VAP-A+ can be accomplished either from the BIOS, or from the on-board jumpers. As to the latter, it's possible to use jumpers BF1 through BF4 to set a clock multiplier value. Of course, most Intel processors ignore this setting anyway, so it probably isn't of much use for most of you. Next, there are two jumpers - labeled JP9 & JP10 - which can be used to force the Front-Side Bus to operate at either 100MHz, or 133MHz. To really get into the process of configuring the CPU, though, most will want to head straight to the "Frequency/Voltage Control" menu within the BIOS. From there, it is possible to set the FSB to a value ranging in frequencies from 66Mhz to 166Mhz, and including: 66Mhz, 68Mhz, 75Mhz, 83Mhz, 95Mhz, 100Mhz, 103Mhz, 112Mhz, 124Mhz, 133Mhz, 140Mhz, and 150Mhz. Within the "Chipset Features Setup" menu, there also lies a feature that allows the memory bus frequency to be set to a value 33MHz lower than that of the processor or equal to the frequency of the processor.

Finally, it is also possible to alter the processor's Vcore voltage by setting jumpers VID1 through VID4, thus achieving a value between 1.30v and 2.05v in steps of 0.05v, and to set the VIO voltage between 2.1v, and 3.5v in steps of 0.01v.

Technical details

A limited amount of space is provided around the processor socket, which makes it impractical to install large heatsinks.

The memory slots have been placed far enough from the AGP port that there is no chance of the memory retention bars coming in contact with an installed graphics-card.

Around the CPU socket, there are fourteen 1000Mfd capacitors, which seems more than a bit restrained. 2200Mfd capacitors would have been alot better in our book.

The CPU locking lever is made of plastic. Thus, one has to make sure that the CPU is properly inserted in its socket, and to manipulate the locking lever with care to avoid to break it.

Only 2 fan connectors are found on this board, which is too few, in our opinion.

Hardware monitoring is provided via a GL520SM circuit.

No option is provided for manually assigning IRQs.

This board makes it possible to force the BIOS to revert to the last set of values by pressing the "Insert" key.

Next: Additional features.