Friday, March 16, 2001

Introduction

It's been quite some time since I've orchestrated a full-scale comparison of the many motherboards that have passed through our doors. Seeing as I'm responsible for publishing materials on this site in no less than two languages, however, it's no small wonder that my attentions have mainly been focused on the day-to-day process of reviewing new boards & materials.

After a long search though, I'm proud to say that we've finally brought a new reviewer on-board our team, which leaves me with time to concentrate on other areas. As such, for the first time in three years of publishing online, I, your humble servant, am ready to present to you our comparative analysis of no fewer than sixteen Socket A motherboards.

In order to do so, I'd like to present data related to more than simple benchmark test results. Thus, in an effort to truly discern which board elevates itself, and stands out clearly above the pack, I'll be shining a light on all the positive & negative aspects associated with each product.

Also, I'd like to start by describing the equipment of our competitors, in order to out-line their respective offerings, as presented in the table below:

Okay then, now that we've outlined our contestants, it's time to explain some of the data presented in the table:

The column situated to the extreme right indicates the score obtained by the associated motherboard.

Where chipsets are concerned, one point was allotted to boards that implement the VIA KT133A. The IRQ column is used to indicate which boards support the manual assignment of IRQs.

In the same fashion, boards that allow users to alter the clock multiplier setting, the Vcore voltage, Vio voltage, as well as provide the ability to alter the FSB in 1MHz increments are attributed a point. So, the starting positions of our top 6 contenders are thus set by their Overclocking abilities and their expansion possibilities as well, and they are (the):

1: Abit KT7 RAID = 8
2: EPoX EP-8KTA3 = 7
3: MSI K7T Pro-2A = 6
4: EPoX EP-8KTA+ = 6
5: Soltek SL-75KV = 5
6: AOpen AK73 Pro = 3

Now, you may be asking why I decided to place the MSI K7T Pro-2A higher than the EPoX EP-8KTA+, even though they both scored equally. Well, let me explain.

The MSI K7T Pro-2A allows its FSB to be incremented in 1MHz steps, unlike the EPoX EP-8KTA+. I favored this particular feature over the ISA slot offered by the EPoX EP-8KTA+, as, in my opinion, such fine-tuned control over the FSB is more important than the presence of an extra expansion slot. Many may not be in agreement with my decision in this regard, but ultimately it comes down to a personal judgment call, and it may be that you will find the presence of an extra slot as being of higher importance.

Next: Feature evaluation.