articles
FORUMS!
links
contact

PC Database

Folding Team

SETI@HOME Team
RC5 Team
Genome Team

OCAU chat

click for bigger pic

The KX133 chipset was something I had been eagerly anticipating for a long time. Not content with the limited options and features of AMD's IronGate 750 chipset, I assured my friends and co-workers to wait for the boards based around VIA's Athlon offering. First to market was the Epox EP-7KXA (my review here) and a few other boards popped up, but the big 3 A's from Taiwan - Abit, AOpen and Asus - were strangely silent. Weeks passed. Then, as if at some secret signal, all 3 announced their KX133-based boards in rapid succession. The first to land in my hot sweaty hands is the Asus K7V, courtesy of Eyo Technologies in Sydney.

Asus are no strangers to the Athlon game. Their first Athlon board, the K7M (my review here), was released very early on and quickly established itself in the market. It was a strong seller throughout the life of the AMD 750 chipset upon which it was based, and is regarded by many as the flagship motherboard for that chipset. So, what features does this new motherboard bring into the market? For a full feature list see here, but here's a few to get you going:

• AGP Pro Slot supporting AGP 4X
• Support for up to 1.5GB SDRAM in 3 DIMMS
• Support for PC100/PC133/VCM133 SDRAM
• Asynchronous memory bus allowing MEM:FSB ratio of 4:3 (133MHz:100MHz default)
• Wide range of FSB's from 90 to 155MHz (DDR, so double them)
• UDMA/66 support on all IDE ports
• 4 USB ports (2 onboard, 2 on expansion module)

Layout and Instalaltion
The K7V is a full-width ATX board. This, while perhaps making it a little roomier to work with, could be seen as a bad thing. For a start it makes the unit more expensive. Secondly, it can be a little unwieldy in smaller cases. In my AOpen HX-45 midtower testbed, the floppy and IDE connectors on the right-hand edge of the board were tricky to get to because the HDD's in the 3.5" bays were in front of them. There actually seems to be a fair amount of empty space on the board, which makes me curious as to why Asus didn't make it a bit thinner and hence cheaper. Their decision to only include 3 SDRAM banks instead of the 4 the KX133 supports adds to the confused feel of the layout. The absence of an ISA slot, while not absolutely necessary these days, is noteworthy.

I'm going to make my usual gripe about on-board sound. The KX133 chipset provides support for an AMR slot and has on-board AC-97 audio support. This lets motherboard manufacturers add sound for minimal cost. I guess that's good for some people, but as far as I can tell most people just disable it and buy a real sound card, firstly because the sound is better, but also because there is a performance hit when using the on-board sound. The point is that you're paying for something you may or may not use. Asus have decided to include BOTH cheapy sound options on this board, which not only increases the price but also means you sacrifice the 6th PCI slot. I know I'd rather have the option of another PCI device than an AMR one. For general workstation use the on-board sound is acceptable and you could save some money by not having to buy a PCI unit. Remember that there's nowhere to plug in your old ISA card if you're still using one! The AMR slot can of course be used for a cheap modem (if you can find one) so that's a potential saving too.

The most oft-quoted failing of the K7M was the placement of the power connector and SDRAM slots - a whole range of Athlon cooler modifications sprung up around this flaw. The K7V improves on this, moving the RAM slots futher away from the SlotA connector and putting the power plug on the other side (as per the ATX standard). A really huge cooler like the VOS-32 will still block at least 1 RAM slot, though. Normal-sized coolers such as the VEK-32 or FKK-50 fit fine. Another minor pet gripe of mine that exists on this board is RAM slots that are so close to the AGP slot that the clips hit the card when removing or adding ram. Nothing major, it's just fiddly and a little frustrating.

A total of 4 fan headers is impressive - one will be covered by a CPU cooler of any decent size, but you can still use it if you plug something into it before inserting the CPU cartridge. 3 are intelligent and provide RPM monitoring and control if suitable fans are used. Motherboard temperature is reported and there are 2 ports for thermal probes - one for CPU (not provided with the unit) and one for your power supply (depends on your model of PSU).

A little green LED lets you know when the board is receiving power - I think all ATX boards should have these, but some still don't. Asus's manual is excellent and very clear as usual. Provided with the unit is a bag containing spare jumpers, a floppy cable and 2 IDE cables (one UDMA/66 compatible). A CD with drivers, Asus's PC Probe (h/w monitor) and PC-Cilling antivirus, and a sticker for your case-front saying "Powered by Asus" round out the package. Surprisingly, Asus have included an advertising sheet for their video card products inside the box. As a couple of readers have pointed out (and I noticed myself) the logo and URL of this website are listed on that sheet, no doubt because of our earlier V6600 review. So they scored a couple of brownie points with me there. :)