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Asus is one of those hardware
companies that has earned a reputation for reliability. As
with most motherboard vendors, they started producing
motherboards, but then branched out to video cards, as
well as modems and Ethernet cards. In my time building and
testing systems, I often found that Asus provided some of
the best performance boards usually combined with some of
the latest and greatest features. A few of them even found
their way into my own personal system like the P3V4X,
which was up until recently my favorite (Pentium 3) board
of all time. Thus, I was pleased when their latest
offering, the A7V333, showed up in the Hot Hardware labs
in need of some testing.
The A7V333 is based on the current VIA chipset offering,
namely the KT333, supporting AMD Socket A processors,
AGP4X, and PC2700 or DDR333 memory. As we have seen, the
KT333 provides good performance, but yet not really that
much better than the previous chipset, that of the KT266A.
To convince users to upgrade their systems, or to simply
get the new reseller to look their way, companies have to
market their boards in a way that catches the customer?s
eye with features and flashy advertising, both of which we
found here. The box has a whole lot going on with
fireballs, ice crystals, you name it. And yes, it even
lists the board and some special features, these being the
KT333 chipset, RAID ATA133, Asus Post Reporter, Asus C.O.P,
and Asus MyLogo. It also says ?Designed for eXtreme
Performance? which for one, hopefully is the last XP
reference I hear for a while, and two sets up some great
expectations and not that of the Dicken?s kind (look it up
on Google if you don?t get it).
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| Specifications / Features of
the
Asus A7V333 |
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A Full Featured
KT333... |
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CLICK ANY IMAGE FOR AN
ENLARGED VIEW |
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Chipset
Type
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VIA KT333 Northbridge
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VIA VT8233A Southbridge
CPU
Socket
CPUs
Supported
Form
Factor
Memory
Description
BIOS
Description
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2Mb Flash ROM
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Award BIOS
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Supports DMI 2.0
Expansion Slots
IDE
Description
IDE
RAID
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Onboard
Audio Features
Onboard Media Reader
Supports Security Application Smart Card interface
Also supports Memory Stick and Secure Digital Memory
Cards
Back
I/O Ports
Internal I/O Connectors
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1 connector for 2
additional USB 2.0/1.1 ports
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1 connector for
additional serial port
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1 connector for
game/MIDI port
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4 internal audio
connectors (CD-in, Aux-in, Video-in, and TAD)
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1 4-channel audio
output connector
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1 S/PDIF-in connector
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1 S/PDIF-out connector
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1 connector for IrDA
interface
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1 Smart Card interface
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1 Memory Stick
interface
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1 Secure Digital Memory
Card interface
Health
Monitoring Description
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Monitors CPU/system
temperature and overheat alarm
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Monitors voltages and
failure alarm
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Monitors
CPU/chassis/second fan speed and failure alarm
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Automatic
chassis/second fan on/off control
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Opened chassis alarm
Dimension Description
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In the box, I found the
motherboard, driver CD, and interface cables for not
only the hard drive and floppy drive, but for the
Firewire port as well. This Firewire port is provided
on a separate bracket included in the package. The
driver CD contents were: VIA 4-in-1 version 4.37
drivers, drivers for USB 2.0, the on-board sound, and
the Promise ATA133 RAID controller, another version of
the manual in PDF format, Asus PC Probe, and finally
Winbond Voice Editor. There was another bracket that
had a game port on it as well as two extra USB ports
(one can never have enough of these it seems these
days). Also included were a few extra jumper caps and
a backplate to match the layout of the interface ports
on the back. Missing, however, was an additional sound
cable and/or bracket to make use of digital output for
the 6-channel audio. It would have also been nice to
see cables and drives to take advantage of the smart
card headers on the board, although these were an
option that I don?t think many users are quite ready
to take advantage of.
A brief description of the VIA KT333 Chipset:
The VIA Apollo KT333 is
VIA?s latest offering, providing the best performance
option for AMD Athlon and Duron owners. It has the
honor of being the first VIA chipset to feature DDR333
memory offering 25% more memory bandwidth to the CPU.
It also will still support DDR266/DDR200 memory, for
those looking to upgrade one piece at a time. Other
key features are AGP 4x support, 6-channel on-board
audio, as well as ATA-133 support, which is integrated
into the VT8233A South Bridge. Here is a block diagram
showing the key components of the KT333:
Some other features
provided by Asus for the A7V333 are:
Asus C.O.P. Overheating Protection
A feature on motherboards
that is becoming more and more standard these days is
some sort of overheating protection. Following suit,
Asus has provided what they call C.O.P, short for CPU
Overheating Protection. Using Asus?s hardware
monitoring mechanism and the AMD Athlon XP thermal pin
design, the C.O.P. technology will automatically shut
down the system when the CPU temperature reaches a set
temperature. This prevents damage from occurring to
the CPU and the motherboard.
Asus
Q-Fan
For those users who are
tired of the constant, high pitched noises emanating
from your PC, Asus provides Q-Fan technology. It is
designed to adjust fan speeds according to the system
load, essentially slowing them down when the system is
not being used. As loud as my Dragon Orb is, however,
I was not inclined to slow it down since we all know
that Athlons are known for running too well when super
toasty. This option can be easily enabled or disabled
from within the BIOS.
Asus
Post Reporter
Here something really
innovative. So much so, that when I first heard it, I
was taken aback and rebooted just to hear it again.
Asus has provided the Post Reporter, which will alert
you if something is wrong with the system, such as a
loose DIMM or defective CPU fan. Going one step
further, they even provide a means to record your own
error messages using Winbond Voice Editor. Now you can
have your PC say all the things you always wanted it
to say when things are going wrong. At the very least,
it is much easier to understand that beep codes or
reading LEDs.
Asus
My-Logo
A new, interesting feature
found on the A7V333 is Asus My-Logo, which lets you
use your own pictures or those provided on the CD
during the POST, allowing savvy users to even further
customize their systems. The standard, preloaded logo
looks like this:
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The
BIOS, Layout and Quality
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