Benchmark Results
As has become so common in the motherboard market, the benchmark performance hovers around a differential of only a few percent. These days its stability, upgrade-ability, features, and price that play larger roles in deciding which mobo to purchase, rather than just performance numbers.
Quake3
640x480@16bit
EPoX 8KTA3: 98.9fps
FIC AZ11E: 98.4fps
The two boards are so closely matched in every one of the tests that virtually no difference would ever be noticed in real world usage.
Conclusion
With expanded overclocking support and the optional onboard RAID (dubbed the 8KTA3+) make this board quite a feature rich solution. The 3 phase power system and the HSF on the north bridge are great additions to the mix, especially for overclockers, but unfortunately the lack of space around the CPU socket could starve the CPU of much needed cooling. It could also prevent the usage of certain large coolers (definitely the 35mm Orbs). This, however, is the only significant problem with the 8KTA3.
Its support for the upcoming 133MHz (DDR) Athlons also it a healthy upgrade path for those concerned with longevity. Overall, the 8KTA3 is a superb improvement over the previous 8KTAx boards making it a great VIA KT133A solution.
Bottom Line
| Box Contents: | 90% |
| Features: | 85% |
| Layout: | 70% |
| Quality: | 90% |
| Stability: | 90% |
| Performance: | 90%
|
| Value: | 85% |
Overall Score: 86%
forums
send article 
hardware newsletter 
article comments (5)
Digg this!
del.icio.us