Related Articles

Specifications

Processor

• Socket 939 supports AMD Athlon64/ 64 FX

Chipset

• Northbridge: VIA K8T890
• Southbridge: VIA 8237R
• Super I/O: ITE IT8705 chip
• Integrated peripherials
  - Marvell 8053 LAN chip
  - Realtek ALC850 Audio AC'97 Codec

Memory

• Type: Dual channel DDR400/ 333/ 266 -184pin
• Max capacity: Up to 4GB by 4 DIMM slots

Internal I/O Connectors

• 2 x Serial ATA connector
• 2 x UDMA ATA 133/100/66 Bus Master IDE connectors
• 1 x FDD connector
• 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 connectors (supports 4 ports)
• 2 x cooling fan pin headers
• CD in

Expansion Slots

• 1 x PCI-Express X 16 slot, supports PCI-Express interface Graphics card
• 2 x PCI-Express X 1 slots
• 3 x PCI slots (PCI 2.3 compliant)

Expansion Slots

• 1 x PCI-Express X 16 slot, supports PCI-Express interface Graphics card
• 2 x PCI-Express X 1 slots
• 3 x PCI slots (PCI 2.3 compliant)

Rear Panel I/O

• 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
• 1 x RJ45 ports
• Audio (4 x Line-out/ 1 x Line-in/ 1 x MIC) connector
• Coaxial S/PDIF input/ output function
• PS/2 Keyboard/ Mouse
• 1 x COM port
• 1 x LPT

CPU/AGP/DIMM setting

• CPU HT adjustable via BIOS
• PCI-ExpessX16 Voltage / Clock adjustable via BIOS
• DIMM Voltage / Clock adjustable via BIOS

Power

• ATX power connector and ATX 12V connector
• Power-off by Windows 98/ Me/ 2000/ XP shut down and switch

Form Factor

• ATX form factor
• 29.4 x 22.6 cm

H/W Monitoring

• System health status auto-detect and report by BIOS
• Hardware detecting and reporting for case open, CPU voltage, and fan speed

BIOS

• 4M bit flash ROM

Other Features

• Norton Internet Security
• XpressTM Installation
• XpressTM Recovery
• Q-FlashTM
• @BIOSTM

Unlike NVIDIA's single chip MCP solution, VIA uses the more traditional north bridge / south bridge approach. The block diagram in the manual is pretty interesting - the PCIe lanes are tied into the Northbridge. Between the north and south bridge is what VIA has dubbed the Ultra V-Link Bus that delivers "throughput speeds of up to 1066 MB/s." Southbridge duties include USB, audio, legacy PCI and disk controller support. The Marvell 8053 chip is not tied to the southbridge but is a PCIe part that has its own PCI x1 lane.

There are still two IDE channels on the K8VT890-9 but it is strictly single drive support. The two SATA connectors are a bit on the chintzy side though the controller does do RAID0/1/JBOD. One of the nice things is the fact that there are still three legacy PCI slots. Most of the other boards we have looked at only have a pair. Although the PCI bus is old, it is not likely to just disappear (as much as I would like it to). Soundcards and TV Tuner cards are still exclusively PCI as far as I am aware of.

The VT8237 has VIA's AC'97 audio implementation built in. Audio is output is through the standard Realtek ALC850 codec. The back panel is simpler than most of the recent boards that we have looked at. Four USB2 ports, a single LAN interface and a basic collection of audio connectors are located on the back.