Soyo KT400 Dragon Ultra Motherboard Review - PAGE 5
Howard H, Ryan Li, Peter Judson
- Tuesday, October 29th, 2002

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-- Article Quick Nav -- 1 - Introduction & Features2 - BIOS and Overclocking Features3 - Testing and Performance4 - DDR400 Revisited5 - Conclusion

The Soyo KT400 Dragon Ultra is a superb board with overclocking options galore. The flexibility for overclocking impressed us a lot, especially compared to the relatively sparse and limited options we found on the KT4 Ultra. In fact, we’re fairly certain that this board will accommodate most of your overclocking needs. The problem, though, is that most hardcore overclockers tend to be a stickler for performance too, and this board is NOT a performance leader. Of course, looking at the numbers, you’ll notice that the board only falls behind by a few percent in most tests, and the overclocking options should enable you to push your chip far beyond what the KT4 Ultra could allow, so in the end it all balances out.

The board comes with a superb collection of integrated peripherals. I am particularly glad that Soyo includes a full fledged 6 channel audio solution, complete with SPDIF in/out for coax and optical users.

If you are excited by the potential of this board, you can also be excited by the fact that it’s priced only around $15-20 more expensively then the SY-KT333 Dragon Ultra. A quick search on the net found this board hovering around the $150-175 range. That’s more expensive than the KT4 Ultra’s price of around $100-120, but you get much better audio support, and you’ve also got a lot better overclocking features.

One thing that seems to drag the price up a little on this package is the Sigma Box. If you have no need for CompactFlash and SmartMedia readers, then this box is nothing more than a glorified faceplate that has some nice USB slots for the front of your case. I’d really like to see the KT400 Dragon Ultra’s price sans-Sigma Box. On the flip side, if you have a digicam or portable MP3 player that uses SM or CF cards, then this is a really handy little add-on.

The bottom line when it comes to whether to spend your money on this board will depend on what you’ve got under the hood right now. If you are already the owner of a KT333 board with decent overclocking options, then there’s little reason for you to upgrade. However, if you are looking at getting a new board, and the KT333 Dragon Ultra was on your shopping list anyway, I’d say this would be a better investment.

I’m fairly certain that Soyo will continue to tweak the board for performance. They’ve already got all the other parts of this board right. It’s just a matter of time. And we know Soyo is keen to push things forward since they’ve got a real winner on their hands here.

By the way, the pictures don’t do this board justice. If you’re a show-off, and you’ve got a decked-out case with a window, this board is really going to wow your friends.

Pros:

Very, very robust overclocking options

can set PCI clock divider, up to 1/6

excellent integrated audio, with lots of inputs/outputs.

This think looks freaking awesome!!! :P

Cons:

performance is not very good, it lags behind the KT4 Ultra, which we know is not too much faster than a KT333 board.

DDR400 still isn’t a reason to upgrade.

Overall Score: 85%