Athlon 64 overclocking on a budget
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At first glance, our $500 bundle looks like a much better deal. After all, even slower Athlon 64s perform quite well, and the Sonata is simply gorgeous. But what about the KV8 Pro? Is it really worthy a worthy addition to our little all-star bundle?
Yes. And then some. With competitive performance, a working AGP/PCI lock, the most feature-rich BIOS I've ever seen, and the ability to lower the CPU multiplier, the KV8 Pro could very well be the best Athlon 64 platform for budget-conscious enthusiasts and MHz-starved overclockers. Read on for a detailed look at the KV8 Pro's features, performance, and intriguing overclocking potential.
The specs
Before diving into a tour of the KV8 Pro's layout, let's have a quick look at the spec sheet.
| CPU support | Socket 754-based Athlon 64 processors |
| Form factor | ATX |
| Chipset | VIA K8T800 Pro |
| North bridge | VIA K8T800 Pro |
| South bridge | VIA VT8237 |
| Interconnect | Ultra V-Link (1.06GB/sec) |
| PCI slots | 5 32-bit/33MHz |
| AGP slots | 1 AGP 4X/8X (1.5V only) |
| Memory | 2 184-pin DIMM sockets Maximum of 2GB of DDR266/333/400 SDRAM |
| Storage I/O | Floppy disk 2 channels ATA/133 2 channels Serial ATA 150 via VT8237 south bridge with RAID 0,1 support |
| Audio | 6-channel audio via VT8237 integrated audio and ALC658 codec |
| Ports | 1 PS/2 keyboard 1 PS/2 mouse 1 serial 4 USB 2.0 with headers for 4 more 1 RJ45 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet via VIA VT6122 1 analog front out 1 analog bass/center out 1 analog rear out 1 analog line in 1 analog mic in 1 digital S/PDIF input (TOS-Link) 1 digital S/PDIF output (TOS-Link) |
| BIOS | Phoenix AwardBIOS |
| Bus speeds | CPU: 200-300MHz in 1MHz increments |
| Bus dividers | CPU:AGP:PCI: 6:2:1, 7:2:1, 8:2:1, fixed AGP/PCI |
| Voltages | CPU: 1.5-1.85V in 0.025V increments AGP: 1.5-1.65V in 0.05V increments DRAM: 2.5-2.8V in 0.05V increments NB: 1.5-1.65V in 0.05V increments SB: 2.5-2.65V in 0.05V increments HT: 1.2-1.4V in 0.05V increments |
| Monitoring | Voltage, fan status, and temperature monitoring |
All the usual suspects, almost. The KV8 Pro has everything you'd expect from an enthusiast-oriented motherboard, including six-channel audio, Serial ATA RAID, and loads of BIOS goodies, but the board curiously lacks integrated Firewire support. Also missing is a secondary IDE or Serial ATA RAID option, which may or may not handicap the board, depending on how many drives and arrays you want to run.
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