KT600 motherboard round-up

Until AMD dramatically lowers its Athlon 64 prices or offers lower speed grades, the Socket A platform will remain quite popular among enthusiasts looking for the best bang for their buck. But what chipset will enthusiasts flock to for their Socket A needs? For some time, NVIDIA’s nForce2 has been the Socket A chipset to have. However, the nForce2 is getting a little long in the tooth, and its lack of integrated Serial ATA support becomes more noticeable with each passing day.

The KT600, VIA’s latest Socket A chipset, just happens to have integrated south bridge Serial ATA. But that’s not all. The KT600 chipset officially supports a 400MHz front-side bus and features a tweaked memory controller that promises to wring every last drop of performance from its single memory channel. KT600 boards are making their way onto the market, and we’ve gathered eight of them for a massive mobo round-up. Just to keep things spicy, we’ve also thrown an nForce2 Ultra 400 board into the mix to see how VIA’s latest Socket A creation stacks up against the well-entrenched competition.

Can VIA’s KT600 run with or even beat NVIDIA’s venerable nForce2? Which KT600 board is right for you? Read on as we compare boards from ABIT, ASUS, AZZA, EPoX, FIC, MSI, SOLTEK, and SOYO to find out.

VIA’s KT600 north bridge

… and the VT8237 south bridge

The chipset
VIA’s KT600 chipset isn’t a radical departure from the KT400A, but VIA has managed a nip here and a tuck there to improve performance and to offer more features. The KT600 north bridge is primarily responsible for improved performance, while the chipset’s VT8237 south bridge has all the new features. Before we cover all that’s new and interesting in the KT600, let’s see how it’s all laid out in VIA’s lovely block diagram:

Source: VIA

The KT600 block diagram nicely segments different elements of the KT600, which makes the chipset a lot easier for me to explain. Here are some of the highlights, starting from the top.

• A 400MHz front-side bus – Despite its name, VIA’s KT400A chipset never officially supported a 400MHz system bus. KT400 boards could often be overclocked, but not every board was stable at 400MHz. The KT600 officially supports 400MHz front-side bus speeds and provides all the necessary memory, AGP, and PCI dividers to keep the rest of the system running in-spec with AMD’s fastest Athlon XPs.

• Single-channel memory controller – VIA has tweaked the KT600’s memory controller to squeeze as much performance as possible from a single channel of DDR400 memory. The KT600 won’t be able to match the raw theoretical peak bandwidth of dual-channel DDR400 memory controllers, but it will have the distinct advantage of being competitive with only a single DIMM installed. Dual-channel solutions like the nForce2 require 2 DIMMs for optimal performance. Another often-overlooked benefit of single-channel memory controllers is how easy it is to expand a system’s existing memory configuration—DIMMs can be added one at a time rather than in pairs.

• Serial ATA – The VT8237 south bridge has native support for up to four Serial ATA devices, though accessing two of those devices requires an external PHY chip. Because it’s located right on the south bridge, the VT8237’s Serial ATA controller doesn’t have to compete for limited PCI bus bandwidth with other devices. Serial ATA drives have full access to the KT600’s 533MB/sec 8X V-Link interconnect.

• V-RAID – VIA is serving up software RAID 0, 1, 0+1, and JBOD support for the KT600’s VT8237’s Serial ATA controller, which should delight mirroring and striping fanatics alike. Because V-RAID only works with south bridge-connected hard drives, it’s not saddled with PCI bus bandwidth limitations that can plague third-party RAID chips. Using software built right into the driver, users can create and delete RAID arrays on the fly, designate spare disks, and even do array repairs. Unfortunately, V-RAID only works with Serial ATA drive connected to the VT8237 south bridge; “parallel” ATA RAID isn’t supported. Because V-RAID only supports Serial ATA drives, RAID 0+1 support is limited to KT600 boards that expose the VT8237’s extra two Serial ATA ports via an auxiliary PHY chip.

The KT600 chipset also inherits USB 2.0, six-channel Vinyl Audio, 10/100 Fast Ethernet, and 8X V-Link technology from the KT400A. Here’s a quick synopsis of all the KT600’s features:

*The C-Media CMI8738 is a full blown audio chip with an integrated codec
**The SY-KT600 Dragon Ultra’s 3.5″ memory card reader consumes two of the board’s auxiliary USB ports I’m going to explore the layout of each board in a moment, but before I get into that, it’s worth taking a look at some of the different chips used on each board. These chips help differentiate some boards from their competition by augmenting the KT600 chipset’s storage, networking, audio, and even connectivity features.

Highpoint’s HPT372 IDE RAID chip

Promise’s PDC20378 S/PATA RAID chip

Silicon Image’s Sil3112 SATA RAID chip

On the storage front, EPoX, MSI, and SOYO all incorporate third-party RAID controllers. EPoX is the only manufacturer to include an IDE-only RAID chip, Highpoint’s HPT372, which offers support for single “parallel” ATA drives in addition to RAID 0, 1, and 0+1 arrays. This IDE RAID option nicely makes up for the fact that VIA’s V-RAID is Serial ATA only. Instead of complimenting V-RAID with IDE RAID, SOYO chose to equip its KT600 board an additional Serial ATA RAID option. The SY-KT600 Dragon Ultra uses Silicon Image’s Sil 3112 Serial ATA RAID controller to power a pair of Serial ATA ports for RAID 0 or RAID 1 arrays.

Instead of choosing between Serial ATA and IDE RAID, MSI employs Promise’s PDC20378 RAID chip to support both on the KT6 Delta-FIS2R. The PDC20378 supports RAID 0, 1, and 0+1 arrays across not only two Serial ATA drives, but also two “parallel” ATA drives. Though the chip supports Serial ATA drives on individual channels, “parallel” ATA drives must share a single IDE channel, which will invariably degrade performance in arrays with two PATA drives. Still, the ability to span RAID arrays across multiple drive types is pretty slick.

3Com’s Marvell 940-MV00 GigE chip

Broadcom’s BCM5788 GigE chip

Though VIA’s VT8237 south bridge’s integrated 10/100 Fast Ethernet support should be fast enough for most home and business networks, ASUS and MSI pimp up their KT600 boards with a little extra networking love in the form of Gigabit Ethernet. ASUS uses 3Com’s Marvell 940-MV00 Gigabit chip, while MSI integrates Broadcom’s BCM5788. Unfortunately, both chips are forced to share PCI bandwidth with other add-in cards, and in the KT6 Delta-FIS2R’s case, with an integrated Serial ATA RAID controller. It’s unlikely that either GigE implementation will have performance approaching that of PCI-X or CSA-based Gigabit Ethernet solutions. So far, only a handful of boards have offered different storage and networking chips. However, nearly every board in this comparison deals with audio a little differently. Check out this huge selection of audio and codec chips:

Analog Devices’ AD1980 codec

C-Media’s CMI8738 audio chip

C-Media’s CMI9739a codec

Realtek’s ALC650 codec

Realtek’s ALC655 codec

VIA’s VT1616 codec

Yikes! That’s a lot of chips. Let’s deal with the odd man out first. SOYO’s SY-KT600 Dragon Ultra is the only board in this comparison to forgo VIA’s integrated VT8237 south bridge audio in favor of a third-party audio chip. The Dragon Ultra uses C-Media’s CMI8738, which packs a six-channel audio controller and an accompanying codec into a single chip. The CMI8738 supports 16-bit, 48kHz audio recording and playback and is actually used in a number of low-end discrete sound cards.

Just because the rest of the KT600 boards we’re looking we’re looking at use VIA’s integrated south bridge audio doesn’t mean that all the implementations are identical. Nearly all of the boards route the VT8237’s audio streams through a different codec chip. VIA actually makes a VT1616 codec chip to accompany the VT8237 south bridge, but only ABIT’s KV7 and SOLTEK’s SL-KT600R use VIA’s codec. The VT1616 is a part of VIA’s “Vinyl Audio” brand and supports 18-bit audio recording and playback at 48kHz.

Of course, no motherboard audio round-up would be complete without a little ALC action from Realtek. I’ve seen Realtek’s ALC650 codec chip on more motherboards than I can count, and the popular chip is featured on both the AZZA and EPoX boards. FIC uses a close relative of the ALC650, the ALC655, on its KT-600 PRO. The ALC655 is actually a step down from the ALC650 in terms of supported sampling rates and resolutions. The ALC650 supports 18-bit recording and 20-bit playback at 48kHz, while the ALC655 only supports 16-bit audio up to 48kHz.

Rather than use popular codec chips from Realtek or VIA, ASUS and MSI opt for less common chips from Analog Devices and C-Media. ASUS’ A7V600 uses Analog Devices’ AD1980 codec, which supports 16-bit audio recording and 20-bit playback at up to 96kHz. The VT8237 can’t take advantage of the AD1980’s support for 96kHz sampling rates, but the codec should sound great playing back Wham MP3s. MSI’s piece de resistance is C-Media’s CMI9739a codec, which supports 18-bit recording and 20-bit audio playback at 48kHz.

Each board’s audio implementation supports six analog output channels, but as we’ll see later, performance and output quality varies quite a bit. The boards from ABIT, ASUS, MSI, and SOYO also support digital S/PDIF outputs, and SOYO’s board even has digital input ports.

VIA’s VT6307 Firewire chip

We’re almost done with chips, but not quite. A handful of the KT600 boards we’re looking at feature VIA’s VT6307 Firewire chip for IEEE 1394 connectivity. The VT6307 supports up to three Firewire devices and is implemented in EPoX’s EP-9KRA2+, FIC’s KT-600 PRO, MSI’s KT6 Delta-FIS2R, and SOYO’s SY-KT600 Dragon Ultra. After seeing all those different codec chips, I half expected to see a couple of different Firewire solutions, but the VT6307 seems to be a popular choice among mainboard manufacturers.

So far, we’ve seen quite a bit of variety in the chips used on our KT600 boards, but there are even more differences in the board layouts.

Good things come in small packages
ABIT’s been making enthusiast-oriented motherboards for a long time, and they’re currently enjoying renewed success with a strong lineup of new boards. For the KT600, ABIT is rolling out the KV7, a surprisingly small board that still manages to exploit everything VIA’s new chipset has to offer. The KV7 sports ABIT’s new orangish-red color scheme, which is refreshing change from many of the multicolored neon monstrosities on the market. Check it out:

The KV7’s layout is a little tighter than other KT600 boards, but since the KV7 is also a couple of inches shorter than the competition, I think it’s a reasonable compromise. Five full PCI slots grace the board, which also has an auxiliary four-pin power connector. Auxiliary power connectors aren’t required by AMD or VIA, but the extra juice should help the KV7 maintain stability when pushed beyond its limits.

Unfortunately, though the KV7’s four-pin power connector is smartly placed near the top edge of the board, the main power connector is halfway down the board and close enough to the CPU socket to create cable clutter that could impede air flow.

The area around the KV7’s CPU socket is a little tight, but the board does have four mounting holes for larger heat sink mounting assemblies. The extra holes are no longer a part of AMD’s Socket A spec, but it’s nice to see ABIT include them for those looking to use more secure heat sink mounting mechanisms and larger, heavier heat sinks.

Despite its tighter layout, there’s enough room around the KV7’s AGP and DIMM slots to allow memory modules to be removed while a graphics card is installed. Considering the fact that many larger boards have problems with AGP/DIMM slot clearance, ABIT gets extra props for doing it right on a smaller board.

ABIT is the first manufacturer I’ve seen mounting IDE ports facing outward along the outside edge of a motherboard, and I actually quite like the change. Having IDE ports flipped 90 degrees and placed right along the edge of the board helps make routing and folding cumbersome ribbon cables a little easier.

I’m not a huge fan of the KV7’s active north bridge cooler. Badum-ching. Noise isn’t an issue, because the fan is whisper silent, but ABIT could easily get away with a larger passive cooler that’s immune to potential fan failure.

The KV7 serves up a packed port cluster that offers a full suite of audio input and output ports, including a digital S/PDIF port. The KV7’s five analog output ports lets users take advantage of all the board’s analog input and output ports without having to swap cables.

It may seem like a minor point to touch on, but it’s worth mentioning that the KV7 uses Rubycon capacitors exclusively. Rubycon’s high-end capacitors were immune to the cap-busting problems that plagued many enthusiast-oriented motherboards a few years ago, and it’s encouraging to see ABIT using them throughout on the KV7. The fact ABIT is putting high-end capacitors on an inexpensive board like the KV7 is a refreshing change from more typical cost-cutting attitudes.

A reference board with a twist
Being the largest motherboard manufacturer in the world means ASUS makes boards based on nearly every chipset under the sun. ASUS doesn’t often do anything wild or daring, but the company’s reputation for producing stable, reliable, and fast boards has made them a favorite among enthusiasts and PC manufacturers alike.

The KT600-powered A7V600’s drab brown finish doesn’t make a good first impression, but a closer look at the board reveals a few unique twists that give the board an edge.

The A7V600 is a massive board, so there’s lots of room for six PCI slots and all sorts of chips and peripheral ports. The board lacks an auxiliary four-pin power connector, but at least its primary power plug is positioned nicely along one edge.

Considering how expansive the board is, it would be nice to see a little more room around the A7V600’s CPU socket. As it is, memory modules need to be removed to easily access the retention tabs for most heat sinks. On a more positive note, the board does include four mounting holes for alternative heat sink mounting mechanisms.

The A7V600 has less AGP/DIMM clearance than any motherboard I’ve ever seen. Part of the blame lies with the fact that the board has to accommodate six full PCI slots, but I’ve seen many boards provide more clearance, even with six PCI slots.

ASUS at least uses the A7V600’s available real estate to position the IDE and Serial ATA ports mid-way up the board’s edge.

The A7V600 uses a massive passive heat sink to keep the KT600 north bridge nice and cool. The heat sink won’t generate any noise, and perhaps more importantly, it won’t be prone to a fan failure that could potentially fry a north bridge chip.

The A7V600’s port cluster is standard, for the most part. The board features three analog audio ports, which means that line-in and mic inputs share jacks with rear and center output channels. A digital S/PDIF output also graces the rear port cluster for those looking to completely bypass the board’s DAC.

Though it’s not bundled directly with the board, the A7V600 has a special expansion header designed to work with ASUS’ Wi-Fi@Home card. Wi-Fi@Home is a wireless network card and Wi-Fi access point rolled into one, which is pretty cool, even if it’s not a freebie.

Who?
Maybe I’ve been living under a rock for the last few years, but I’ve honestly never heard of AZZA. After browsing through the company’s North American web site, which doesn’t even list the KT600 ALX, I wasn’t too optimistic about the board’s prospects. The fact that no listings for the KT600 ALX are available on Pricewatch doesn’t say much for the board’s current availability, either.

Still, I’ve always been a fan of underdogs. If anything, the KT600 ALX’s black board suggests this could be the dark horse in our comparison, so I won’t write it off just yet.

At first glance, nothing about the KT600 ALX really jumps out. The board has six PCI slots and lacks an auxiliary power connector, which makes it similar to the A7V600. However, the KT600 ALX’s primary power connector is positioned far from the top edge of the board, so users will have to deal with a little power cord cable clutter.

The KT600 ALX’s socket orientation makes heat sink removal in tight cases a bit difficult, but there’s lots of room around the socket for larger heat sinks. The board also lacks mounting holes for beefier heat sink retention systems.

Despite having six PCI slots, there’s enough room between the KT600 ALX’s AGP and DIMM slots to swap memory modules without having to yank their graphics cards. Those with longer graphics cards (gargantuan GeForce4 Ti 4600s come to mind) may run into a few problems when fiddling with the DIMM slot retention tabs, but there are no clearance problems once everything is installed.

Surprisingly, the KT600 ALX is the first motherboard I’ve seen in ages that doesn’t incorporate an AGP card retention system of any kind. Those who move their rigs to and from LAN parties on a regular basis or run heavier graphics cards should think twice about using the KT600 ALX without some sort of auxiliary AGP card retention mechanism.

AZZA’s placement of the KT600 ALX’s Serial ATA and IDE ports is similar ASUS’ A7V600, which puts the ports mid-way up the board along one edge. Having the ports halfway up the board makes it easier to reach optical drives high up in full tower cases and also keeps cable clutter away from the bottom of the board.

The KT600 ALX uses a passive heat sink to keep its north bridge chip cool, which is just fine by me. Passive heat sinks may not have the sex appeal of funky fan-driven cooling systems, but with enough surface area, passive sinks get the job done nicely.

AZZA doesn’t take any chances with the KT600 ALX’s port cluster, which only gives access to two of the board’s eight USB 2.0 ports. The remaining USB ports must be accessed via PCI back plate headers, but that blocks access to PCI slots. With only three analog audio ports, the KT600 ALX’s center and rear outputs share ports with its line-in and microphone inputs.

Making being green look easy
Though EPoX makes plenty of enthusiast-oriented motherboards, we’ve actually never reviewed one here at TR, so I was anxious to get my hands on the EP-8KRA2+. If I had to succinctly describe the EP-8KRA2+, I’d have to call it old school. Not only does the board bundle in plain old IDE RAID, it’s also one of the few KT600 boards to dress in a classic shade of Printed Circuit Board Green. Green may not be the flashiest color for modding enthusiasts looking to show something off through a case window, but it’s remarkably distinctive in the sea of multicolored boards currently on the market.

The EP-8KRA2+ is laid out on a full-size ATX board with plenty of room for extra IDE ports and six PCI slots. The board lacks an auxiliary power connector, and its single power plug is located a little too close to the CPU socket for my picky cable routing tastes, but overall things are spaced out nicely.

There’s plenty of room around the EP-8KRA2+’s CPU socket for larger heat sinks, but no retention mechanism holes to help keep bigger, heavier cooling systems secure. Although Athlon XP processors feature internal thermistors, the EP-8KRA2+’s CPU socket sports its own temperature sensor just in case.

Despite the board’s six PCI slots, there’s enough room between the EP-8KRA2+’s AGP and DIMM slots to facilitate easy DIMM swapping. Only those running longer graphics cards should have to pull their graphics card to swap memory modules.

The EP-8KRA2+’s four IDE ports are nicely lined up along the edge of the board, and the Serial ATA ports aren’t far away. With all four IDE ports in use, things will get a little crowded around the bottom of the board, but that’s what Zip Ties are for.

A passive north bridge heat sink keeps the EP-8KRA2+’s KT600 chip running cool, silent, and free of worry over potential fan failures. I’ve actually had a couple of north bridge fans die on me over the years, and while the failures have never released the magic smoke or fried any system components, they were detrimental to system stability under load.

The EP-8KRA2+’s port cluster is pretty standard fare. With only three analog audio ports, rear and center outputs must share ports with line-in and mic inputs.

Like many of EPoX’s motherboards, the EP-8KRA2+ has a two-digit post code display that makes troubleshooting a breeze. Personally, I’ve never enjoyed deciphering BIOS beep codes to get to the bottom of motherboard boot problems, so the post code display really does it for me. This feature probably saves EPoX’s tech support team plenty of time, too. I can imagine the joy tech support jockeys must feel knowing they won’t have to ask troubled users to hold the phone up to beeping motherboards that refuse to boot.

Capitalization’s all the rage
FIC’s take on VIA’s KT600 chipset is the appropriately named KT-600 PRO. The KT-600 PRO isn’t a wild departure from the KT600’s core feature set, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Unfortunately, I can’t find any KT-600 PROs for sale online, but I’d expect them to be among the cheaper KT600 options once they’re finally available.

Rather than dressing up the KT-600 PRO with a wild splash of color, FIC opts for a more conservative look for the board. Color is used sparingly to identify different expansion slots, and though I don’t find the palette particularly attractive, my fashion sense is questionable at best.

FIC gets high marks for putting the KT-600 PRO’s primary power connector along one edge of the board, but the auxiliary power plug is situated directly below the CPU socket where cabling can potentially create clutter and impede air flow. Since only half of the KT600 boards we’re looking at today support any auxiliary power at all, I can’t complain too much about FIC’s plug placement.

The KT-600 PRO’s socket region is tight but clean. Memory modules in the nearest DIMM slot can interfere with some heat sink retention clips, which is a minor annoyance, but one that’s easily rectified by temporarily removing the DIMM during installation. The board also lacks mounting holes for alternative heat sink retention mechanisms, but since the holes are no longer a part of AMD’s socket spec, it’s hard to fault FIC too much for not including them.

With only five PCI slots, the KT-600 PRO easily has enough clearance between its AGP and DIMM slots. The board uses an AGP card retention mechanism that’s quite a bit simpler than the hinged clips found on most boards, and in my experience, easier to use as well.

Like most of the KT600 boards we’re looking at, the KT-600 PRO’s Serial ATA and IDE ports are located along the edge of the board where they should create the least amount of cable clutter. The floppy port is buried all the way at the bottom of the board, but since floppy drives are rarely needed these days, it’s not a big deal.

FIC uses a tiny heat sink on the KT-600 PRO’s north bridge, and I have some serious reservations about how well it can keep the chip cool. Passive heat sinks on the other KT600 boards we’re looking at have at least three times the surface area of FIC’s diminutive north bridge cooler, which gets quite hot even when the board is running on an open workbench.

The KT-600 PRO’s port cluster offers a full array of standard ports, four USB ports, and a trio of audio jacks. With only three audio ports, the board’s center and rear output channels must share plugs with the line-in and mic inputs, but that’s probably not going to be a big deal for most users.

Painting the town red
Thus far, we haven’t seen any particularly daring or sexy KT600 implementations, but that doesn’t mean that the chipset can’t have a wild side. MSI is tossing caution to the wind with its KT6 Delta-FIS2R, which squarely targets the enthusiast market with an array of high-end extras.

If the KT6 Delta-FIS2R’s laundry list of extra features doesn’t make you hot, its brilliant red color scheme will. I’m not crazy about the pastel green DIMM slots, but the board still looks fast.

Despite being peppered with expansion ports and extra chips, the KT6 Delta-FIS2R’s layout is remarkably clean and tidy. The board’s primary power connector is about as close to the top edge as one can get, but the auxiliary plug’s position isn’t ideal.

A single annoying capacitor keeps the KT6 Delta-FIS2R from having a spacious CPU socket area, but it’s not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things. A bigger problem could be the socket’s orientation, which puts the heat sink retention clip along the top edge of the board. In tight cases with little or no vertical clearance, the board may have to be removed to gain access to the heat sink retention mechanism.

Despite its crowded layout, there’s plenty of room between the KT6 Delta-FIS2R’s AGP and DIMM slots. Memory modules can be removed and installed without having to pull the graphics card. Though a couple of capacitors look imposing to the right of the AGP slot, they won’t get in the way, even with NVIDIA’s notoriously massive GeForce4 Ti 4600 and FX 5800 Ultra graphics cards.

If we count its floppy port, the KT6 Delta-FIS2R serves up a total of eight storage-related expansion ports—pretty impressive for a board that costs less than $130. IDE and Serial ATA ports are spaced out nicely along one edge of the board, but the Promise controller’s IDE port is a little low to reach optical drives located at the top of full-tower cases.

MSI goes with active cooling for the KT6 Delta-FIS2R’s north bridge chip, and the variable speed fan is pretty slick. However, I’m still not a huge fan of active north bridge cooling, as I’ve mentioned.

The KT6 Delta-FIS2R’s port cluster is full of USB ports, but I can’t help but wish that MSI included a couple of those ports on some sort of front-panel drive bay insert. Chances are, if you’re using all six USB ports, it would be more convenient to have at least a couple of those ports at the front rather than at the rear of a case.

The KT6 Delta-FIS2R also comes with an auxiliary audio port header to fill out the board’s analog outputs and add a couple of digital ports. The board doesn’t have to share analog output channels with its line-in and mic inputs, and users also have access to two S/PDIF digital output options.

Thus far, the KT6 Delta-FIS2R has had no problem differentiating itself from the pack, but MSI has one more trick up its sleeve: the Core Cell chip.

So what exactly is the Core Cell? According to MSI, the chip is a diagnostic tool that tunes the board to an “optimal” state by balancing performance with power consumption and noise. The Core Cell manipulates the speeds of the north bridge and CPU fans in an attempt to keep temperatures constant and noise to a minimum. In testing, the KT6 Delta-FIS2R wasn’t noticeably quieter than any of the other KT600 boards, but the benchmarking sweatshop is usually purring with the sound of multiple systems running full bore, so minute differences in noise levels are hard to notice.

MSI also claims the Core Cell can improve overclocking potential and stability over competing designs. We’ll see how the KT6 Delta-FIS2R fares with overclocking a little later in this comparison.

Fresh out of witty comments
SOLTEK’s small form factor systems have been generating a bit of buzz lately, but the company also has a KT600 board to show off. The SL-KT600R’s most striking feature is its lack of integrated Ethernet, which is a surprising omission. The SL-KT600 line actually comes in a number of different flavors that mix and match peripherals, but it boggles my mind why SOLTEK would even consider building a board that didn’t take advantage of the VT8237 south bridge’s “free” 10/100 Fast Ethernet support.

The SL-KT600R’s color scheme also sets it apart from the crowd.

The SL-KT600R packs six PCI slots and an auxiliary ATX12V power connector. Unfortunately, both power plugs are located far from the board’s top edge, which makes for a minor cable routing nuisance. At least users will be able to bind the two motherboard power cables together to reduce slightly reduce clutter.

There’s a reasonable amount of room around the SL-KT600R’s CPU socket, but the board doesn’t have mounting holes for custom heat sink retention systems.

Longer graphics cards can create clearance problems for the board’s DIMM slot tabs.

All the SL-KT600R’s IDE and Serial ATA ports are clustered together towards the edge of the board, but thin, flexible Serial ATA cables ensure that the area doesn’t get too messy.

SOLTEK keeps the SL-KT600R’s north bridge cool with a tall, passive heat sink that’s packed with fins to radiate heat.

Without an RJ-45 jack, the SL-KT600R’s port cluster looks pretty bare. Three analog audio ports force sharing between line-in and mic inputs and rear/center output channels, but the board does have a game port if you’re looking to run an older joystick or game pad.

Saving the best for last?
The SY-KT600 Dragon Ultra is the last of the KT600 boards we’ll be looking at, and though you’re probably bored to tears of DIMM tab clearance issues and north bridge heat sinks, SOYO’s KT600 offering is distinctive enough to spice things up. The SY-KT600 Dragon Ultra is also the most expensive KT600 board we’re looking at today, and SOYO has packed it with enough extras to justify its higher price.

The first thing that jumps out about the SY-KT600 Dragon Ultra is the board’s silver and purple color scheme. While the look is likely a little garish for some, it’s certainly unique, and will nicely match the interior of an aluminum case.

SOYO has a lot going on with the SY-KT600 Dragon Ultra, but the board’s layout is still neat and relatively spacious. With all the board’s extras, it’s a shame SOYO didn’t include an auxiliary power connector. The primary power plug could be better placed closer to the upper edge of the board, too.

The SY-KT600 Dragon Ultra’s CPU socket has mounting holes for alternate CPU retention mechanisms, but the board’s DIMM slots are a little too close to the socket for comfort. When filled, the board’s first DIMM slot complicates access to traditional heat sink retention clips. I also worry that memory modules mounted in the closest DIMM slot could pick up additional heat radiated from the CPU heat sink.

With only five PCI slots, the SY-KT600 Dragon Ultra has plenty of clearance between its AGP slot and DIMM retention tabs. The SY-KT600 Dragon Ultra has the distinction of being the only KT600 board I’m aware of with an AGP Pro slot, though it’s unlikely workstation users will be flocking to VIA’s latest Socket A platform. Unfortunately, the Dragon Ultra doesn’t have an AGP card retention mech, which makes the board less suitable for gamers who regularly drag their systems to and from LAN parties.

SOYO positions the SY-KT600 Dragon Ultra’s multiple storage ports along the edge of the board, and everything is nicely spaced. The board’s four Serial ATA ports are quite close to each other, but thanks to flexible Serial ATA cables, it’s not a big deal.

The SY-KT600 Dragon Ultra’s north bridge heat sink relies on active cooling to keep the KT600 running smoothly, but by now you’ve no doubt noted my preference for larger passive heat sinks.

Interestingly enough, SOYO slaps a passive heat sink on the board’s VT8237 south bridge. The SY-KT600 Dragon Ultra is the only KT600 board in the round-up with a south bridge heat sink, which makes me wonder if the fins aren’t just for show. More effective chip cooling certainly can’t hurt, though.

SOYO packs the SY-KT600 Dragon Ultra’s port cluster with everything from USB to audio to Firewire, but there’s more.

The board also sports an expansion header that’s riddled with extra audio ports. With the expansion header in place, the SY-KT600 Dragon Ultra offers three analog outputs, two analog inputs, and digital S/PDIF input and output ports.

Nope, we’re not quite done with ports yet. SOYO also bundles its Sigma box with the SY-KT600 Dragon Ultra, which gives users access to a couple of USB and Firewire ports in either a 3.5 or 5.25″ drive bay. The Sigma box also comes with a memory card reader and a selection of face plates to match black and silver cases.

Overall, the Sigma box is the only significant bundled extra of any of the KT600 boards we’re looking at today. Opulent bundles seem to be all the rage for high-end enthusiast-oriented motherboards, but it looks like manufacturers aren’t looking to squeeze in a bunch of extras with their KT600 offerings.

Because SOYO’s spec for the SY-KT600 Dragon Ultra clearly caters to enthusiasts, I’m not sure why the board relies on antiquated dip switches for multiplier adjustment. To be fair, some of the KT600 boards in this comparison don’t offer multiplier manipulation at all, but I can’t understand why SOYO didn’t work multiplier options into the board’s BIOS.

*Based on the front-side bus options offered with an Athlon XP 3200+, which uses a 400MHz (2 x 200MHz) front-side bus by default. Overall, ABIT’s KV7 offers a more complete array of bus speeds, dividers, voltages, memory timings, and safety features than any other board in this comparison, though ASUS, EPoX, MSI, SOLTEK, and SOYO also offer well-stocked BIOSes.

Neither ASUS nor MSI offers BIOS-managed fan failure or CPU temperature alarm or shutdown conditions, but both boards have hardware-based solutions to keep processors from overheating. Personally, I prefer that safety features be integrated into a board’s BIOS to facilitate user tweaking, but I’ll take hardware-based overheating protection over none at all.

From an enthusiast’s perspective, AZZA and FIC get failing marks for their KT600 boards. Both boards support for front-side bus overclocking, but neither offers BIOS-level multiplier control. AZZA and FIC also fail to include any voltage manipulation options, but at least both offer a full suite of memory timing options.

It took a while for some of the KT600 boards in this comparison to get stable, and some aren’t even readily available for sale yet. However, each of the boards we’re looking at today is rock solid with its latest BIOS revision. Unfortunately, each board seems to prefer a different set of BIOS-level latency and performance settings, despite the fact that our Corsair XMS3500 DDR400 DIMM is rated to work with 2-3-7-3 latencies and a 1T command rate.

In addition to running our eight KT600 boards against each other, I’ve also thrown in an nForce2 Ultra 400-based motherboard from DFI to illustrate how the KT600’s performance compares with the best NVIDIA has to offer for the Socket A platform.

We used the following versions of our test applications:

• SiSoft Sandra Standard 2003
• ZD Media Business Winstone 2002 1.0.1
• ZD Media Content Creation Winstone 2002 1.0.1
• TCD Labs HD Tach v2.61
• Futuremark 3DMark03 Patch 330
• Quake III Arena v1.31
• Unreal Tournament 2003 demo
• RightMark Audio Analyzer 5.1
• RightMark 3D Sound 1.0
• Cinebench 2003
• Sphinx 3.3

The test systems’ Windows desktop was set at 1024×768 in 32-bit color at a 75Hz screen refresh rate. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled for all tests. Most of the 3D gaming tests used the high detail image quality settings, with the exception that the resolution was set to 640×480 in 32-bit color.

All the tests and methods we employed are publicly available and reproducible. If you have questions about our methods, hit our forums to talk with us about them.

Our nForce2 platform is smack in the middle of a stack of KT600 boards in Sandra’s memory bandwidth tests. Among the KT600 boards, SOYO, MSI, EPoX, and SOLTEK all offer impressive memory bandwidth from a single channel of DDR400 memory. AZZA, FIC, ASUS, and ABIT don’t fare so well.

What’s particularly impressive about the KT600’s performance in Sandra is how well its single-channel memory controller is able to keep up with NVIDIA’s dual-channel design.

In Cachemem, MSI leads the pack when it comes to read memory bandwidth, and EPoX beats out the rest of the KT600 pack in terms of write bandwidth. None of the KT600 boards offer more write bandwidth than the nForce2 Ultra 400, but the KT6 Delta-FIS2R and EP-8KRA2+ both manage more read bandwidth.

MSI leads in memory latency, easily outdistancing the closest competition. The nForce2 ends up in the middle of the pack again, and ABIT and ASUS bring up the rear.

“Parallel” ATA controllers were tested with a Maxtor 740X-6L 7200 RPM hard drive, while Serial ATA controllers were tested with a Western Digital Raptor WD360 10K RPM drive.

In HD Tach’s read burst speed test, SOLTEK’s SL-KT600-R is the only KT600 board to differentiate itself from the pack, and not in a good way. Drives connected to the board’s south bridge disk controllers hit a wall around 92MB/sec, which is only a small drop in performance for Serial ATA drives, but a huge hit for “parallel” ATA drives.

The SL-KT600-R redeems itself in HD Tach’s average read speed test, where scores are more dependent on hard drive performance than anything else.

In HD Tach’s write speed tests, ASUS, FIC, and SOLTEK’s boards have a few performance problems. The A7V600’s performance with both Serial ATA and ATA/133 drives puts the board in last place.

There’s a slight variance in disk access time scores between our assembled KT600 boards, with SOLTEK, FIC, and ABIT leading the way with a little help from Western Digital’s Raptor. The CPU utilization scores get even more interesting.

Yikes. It looks like VIA’s VT8237 has some serious CPU utilization issues with “parallel” ATA drives. However, ASUS’ A7V600 has no problem with CPU utilization at all, which leaves me scratching my head. The CPU utilization results for each board were consistent across three test runs, and I’m at a loss to explain why ASUS’ board has such lower CPU utilization using the exact same IDE drivers as the other boards.

Lead by MSI’s KT6 Delta-FIS2R, the KT600 rips through the Business Winstone test. All the KT600 boards are pretty closely matched here; barely more than a single point separates the fastest and slowest boards. For the first time in this comparison, the nForce2 falls to last place and doesn’t look all that hot against the KT600.

The nForce2 Ultra 400 redeems itself in the Content Creation Winstone test, but it can’t quite catch SOYO’s SY-KT600 Dragon Ultra. FIC’s KT-600 PRO brings up the rear this time around.

Gaming

In all of our gaming tests, the KT600 boards lose out to the nForce2 Ultra 400. Among the KT600s, SOYO and MSI continue to lead the field.

The KT600s can’t catch the nForce2 Ultra 400 in Cinebench, either. MSI’s KT6 Delta-FIS2R again leads the KT600 boards, followed closely by SOYO’s SY-KT600 Dragon Ultra and EPoX’s EP-8KRA2+.

Sphinx speech recognition

The nForce2 Ultra 400 is still out ahead in Sphinx’s speech recognition tests, and as usual, MSI leads the KT600 pack. The performance of the ASUS and ABIT KT600 boards continues to be disappointing, and I’m beginning to suspect that both boards have more relaxed internal timings. Less aggressive internal timings may make the boards more stable at overclocked speeds, though.

Thus far, MSI’s KT6 Delta-FIS2R has outperformed the rest of the KT600 competition, but the board’s CPU utilization is alarmingly high in our 2D and 3D DirectSound tests. On the flip side, ABIT and ASUS have been dogging our performance tests so far, but both boards turn in low CPU utilization in our audio tests.

SOYO’s SY-KT600 Dragon Ultra is the only KT600 board to bypass VIA’s VT8237 integrated audio in favor of C-Media’s CMI8738, which pays off when it comes to CPU utilization. The Dragon Ultra’s CPU utilization is nearly as low as the nForce2, which is pretty impressive.

Audio quality
In RightMark’s audio quality tests, I used an M-Audio Revolution 7.1 for recording. Analog output ports were used on all systems.

To keep things simple, I translated RightMark’s word-based quality scale to numbers. Higher scores reflect better audio quality, and the scale tops out at 6, which corresponds to an “Excellent” rating in RightMark.

The LAN Party NFII Ultra’s Soundstorm audio offers better dynamic range than any of the KT600 boards, but MSI’s KT6 Delta-FIS2R isn’t far behind. All told, the integrated audio solutions available on most of the KT600 boards we’re looking at offer only average dynamic range.

Many of the KT600 boards falter in RightMark’s frequency response tests, but ABIT’s KV7 excels. The board’s integrated Vinyl Audio does well against even NVIDIA’s vaunted nForce2 audio. FIC’s KT-600 PRO doesn’t sound that bad, either.

With the exception of AZZA’s KT600 ALX, all the KT600 boards have impressive USB 2.0 transfer speeds. ABIT’s KV7 leads the pack, but MSI’s KT6 Delta-FIS2R isn’t far behind. Unfortunately, AZZA’s KT600 ALX didn’t recognize our hard drive enclosure, despite the fact that the board’s USB ports worked just fine with other devices.

Note that the KT600s are roughly 50% faster than our nForce2 Ultra 400 board when it comes to USB 2.0 transfer speeds. The nForce2 isn’t necessarily faster at everything, folks.

EPoX’s EP-8KRA2+ just edges out SOYO’s SY-KT600 Dragon Ultra for the lead in our Firewire transfer tests. The nForce2 board doesn’t fare too poorly here, but it actually uses the same VT6307 Firewire chip as the rest of the field. Since the boards from ABIT, ASUS, AZZA, and SOLTEK don’t have Firewire support, they don’t have a score in this test.

Our Ethernet speed tests involve downloading the same 1.89GB batch of files used in our USB and Firewire tests from a file server based on Intel’s Springdale platform. The Springdale board’s CSA-attached Gigabit Ethernet port was used to serve the files, and both the server and test systems were connected to a 100Mbit Ethernet switch.

ABIT’s KV7 nails our Ethernet transfer test, while SOYO, MSI, EPoX, and our nForce2 board fight it out for second place. Had we used a Gigabit Ethernet switch for testing, the GigE chips on ASUS and MSI’s KT600 boards would have had an opportunity to stretch their legs. However, Gigabit networking gear is still on the expensive side for many businesses and home networks.

Since SOLTEK’s SL-KT600-R doesn’t offer integrated Ethernet support, it can’t participate in this test.

Overclocking
For our front-side bus overclocking tests, I used an unlocked Athlon XP 2600+. To isolate the motherboard’s stability at out-of-spec front-side bus speeds, I lowered the processor’s multiplier to keep the processor running below its stock clock speed of 2075MHz.

Just because some of the board samples we tested took to front-side bus overclocking better than others doesn’t guarantee that other samples won’t be more or less comfortable at overclocked speeds. Overclocking success is never guaranteed, and it can sometimes depend as much on the individual characteristics of on-board chips as on karma and the proper alignment of the planets.

EPoX’s EP-8KRA2+ managed the highest stable front-side speed of all the KT600 boards, but ASUS’s A7V600 and MSI’s KT6 Delta-FIS2R were both comfortable at 210MHz. Surprisingly, neither the ABIT nor SOYO KT600 boards were stable with overclocked front-side bus speeds, even with relaxed memory timings.

A lack of multiplier control prevented me from isolating the front-side bus of AZZA’s KT600 ALX and FIC’s KT-600 PRO, so they don’t appear in our overclocking tests.

The results of our testing clearly show that the nForce2 platform is faster for content creation, rendering, speech recognition, and gaming. If you’re looking for top performance, it’s still the way to go. However, the KT600 does highlight a number of nForce2 deficiencies, including weak USB performance and a lack of south bridge Serial ATA. From a features perspective, the nForce2 looks a little dated next to the KT600, whose performance really isn’t all that far off in many of our tests.

While power-hungry users are still better off with nForce2 boards, the KT600 is quite an attractive platform for feature-driven enthusiasts who don’t mind losing a couple of frames per second here and there. The fact that KT600 boards don’t need two DIMMs for optimal performance is just icing on the cake.

So if the KT600 is a more appropriate platform for feature- rather than performance-driven enthusiasts, which KT600 boards are worth checking out? Here are my favorites:

• ABIT KV7 – I know what you’re going to say: “But the KV7 is one of the slowest of the lot.” Yes, it is, but not across the board. The KV7 is actually the best KT600 board in terms of audio quality, and the fastest when it comes to USB and Ethernet transfer rates. At only $74 online, the KV7 is also the cheapest board in this round-up, and it comes with the most feature-rich BIOS and smallest footprint.

• EPoX EP-8KRA2+ – If you’re willing to spend a little more, EPoX’s $88 EP-8KRA2+ adds IDE RAID and Firewire to the KT600’s already rich feature set. The EP-8KRA2+ also has a useful post code display, great performance, and enough BIOS options to keep more casual enthusiasts happy.

• MSI KT6 Delta-FIS2R – At $126 online, the KT6 Delta-FIS2R isn’t a cheap KT600 option by any stretch, but the board’s performance and features deserve distinction. With Firewire, Gigabit Ethernet, IDE and Serial ATA RAID, and the fastest overall performance of any KT600 board, the Delta-FIS2R looks pretty sweet for enthusiasts who want it all.

What about the rest? For starters, AZZA, FIC, and SOLTEK’s boards don’t offer better performance or more features than the competition. ASUS’s A7V600 has Gigabit Ethernet, which is nice, but that’s about the extent of the board’s extra features. The A7V600 fails to shine in the performance department, too. SOYO’s SY-KT600 Dragon Ultra is an interesting board, and I certainly like the Sigma box as a bundled extra. However, the Dragon’s multiplier dip switches are a big turnoff. The board also has no answer to the KT6 Delta-FIS2R’s Gigabit Ethernet and more flexible IDE/SATA RAID support. Well, there you have it. With the KT600, VIA has succeeded in creating a viable alternative to NVIDIA’s nForce2 Ultra 400. The KT600 may not win every benchmark battle, but the chipset’s Serial ATA support and peripheral performance make it an attractive low-cost option for enthusiasts looking for a competitive and feature-rich Socket A platform.