Soyo SY-K7VTA Socket-A KT133 ATX

The Bad

We have already noticed some manufacturers including ATA100 controller on their motherboards.  Although at the current time, there is no way we can have a sustained transfer rate of higher than 40MB/s, if Soyo had included an ATA100 controller, they could have probably “prolonged” the life of the motherboard.  Indeed when VIA releases the VIA 686B South Bridge, which includes ATA 100 controller, at the end of the year, Soyo can probably include ATA100 feature easily.  But again, there is no real benefit for now.

Overclocking is very important to AnandTech readers, but the SY-K7VTA does not provide enough FSB settings between the 100MHz and 110MHz FSB range, which is what we expected. Beside the FSB settings, it would also be nice if Soyo had included the ability to change the multiplier for CPU, something that ABIT and ASUS has done and something that is much more useful when overclocking your CPU.

In our evaluation sample, Soyo did not include the necessary cables to take advantage of the 2 extra USB ports onboard.  We are not sure if they do include that in the retail version, but it would definitely be something nice to have.

Last of all, the diagnostic LED is a very good feature.  However, it would be even better if they can be viewed from the outside of the case, perhaps through the I/O shield.

USB Compatibility

·         Number of Front Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 2

·         Number of Rear Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 2

·         USB IRQ Enable/Disable in BIOS: Yes

·         USB Keyboard Support in BIOS: Yes

Recommended SDRAM

Recommended SDRAM: 1 x 128MB Corsair PC133 SDRAM; 1 x 128MB Mushkin PC133 SDRAM

SDRAM Tested: 1 x 128MB Mushkin PC133 SDRAM

Manufacturer: Corsair
Purchase Website: http://www.corsairmicro.com

Manufacturer: Mushkin
Purchase Website: http://www.mushkin.com