Asus A7V AMD Athlon VIA KT-133
Friday, August 11, 2000
The performance tests results
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Motherboard
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BIOS
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Chipset
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Drivers
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Asus A7V Rev 1,01
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R 1003
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VIA KT-133
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VIA 4-in-1 4.23
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Processor
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Memory
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Hard disk drive
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Graphic card
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AMD Athlon T-Bird 1Ghz
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128Mb PC133 CAS2
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Quantum KA 9.1
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GeForce 256 SDR
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Operating system
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Built
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Video drivers
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DirectX
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Windows98
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4.10 1998
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Nvidia 4.11.01.0368
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7.0a
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Game
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Resolution
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Refresh
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Vsync
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Color
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Texture
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Filtration
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Quake2 3.20
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800 X 600
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75Hz
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Off
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16-bit
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16-bit
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bi-linear
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Game
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Resolution
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Refresh
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Vsync
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Color
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Texture
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Filtration
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Quake3 1.08
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800 X 600
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75Hz
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Off
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16-bit
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16-bit
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Tri-linear
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Suggested memory to use
Corsair 128Mb Sdram PC133 CAS2 = Tested OK
Mushkin 128Mb Sdram PC133 CAS2 = Tested OK
Transcend 128Mb Sdram PC133 = Tested OK
Micron 128Mb Sdram PC133 = Tested OK
Ziff Davis Winstone99 - Winbench99
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Benchmark
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Winbench CPUmark99
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91.70
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Business Winstone99
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33.55
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Content Creation 2000
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34.40
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Video sub-system tests
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Quake2 version 3.20
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AMD Athlon
T-Bird 1Ghz @ 1Ghz
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AMD Athlon
T-Bird @ 1.1Ghz
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800 X 600 X 75Hz X 16-bit
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182.58 FPS
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182.48 FPS
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Quake3
Test 1.08
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AMD Athlon
T-Bird 1Ghz @ 1Ghz
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AMD Athlon
T-Bird 1Ghz @ 1.1Ghz
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800 X 600 X 75Hz X 16-bit
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104.10 FPS
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104.17 FPS
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The Overclocked frequencies described above were obtained in the following fashions: 1GHz was obtained with an FSB of 100MHz, and 1.1GHz was obtained with an FSB of 110MHz. As you can see, there was no appreciable gain in performance. This is explained by the fact that though the processor gains in speed at 1.1GHz, this gain is tempered by the memory bus, which is lowered in order to operate on par with the FSB frequency. Do note that we did no take advantage of our ability to change the clock multiplier for these tests.
Disk sub-system tests
Overall Quality Evaluation
The evaluation table below shows both the strong and weak points of the tested motherboard. No need to remind you that performance is not the sole purchasing criteria in a motherboard. Most of today's motherboards exhibit performance very close to each other, so we need additional information in order to help us distinguish the real advantages of a motherboard compared to its competitors. This is exactly where this evaluation table comes in handy.
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Asus A7V AMD Athlon VIA KT-133
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Feature
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Evaluation
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Design Originality
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Circuit Board Quality
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Component Layout
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Capacitiors
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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CPU Retention Mechanism
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Amounts of Expansion Slots
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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4
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Amount of Memory sockets
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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4
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Ease of installation
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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4
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BIOS Setup Design
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Performance
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Overclockability
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Stability
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Bundled Software
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Bundled Hardware
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Users Manual Quality
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Packing Quality
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Features supported
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ATA66/100
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PC133
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Wake On LAN
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Modem ring
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Pwr Fail Res
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5
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Features supported (suite)
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SB-Link
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AMR/CNR
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Mouse Pwr On
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Susp. to RAM
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Susp. to Disk
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3
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Features supported (suite)
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IRDA
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SCSI
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Keyb. Pwr On
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Hardw. mon.
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Vcore adj.
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4
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Features supported (suite)
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RAID
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Alarm
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Soft Menu
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L2 latency adj.
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IRQ assign.
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3
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Total Score obtainned for this motherboard
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92 point out of 100
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Features color codes: Blue = supported, Red = optional, Black = not supported
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Conclusions
The weak points
Somewhat complicated installation
No ISA slots
A not-totally-independant memory bus
The strong points
Excellent performance
Great stability
Integrated hardware monitoring
Support for two extra thermal sensors
Extra thermal sensor included
Inclusion of a variety of original features
Special mentions
For the multitude of its features, the quality of its materials - which includes an excellent user's manual, and the overall quality of its design, the Asus A7V has earned special merit. We highly recommend the Asus A7V as a solution to anyone seeking an efficient, high-performance Socket A motherboard.
For additional information, visit Asus.
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