The Transcend TS-AVD1
VIA Apollo Pro133 mainboard
Thursday, December 02, 1999
The performance tests results
All tests were all performed under Windows98.
The system setup was as following:
Motherboard: Transcend TS-AVD1
CPU: Intel Pentium II 350mhz
Memory: 128Mb of Transcend PC133 SDram
IDE first channel Primary port: Quantum Fireball KA 9.1gig UDMA66
IDE second channel Primary port: Kenwood 48X True X
AGP slot: ATI Rage Fury 128GL
OS: Win98 4.10
DirectX 6.1
Note: All tests were conducted without Turbo mode, as it is not available with this motherboard.
Winbench 99 CPUmark
With performance similar to that of the TMC TI6NBFV+, the Transcend TS-AVD1 takes a place near the end of the pack. The main reason behind this is that the TS-AVD1, like the TI6NBFV+, is deprived of a Turbo frequency of 103Mhz, or 105Mhz and must therefore be operated at its stock frequency of 100Mhz...
Winstone 99
To put a little fun in these tests, I performed them both with the 64MB PC133 module supplied by Mushkin, and with the 128MB PC133 module supplied by Transcend; who also manufacture memory, don't forget... So far as we can tell, with 64MB of PC133 memory, the TS-AVD1 scored amongst the lowest as the system was operating with a FSB of 100Mhz, rather than 103Mhz, or 105Mhz, as with the majority of its competitors. On the other hand, when we installed the 128MB PC133 module from Transcend, performance jumped so sharply that the TS-AVD1 zoomed right in the middle of the pack. Finally, simply by pushing the bus frequency to 117Mhz, for a processor frequency of 410Mhz, the TS-AVD1 took the lead; outstripping even the boards that were clocked to 434Mhz... As you can see, a little more memory can sometimes go a long way...
Video Sub-System Tests
As you can see, in non-Overclocked mode,
the Transcend maintains a position near the bottom of the pack..
Always employing PC133 memory, we tweaked our PII-350Mhz to 410Mhz for this test. We see here that the TS-AVD1 performs a bit better, but still lacks the wind to catch-up to the pack leaders. It would be nice to Overclock this board to a frequency greater than 117Mhz, but it refused to boot under conditions of a processor bus frequency over 117Mhz...
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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Transcend TS-AVD1 slot 1 VIA Apollo Pro133
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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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4
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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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5
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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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5
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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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4
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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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4
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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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4
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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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2
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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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4
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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
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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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4
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Features supported (suite)
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SB-Link
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AMR
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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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2
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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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3
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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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2
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Total Score obtainned for this motherboard
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82 point out of 100
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Features color codes: Blue = supported, Red = optional, Black = not supported
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align=center>The TS-AVD1 scored 82, out of a possible 100 points. See below for explanations.
The weak points
The TS-AVD1's weak points are these: 4 memory sockets would have provided more flexibility than 3, an option to adjust the processor's Vcore voltage would have been desirable, a software pack that included more utilities like an antivirus tool for example would have been nice, and Turbo frequencies in between 100Mhz and 112Mhz would have been appreciated. I subtracted a point for Overclockability, because I wasn't able to clock past 117Mz, though I was able to clock to 124Mhz, or 133Mhz with similar boards. What was most disadvantageous for this motherboards was the lack of Turbo frequencies between 100Mhz, and 112Mhz. In the vast majority of cases, motherboards have a Turbo setting of 103Mhz, or 105Mhz, which permits one to boost performance without taking any wild risks. As the TS-AVD1 is deprived of these frequencies, its performance was impacted in such a way to place it at the bottom of several tests.
The strong points
The TS-AVD1's strong points are these: interesting performance, great stability, a rich and varied feature set, support for PC133 memory and ATA66 drives, the inclusion of hardware monitoring as a standard feature, and its great simplicity of installation and use. Finally, an 80-pin ATA66 IDE cable was supplied with the board, as well as a 40-pin IDE connector for the floppy drive.
Conclusions
The Transcend TS-AVD1 struck me as a well designed board that was only lacking of some finish. Pleasant to use, this board truly came off as a good product. These days, though, it takes a few extra tricks to get noticed and take the market, as competition is increasingly fierce among motherboard manufacturers. As well, if this board had been complemented by a more generous set of software utilities, a more robust choice in clock frequencies, options for voltage adjustments, some nice features such as Power Failure Resume, Suspend to Disk, and/or Suspend to RAM, and finally some miscellaneous bits such as a thermal sensor - it would have made a much greater impression... However, It seems that Transcend is on the right track, and this company can truly move several places forward if the marketing execs take note and re-adjust their shots...
For more information, visit Transcend
