High Functionality Socket A Board
Written: Dec 18 '02 (Updated Dec 18 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent build quality; all the toys; fantastic value; budget best buy
Cons: Sound chip could be better; limited overclocking potential
The Bottom Line: For system builders or upgraders on a minimal budget, the ECS Elitegroup K7VTA3 ver.3 offer unsurpassed onboard functionality and build for the money, with easy to follow manual.
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| artiminy's Full Review: ECS Elitegroup Computer K7VTA3 Motherboard |
Whilst traditionally viewed as a manufacturer of budget motherboards, the relatively new K7VTA3 [rev.3] mainboard from Elitegroup, offers a high level of onboard componentry that "high-end" manufacturer competitors would be hard put to match - and certainly couldn't at this price.
With the performance gain between KT400 and KT333 chipsets being questionable, it makes sense to stick with the proven latter VIA chipset this board offers.
Upon opening the box I discovered that the necessary minimum amount of cables (Floppy and IDE) were part of the compliment and the AV manual was surprisingly informative bearing in mind the "Budget" label. Indeed the installation CD has a good range of utilities including CD Ghost, PC-Cillin, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Media Ring Talk and a Bios Flashing Utility programme and sound driver.
Board setup [size 244mm X 305mm] and fitting was very easy, the holes aligned perfectly with the midi-tower case and the DDR memory ( I fitted branded 256MB on one stick 2700 [333] DDR) which the board supports up to, was put in place before the Board located in the case, as is good practise.
The memory slots and retention clips are also far enough away from the AGP Slot to prevent interference. I fitted a large Coolermaster fan and XP2000 CPU and there was no problems whatsoever with space. The CPU socket itself has protective tabs around the base offering steadfast protection against an amateurish screwdriver slipping during fan mounting and the CPU retention clip is metal.
The board is, on the whole, well laid out, though a carelessly positioned power connector formed behind the game/joystick/audio ports' means the power cables have to skirt around the cpu and fan.
It is also simple to set up. There is no function that I could see for adjusting VCore voltage or clock multiplier (o/cers take note); the FSB supports up to 133mhz and can be manipulated in the Bios. Limited, if any, overclocking would be the cautious norm with this board.
With onboard sound AC 97 Codec, Lan (for Broadband connectivity) and Promise Raid Controller, together with fast USB 2.0 ports means only a graphics card is needed for all the functionality you'll ever need.
I thoroughly recommend this motherboard. I bought mine in the UK for the best price quoted £56.00 which I guess would equate to about $80-$90 dollars or thereabouts.
If you set it up without attempting to o/c it, then you'll be rewarded with a stable, workmanlike and no-fuss performance. But the real bonus remains the onboard functions which surely make the price paid a veritable bargain.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $80-90?
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artiminy
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