When Via introduced their KT 266A chipset a few
months ago everybody in the mainboard industry knew that this would
revolutionize the Socket A motherboard industry. If you recall the
KT 266A was introduced in replacement for the KT 266 chipset. Even
though the KT 266 was a stable and a relatively good performer, it
lacked the kick it needed to have the edge in comparison to most other
performance chipsets such as the AMD 761 and SIS 730 chipsets. Realizing
the performance lag of the KT 266 the Via research team went into
high gear and released an updated version of the KT 266, now known
as the KT 266A which includes a new North bridge (VT8366A). The new
KT 266A chipset was an overnight hit, breaking memory benchmark barriers
we have never seen before. It's no wonder every motherboard manufacture
is trying to incorporate this chipset into all their new releases.
Actually there isn't a day that goes by where someone somewhere doesn't
release a new motherboard motherboard based on the KT 266A chip.
A few years back when we went into purchase a motherboard, the main
names that came to our minds were ASUS, and ABIT. However as of recently
we have seen at array of OEM mainboard manufactures coming up with
fantastic products for the end-user. Soyo has been in the OEM market
for many years now. Soyo has a good reputation for producing stable
and very reliable boards. Even though they have lived almost in the
shadow of many high end motherboard manufactures, SOYO has decided
to change things over and have started producing some great boards
over the past few months. They really started coming into the lime
light when they introduced their SOYO Dragon board based on the KT
266 chipset. Even though this board received editor's choice awards
all over the net, SOYO decided to go one step ahead and introduced
its big brother, the SOYO Dragon Plus. It sounds so important doesn't
it?
Let's see what this Dragon has in store for us.
Specifications and installation
Processor
Support
AMD Socket-A type Processor
"
Including Duron and Athlon
Chipset
VIA KT266A/8233
CE Ver chipsets
Support
200/266 MHz FSB
System
Memory
Three
184-pin DDR SDRAM 2.5V DIMM sockets support up to 3GB
Expansion
Slots
Five
32-bit Bus Mastering PCI slots (V2.2 compliant)
One Universal
AGP Pro slot (support 1X/2X/4X mode)
On
Board Audio Subsystem
On board
CMI 8738 Audio chip to provide 6 channels audio solution
Support
optical output & SPDIF output
On
Board Ultra I/O Chip
Two RS-232
serial ports (16550 UART compatible)
One parallel
printer port (SPP/EPP/ECP mode)
One FDD
port (Supports 3 mode, 1.2/1.44/2.88 MB FDD
Provides
IrDA port with optional cable for transceiver
Provides
6 USB ports (2 rear, 4 front)
Ultra
DMA IDE Ports
Four
independent channels for eight IDE devices(two for raid)
Supports
up to PIO Mode 5 and UDMA 33/66/100
Two PCI
bus mastering ATA E-IDE ports
Boot-Block
Flash BIOS
Award
PCI BIOS with ACPI function
Supports
multiple-boot from E-IDE/ SCSI/ CD-ROM/ FDD/ LS120/ ZIP
2 Mbyte
Flash ROM
Board
Dimensions
Four
layers, 30.5 cm x 23 cm(12" x 9.05")
ATX form
factor
Enhanced
PC Health Monitoring
On-board
voltage monitors
CPU fan
speed monitor
CPU temperature
monitoring through flexible thermal sensor
Double
Stack Back-Panel I/O Connectors
PS/2
Mini-DIN mouse & keyboard ports
Two USB
ports
One RJ45
connector
Two D-Sub
9-pin male serial ports
One D-Sub
25-pin female printer port
Audio
I/O: LINE-Outx1 , LINE-Inx1, MIC JACK x1
One game
port
Features
CPU core
voltage & FSB & multiplier could be adjusted via BIOS
setup
Supports
WOL (Wake On LAN) function to simplify network management
Support
Smart Card Reader connector
On board
10/100 Mbps Ethernet function by ICS PHY controller
SOYO
Wizard On Hand II Function : CPU FSB Frequency can be setup
by 1MHz increment
Embedded
Promise IDE RAID chip, provide IDE RAID 0,1 function
