Over the past VIA has claimed significance dominance over nVidia in the mainboard arena, especially in the AMD platform. However, ever since nVidia came out with the nForce2 chipset VIA didn't have a good answer to compete back with this new chipset. Recently VIA answered back with the introduction of the KT400A chipset, however that wasn't long lived since everyone understood that this was merely a bridging platform to the KT 600, which officially supported 400MHz FSB.
The KT 600 chipset has a number of significant improvements from its older counterpart. The biggest selling point for this new chipset is its 400 MHz FSB support. Even though the KT400A did offer a 400MHz support most boards that made it to the market showed numerous instability issues working at this high frequency. With official support for 400MHz FSB in the new chipset we can be assured that these problems have been dealt with.
Furthermore the memory architecture has been upgraded to a "FastStream64" Memory Controller technology. As VIA says this'll reduce the memory bandwidth problems that surrounded the KT400 chipset.
All KT600 boards will come equipped with a VT8237 south bridge. This is claimed to be one of the most advanced South Bridges available on today's market. It features the first ever SATA( Serial ATA)/RAID controller integrated into the system itself. The VT8237 supports RAID 0, 1 and 0 + 1 giving users good support for RAID configurations.
In addition it supports up to four parallel ATA 133 devices giving a wide range of flexibility for mainstream or value conscious buyers. The south bridge also supports up to 8 USB 2.0 ports which is an increase of two ports from the KT400 chipset.
Below is a comparison diagram between the new KT600 chipset and the KT400A chipset.
Features
VIA Apollo KT600
VIA Apollo KT400A
North Bridge
Processor Support
AMD Athlon™ XP
AMD Athlon™ XP
Front Side Bus
266/333/400MHz
266/333MHz
Memory Bus
266/333/400MHz
266/333/400MHz
AGP Support
AGP4X/8X
AGP4X/8X
Memory Type
DDR266/333/400
DDR266/333/400
Max. Memory
4.0GB
4.0GB
South Bridge
VT8237
VT8235CE
North/South Bridge Link
8X V-Link (533MB/sec)
8X V-Link (533MB/sec)
Integrated Audio
VIA Vinyl Six-TRAC six- channel AC'97 audio
VIA Vinyl Six-TRAC six- channel AC'97 audio
Integrated Modem
MC'97
MC'97
Integrated Network Controller
VIA MAC 10/100 Ethernet
VIA MAC 10/100 Ethernet
PCI Devices/Slots
6 slots
6 slots
IDE
Dual Channel Serial ATA directly supports two SATA devices SATAlite™ interface expands support for two additional SATA devices through optional external Serial ATA PHY Dual Channel Parallel ATA (up to 4 devices)
Parallel ATA (up to 4 devices)
VIA RAID
RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 0+1Supports SATA and ATA-133 standards
USB
8 ports
6 ports
Super I/O
LPC Super I/O
LPC Super I/O
IO APIC
Yes
Yes
Power Management
ACPI/APM/PCI/PM
Key Features ·
Supports full range of AMD Athlon™ XP processors
266/333/400MHz FSB settings
Supports up to 4.0GB DDR266/333/400 SDRAM
Support for AGP 4X/8X
8X V-Link 533MB/s high bandwidth North/South Bridge interconnect
Integrated VIA Vinyl™ Six-TRAC six-channel AC'97 audio
Serial ATA support for up to 4 devices
RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 0+1 support, including Disk Striping and Disk Mirroring
VIA RAID Software Configuration Program (supports Windows® & Linux)
Parallel ATA 33/66/100/133 support for up to 4 devices
Support for up to 8 USB 2.0/USB 1.1 ports, UHCI compliant
Integrated MC'97 Modem
Integrated 10/100 Fast Ethernet MAC
Advanced power management capabilities including ACPI/OnNow
664-pin BGA North Bridge
539-pin BGA VT8237 South Bridge
Today we take a look at one of the newest KT600 based boards to enter the market by SOYO, namely the KT600 Dragon Ultra. SOYO has gained much reputation over their Dragon Ultra series of boards in the past, so lets see what this board has in store for us.
Specifications
(Directly taken from SOYO website)
Chipset Type
* VIA KT600 Chipset Description *VIA KT600 / 8237 chipset *Supports 266/333/400 MHz FSB Graphics Info *AGP Pro slot supporting up to 8X AGP * Adjutable voltage (1.5v - 1.8v) Form Factor * ATX Memory Type * DDR400/333 SDRAM Memory Description * Three DDR 2.5V DIMM sockets support up to 3GB with 266 memory setting. PC3200/PC2700/PC2100/PC1600 non-ECC, unbuffered DDR SDRAM memory * Click here for memory speed/CPU FSB compatibility information Expansion Slots * Five 32-bit Bus Mastering PCI slots (V2.2 compliant) * One Universal 8X AGP slot (supports 8x/4x modes) Expansion Slot Types * Five 32-bit Bus Mastering PCI IDE Type * UDMA 66/100/133 IDE Description * 2 channels Parallel ATA IDE ports * 4 channels Serial ATA IDE ports * Supports RAID 0, 1 * Supports up to PIO mode 5 & Ultra DMA 100/133 IEEE1394 Description * 3 ports (2 pin header) VIA 6306 chipset Audio Description * On board CMI 8738 audio chip providing * 6-channel audio with a SPDIF audio connector (Included) IO Port Description * Two RS-232 serial ports (16550 UART compatible) * One parallel printer port (SPP/EPP/ECP mode) * One FDD port (supports 3 modes, 1.2/1.44/2.88MB FDD) * Provides IrDA with optional cable for transceiver * Provides 8 USB 2.0 ports (4* rear, 4 pin header) * Provides 3 IEEE 1394 (1 port, 2 pin header) IO Connection Description * PS/2 Mini-DIN mouse & keyboard ports * Four USB 2.0 ports * One IEEE 1394 port * One embedded Broadcom RJ45 LAN connector (10/100/1000) GbE * Two D-Sub 9-pin male serial ports * One D-Sub 25-pin female printer port * Audio I/O: LINE-OUT x 1, LINE-IN x 1, MIC JACK x 1 * One game port (Pin Header) BIOS Description * Award PCI BIOS with ACPI function * Supports multiple-boot from E-IDE / SCSI / CD-ROM / FDD / LS120 / ZIP * 2 Mbyte Flash ROM Health Monitoring Description * On board voltage monitors * CPU fan speed monitor * CPU temperature monitoring through thermal sensor * CPU overheating protection Dimension Description * Four layers, 30.5 cm x 24.5 cm (12" x 9.6") * ATX form factor
Certification * FCC Class B & CE EMI Regulation Compliant. PC99 Compliant Compatibilities WinXP / Win2000 / WinNT / WinME / Win98SE / Linux / FreeBSD Warranty All SOYO products are designed to offer stability and flexibility, and are tested to ensure highest reliability. We offer a 1 year limited warranty on this SOYO product.
Features
* Anti Burn Regulator to prevent system from overheating CPU core voltage, FSB & multiplier adjustable via BIOS setup via DIP switch *Serial ATA *RAID 0/ RAID 1 capability *Adjustable DIMM voltage *Adjustable AGP Voltage *Flexible PCI Divider and APIC/IRQ Sharing Options *Supports High-speed USB 2.0 ports *Supports IEEE 1394 *Supports Smart Card Reader Connector *Supports Wake On LAN (WOL) function to simplify network management *SOYO Wizard On Hand II Function: CPU FSB Frequency can be setup by 1 MHz increment via DIP switch *Suspend to RAM, Suspend to Disk *Supports Gigabyte LAN *Front panel CMOS reset button *Multi-flash memory card reader
Package Content
The South bridge of KT600 boards as mentioned before is one of the most advanced currently in the market. As seen in the picture below, SOYO has included a heatsink to the south bridge as well. This'll be very useful under overclocked conditions.
Like most other high-end boards in the market today SOYO has decided to include a Gigabit Ethernet controller. This support is provided through a Broadcom 10 /100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet controller. Since SOYO seems to be aiming this board at the mainstream users such as in server environments, it's likely that they'll make use of this additional performance offered. For home users this additional performance is unlikely to be of any real use. Nevertheless it's very nice to see SOYO deciding to go with such a solution.
The board provides onboard audio through a CMedia CMI 8738 PCI 6 channel audio chip. There's nothing extremely flashy about this chip accept for that fact that it provides decent 5.1 surround sound. SOYO also includes an audio expansion card which provides two sets of S/PDIF inputs and outputs, one for RCA connectors and the other for optical connectors which provides better audio quality.
It would have been nice to see SOYO making use of the new Vynyl Audio technology offered by the board's South Bridge; they may decide on incorporating this in later models to come out.
The rear panel of the board consists of four USB ports as opposed to two ports commonly seen. Furthermore, an IEEE 1394(Firewire) port is also included, making a total of two firewire ports in all.
The spacing around the CPU socket has also been improved with more room for larger heatsinks.
Another new addition to the KT600 dragon ultra in contrast to its former versions is that SOYO has incorporated a DIP Switch for changing the Multiplier of your CPU. (Provided it's unlocked of course). You can change the FSB through the BIOS in 1MHz increments. Furthermore a CPU to PCI divider (3/4/5) has been set into the BIOS for greater overclocking flexibility.
The bundle included with the board has also been slightly improved and among the important software includes Norton Anti virus 2003, Ghost 2003 and Personal Firewall 2003. That's a couple of hundred dollars worth of software, so it's certainly a good deal.
Okay, it's time to see how this board performs.
Test Setup
Processor
AMD Athlon XP 3200+
Motherboard(s):
SOYO KT600 DRAGON ULTRA
Gigabyte 7NNXP
Memory
Mushkin 512MB (256MB x 2) PC3500 DDR
Video Card
ATI Radeon 9700 PRO
Operating System
Windows XP Professional
VIA 4 in 1 driver version
4.48
BIOS version
K7VX6-4AP1R (Release BIOS)
Benchmark Software used
Sisoft Sandra 2003
MadOnion PC Mark 2002
MadOnion 3D Mark 2001SE
3D Mark 2003
Quake III Arena
Comanche 4
Unreal Tournament 2003
Winstone 2002
BIOS Settings used for testing is shown below. System performance was set to Fast.
Lets kick things off with Sisoft Sandra scores
Benchmarks
3D Mark 2001SE 1024*768*32bit
3D Mark 2003 1024*768*32bit
PC Mark 2002
Comanche 4 Scores
Quake 3 Arena
Unreal 2003 Scores
Business Winstone 2002
Content Creation Winstone 2003
Overclocking:
In terms of overcloking, SOYO certainly seems to have implemented a number of improvements to this board. Firstly, the board has been fitted with a DIP switch enabling users to change the Multiplier setting of unlocked CPU's. CPU, DIMM and AGP voltage can be adjusted through the BIOS as well. For increased stability a CPU to PCI divider has also been placed creating a stable environment for PCI devices under overclocked conditions. The divider supports 1/3, 1/4 and 1/5.
As far as stability of the board goes, the KT600 Ultra seems to stand a lot better than the former Dragon boards. The BIOS of the KT600 does not support minus values for its CPU temperature, and as a result we could not test the board on our Prometeia System. Nevertheless with water cooling we were able to reach 220MHz with no problems at all. We couldn't go beyond this point since our CPU doesn't seem to like it :. We'll be receiving a device which allows users to adjust the Multiplier of the CPU on the fly, so once we receive this product, we'll make sure to conduct our tests further.
Conclusion
The SOYO KT600 Dragon Ultra certainly has lived up to its expectations. For the moment however it doesn't look like the KT600 chipset will be able to surpass the performance offered by nForce 2 Ultra 400 boards. As the benchmarks show however, the performance increase noticed between the nForce2 Ultra 400 board and the SY KT600 is quite marginal, and when it comes to real world performance users are very unlikely to notice any difference between the two.
In the next couple of months to come, we may see revised BIOS releases for the KT600, which may offer faster performance and ultimately give us a clear distinction as to which is the faster platform. But for now nForce 2 ultra 400 boards have the slight edge.
This however does not mean nForce2 boards are still the winner in the market. What the SY KT600 lacks in performance has been fully complimented by its extra features. So far, only a very limited number of the nForce 2 boards offer this level of functionality. The south bridge of the KT600 chipset is one of the most advanced in today's market. By default south bridge has native support for Serial ATA and RAID. The integrated dual channel SATA/RAID controller supplies 150MB/s bandwidth per port and also supports RAID 0, 1 and 0+1. in addition to this, the south bridge also supports up to four parallel ATA-133 devices. In total the SY KT600 supports up to 8 hard drives.
Furthermore, the board supports up to 8 USB 2.0 ports giving great flexibility to users. In addition to these native features, the SY 600 Ultra also has a built in Gigabit Ethernet controller, an IEEE 1394 Firewire controller providing 2 firewire ports, and a SILICON IMAGE SATA controller. These are features that you wouldn't find in your average motherboard. Incorporating most of the high-end features a user would look for, SOYO has certainly made the KT600 Dragon Ultra a truly unique board. At US$186 this board falls into the category of other high end solutions, nevertheless, it's absolutely great value for money when comparing what you get for the price. The SY KT600 Dragon ultra also showed decent overclocking potential and has been integrated with an array of features to better support this.
Overall we would truly recommend this board to anyone looking for a high-end feature rich board with above average performance. The reason I say above average is that, nForce2 Ultra 400 boards still do have the edge in terms of performance, at a slightly higher price however. SOYO also offers a scaled down version of the KT600 Dragon Ultra for budget conscious buyers, so there's something for everyone.
Reviews 
*AGP Pro slot supporting up to 8X AGP
