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ASUS A7V266 C KT266A REVIEW

ASUS A7V266 C

"ASUS A7V266 C KT266A review also featuring the Jetway 663AS Pro. Software used in review was Max Payne, Quake 3 Arena and Serious Sam."

The Asus A7V266 C delivers an optimal balance of performance and features for AMD Athlon/Duron cpu. By leveraging the VIA KT266A chipset with its advanced V-Link architecture and DDR (double data rate) SDRAM memory support, the A7V266-C delivers superior performance for power-intensive applications.

The Asus A7V266 C supports up to 3 GB of high-speed DDR (Double Data Rate) PC2100/PC1600 SDRAM for a peak bandwidth of 2.1 GB/s. The ultra-fast 266 MHz memory bus provides enhanced system performance for intense gaming and multimedia applications. An AGP 4X slot and UltraDMA 133/100/66 interface allow support of the most advanced graphics cards and hard drives. ASUS A7V266-C offers the best-of-breed options available to maximize your system performance.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Processor: Supports Socket-A AMD Athlon/Duron processors 
• Chipset : VIA VT8366 north bridge with VIA VT8233 south bridge 
  Support AGP 4X
  Support UltraDMA 33/66/100 IDE
• System memory : 2 x DDR DIMM socket support 2GB 2.5V DDR DRAM or
  2x SDRAM DIMM socket support 2GB 3.3V SDR
  DRAM 
• Slot : 1 x AGP Pro slot, 4 x PCI slot, 1xPCI slot /1 ACR slot
• Onboard I/O : 1 x PS/2 Keyboard Port, 1 x PS/2 Mouse Port
  1 x Floppy Port (Up to 2.88MB, 3 Mode)
  6 x USB Ports (Support Hot-Plug Function)
  2 x Serial Ports
  1 x Parallel Port ( ECP, EPP Port)
  IrDA TX/RX (SIR)
• Onboard IDE : Dual channel Bus Master IDE ports supported from South
  Bridge 
  Support UltraDMA/33/66/100, PIO Mode 3/4
  ATAPI IDE CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW and LS-120
  Supported
• Onboard Audio : CMI8738 PCI audio chip, Include line-in,line-out (support
  6-channel), microphone-in, Mic-in2, CD-in,AUX-in,MODEM in/out,and HRTF-base
  3D positional audio.
  SPDIF IN/OUT (Option)
• PC Health Monitoring : PC Health Monitoring ASIC Supports the following: 
  FAN sensor x3 : POWER FAN, CPU
  FAN, CHASIS FAN
  Voltage sensor :+5VSB,
  VCORE,+3V, +5V, +12V
  Thermal sensor x3: Environment
  x1, CPUx1 ,other reserve
  ASUS PC Probe Utility Bundled
• Front and Back Panel : Front Panel: use 20-pin panel : power button,
  reset button, SMI lead, keylock, speaker power LED, message LED, IDE LED
  Back panel: PS/2 KB & mouse:
  support KB wake-up
  USB x2, Serial x2, Parallel x1 ,
  Audio x3, Game port 
• ON-Board Connector : 3V, 5V, and 12V 20-pin ATX Power Connector
  USB connector x4 (SUPPORT USB
  Channel 2,3,4,5)
  CHASSIS: chassis intrude
  FAN: CPU, POWER,CHASSIS FAN
  4-pin DIP Switch: easy to
  select CPU bus frequency
• BIOS : 2Mb Flash EEPROM (LPC interface)
  Award BIOS with Enhanced ACPI, DMI, Green, PnP Features Plus
  Trend Chip Away Virus (TCAV )
• Special Features : Wakeup on Keyboard, PS/2 Mouse, RTC Timer
  Restart/Off Setup of AC Recovery from
  Power Failure
  DDR/SDR auto-detection support
• Board Size : ATX Form Factor: 12” x 9.6”

GENERAL SYSTEM INFORMATION

PROCESSOR AMD ATHLON XP 1700
VIDEO CARD GAINWARD GEFORCE4 MX440
NVIDIA DRIVER DETONATOR v30.82
MOTHERBOARD ASUS A7V266-C KT266A
MEMORY 512MB CRUCIAL PC2100 DDR
MOTHERBOARD JETWAY 663AS PRO KT133
MEMORY 512MB SAMSUNG PC133 SDRAM
OPERATING SYSTEM WINDOWS 98 SE
DIRECTX VERSION v8.1

MAX PAYNE

640x480

ASUS A7V266-C116
JETWAY 663AS PRO93

800x600

ASUS A7V266-C97
JETWAY 663AS PRO91

1024x768

ASUS A7V266-C68
JETWAY 663AS PRO68

ASUS A7V266-C JETWAY 663AS PRO

BENCHMARK SETTINGS

Shooting Alex Benchmark
High Quality Setting
Trilinear Filtering
Fogging Enabled
Sounds Enabled
Task Switching Disabled
Triple Screen Buffers Enabled

COMMENT - "The first game benchmark used for this Asus A7V266-C motherboard review is the excellent game Max Payne. The DDR266 equipped Asus A7V266-C starts off strongly beating the Jetway 663AS Pro by an impressive 20%, using a slighly higher resolution the Asus A7V266-C can now only manage a 7% performance increase and at the highest resolution tested both motherboards offer the same performance."


QUAKE III ARENA

640x480

ASUS A7V266-C171
JETWAY 663AS PRO116

800x600

ASUS A7V266-C167
JETWAY 663AS PRO116

1024x768

ASUS A7V266-C144
JETWAY 663AS PRO112

ASUS A7V266-C JETWAY 663AS PRO

BENCHMARK SETTINGS

Four.dm68 Benchmark
32Bit Colour Depth
Texture Compress Disabled
Lightmap Lighting
High Geometric Detail
Full Texture Detail
Trilinear Texture Filtering

COMMENT - "By just looking at the charts you can clearly see the advantage of DDR266 memory. The Asus A7V266-C offers animpressive 33% performance increase at 640x480, a 31% performance increase at 800x600 and finally a 27% performance increase over the Jetway 663AS Pro at 1024x768."


SERIOUS SAM

640x480

ASUS A7V266-C117
JETWAY 663AS PRO98

800x600

ASUS A7V266-C110
JETWAY 663AS PRO94

1024x768

ASUS A7V266-C77
JETWAY 663AS PRO74

ASUS A7V266-C JETWAY 663AS PRO

BENCHMARK SETTINGS

Quality Setting
Memphis Suburbs Demo
Huge Texture Size
Detailed Textures Enabled
Huge Shadowmap Size
Standard Lens Flare
No Wait Vertical Retrace
Wide Screen Disabled

COMMENT - "Unlike in the Quake 3 Arena tests this Serious Sam test has the two motherboards much closer together. The Asus A7V266-C is still able to outperform the Jetway 663AS Pro by between 4% to 17% which is impressive."


FINAL RESULT

ASUS A7V266-C1067
JETWAY 663AS PRO862

ASUS A7V266-C JETWAY 663AS PRO

COMMENT - "After adding up all of the benchmark results the Asus A7V266-C finishes 20% faster than the Jetway 663AS Pro."

CONCLUSION - "The main advantage for the Asus A7V266-C is that it's a very stable, highly optimised and great performing DDR motherboard. The Asus A7V266-C's 20% performance advantage over the Jetway 663AS Pro equals to an extra 205fps in total which is very impressive!"
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