AMD Athlon 64 3200+ and the Asus K8V Deluxe

by Josh Walrath

Just by looking at the box, one would think that it was an ATI product.  Motherboard manufacturers have never been terribly original with their box scemes.  I especially like the engine cylinders on the top and to the left side of the dragon.

     True to form, Asus was one of the first manufacturers to release a motherboard for the unveiling of the Athlon 64 3200+. In fact, the Asus K8V Deluxe was one of the first truly available Socket 754 motherboards available at launch. This board is based on the VIA K8T800 chipset, which features the K8T800 "Northbridge" and the VT8237 "Southbridge". The northbridge is almost a misnomer anymore, as it essentially only handles Hypertransport and AGP functions. Since the Athlon 64 takes on all memory functions, the K8T800 has very limited functionality. NVIDIA has taken advantage of this by releasing a single chip solution that handles all major functions. VIA has stayed with the two chip solution for a variety of reasons, the largest of which is the ability to mix and match different products throughout their lineup. This also could be advantageous once new motherboard features come out (such as PCI Express). In such a situation, VIA could continue to use an older southbridge along with a new northbridge that would handle the PCI Express role.

     The time to market on this product raised many eyebrows around the industry. When told I had this motherboard in my possession, one of my contacts at another company merely commented, "I hear they rushed that one to market." Whether this is true or not, we shall have to see. Asus did pack the board with quite a few features, and quite a few interesting decisions.

Disregarding all box art, Asus does pack the box with plenty of extras and cables.  Everything a user needs to get a full blown system up and running is included (well, everything except memory, CPU, video card, etc.)

     The board itself is a step away from what Asus usually does. If we remember many of the introductory products for new technologies, they are typically quite bland in terms of overall design. The K8V Deluxe is far from such a product. First off the colors of the board are quite striking. The PCB is a black/dark brown color that really helps to set off the other components on the board. The PCI and DIMM slots are a very bright yellow, while the several of the IDE slots are an electric blue. The overall effect is quite colorful and a welcome addition to any Asus board. This is quite a change for Asus, as they typically stay with the brown PCB, white PCI slots, and black DIMMs.

     Asus certainly did look to have a knockout product with everything that is integrated onto the board. First off the board features a 3Com based Gigabit Ethernet adapter, which includes some really nice and handy diagnostic software. While the gig-e chip is still utilizing the PCI bus, it should give a significant boost when used on networks featuring a gig-e backbone. Now that gig-e switches are coming down in price, as well as the cost of gig-e chips, there is really no reason why not to integrate this feature onto any new board. Again, the only problem with this setup is that it shares the PCI bus with the Firewire controller, as well as the Promise SATA/RAID device. Add to that any other PCI based card that a user may install, the PCI bus is saturated well past its meager 133 MB/sec bandwidth (gig-e can run at a full 133 MB/sec, while the Promise SATA can sustain up to 60 MB/sec with a fast drive). The PCI bus can quickly become a bottleneck in such situations.

The entire bundle spread out takes quite a bit of space.  This particular bundle didn't include the WiFi attachment.  Something that is actually quite thoughtful is the inclusion of the SATA power adapter.

     The Promise SATA controller has some unique features, but it may not be the best SATA solution around. Currently the Silicon Image based chips are the highest performing SATA solutions on the market, achieving I/O transaction rates much higher than the competition. It is odd to see Asus choose the Promise solution over the Silicon Image product, but overall price must have played a significant factor. While most users will not notice the performance difference in everyday tasks, those using SATA drives with bandwidth intensive applications could very well see a significant difference. These applications could be large database searches, video streaming and editing, as well as high quality audio extraction. Still, for the average user, the ability to use two SATA drives as well as an extra PATA IDE port can be quite appealing.

     For audio functions, Asus passed on the Realtek ALC 65x series of codecs, and instead went with the Analog Devices AD1980. While some can argue that the sound quality differences between the different AC 97 codecs is virtually non-existent, I would have to say that the overall sound quality of the AD1980 codec was noticeably better than the ALC 650 that the Asus A7N8X had. While the VIA sound controller based in the chipset has very limited hardware audio functions as compared to the MCP-T in the nForce 2, the software and drivers surrounding the AD1980 were surprisingly robust and clean. After listening to the AD1980 for quite some time, I switched to the Creative Labs Audigy soundcard, and I honestly heard very few differences between the two solutions. Once I used a pair of Grado SR 125 headphones, only then was I able to discern any real differences between the two. Admittedly, the Audigy really pulled ahead once games supporting EAX and hardware accelerated sound were used. Still, for an integrated sound chip, the AD1980 held up really well and should not be an embarrassment to anyone who wants a solid sounding multimedia package.

Asus did jazz up the color scheme of this board, and it should find a nice home in many a transparent case.  The overall layout is also very well done, with the CPU socket clear of any obstructions around it.  With all the integrated extras, 5 PCI slots should work fine for most users.

     The main problem with the sound is the lack of analog mini-jacks that this board features. While the AD1980 features auto sensing jacks, there are only three on the board and add-in cards. This means that people with 5.1 systems getting their signal from the analog jacks will not be able to use any line-in or microphone functions at the same time. Now that voice is becoming quite common in many multi-player games, as well as true 5.1 surround, this means that some users will definitely have to go with a 3^rd party sound solution which features all of the correct jacks (such as the Audigy or Audigy 2). For all I know, this could be a limitation of the AD1980 chip, and not an engineering oversight. I doubt it though. This solution also supports both coax and optical SPDIF outputs, so AC3 passthrough should not be a problem.

     Firewire is added to the mix by using the VIA VT6307 chip. This features up to three IEEE 1394 ports, off the two, only two of them are powered. This could be a problem with people who need more than 2 powered Firewire ports. This should not be a problem for most, as Firewire is not nearly as popular as USB 2.0.

The CPU heatsink backplate is also pretty beefy, and with Asus already installing it onto the board reduces the chances of a user doing this wrong.

     Speaking of USB 2.0, this board can support up to 8 USB 2.0 ports natively. 4 ports are integrated onto the back of the ATX I/O plate, while the other four can be accessed through a PCI slot with the ports plugged into the motherboard. This also gives the user the flexibility of using front panel USB ports on featured on many cases. The VIA based USB 2.0 controller has proven to be a solid solution, and since it was already integrated into the VT8237, there was no need to go with a 3^rd party chip.

The Asus K8V Deluxe features the ATX-12V header and a true 3 phase power supply for the CPU.  Plenty of caps are included to help smooth out that power.

     Asus also included a WiFi slot for use with a separate WiFi card and antenna. This controller and antenna are not included in the bundle, and have to be bought separately. I do not have one of these setups at the lab, so I cannot comment on how well it works (or doesn’t work). Still, the option is there, and it will most likely work fine for anyone using it.

Next: Overall Impressions

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