VIA KT600 Finally Arrives

VIA used to rule the AMD CPU platform market, but due to their blunder on the KT400A part, NVIDIA’s nForce2 platform easily took center-stage instead. For most of this year, VIA’s motherboard solutions were over overshadowed by NVIDIA’s nForce2 as it outperformed and out-featured VIA’s offerings. After an extended period of silence, VIA recently launched their next (and probably final) solution for the Socket-A platform in the guise of the VIA KT600. Its accompanying VT8237 South Bridge, which was announced a long time ago, finally made its appearance among the premium KT600 motherboards.

Embracing this new offering from VIA is Soltek’s SL-KT600-R motherboard which is also our ticket to find out what’s new with the KT600 and what sort of performance can we expect from it. Like many other Soltek motherboards, the SL-KT600-R pretty much offers only what the on-board chipset supports. So you can also expect a lean motherboard package that offers the following:-

Soltek SL-KT600-R

Motherboard User’s Manual

System Utilities Manual

2x SATA data cables

1x SATA Y-Power cable (powers 2 SATA drives)

1x Floppy ribbon cable

1x ATA133 IDE ribbon cable

Floppy disk containing SATA & RAID controller drivers


The below table details the technical specifications of the Soltek SL-KT600-R motherboard. Since this is our first KT600-based motherboard, we will first outline the existing situation from the VIA Apollo KT-series of chipsets and then a primer for the VIA KT600 + VT8327 combination, followed by the review of the Soltek motherboard in full.

Soltek SL-KT600-R Technical Specifications

Processor	Socket A for AMD Athlon XP / Duron processors AMD Athlon Processors up to 1.4GHz AMD Athlon XP Processors 1500+ to 3200+ AMD Duron Processors up to 1.3GHz Supports processors at 200 / 266 / 333 / 400MHz front side bus
Chipset	VIA Apollo KT600 North Bridge Supports up to 4GB of DDR266/333/400 SDRAM 200 / 266 / 333 / 400MHz front side bus AGP 4x/8x (1.5V only) 8X V-Link 533MB/s North/South Bridge interconnect FastStream64 Technology VIA VT8237 South Bridge VIA DriveStation Controller Suite 2-channel Parallel ATA, Ultra ATA 133/100/66/33 Bus Mastering IDE controller Supports 4x PATA devices 2-channel Serial ATA controller for 2x SATA 150MB/s ports SATAlite Interface for additional two SATA devices V-RAID - SATA RAID controller for RAID 0, 1, 0+1 VIA Advanced Connectivity Suite Supports up to eight USB 2.0 ports Integrated 10/100 Fast Ethernet MAC Integrated MC'97 Modem PCI (supports PCI 2.2 interface) & LPC bus controllers  VIA Vinyl Multichannel Audio Suite Integrated VIA Vinyl AC'97 Controller Supports VIA Vinyl Audio standard Supports VIA Vinyl Audio Gold standard VIA V-MAP Architecture Supports 8X V-Link 533MB/s North/South Bridge interconnect Supports Ultra V-Link 1066MB/s North/South Bridge interconnect
Cache memory	CPU Built-in 512KB (Athlon XP -Barton core) or 256KB (Athlon/Athlon XP) or 64KB (Duron) L2 cache
System memory	3 x 184-pin DDR SDRAM DIMM Supports DDR 200/266/333/400 DIMM Module Supports 2.5V DDR SDRAM Supports a maximum of 3GB of memory with 1GB DIMM
Storage Controllers	2x Ultra ATA-133 IDE ports integrated VT8237 South Bridge (up to 4 devices) Support for PIO, Ultra DMA-33, Ultra ATA-66/100/133 IDE operating modes 2x Serial ATA/150 ports supported by VT8237 South Bridge Up to 150MB/s transfer speeds Supports RAID 0 and RAID 1 by built-in V-RAID
I/O Interface	1x floppy connector (360KB - 2.88MB) 2x serial port 1x parallel port (SPP/EPP/ECP) 1x PS/2 Keyboard 1x PS/2 Mouse 8x USB 2.0 ports (2x ports in the rear, 6x optional via headers on-board) 1x IrDA TX/RX header for SIR/ASKIR/IRDA Audio ports for on-board sound (Line-Out, Line-In, Mic) based on 6-channel VIA VT1616 AC'97 sound codec 1x Game port 1x Smart Card Reader header 4x fan headers
Expansion slots	6x 32-bit PCI slots, PCI 2.2 compliant 1x 1.5V / 0.8V AGP 2.0/3.0 (2x/4x/8x mode) slot
Power Management	Supports ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) Supports Suspend to RAM / Disk (S3 / S4) PC2001 Compliant WOR by PME WOL by PME Power-on by switch, keyboard Power-off by Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP/NT shut down and switch
Form Factor	ATX Form Factor : 30.5cm x 22.5cm Fits into regular ATX case
BIOS	4Mbit (512KB) Flash ROM AMI Flash BIOS with PnP, APM, DMI, and ACPI support Multi-boot on LS120, ZIP, ATAPI CD-ROM, SCSI, IDE #1, #2, #3, #4