Soyo K7VTA

More Good

One rather interesting feature of the K7VTA is the "Voice Doctor". If the system fails to boot properly, the board audibly speaks to the user through the internal speaker, informing him of the problem. We popped out various system components to see if "The Doctor" was in, and, sure enough, every time the system correctly identified the problem and informed the user. The system provides support in both English and Chinese.

Also new to the K7VTA is Soyo's Fan Off Control (FOC) system. In a nutshell, the system BIOS monitors the CPU fan speed and automatically shuts down the system should the fan fail. If your HSF does not have RPM monitoring, you will need to disable FOC in the BIOS before the system will boot. This is the first time we have seen a feature like this from Soyo. With 1.2GHz Thunderbirds starting to make their way onto the retail market, we are quite happy to see a feature like this.

The K7VTA has all the features one needs for excellent overclocking. The CPU multiplier, voltage and FSB can all be changed, the voltage and FSB through the BIOS. For multiplier control, there is a small bank of 4 DIP switches just above the IDE connectors. Multipliers 5X through 12.5X are available, as well as voltages from -0.1v through +0.250v in increments of 0.025v. FSB options of 100, 101, 102, 103, 105, 110, 111, 113, 115, 117, 120MHz are available. A couple other very nice touches include the sticker on the Socket 462 reminding users that this is indeed a socket A board and Intel chips will not fit :-).

As well, the enclosed tube of thermal grease is very handy. A small tube, but it contains enough for quite a few applications.

And, as always, Soyo included the 3 in 1 bonus pack which contains full versions of Norton Antivirus, Ghost, and Virtual Drive - itself worth a few dozen greenbacks.

 

Not so Good