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Soyo Dragon Ultra KT333


Date
: 09/10/02 – 01:36:03 PM

Author
:

Category
: Motherboard

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer: Soyo
Price: $150

Introduction

Over the past few months, we have looked at several KT333 based socket A motherboards: Shuttle's AK35GT2-R, AOpen's AK77-333 and last but not least, the 8K3A+ from EPoX. Today, another VIA KT333 based motherboard can be added to that list: the Soyo
Dragon
Ultra. In case you're wondering why this board is called the
Dragon
, let me enlighten you:

D
: DDR333 SDRAM

R
: Embedded Highpoint IDE-RAID chip, providing ATA-133 IDE-RAID 0,1,0+1

A
: On board CMI 8738 providing 6-channel audio solution / optical and SPDIF output included

G
: Universal AGP Pro with adjustable voltage

O
: Overclocking, increase CPU FSB by 1 MHz increment

N
: On board 10/100 Mbps Ethernet function by Realtek 8100B controller

The "Ultra" part refers to the fact that this piece of silicon also comes with USB2.0 onboard! Looks like a fine motherboard huh? Let's get busy and dissect the specifications further …

Page 2 : Specifications

Specifications

Processor

- Supports AMD Socket-A type processors, including AthlonXP, Athlon and Duron (up to 2200+)

Interface

- Socket "A"(462)

Chipset Type

- VIA KT333

Chipset Description

- VIA KT333 / 8233A chipset
- Supports 200/266 MHz FSB
- VIA V-link chip interconnect (266MB/s)

Form Factor

- ATX

Memory Type

- DDR333 SDRAM

Memory Description

- Three DDR 2.5V DIMM sockets support up to 3GB (DDR 333/266/200)
- 184-pin PC2700/PC2100/PC1600 non-ECC, unbuffered DDR SDRAM memory

Expansion Slots

- Five 32-bit Bus Mastering PCI slots (V2.2 compliant)
- One Universal AGP Pro slot (supports 1x/2x/4x modes)

Expansion Slot Types

- Five 32-bit Bus Mastering PCI

IDE Type

- UDMA 66/100/133

IDE Description

- Four independent channels for 8 IDE devices (2 for RAID)
- Supports up to PIO mode 5 & Ultra DMA 66/100/133
- Two PCI bus mastering ATA E-IDE ports

Audio Description

- On board CMI 8738 audio chip providing 6-channel audio solution
- Supports optical output
- SPDIF output

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 6 USB 2.0 ports (2* rear, 4*front)

IO Connection Description

- PS/2 Mini-DIN mouse & keyboard ports
- Four USB 1.1 ports
- One RJ45 connector
- 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

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 fan speed monitor
- CPU temperature monitoring through flexible 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 CompliantPC99 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.

Like I said, the Soyo KT333 Dragon Ultra is built around VIA's KT333 chipset, consisting of the KT333 northbridge and the 8233A southbridge. The board fully supports all current AMD processors, so upgrading is not a problem.

Since Soyo's Dragon is using the KT333 chipset, it can handle DDR333 memory with the utmost ease! Thanks to the three memory slots, you can install up to 3GB of DDR memory. Should be enough to cover your high needs huh? Note that you can also use DDR200 and DDR266 memory since the chipset is backwards compatible (in case you didn't know that).

Underneath the memory slots are the AGP and PCI slots: one AGP Pro slot (with an additional power connector next to it, in case you have a power hungry video card) and a total of five 32-bit bus mastering PCI slots. Of course you also get two serial ports, a parallel port and six (two in the back, four in the front) USB2.0 ports! If needed, you can get some USB brackets and connect them to the board, so you get even more USB ports :).

As you may or may not know, most new motherboards are loaded with onboard features; Soyo's Dragon Ultra is no different! First of all, you get a 5.1 onboard C-Media sound chip (CMI 8738) supporting optical out and SPDIF out as well. Although these onboard sound solutions are no match for those ultra expensive and professional soundcards, they will do just fine for gamers and music lovers. Even DVD playback is excellent, and thanks to the 6-channel sound (5.1 to be exact – 5 speakers + 1 woofer) you can enjoy surround sound effects if you are the lucky owner of a 5.1 speaker system!

Next onboard element: the High Point HP372 RAID controller, supporting up to four IDE drives in a RAID0, RAID1 or RAID0+1 setup. Of course this controller supports UDMA133, delivering the best possible performance. Add to that the two standard IDE channels, and you get a total of eight IDE devices.

Note that this motherboard also comes with an onboard NIC (network interface card), supporting 10/100Mbps by using the Realtek 8100B controller.

One last thing that's worth mentioning is the included
Sigma Box
. This device is placed in an empty 5.25" bay and gives you four USB2.0 ports and two diagnostic LEDs to reveal network activity and to make sure the USB ports are powered. Very handy if you own a digital camera, joystick, card reader, … that needs a USB ports: no more crawling through that wire-maze behind your box ;).

Page 3 : Layout

Layout

The space around the CPU socket is pretty much clean, leaving enough breathing room for our beloved aircoolers! Unless you are trying to install a 10×10" heatsink, you shouldn't have to worry!!

The memory slots are placed to the right of the CPU socket, but they should have been further away from it … Why? Because the way they are installed now, they are going to get blocked by the AGP card, so removing or adding memory to your system will result in uninstalling the video card first …

All the IDE connectors and the floppy connector too are placed vertically on the far right side of the motherboard: I reckon this is the best place to put them, so all is well in this department.

The last important placement is the location of the ATX power connector. Soyo's engineers decided to put the power plug right next to the serial ports, meaning it is located to the left-bottom side of the CPU socket. This is not the best place to put it because the big, thick power cable will run right over your CPU, hindering the airflow and blocking the view (which comes into play when you have a window mod in your case).

The KT333 Dragon Ultra comes with four fan headers: two at the right-top of the board, ready to power your CPU fan(s), one at the right-bottom to give juice to a case fan and another one above the AGP Pro slot, to power an additional fan. In my opinion, more is better, so Soyo gets good points for using four instead of three fan headers!

Speaking of the layout, Soyo made a real artwork of this board: the black PCB looks nice with the purple PCI slots, the yellow RAID connectors and the white and blue IDE connectors. The USB2.0 connectors are lime colored, so the only thing left to do is point a black light to the board and all these colors will turn alive ;). Note that there is also a platinum version of this board, which has a unique, all silver PCB.

Page 4 : BIOS

BIOS

Soyo is aware of people's needs, so they include everything you can ask for: CPU core voltage adjustments, FSB & multiplier adjustments, tweakable DDR voltage , tweakable AGP voltage, … Thanks to the Soyo Wizard On Hand III, you can increase the front side bus in 1MHz increments. Let's look at some screenshots to clarify all of the above.

In the end, the BIOS was very satisfactory and comes with everything you need to overclock your CPU and video card. One point of criticism: perhaps Soyo should allow a bigger raise in CPU core voltage and DDR memory voltage, in order to get even more overclocking potential!

Page 5 : Overclocking

Overclocking

Overclocking is not only a good way to get free performance, it also tells us how stable a motherboard is. For example, a motherboard that is rated to run at 133MHz, proves to be a very high quality board when we can run it at let's say 175MHz FSB. The components that are used are being stressed beyond their specs, but still stability is up and shining.

The Soyo KT333 Dragon Ultra comes with all the options you need for overclocking. Like I said in the BIOS talk, the CPU core voltage can be increased up to 1.85V and the DDR voltage can be raised up to 2.8V. Since we can increase the FSB in 1MHz increments, this board will provide a good overclocking platform.

I was able to run the board stable at 150MHz, but I feel that the CPU, an Athlon XP 1700+, was the bottleneck here, and not the motherboard. Still, 150MHz is a nice increase over the default 133MHz. Of course you can run your memory asynchronous to your FSB, meaning the memory can run at 166MHz (DDR333) while the CPU stays at 133MHz.

Page 6 : Benchmarking

Benchmarking

Enough blabbering, it's time to put the this board through its pace!

The test system:

- Soyo KT333 Dragon Ultra motherboard
- AMD Athlon XP 1700+ CPU
- VisionTek GeForce3 video card
- Crucial 256MB DDR PC2100 memory
- Western Digital 20GB 7200RPM hard drive
- Windows XP Professional + Latest drivers

SiSoft Sandra Memory Benchmark

MadOnion's 3D Mark 2001SE

16-BIT

32-BIT

Quake 3 Arena

Demo 001

Torture Demo

Page 7 : Conclusion

Conclusion

Good

- Sigma Box
- USB2.0
- Onboard RAID, LAN & sound
- Stability

Bad

- Conservative voltage options
- Layout flaws

Soyo did an excellent job when they designed the KT333 Dragon Ultra. The board has a truckload of features like onboard RAID, LAN, 6-channel sound, USB2.0, the Sigma Box, … and more! Overclocking features are available as well, although this board is not a pure overclockers board because the voltage options are too conservative for that. Apart from the layout flaws, this board "looks" good thanks to the black PCB and the multi-colored components and more important, stability was top notch during all of our tests! I feel confident of recommending this board to all of you who need a multi-feature KT333 based socket A motherboard!