X-bit labs

ASUS A7V880 Mainboard Review. First Look at VIA KT880 Chipset (page 4)

Category: Chipsets

by Ilya Gavrichenkov

[ 04/19/2004 | 09:05 AM ]

ASUS A7V880 – First VIA KT880 Based Mainboard

Just like in case of VIA KT600, the first mainboard on the new KT880 was also released by ASUS. The newcomer got a very predictable name: ASUS A7V880. You can see it on the photo below:

And here are the product specifications:

Since we got a preproduction sample for our tests, it is a way too early to discuss the package contents and the bundles, which will be supplied together with the board. Therefore, let’s pass over to the features of the new ASUS A7V880.

First of all, I would like to stress that the features list for this product doesn’t look like that of a High-End solution. In fact, there is only one Gigabit network controller from Marvell onboard, which should enrich the list of product features. Nevertheless, due to highly functional VIA VT8237 South Bridge, ASUS A7V880 supports all necessary protocols and interfaces. I should say that this ASUS’ approach is quite logical. Socket A processors little by little move to the low-cost category that is why the mainboard for these CPUs also shouldn’t be very expensive.

In fact, the absence of any additional onboard controllers will make the off-the-shelf price of ASUS A7V880 almost equal to that of the VIA KT600 based ASUS A7V600. In other words, you will be able to buy a modern Socket A mainboard with a dual-channel memory controller for about $80.

This way, ASUS A7V880 will represent an excellent combination of low price, rich features and high performance, which will undoubtedly make it a very attractive product for the users looking for inexpensive mainstream and value PCs. Due to pretty low price the life cycle of ASUS A7V880 mainboards, that is the time when the production of these mainboards will be in progress, will make at least one year, until AMD discontinues the top Socket A processors completely.