AMD and the rest of the hardware world are in preparations to the event we all have been waiting for nearly two years. AMD’s 64-bit processors for desktop computers at affordable prices were first said to come in late 2001 or early 2002, but due to a number of reasons, the commercial release was postponed three times. Finally, all or almost all the challenges are solved and AMD Athlon 64 processors are ready to go. Among mainboard makers and other hardware manufacturers a new processor in the market means that they have a great opportunity of selling dozens of new hardware devices. After the success of AMD Athlon processor and the lesson with its launch, mainboard makers fully understand that they need to prepare a lot of products for the Athlon 64 chips in order to avoid a situation when there are a lot of CPUs, but very few mainboards in the market. ASUS seems to understand the moment and the specs of its K8V mainboard leak into the World Wide Web (see this BBS) in order to attract attention of the masses to this quite interesting product.

Here are the specifications:

• Supports all Socket 754 Athlon 64 processors;
• VIA K8T800 + VT8237 core-logic;
• 3 DIMM slots for up to 3GB of PC2100, PC2700 or PC3200 DDR SDRAM;
• 5 PCI and 1 AGP 8x slot;
• 2-channel integrated ATA-33/66/100/133 controller;
• 4 Serial ATA-150 ports with RAID 0, 1, 0+1 support;
• 10/100Mbit/s Ethernet Adapter from 3Com;
• USB 2.0 ports;
• 2 FireWire (IEEE1394) ports;
• Supports ASUS’ Wireless Kit for expansion;
• Integrated AC`97 6-channel audio solution with SP/DIF connectors;
• Loads of additional functions, including ASUS POST Reporter, ASUS MyLogo2, ASUS EZ Flash, Multi-language BIOS, ASUS C.O.P. (CPU Overheating Protection), ASUS CrashFree BIOS 2, ASUS Instant Music, Power Loss Restart and so on;
• Overclocking and tuning functions, including ASUS JumperFree technology;
• ATX Form-factor.

ASUS A8V is an impressive and feature-rich mainboard with appropriate pricing. Expect ASUS A8V to become available in the market in late September or early October.