Review: VIA KT400A Roundup

Performance Conclusion

There isn't much of a performance conclusion to come to. This performance isn't exactly a trade secret, KT400A is slower than nForce2. The question really was by how much. And it's a pleasure, genuinely, to note that it's not that much at all. What was good to see, performance wise, was all the boards being so close to each other in performance. That's a great indication of BIOS stability, a mature platform and no funny business. Exactly what we want to see.

I can't really say much more than that performance wise, suffice to say that if you buy a board from the group, it wont be slow. Excellent.

Overall Conclusion

In a roundup like this, there's big pressure to pick an overall winner. I debated with myself whether I was going to do that. Every board bar the EPoX was fine to test and had the right performance, meaning I didn't have to chase up BIOS updates and send emails to Taiwanese engineers who would have no idea what I was on about.

But, it would be rude not to pick a winner. So I wont weasel out of it, instead, I can confidently say that the DFI Lan Party KT400A is quite possibly the coolest board I've seen in a long time and a deserved winner. It's got nothing to do with the colour scheme and UV nonsense. It does nothing for me. Instead, it's the combination of features, the bundle and a rather attractive price that makes it stand out. Performance was great too, it even won the odd round against its chipset stable mates.

With a bundle that includes a set of case straps, a feature set that brings you SATA, 2 Ethernet ports and those on board switches that made me so happy, it should be on your shopping list too.

As for the rest of them, they were all good in their own little way. Some of the boards are bare featured meaning you'll pay less for decent quality. Some, like the Gigabyte and DFI, seek to serve up every feature in the book in the quest for your hard earned and if features are your bag, they are the first boards since the ABIT MAX series to pack so much on to a PCB. The finally, we've got the middle ground boards, like the Soltek. Solid performance, a good balance of features, a decent bundle, but not over the top in any area including price.

There's a board for everyone in this review and providing you got here (probably by skipping right up, past the good stuff) without dropping off, I'm sure you've found one that's to your liking. For me that's the DFI, but you really can pick and choose to suit your tastes.

I'm going to award all the other boards 8/10 for 2 reasons. Firstly, nForce2 is undoubtedly quicker, if performance is what you want, nForce2 is where you go. Secondly, KT600 is just round the corner, offering the same features and (hopefully) nForce2 beating performance. As long as each board maker updates their boards with KT600, they all have winners on their hands in one shape or another.

But I'm not reviewing them all in a round-up again, that's for sure.

Hope you enjoyed the article as much as I hated writing it :D

Pro's

A wide range of features and boards to choose from all makers, one for everyone
Solid performance, even close to nForce2
Not expensive, VIA have always competed on price
Stable, something I've never really said about VIA before

Con's

nForce2 exists, it's plainly faster and carries better features without extra hardware
The EPoX' boot issue, look for a new BIOS

Score

Thanks

All our board partners for getting me the boards and putting up with the review being late
Pathway for my Sapphire 9700 Pro
Komplett for the digital camera used to take the shots.


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