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Review: Biostar K8VHA Pro vs. K8NHA Pro

by Tarinder Sandhu on 23 November 2003, 00:00

Tags: Biostar

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qauy

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K8NHA Pro specifications

  • Supports all Socket-754 CPUs (3200+ is presently the only one available)

Chipset

  • Combined NVIDIA nForce3 150 North and South Bridges

System Memory

  • 2 x 184-pin DDR SDRAM
  • DDR200 / DDR266 / DDR333/ DDR400 support @ 2.50v - 2.60v (Single Channel)
  • 2GB maximum system RAM

Slots

  • AGP slot, 8x AGP compliant
  • 5 x 32-bit PCI 33MHz slots

On-board peripherals - I/O

  • 2 Serial ports
  • 1 Parallel port
  • Mic-In, Line-In, Line-Out (serves as 6-channel support)
  • RJ-45 LAN Port (Realtek GBe LAN)
  • 4 USB2.0 connectors on the back panel
  • 1 FireWire 1394a connector on the back panel (6-pin)
  • PS/2 ports

On-board storage

  • An IDE controller on the nForce3 150 chipset provides IDE HDD/CD-ROM with PIO, Bus Master and Ultra DMA133/100/66/33 operation modes

Integrated Components

  • Realtek RTL8110S-32 Gigabit LAN
  • VIA VT6307 2-port single-chip FireWire controller
  • Realtek ALC655 5.1 sound CODEC
  • Headers for another 2 USB2.0 ports and single FireWire porto
  • 2 usable fan headers
  • IrDA, CD-In, Aux-In connectors

BIOS & Voltages

  • FSB speeds of 200Mhz - 250Mhz in 1MHz increments
  • Default, +1.7%, +3.4% and +5.1% CPU voltage
  • 2.6v - 2.9v VMem

Bundle


The manual can be put into the same class as the K8VHA's. It's short and misses out on key details relating to the BIOS and RAID function. The bundled CDs include Biostar's in-house WarpSpeeder overclocking software that's a little buggy to use. A second CD contains Norton's Internet Security 2003 and Ghost 2003 The drivers and various utilities proved to be easy to install, though.

Biostar bundles in a 2-port USB2.0 cable here, presumably becauase the nForce3 150 can only take advantage of 6 USB2.0 ports in total. The extra FireWire port goes unused, again.