Another SIS 735 Board!! Leadtek WinFast 7350KDA (5390)

[Buz2b]

It has overclocking options!!!! Here are the specs for the board:

Supports AMD Athlon/Duron 100/133MHz FSB SocketA CPU
Software Overclocking tool
CPU/MEMORY/PCI/AGP can be tuned at 1Mhz intervals
Multiplier is adjustable from 5x onwards
CPU Vcore, Memory Vmem, AGP Vddq can be adjusted too
BIOS provides unique "O.T.S" (Over Temperature Shutdown) to avoid overheating.
Supports 3 x DDR DIMM up to 1.5GB
4X AGP
ATA100 IDE controller
Supports 2 USB ports up to 4 can be supported.
Leadtek Software Overclocking tool
Builtin AC97 Audio Codec
High Speed RJ45 10/100Mb Fast Ethernet (optional)
Built in "D.V.A" (Digital voice adviser)diagnostic
Supports Smart Card interface
ACPI Compliant

You can read the review and it's comparison with the KT266A DDR at The OC Workbench site. Remember that these tests were not done by OC Workbench themselves, rather by the boards' manufacturer or some other source. Take them with a bit of salt. But, this is still very interesting ideed! This could be fun!!!

 

[MilesTeg]

looks nice. . . .didn't know leadtek made mobos. thanks for the heads up

 

[toft-dk]

That looks really interesting 🙂

Thanks for the link

 

[chainbolt]

ocworkbench.com is actively promoting the SiS735 chipset, I would wait a little for independend reviews 🙂. The SiS735 chipset is far behind the KT266A and also nForce in other reviews and comparions , also poor in overclocking features.

 

[Insane3D]

I have to agree with Chainbolt. It does look like a very nice board and the overclocking features will make the 735 even more popular. However, that review uses a KT266A reference board and not any of the production boards that are available now. Also, some of their graphs make it look like the Leadtek is killing the KT266A, but in reality it's like less than 1fps difference. I will wait for some more reviews that compare it to actual production KT266A boards like the Epox, MSI, and Shuttle. Also, it seems like they didn't even run the tests themselves...there is a mention @ the end of the article about a Taiwan site doing the tests...

"Again, the Winfast 7350KDA is amazingly fast. Do take note that all these results are only indicative. I will do a proper review when the board is available. The benchmarks which are done by our Taiwanese counterparts and to date, it seems excellent."

 

[Athlon4all]

Well, The only KT266A board that was slower than the reference KT266A was K7T266, but only by a few percent. This is definately a product I'm keeping an eye on.

 

[Buz2b]

Chainbolt and Insane,
I agree with you, it is too early to tell and no, they didn't do the tests themselves. The graphs look like the ones that "leaked out" on the nForce board; showing tiny differences as huge ones on the graphs. I think that #1, that is sometimes how Excel maps their graphs and #2, they are guilty of the same overhype as all board builders. No difference there. One difference I will express with you is saying that the board is a poor overclocker. In it's present ECS form that is somewhat true, as it has no multiplier adjustments at all. This flavor adds that and voltage adjustments, which I'm sure you will agree changes the picture quite a bit. That doesn't mean it will overclock like an Epox 8K7A, but it should do a heck of a lot better than the ones that preceeded it.

The point I find most interesting is that in VIA's own comparisons (or at least in the ones I read, not sure if from VIA), the K7S5A was not very close to the KT266A in the benchmarks. Even if the tests here should be taken with a gain of salt (which they should), it is indeed interesting that this board was able to both match and surpass the VIA offering. Every board is subject to tweaks and adjustments to help things out a bit, I just think this shows the potential that the SIS 735 chipset has when given the tools to succeed.

I will make sure and edit the original post for those, unlike yourselves, who would tend to take all reports from manufacturers as the gospel.

 

[chainbolt]

To all: no flame intended. I am just highly suspicious about certain previews and reviews. Too much has happened recently, and I only trust real user reports. We need much more reports and benchmarks form actual users. Most of the hardware stuff tested at these sites lile ocworkbench (or most others) are "friendly" gifts from the manufacturer. You never know what is behind, what has been tuned, and who is promoting or supporting what and what is the relationship between the site and a certain manufacturer. What I see is a high relationship between certain banners and certain reviews. 🙂

SiS735 boards will always be interesting, because of their extremly good pricing and interesting design, that's for sure. But taking all reports together I know, I think the KT266A is faster 🙂 and it is just ocworkbench (which has a long history of talking for SiS735) who shows better results for the SiS735. Also the SiS735 chipset is already around a couple of months, KT266A has just started, wait until the new Southbridge is out and they start tuning the BIOS.

 

[Buz2b]

Chainbolt,
So what make this so different than any other boards' first release test results?? Didn't we see the same "HYPE" with the KT266A and expecially the nForce? I'm sure we can all judge for ourselves.

 

[Insane3D]

Buz2b -

I actually think it will be a good overclocker. The ECS wasn't too bad for a board that hs no voltage adjustments. I ran my 1.4ghz @ 150mhz FSB 24/7 with no problems. I had to pencil the L7 bridges to get a 1.85 vcore, but that was it. I was not able to use two 256mb DIMMs @ 150mhz FSB though, and that was primarily becuase the ECS has it's memory voltage locked. DDR seems to need a little more voltage when you have a lot of it. The Leadtek looks to be very impressive and I will probably sang one when it comes out, but I think the KT266A will still be a bit faster...but not by a great margin. 🙂