Via KT400A details emerge

[Adul]

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=7841

the juicy bits

There will be some performance increase but we were advised not to hold our breath and not expect too much in terms of performance.

It will go into mass production in April and that's the timeframe when these boards are expected.

One definitely new thing is the 8237 Southbridge that will be similar to Intel's IC5. It will have 8 USB 2.0 and Serial ATA. That's on top of the stuff you can find in the earlier 8235 that is shipped with KT400 boards.

 

[LED]

KT400 lost its performance crown to Nvidia's quite successful Nforce 2. That uses a fast 128bit memory interface and many suggested that VIA would use the same approach. But that would be too big a modification to be just called KT400A.

Yea right well howabout calling it KT401k ...Looks like I'll be going NForce unless Evan Lieb and other reviews show me different!

 

[Snoop]

Originally posted by: Adul
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=7841

the juicy bits

There will be some performance increase but we were advised not to hold our breath and not expect too much in terms of performance.

It will go into mass production in April and that's the timeframe when these boards are expected.

One definitely new thing is the 8237 Southbridge that will be similar to Intel's IC5. It will have 8 USB 2.0 and Serial ATA. That's on top of the stuff you can find in the earlier 8235 that is shipped with KT400 boards.

In other words, its the same as the original KT400, but actually works at 200 fsb. I guess features such as dual channel with integrated decent video, nic, and great sound, is just to much to ask of Via engineers and now they are relagated to releasing rehashed junk.

In all reality, its amazing how quickly Nvidia outclassed VIA in ALL aspects of Via's native industry. Or maybe its not amazing and Via really sucks that badly??????

 

[Remedy]

I guess features such as dual channel with integrated decent video, nic, and great sound, is just to much to ask of Via engineers and now they are relagated to releasing rehashed junk.

It's not VIA's engineers job to implement decent video. Blame S3 if you want to point fingers. Dual channel on any AMD board is just a waste as this point in time. Why use millions of dollars of funds on Research and development on platform that is coming to EOL? SiS hasn't done Dual channel DDR for an AMD board and neither has ALi. Nvidia did it as a suppliment to the IGP. Which resolved in a "we have no choice" method when building nforce. The integrated graphics on VIA and SIS and ALi chipsets barely need the bandwidth that nvidia's MX processors begs for. So while it may not satisfy your needs, it's more than enough for the basic desktop people who use Powerpoint and excel and play minesweeper every once in a while. The Envy24 chip VIA uses for sound is top notch compared to anything else offered out right in its price bracket from 'other' competitors. So i wouldn't exactly throw rocks at some VIA's merits. I would hardly call nvidia "outclassing" VIA. They simply had some engineers to produce a good all around ASIC with the /cough, over supplied MX chips that didn't sell very well, cough/.