Product Reviews
Benchmarks | Features | Rankings

810E Chipset-based Boards
 ASUS P3WE
 Intel CA810E
 Jetway 911-BF
 Mercury KOB 810E FST
 TIGA TI-810+
 Vesta 810E 133 MHz

815/815E Chipset-based boards (Solano)
 ASUS CUSL2
 ASUS CUSL2-C
 AZZA 815TM
 Intel D815EEA
 Mercury KOB815eFSX
 MSI-815Pro
 Soltek SL-65ME

i850 Tehama Chipset for Pentium 4
 ASUS P4T
 Intel Tehama D850GB 'Garibaldi'

AMD PROCESSOR-BASED BOARDS
VIA KT-133 Chipset
 ASUS A7Pro
 AZZA KT-133TX
 DFI AK74-SC
 DFI AM35-EC
 MSI-K7TPro2
 Soltek 75KV2

VIA Appolo Pro133A Chipsets
 ASUS CUV4X
 Soltek SL-65KV2

MISCELLANEOUS BOARDS
Economy boards
 ASUS CUSI-FX
 Mercury KOB630E FSLFX
 Priya BST1B-E SiS 630E

BX chipset
 ASUS CUBX-E

ASUS P3WE
A top-notch performer
The ASUS entry into this bracket makes up for the lack of a motherboard for the power user. The ASUS P3WE stands apart in the 810E range of motherboards simply due to the fact that it gives the users an enormous edge when it comes to upgrading.
The board layout is in typical ASUS fashion with rows of capacitors arranged in a unobtrusive fashion. Using six 1500uf capacitors near the CPU Slot 1 interface gives a sure hint that the motherboard has been built with the overclocker in mind. The board also uses the high-quality 7ns 4 MB SDRAM display cache. The box contains a very detailed user manual along with a bag of spare jumpers that has now become a common feature with all ASUS boards. Also the Slot 1 interface had an excellent CPU retention mechanism. The only gripe was that the board did not have a Socket 370 interface for the CPU. But we received the revision 1.04 of the board and using the BIOS version 1004 or later the board supported all varieties of the Intel Coppermine family. Using a Socket 370 adapter that supported the lower voltages used by the newer Coppermines is a must though.
The BIOS features a multitude of FSB, voltage, I/O tweaks and settings. The board overclocked well and despite being based on the rather slow side, this 810E chipset is a top-notch performer.

Contact: Mnemonic Systems
Phone: 022-8010871
Price: Rs 7,800
Rating: A

Intel CA810E
A pricey option
The build quality and thought process that goes into designing and building an original Intel board clearly sets them apart from the rest. The design of the board itself and the placement of the components and connectors shows a huge difference. All connectors and headers for the integrated peripherals are very easily accessible. Moreover, the board does not look cluttered and there is a lot of working space available. The RAM slots too are perfectly placed and the board looks slightly bigger too.
The board features a typical Intel BIOS that does not support any overclocking and tweaking features. Despite the fact that these features have now become a major factor in any motherboard buying decision, Intel has always chosen to distance itself from it.
Support for real-time hardware monitoring is present though, and you can also use the Intel LDCM software to view the results while running Windows.
Performance was a tad bit better than all of its competitors, but then scoring 15 fps instead of 12 in Quake III in high quality mode still does not make the game playable under any circumstances.
Building a budget gaming PC around this motherboard would be just about possible, since you would save a lot on other peripheral devices such as the AGP card and the soundcard, which in this case is in the form of the integrated Creative Labs PCI 128 SoundBlaster chip. Also, the Intel CA810E is priced significantly higher than all other motherboards in the 810E bracket, making it a little difficult to recommend.

Contact: Xpress Computers
Phone: 022-3852070
Price: Rs 8,500
Rating: B-

Jetway 911-BF
A low-end option
The 911-BF features the original 810 chipset and is pretty much a cheap alternative to the present generation of 810E and 815E class motherboards. The board does not have support for 133 MHz Copppermine processors (that's why it was tested with a 700 MHz/100 MHz FSB processor) but has support for both Socket 370 and Slot 1 processors.
These boards are still popular since PC-100 SDRAM and 100 MHz FSB based processors have now become very cheap. Flexibility and options for future upgrades is very limited and the board has no USB support either.
The board is laid out in the typical baby-AT fashion. The headers for the various onboard components are arranged in a very sensible manner so as not to obstruct the RAM or the IDE/Floppy connectors. Another noticeable thing was that the height of the socket handle for the processor was much higher than the socket itself and mounting a bigger heatsink could become a problem. Also, the jumpers on this board had a longer tail to facilitate ease of setting.
The BIOS was simple in design and featured a pretty good array of FSB selection. It also had the option for selecting 95 MHz as the FSB. This frequency setting is generally not found in most motherboards. If you want a low-end system that allows you to surf the Internet and manage general word-based applications, then this is the one for you.

Contact: Mnemonic Systems
Phone: 022-8010871
Price: Rs 3,500
Rating: B-

TIGA TI-810+
Small but feature packed
This motherboard comes from Weal Union Development, a Hong Kong-based company. Motherboards from this company have started to show up in the market with alarming regularity.
The TIGA TI-810+, as the name suggests, is an 810 chipset-based board. Its size is one of the most striking features. It has a huge number of integrated features in a very small form factor. The board is well-designed and all component headers are placed perfectly. You may not think of a motherboard as being cute, but that's the precise word to describe this board.
The board BIOS also supports the newer Coppermine Celerons upwards of 600 MHz. The only gripe is that it does not support 133 MHz FSB so it was tested with the 700 MHz/100 FSB processor. But the 810E-based motherboards from TIGA will be soon available in the market with support for this feature. The BIOS was simple to use and you can disable all of the integrated peripherals if you want to use some PCI expansion cards.
As far as overclocking goes, it does have a frequency selection menu but it would be really expecting too much out of this board to give overclocking options. Performance was just about on par with other 810-based boards but with a price that is hard to resist.

Contact: Mnemonic Systems
Phone: 022-8010871
Price: Rs 3,500
Rating:B+

Vesta 810E 133 MHz
Bare necessities
Well, strange as it may sound, this little contender is promoted by Ingram Micro, which is one of the world's largest distributors of computer technology products and services. Ingram Micro has launched Vesta, which is a brand extension for its products in India. The Vesta 810E is amongst the first batch of products to be launched in India. This motherboard looks strikingly similar to the Intel board. Though slightly smaller, it featured similar placements of the various headers and was very easy to work with.
The board also had places for some onboard VGA RAM, but it was missing on the board we received. The package contained bare minimum accessories for the motherboard. The manual was missing and the board naming convention too was pretty confusing. Searching for BIOS and driver updates online using its conventional name proved futile.
The BIOS was pretty much a standard affair and no special overclocking features were present. Performance too was a little low, but generally in the same range as compared to other 810 boards. On the other hand, the board is very cheap and offers basically all of the features that matter and is definitely worth a second look.

Contact: Ingram Micro
Phone: 022-5550599
Price: Rs 5,000
Rating: B-

ASUS CUSL2
Phasing out
The ASUS CUSL2 motherboard is based on the original 815E chipset. The CUSL2 has an onboard graphic accelerator based on the i752 engine and also features the more expensive AGP Pro slot instead of the ordinary AGP slot. The CUSL2 is much more expensive and is being slowly phased out. These are the only two major differences between the CUSL2-C and the CUSL2. Also, there were some issues with the ASUS iPanel along with the CUSL2 that have been apparently corrected with the CUSL2-C. (The iPanel is the external hardware monitor that you can attach with the CUSL2 and CUSL2-C)

Contacts: Rashi Peripherals
Phone: 022-8260258
Price: Rs 12,500
Rating: A

ASUS CUSL2-C
Great for tweakers and overclockers
The ASUS CUSL2-C is based on the recently released 815EP chipset. This motherboard doesn't feature onboard AGP and other extra frills are removed so as to make the board much cheaper than its more expensive cousin, the CUSL2.
The layout is a little disappointing and funnily enough, ASUS has put the power supply header near the LPT/COM ports, just above the AGP slot. This is not the case with other ASUS boards. Also, there are huge banks of capacitors placed near the processor and near the power supply. This is typically an ASUS tradition and makes the board very overclocker friendly, but they do get in the way when installing the processor and the power supply connector.
The BIOS auto-detects the CPU and then immediately and automatically takes you to the BIOS menu where you can modify the speed if the detected speed is not correct. You get 1 MHz increments right up to 216 MHz FSB and this makes the board simply the best when it comes to overclocking and tweaking. ASUS has taken the BIOS-building work to the level of an art form. Though it is a bit confusing to new users, once you get used to it, it is truly a joy to work with. ASUS usually makes the boards a little slow and always favours stability over performance, but despite that you will find ASUS still beating most motherboards by a whisker or two or sometimes even more.
BIOS and driver updates are regularly available online and coupled with a huge online community which regularly discusses minor problems and tweaks with all ASUS boards, you have a good board on hand. A great motherboard for tweakers and overclockers, but a trifle expensive and you don't get onboard audio, display and no AGP Pro slot.

Contacts: Mnemonic Systems
Phone: 022-8010871
Price: Rs 9,800
Rating: A+

AZZA 815TM
Easy to work with
AZZA is another Taiwan-based motherboard manufacturer and has been in the Indian market for quite some time. It has a much stronger presence in the northern sector and is more widely available there. The AZZA 815TM basically uses the 815 chipset and hence, it features the earlier ICH. The board has a micro-ATX form factor and was the only 815-based board that was using this particular form factor.
Most modern mainboards use the Flash ROM as the storage device to store the system BIO, but AZZA features something different called the 'Airbus'. One of the most significant and important features of this BIOS is something known as 'portable BIOS'. Basically, there is a spare copy of the system BIOS stored in the portable BIOS and you can use it to rescue system BIOS if a Flash fails or the BIOS is rendered unusable due to a virus attack.
The board is laid out in an excellent fashion, but despite it being much bigger in size than the TIGA 810+, it has only two PCI slots as against the four in the TIGA. This is something which was totally baffling as there's loads of extra space that could have been put to good use. But on the other side, the components have been well placed and the board is easy to work with.
As far as overclocking features are concerned, there were none available in the BIOS. Performance was a little below par and could be attributed to the fact that it uses ICH instead of ICH2.

Contact: Jorjy International
Phone: 011-6917928
Price: Rs 5,400
Rating: B

Intel D815EEA
Well designed and stable
The Intel D815EEA is without doubt the flagship motherboard from Intel as far as motherboards for the Pentium III are concerned. The design and choice of components is by far the most well thought of and the stability that it achieves is something that other manufacturers can only hope to achieve. The board also features a special retention mechanism for the AGP card, which keeps the AGP card in perfect place.
Installation was typically easy and the BIOS detected the CPU straight out of the box. The BIOS is very simple and easy to get around; obviously there were no overclocking and heavy memory tweaking options available. Another important thing to be noticed is that the default IRQ assignments that this motherboard gives is perfectly tuned for the right assignments. The power management implementation was also perfect.
It is expensive, but then you get Intel's very own splash screen on your monitor every time you boot up and since it is based on the 815E, you get an onboard AGP. Another added benefit is the Creative PCI 128 integrated sound.

Contact: Ockam Infotech
Phone: 022-6212944
Price: Rs 8,600
Rating: B

Intel D815EPEA
Country cousin
Once again, the only difference between the D815EEA and the D815EPEA is quite similar to the differences between the ASUS CUSL2 and the CUSL2-C. Also, due to the absence of the onboard accelerator and the AGP Pro slot, the price is lower.

Contact: Ockam Infotech
Phone: 022-6212944
Price: Rs 8,000
Rating: B+

Jetway 618AF
Worth a look
Jetway has been around for quite some time and is known for inexpensive but high-quality products. The board layout of this motherboard was simple and built around the 815E chipset. It featured all the performance and stability aspects that you would get from other expensive boards. Though the motherboard claims to have jumper-free process of detecting the processor and the RAM speeds, there were still some jumpers to be set for the 133 MHz FSB setting.
The BIOS had decent options for overclocking and the motherboard was pretty stable when overclocked. Certain overclocking friendly features, such as fail-safe recovery if the overclock failed, were missing. The BIOS also failed to detect the proper RAM timings and the RAM was detected as PC-100 instead of PC-133.
Performance as far as gaming and other applications are concerned was pretty much the same as compared to other 815-based boards, but surprisingly the memory benchmark scores using PC-133 RAM were a little on the lower side, though this might have been due to the improper detection of RAM timings in the BIOS.
Considering the features that you get with this motherboard at a lower price, coupled with decent online support, it definitely is worth a dekko.

Contact: Rashi Peripherals
Phone: 022-8260258
Price: Rs 6,900
Rating: B

Mercury KOB815eFSX
Fast, but a little unstable
Typical of Mercury, this board offers all that the other 815E boards offer at a much lower price. While you may think that this may affect performance, since it is still based on the 815E chipset, there's very little that can go wrong.
The board looks and feels very much like an Intel original. The layout is excellent, something you could expect only from other expensive boards. As it is with all 815E boards, installation is pretty easy and can be done without any use of jumpers or other direct user intervention. The BIOS is simple in design and easy to use, though it lacked some overclocking options. Strangely, the board performed a tad faster than most, but was a little unstable. After extended periods of benchmarking, the board would suffer a strange freeze, which it would come out of immediately. Initially, we thought that this was something to do with Windows, but re-installing proved that it did suffer some stability issues when pushed to the extreme.
The board sports an AC'97 compliant onboard audio chip, but no extra USB headers were provided. Except for the minor glitches, which might be easily fixed with a BIOS upgrade, the board is definitely worth a second look. The price factor and the fact that you get almost everything that the big guns offer, along with similar and sometimes better performance, make it a strong contender.

Contact: Visualan Tech
Phone: 022-8202688
Price: Rs 5,200
Rating: A

MSI-815Pro
Scores on design
The Indian market has been recently flooded with a whole new bunch of manufacturers promising better quality and support. MSI too has entered the fray and released an array of new motherboards for the Indian consumer. The MSI 815PRO is based on the 815 chipset that uses the older ICH architecture instead of the now famous ICH2, the key difference being that it does not have support for ATA-100, though this is not a major problem. Nevertheless, the board is well designed and sports the standard green PCB colour. With large capacitors placed slightly offset from the CPU socket, it made installing and removing the CPU very easy. The overall packing and accessories that came along with this motherboard was definitely a cut above the rest.
Despite the motherboard not supporting a couple of new performance-oriented features that ICH2 supports, the board did not suffer in any benchmarks. More importantly, the SiSoft Sandra 2001 drive index was pretty much what other motherboards were achieving.
The BIOS extensively supports overclocking and has a lot of performance-oriented tweaks along with support for real-time hardware monitoring. The board overclocked very well and the Pentium III 800EB was easily pushed to 960 MHz (6x160), but it did not go any higher because the motherboard does not support frequencies above 160 MHz.
The board is relatively cheap, but remember, it does not have ICH2 and hence lacks a few features.

Contact: Priya
Phone: 022-2663611
Price: Rs 7,500
Rating: B

Soltek SL-65ME
An overclockers choice
The Soltek brand was seen in India at the recently held IT Comdex 2000, where they drew quite some interest from the local vendors. Subsequently, the boards have found their way into the reseller market and are now available with relative ease.
Soltek commands quite a reputation worldwide and is very often the preferred choice for power users and overclockers. The board layout is definitely up amongst the best. Whereas most other motherboards have bunched up capacitors near the CPU socket, this board has all the capacitors spaced out.
The BIOS was pretty detailed but had the standard looks and design interface which everyone has become used to (blue and red), but it did have a lot of options for memory tweaking. Surprisingly though, the manual did not have any description of the settings in the BIOS. Also, the manual was common for a host of other boards with only a couple of pages dedicated to each. So for users who would be first time buyers, it would be really difficult to figure out which manual is for which model.
It was in the overclocking department where the board really started to shine. Here too the board immediately showed what it had by displaying rock solid stability at 166 MHz (800EB@996). Now this is no ordinary feat-with just ordinary air-cooling the board pumped out a real mean performance. More importantly, the frequencies could be adjusted by 1 MHz increments. The Vcore (CPU voltage) too could be adjusted for further stability while overclocking.
This board is definitely no pushover and it comes along with a price tag that is simply amazing for a board of this class. With such a proven name making headway into the market, it definitely looks like you are going to have a lot more options.

Contact: Rank Data Products
Phone: 022-3873168
Price: Rs 6,750
Rating: B+

ASUS P4T
Great performance, but ahead of its time
ASUS was once again first off the block when it came to producing a motherboard that supported the Pentium 4. The board package comes with a special rubber base-pad along with a metal baseboard that is built in such a way that this motherboard can fit in any ATX cabinet. The power supply though still needs to comply with the new ATX 2.03 specifications.
With such an early release, ASUS has not only just managed to bring out a motherboard that supports the Pentium 4, but has also integrated all the options and tweaks that are so commonly available with all ASUS boards. And to prove such commitment to performance and stability, ASUS even included some really cool overclocking features.
Performance too was a great deal better than with the Intel counterpart, but the price and non-availability of the new power supplies makes this board a little ahead of its time. Also, the aggressive 'Kit-style packaging' that Intel is following puts other motherboards in a disadvantageous position.

Contact: Rashi Peripherals
Phone: 022-8260258
Price: Rs 23,600
Rating: A+

Intel Tehama D850GB 'Garibaldi'
Unmatched component quality
The Intel D850GB is the first motherboard to come out with support for the Pentium 4 and is based on the i850 chipset. The motherboard is part of a kit, which includes the new ATX 2.03 compliant power supply and cabinet, 128 MB of PC-800 RDRAM and the Intel Pentium 4 1.4 GHz processor.
The board layout is very interesting and has lots of space in and around the processor. The processor heat-sink alone weighs a whopping 450 grams because of which the entire retention mechanism of the processor on the board is radically different. The board can be placed only in the newer ATX 2.03 compliant cabinets. The board also features a second USB controller integrated into the ICH2 supporting 24 Mbps across four ports.
The BIOS is a typical Intel BIOS featuring no tweaking or overclocking options. Also, the RDRAM frequency tweaks are missing. The BIOS is a little difficult to get around and will take some time getting used to.
Since the board is the first iteration of the Pentium 4 class, performance was a tad low. Nevertheless, the build and component quality of Intel is unmatched. Since you will have to buy the entire kit along with the processor, the entire package becomes a little cheap as compared to buying components separately. In any case, the package itself is very expensive, but if you want the fastest available package then you have to pay the premium.

Contact: Ockam Infotech
Phone: 022-6212944
Price: Rs 73,000 (entire kit with 128 MB RAM and processor)
Rating: B+

ASUS A7Pro
Little brother
The ASUS A7Pro is the strip-down version of the popular A7V, which earlier came along with a multiplier adjustment dip-switch, which unfortunately was discontinued later. ASUS then released the A7Pro and its only claim to fame is the return of those multiplier adjustment dip-switches.

The original A7V was very expensive and feature-packed with onboard audio and extra ATA-100 IDE headers. The board layout of the A7Pro, on the other hand, is very sparse in that area and features only the ATA-66 headers. For this reason alone the price of this board is much lower and is aimed at the power user, who would rarely use the onboard audio. Nevertheless, the ATA-100 support will be sorely missed.

Another thing that you notice is the riser board, which is situated just near the CPU socket. Most motherboards have a number of capacitors surrounding the socket and the ATX power connector. With the A7Pro, many of these components are placed on a riser board near the Socket A interface. With this riser board in place, it's possible to install a wide variety of heatsinks. The second bonus this feature adds is that installation and removal of heatsinks is much simpler (no more bumping your fingers against components on the motherboard) and, as a result, CPU removal and installation becomes a breeze!

If you are a veteran of a typical ASUS BIOS, then you won't be surprised even a little bit. First time users, however, may find the BIOS is a bit awkward to use, considering it has a lot many submenus hidden underneath its five main menus. There are a whole lot of extra settings for the VIA KT133 chipset such as the settings of the DRAM frequencies and a whole lot of AGP settings too. For overclocking, both the CPU core voltage and system bus speed can be adjusted through the system BIOS.

The board is a great buy, but it misses out on a few vital features. Also, since the arrival of other heavy weights like Soltek, MSI and DFI, ASUS will have to get its act together as far as pricing is concerned.

Contact: Zeta Technologies
Phone: 022-4102288
Price: Rs 9,950
Rating: A+

DFI AK74-SC
A budget solution
First Chinese goods invaded the manufacturing sector and now they seem to have entered the motherboard segment. DFI promises quite a lot and claims to be amongst the top-10 motherboard manufacturers of the world. The AK74-SC is based on the earlier VIA Southbridge and hence does not have support for ATA-100.

The board layout is simple and you can easily observe the cluttering of all the capacitors around the CPU. Another odd thing that you can notice is that instead of providing one more PCI slot, the board designers opted for an ISA slot and this is despite the fact that the board already has an AMR slot and onboard sound.

The board BIOS incorporates a lot of nifty features and you can adjust the FSB from 100 MHz to 133 MHz in 1 MHz increments. Surprisingly, the BIOS does not feature any CPU Vcore adjustment options. This can prove to be quite a huge stumbling block while overclocking and renders the FSB adjustment feature quite useless. For the most part AMD processors are overclocked using multiplier adjustments and once again this feature for multiplier adjustment is missing too.

But the board is extremely cheap and has onboard audio, making it the ideal budget solution for the AMD processors. This board definitely sets the stage for inducing lower pricing for the AMD bandwagon.

Contact: BBS Electronics
Phone: 022-8242374
Price: Rs 5,600
Rating: A

DFI AM35-EC
Good displays
The DFI AM35-EC uses the new KM-133 chipset from VIA. This is the only VIA chipset for the AMD processors that has an onboard graphics accelerator. At the same time, the motherboard still has the conventional AGP slot for future upgrades or for better graphic cards.

The KM-133 series of motherboards have integrated 2D and 3D graphics functions of the S3 Savage4 graphics chip. It utilises the Shared Memory Architecture (SMA) to expand the display memory and also supports an additional 4x AGP slot. You can take advantage of the onboard display function to have a very satisfactory display without purchasing an additional display card.
The board is available in micro-ATX form factor. Placement of components though is cluttered and more PCI slots could have been accommodated.

The board features a simple and easy-to-use BIOS featuring some really nifty features such as the Fan Guardian which alerts the user if the CPU and the chassis fan is about to fail. There also are some overclocker-friendly features in the BIOS, but apart from FSB manipulation there is nothing else and there are no voltage tweaking options. The manual is pretty detailed and easy to understand.

With the introduction of these boards in India, a number of choices have come up for the AMD processor. Also, the Savage4 integrated graphics accelerator is a much better performer than the i752, which is onboard the 810s and the 815s.

Contact: Zeta Technologies
Phone: 022-4102288
Price: Rs 6,450
Rating: B+

MSI-K7TPro2
A smart alternative
The K7TPro2 is the MSI entry for the AMD processor. Using the KT-133 chipset, the board makes for an excellent platform for the Thunderbird. The board layout though was a small letdown. The DIMM slots were very close to the AGP slot, which had a retention clip. This made it very difficult to remove the AGP card without removing the SDRAM. This is probably the first motherboard where the power supply connector is bang next to the DIMM slots and that too placed in line with the DIMM slots. It simply meant that if you wanted to work on the motherboard then you had to remove the SDRAM first.

But the board simply takes the cake when it comes to overclocking. Once you have unlocked your Thunderbird or Duron, the multiplier choices you have are mind-boggling. It is the only motherboard that features voltage tweaks for the Vio (I/O Voltage) and the CPU Vcore, both in the BIOS. Bus frequency overclocking too was possible. The highest we could reach was 107 MHz, though that is not much since Thunderbirds are not known to bus overclock that well. The auto-detection routine of the BIOS too worked like a charm and RAM timings were detected perfectly in the very first boot-up. Though KT-133 has a much-improved Northbridge, the Southbridge still has not been much refined, hence, the board still supports only a maximum of UDMA-66. Though the scores don't show much difference, with better and faster drives coming out in the future with ATA-100 support, this could prove to be a bottleneck.

Even though AMD processors are mostly cheaper than their Intel counterparts, platform paucity makes for expensive motherboards. This situation is more so in India since the AMD user base itself is pretty slim. But with excellent boards like MSI coming out and reducing the difference in price, it provides for some excellent alternatives to Intel.

Contact: Priya
Phone: 022-2663611
Price: Rs 7,800
Rating: A

Soltek 75KV2
The ultimate choice for overclockers
The Soltek 75KV2 features the newly released VIA VT82C686B Southbridge, lending support for ATA-100 and extra USB ports. This top-of-the-line motherboard has some real nifty features and the one that would stun most people is the Soltek Voice Diagnosis Technology. This feature is optional and did not come in with this board, but the socket for the chip was present and one can expect boards coming in very soon with this chip onboard.

The board layout is unique in every sense. Most motherboards have the IDE and floppy drive headers bunched up together, but in this case all the headers are spaced apart. Also, the ATX power supply header is placed in an unobtrusive place. The capacitors near the CPU too are arranged in such a way as not to obstruct the user while installing the CPU.

This motherboard also incorporates multiplier dip-switches onboard, so you can change the multiplier of a normally locked CPU. One of the most astonishing observations with this board is that it openly promotes overclocking. There are no subtle hints, but open instructions for multiplier unlocking and then detailed instructions on how to set the dip-switches for the overclock to be successful (a leaflet describing this process is given along with the manual). But the major negative point with these manuals is that they still use a generic structure that contains instructions for all the other similar boards in the same range. This makes the process of identifying the board very difficult and can also be a potential problem while updating the BIOS.

Soltek also includes a rather dated software bundle that includes Norton Ghost, Norton AntiVirus and WinFax. Nevertheless, they are probably the first ones to do so and it comes for free so it definitely carries some weight. Definitely a must buy for the power user and the ultimate choice if overclocking is your thing.

Contact: Rank Data Products
Phone: 022-3873168
Price: Rs 6,750
Rating: A-

VIA Appolo Pro133A Chipsets
A direct fallout of the failure of the Intel 820 chipset was the growing popularity of the VIA Appolo Pro 133s. These chipsets captured the market when there were no motherboards that offered full support for the 133 MHz Pentium IIIs.

The VIA Apollo Pro133A design is based on its popular older cousin, the Apollo Pro133. The only thing that delivered the killer punch to the Intel chipset bandwagon was the inclusion of a high-speed AGP 4x protocol. Also, VIA Apollo Pro133A has a completely asynchronous memory speed interface, where the processor and system memory bus frequencies are set independently from each other. This architecture was first featured by the Appolo Pro 133A and then the 815 chipset followed with a similar architecture.

ASUS CUV4X
A viable option
The ASUS CUV4X is the more refined version of the earlier ASUS P3V4X motherboard and is based on the new VIA 694X chipset. The board now has the standard Socket 370 format, whereas the earlier P3V4X had the SLOT 1 architecture.

The board layout again favours the placement of the ATX power supply header somewhere near the AGP slot. ASUS has also properly arranged banks of capacitors around the CPU, DIMM slots and the power supply header.

Using the beautifully implemented ASUS BIOS, there are options for overclocking the FSB up to 166 MHz in small increments, coupled with a lot of memory tweaking options.

Another very important feature, which is actually common amongst all ASUS motherboards, is the jumper which allows you to increase the I/O voltage from the default 3.3 to 3.4 and a maximum of 3.5 volts. This will increase your chances of overclocking and improve the overall stability of the entire system, though, as ASUS mentions, it reduces the life of the onboard components.

When it comes to performance, ASUS has implemented Appolo Pro133A chipset to perfection. There was a lot of debate around the AGP implementation of this chipset, but as the benchmarks show, they are nothing to be scoffed at. On the contrary, the chipset provided a viable platform to the Pentium III Coppermine when there was no proper implementation from Intel itself.

Contact: Mnemonic Systems
Phone: 022-8010871
Price: Rs 7,900
Rating: A

Soltek SL-65KV2
A good bet
Soltek too has an Appolo Pro133A implementation featuring the new VIA Southbridge. The SL-65KV2 is similar in design to its ASUS counterpart. Funnily, this board too has the ATX power supply header entrenched in a messy area filled with capacitors and is placed near the parallel port. The CPU socket too is a little cramped for space.

The BIOS is the standard red and blue type and has a lot of options for tweaking. It detected the processor and the RAM on the first boot-up. Overclocking definitely seems to be the major strength of Soltek, as this board too overclocked quite well.

Despite a somewhat less than perfect AGP implementation with the VIA chipset, the scores were very much on par with all the rest.
More importantly, it is a feature packed ATX class motherboard that is available for less than Rs 6,000. In addition, it also comes with a decent software bundle, which as of now is pretty much a novelty in the Indian market.

Contact: Rank Data Products
Phone: 022-3866308
Price: Rs 5,600
Rating: A

ASUS CUA
A good buy, but needs improvements
The ASUS CUA is the board that ASUS touts as its gaming motherboard. This board can truly get you gaming straight out of the box. Though the chipset supports the shared memory architecture, ASUS has opted for 8 MB of local dedicated memory on the motherboard. The memory uses 64-bit architecture that can turn out to be quite a bottleneck in 32-bit high colour gaming.

The board BIOS features all the normal tweaks and settings you would generally expect from ASUS. The board also features an LCD/TV interface that can support an optional LCD/TV-out module for LCD/TV output.

The board though did not perform well, and this had to be attributed to the chipset's pure memory performance. The benchmarks were run over and over again under various RAM settings, but it failed to register a decent memory score. The SiSoft Sandra drive index too turned out a trifle low result, all in all showing that the chipset has to go through further improvement as far as memory and I/O subsystem is concerned.

Nevertheless, the board is an excellent idea and beats all the other integrated chipsets hands down due to the onboard TNT2.

Contact: Mnemonic Systems
Phone: 022-8010871
Price: Rs 8,500
Rating: B

ASUS CUSI-FX
Small and neat
The ASUS CUSI-FX is built around the 630E chipset and uses the flex-ATX form factor. This form factor is designed for small sized PCs and reduces the motherboard size by as much as 25 per cent over the micro-ATX design. The board is feature-packed and highly integrated.

The layout for such a small board with so many features integrated is truly a sight to behold. Since most peripheral devices are integrated, PCI slots are very few. There is not a single feature that we could think that this board lacked in terms of pure functionality. The board also had an integrated RJ-45 jack just above the USB ports. The BIOS too left no uncut edges, though some overclocking features such as voltage tweaks were strangely missing. But it did contain a huge list of FSB options going up to 147 MHz.

Performance was definitely better than the 810-class of motherboards and these motherboards are definitely worth a look if only a stable system is what you are looking for.

Contact: Rashi Peripherals
Phone: 022-8260258
Price: Rs 7,800
Rating: B+

Mercury KOB630E FSLFX
Decent performance for less
This Mercury board features the 630E chipset and is priced very competitively.

Mercury's offering in this range is similar to the ASUS CUSI-FX. Sporting the flex-ATX form factor, it has all the features that the ASUS counterpart has to offer. The layout too is very similar to the CUSI-FX and all components have been placed with a lot of working space around. These smaller boards sporting the 630E chipset are definitely a better option than the 810-based boards. Moreover, they are cheaper than the 810 versions too.

The board BIOS features minimal tweaks and no overclocking options, but the fact that this board is cheaper by over Rs 2,500 compared to its nearest competitor makes it the cheapest option for the Coppermine processors. Performance is a little below its ASUS counterpart, but the difference is negligible.

Contact: Visualan Tech
Phone: 022-8202688
Price: Rs 4,300
Rating: B

Priya BST1B-E SiS 630E
Plain Jane
This motherboard too is designed around the 630E chipset. Funnily enough, the board is manufactured by Procomp and resold in India under various brands. The board uses the micro-ATX form factor and also has a Slot 1 interface for older Slot 1 processors. This board too had jumpers with tails for easy removal and installation. Again, for a board of this size, the number of PCI slots were limited as also some very basic features such as USB. It also lacked other features such as an onboard modem.

The BIOS was the usual 'red and blue' affair with very few options for tweaking or, for that matter, overclocking.

Though the motherboard is much cheaper, it is still far too behind in terms of basic features offered. However, the 630E chipset beats the 810 in gaming benchmarks and the memory bandwidth offered by these chipsets as seen in the benchmarks is better than what 810 offers. So, if you are looking for a plain Jane motherboard, then you could take a second look at this one.

Contact: Priya
Phone: 022-2663611
Price: Rs 3,825
Rating: B-

ASUS CUBX-E
Ageing legend
ASUS has probably released the maximum number of motherboards based on the BX chipset. It has refined, tweaked and added features to make motherboards based on this chipset still viable. CUBX-L is one such example; it has so much to offer that it simply is the best possible BX-based motherboard you can buy.

The board is slightly wider than other boards because of the fact that ASUS offers support for as many as eight IDE devices using the ATA-100 controller that replaces the CMD-based controller that was on the earlier CUBX and had support for only ATA-66. All the four IDE connectors are placed one after the other, which makes it a little messy while inserting the IDE cables.

As with all ASUS boards, the BIOS has all the necessary overclocking features-using the Pentium III 700E, it easily overclocked to 933 MHz and was quite stable.

Despite the fact that the 440BX chipset cannot theoretically support bus speeds of more than 100 MHz, CUBX supports frequencies up to150 MHz, which makes installing the 133 MHz-based processors possible but risky. This is because of the AGP multiplier, which is probably the only flaw in the BX platform, making bus speeds for the AGP run out of specification when running at 133 MHz.
But the fact remains that despite being feature packed and a proven record for stability, it has little or no future in terms of flexibility for the next generation of processors.

Contact: Mnemonic Systems
Phone: 022-8010871
Price: Rs 7,900
Rating: B+