Good Socket A mATX motherboard for the money.
Written: Feb 28 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good Price/Performance, Good Featureset, Stable, Includes a Modem
Cons: Minimal Accessories, Minimal VCore adjustments
The Bottom Line: This is a decent low-priced board. It's excellent for anyone wanting to build their own system for home/office use. If the feature set matches your needs, I recommend it.
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| dvpierce's Full Review: ASRock K7VM4 Socket Motherboard |
I bought one of these from www.newegg.com for $54 while trying to find the cheapest Socket A mATX motherboard I could find - this one isn't it, but the extra features like FSB333 & DDR400 support plus integrated everything-under-the-sun pushed me over the edge. It's built around the VIA KM400 chipset (integrated video) and includes 6 USB 2.0 ports, onboard 5.1 sound, onboard 10/100 Ethernet, Integrated Video (Shared, up to 64 MBs of VRAM) and some other stuff. 1 AGP, 2 PCI, 1 PCI/AMR (Shared slot) and two DDR DIMM slots supporting PC1600-3200 memory. (RAM must be at least as fast the FSB, though. So no using PC1600 with a 333FSB CPU.)
The item was well packed, and seems pretty well built - no loose components, all the connections are tight. The accessories package was, well, minimal. Only one ATA133 cable, no mounting screws, and the printed manual is an abridged version of the one on the CD. Also, the software package is pretty minimal - a couple of demos and antivirus software, but that's it. The CD also has a video tutorial on how to build a computer, but I didn't bother watching it.
I should point out that this isn't the only mATX board for sale that comes with only one ATA cable. While I don't like this trend in the least, you can save yourself $10 and a 7 p.m. trip to the local brick & mortar by planning your purchases accordingly.
I didn't mind any of the no-frills approach - after all, I saved $15 compared to a same-features nForce2 board, and I wasn't expecting much for $54. However, this board seems to be aimed more at system integrators who would probably wind up throwing the 'extra' stuff out.
Installation-wise, everything was as smooth as silk. Judging by the positions of the mounting holes in my mATX case, the ASRock is moderate-to-small as mATX boards go. The port positions are non-standard though, so you'll need to use the included back plate. There aren't any serial ports on the board - there is an included riser for that, as well as an included modem card (PCI) that has a serial port on it. Having an included modem is a nice idea, but neither the serial riser nor the modem are low-profile, which might be an issue for some people. I happen to like low profile desktop cases.
Performance and stability are as expected. I installed 256 MBs of RAM, an external video card, and a 1.866 GHz Athlon XP. (Overclocked from 1.533 GHz) It's been running pretty much 24/7 for a while now, with no crashes yet. Synthetic benchmarks indicate that the memory performance is actually a tad better than my older KT400 was using the same memory. (Crucial PC2100) I'm no engineer, but either VIA made some tweaks to the memory controller, or ASRock knows how to build a good motherboard. I'm happy either way. My new system is quite a bit faster than I expected it to be.
In order to get the most performance, I passed on the onboard video and used an external AGP card I had lying around - an old AGP 4x Rage 128 Pro. I should point out that the KT/KM400 chipsets do not support 3.3v AGP cards - only 1.5v cards. That can be a problem if you use an old video card that you just have lying around. If your card has two notches in the connector and supports 4x AGP, you're all set. Otherwise, you're either stuck with the onboard video, or you need a new video card. Using a 3.3v card, according to the manual, can damage the board and/or the card. Having made the mistake myself, I can say that you won't necessarily have either of those things happen, but why push one's luck? I would have liked it, however, if there had been some sort of notice on the board itself - a sticky-note perhaps. As it is, all the warnings and so on are in the manual.
Overclocking with this board is a mixed bag. The FSB and Multipliers are plenty adjustable (more on that in a second) but the VCore settings in the BIOS are, well, pathetic - there's an "Auto" setting, and a "Auto+5%" setting. That's it. With my CPU that translates into my pick of 1.6v or 1.68v.
FSB is set via jumpers on the board, or you can have the BIOS ignore the jumpers - FSB can then be adjusted in 1 MHz increments. Memory timings are also not all that adjustable. (CAS 2 or CAS 3?) and I couldn't find the memory voltage adjustments, though that doesn't mean they aren't there.
The multiplier is set only via jumper block on the board - jumpers are not included, either, so you'll have to find five of them yourself. It's pretty simple to do, assuming you have the manual, but the position is such that it's hard to adjust the multiplier if your board is in a cramped case, or if you've got a particularly large heatsink. Slender fingers or a pair of long-handled needlenose pliers are handy. The printed manual doesn't contain the information regarding jumper settings for multiplier adjustment - you have to have the CD for that, or download the PDF file from ASRock.
Setting multipliers via the jumper block is a mixed blessing, I think. Obviously BIOS controls are user-friendly (well, as user-friendly as a BIOS can be.) But the jumpers have the advantage of not having to reset the CMOS - and your system clock, memory settings, FSB settings, etc. - whenever you push something one step too hard. I happen to like the jumpers, myself. To each their own.
In conclusion, I think this is a decent low-priced board. It's excellent for anyone wanting to build their own system for home/office use. The USB2 ports are plentiful (4 in back, two more internally). The integrated video and LAN make assembling a basic, functional system easy, without needing extra add in cards. Finally, it's stable. That's always important. Adding a decent video card will make this a competent system for gaming, as well, but only having 2 DIMM slots limits its use in some applications. Nevertheless, if the feature set matches your needs, I can wholeheartedly recommend it.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 54.00
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Epinions.com ID:
dvpierce
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Reviews written: 7
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