VIA Apollo Pro 133A Motherboard Roundup - July 2000

Final Words

While quite a bit has changed since our last VIA 133A roundup, especially the introduction of many new boards and much needed performance and stability optimizations across the board, the end result is pretty much the same. The ASUS P3V4X remains a solid board that simply does everything very well. Tweakers and overclockers will love it as will those that simply demand a high performance, but stable motherboard solution. ASUS's excellent support in the form of continual BIOS updates certainly doesn't hurt either. For those reasons, the ASUS P3V4X continues to hold its Editor's Choice Gold crown.

If you need a Socket-370 board, the ASUS CUV4X will more than likely perform much like the P3V4X - that is to say excellently. Unfortunately, that board was not available for testing in time for this roundup.

The Soyo SY-7VCA was also a solid board, with quite a few tweaking/overclocking options. We have no qualms about recommending this board as our runner up in this roundup, giving it the Editor's Choice Silver Award.

If you need a dual 133A board, the only stable solution we've seen so far is the Microstar 694D Pro. We had very few problems with it and it packs quite a few features into its package.

We're glad to see manufacturers have taken the time to ensure the performance and stability of their motherboards. All of these boards were much more stable than the ones we looked at a few months ago. Further, the fact that performance is no longer a major issue shows just how much the chipset has matured. It took a little while for the i440BX chipset to become a solid solution, but it's still popular today. The same is true of the VIA Apollo Pro 133A, and we're just now beginning to see the result of that maturation process.