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Soyo 6VCA VIA Apollo 133A Motherboard Review
Soyo 6VCA VIA Apollo 133A Motherboard Review - PCSTATS
Soyo has been one of the most well known motherboard manufacturers around the world for quite sometime now. In the last few years Soyo's boards have build up a good reputation for their overclocking capabilities. With the introduction of the Via Apollo Pro 133A chipset, pretty much every motherboard manufacturer out there began to release their own motherboards based on this chipset. In this review we will be taking a look at the Soyo 6VCA which is based on the Via Apollo Pro 133A.
 75% Rating:   
Filed under: Motherboards Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: Soyo Aug 28 2000   P. Masrani  
Home > Reviews > Motherboards > Soyo 6VCA

System Stability



The stability/compatibility of the 6VCA was excellent during our tests. We managed to install 3 different types of memory and other peripherals (a scanner, a printer, a video grabber) and every device was identified, installed and worked as it should work. All in all the board didn't surprise us with any compatibility/stability issues at all.


The 6VCA's AC97 CODEC was rather disappointing. As it is based on a Sigmatel AC97 CODEC, which can be found on many Aureal Vortex soundcards, I expected to hear very clean audio output. Instead of that, the audio output had a lot of noise and interference (in fact when I was moving some windows or opening any application the background noise became louder and a bit more harsh). Even an old ISA Soundblaster had cleaner output than what is given on the 6VCA. However, it is a known fact that CODECs such as this are not meant for "performance" but rather to deliver a value added function to the 6VCA.

Though sonic reproduction is quite accurate, it is the interference that was a turnoff to us. We have seen other motherboards with integrated audio that had much cleaner audio output (for example the DFI CW35E).

Conclusion

We have seen many VIA Apollo Pro 133A based boards come and go into our labs. With regard to the 6VCA, not much disappointed us. All in all, this motherboard should deliver what it promises. Stability, GREAT performance as well as a nice array of overclocking options does put this board among the top of our list.

Disadvantages? Not many. Though the quality of components used are of, well¡­. Top quality, it is the arrangement that pretty much turned us off.

As for the casual users they will like the stability / compatibility and the feature set of the board. Soyo has made a big effort in supporting these boards and they frequently release BIOS updates for their products.

In short, the Soyo 6VCA delivers just about everything a user is looking for at a cost lower than what the competition offers for a similarly configured product.

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Contents of Article: Soyo 6VCA
 Pg 1.  Soyo 6VCA VIA Apollo 133A Motherboard Review
 Pg 2.  Test Bed (cont)
 Pg 3.  Gaming Performance
 Pg 4.  — System Stability

 
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