Socket 7 Board Review July 1998

DFI P5BV3+

Baby-AT board, VIA Apollo MVP3 chipset, 1 MB L2 cache, 3x ISA, 4x PCI, AGP slot, 2x DIMM, 2x SIMM , ATX and AT power connector. Voltages: 3.2V, 2.9V, 2.8V, 2.5V, 2.2V, 2.1V.

The DIMM sockets are of good quality, the memory modules snap in easily and can be removed without the application of brute force. 100 MHz external clock speed ran only stable with the PC-100 DIMM, Windows 95 decided to come off with spectacular exception errors and blue screens with the PC-66 memory. The MII CPU was logged in correctly and worked properly.

Afterwards I started trying out the graphic cards, they all ran wonderful except the Diamond Fire. Having the system boot up with the drivers installed Windows 95 hang after the splash screen. I updated the Fire's BIOS and voilá, Winstone 98 certifies this board as having the highest performance in this test.

DFI has a very good performer thanks to 1 MB L2 cache. If you decide to get one don't forget to buy PC-100 memory as well.