Six Athlon Boards With The KT600 Chipset

Gigabyte GA-7VT600 Ultra, Continued

Overclocking fans will fall in love with the actively cooled Northbridge, required for clock speeds of 180 MHz and above. Positive details are: colorful labeling on connection pins and four USB 2.0 ports on the ATX front.

A glance at the benchmark results shows that the GA-7VT600 Ultra is one of the weaker examples in this domain, even though it is only marginally inferior. For example, memory performance, at 2.9 GB/s, lags just slightly behind the rest of the boards tested. The package's generosity is exemplary: It contains two additional slot panels with USB 2.0 and FireWire, Serial ATA and IDE cables and a universal ATX panel. All for $99 (€89). Considering the features offered and equipment, the price is right.

Included in delivery: A whole load of extra cables

An old tradition: Gigabyte's dual BIOS

Ideal: Color-coded connection pins

Overclocking table for the Gigabyte

In brief: With the GA-7VT600 Ultra, Gigabyte offers a mainboard with excellent cost effectiveness. Although savings were made on equipment features, there are still plenty of accessories included in delivery. At $98 (€89), it's certainly worth considering.