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VIA KT333 Put To The Test: 18 Motherboards Compared
This board from newcomer Fastfame arrived at our labs after we had completed the tests, so we'll only talk about it in terms of functionality. Also, this is only a sample product, which you can easily tell by the numerous instances of corrective soldering. A noteworthy feature is the integrated network functionality (Realtek 8100B). No other board in this test is equipped with components as old as this: the Southbridge VIA VT8233 does without Ultra DMA/133. There's no USB 2.0 support either. Oddly enough, the manufacturer equips the memory clock chip with a heatsink. Also, the USB ports can only be used via a special cable. The large number of SMD components leads us to suspect that Fastfame hasn't really found a final layout yet. So there's hope for a more up-to-date product in the future.
Ultra-DMA/133: Currently Supported Only By Maxtor
Various modes can be set on boards with the KT333 chipset - even RAID is possible, if an additional controller is installed.
The new Southbridge VT8233A (distinguishable by the "A") has, among others, an Ultra DMA/133 IDE controller integrated. This means that a maximum data transfer rate of 133 MB/s is technically possible, minus a data overhead of about 10%. The latest 7200 rpm hard drives just barely achieve a data rate of about 50 MB/s, so with ATA/133, there are sufficient reserves to keep up-to-date for the next two years. However, there is a limitation: modern hard drives are equipped with a data cache of up to 8 MB, so the physical limit of 133 MB/s is quickly reached. From this, we can determine that Ultra DMA/133 hard disks make sense only starting from a specific minimum size for the internal cache (approx. 4 MB), as well as high read and write speeds with an ATA/133 interface. In the context of traditional CD ROMs, DVD drives and CD-RW drives, the Ultra-DMA/133 interface is superfluous. After all, the fastest 16x DVD drives have a maximum data throughput of 15 MB/s. Important note: compared to Ultra-DMA/100, both the interfaces and the cable connections remain identical.
