DDR For AMD: 16 Boards With VIA KT266

QDI KD7 (K7V 8366): Not Your Average Board

Board revision: 1.0 (S1.3)

QDI boards give you the option of inserting your own boot logo with a max. resolution of 640x480 pixels. The port for connecting a card reader will be of interest to OEM customers, although this is irrelevant for end users. On the downside, the board features numerous jumpers, strewn all over the place. Furthermore, next to the AGP slot is an ACR slot, which is irrelevant for end users. During the test, none of the four BIOS versions at our disposal produced any spectacular performance results. Without a doubt, QDI is a master of factory-set overclocking: With a front-side-bus of 134.6 MHz, QDI outstrips the competition by far. This resulted in a CPU clock rate of 1211.5 MHz (AMD Athlon 1200), whereas most of the competitors achieved noticeably better performance with specification clock rates. Fata morgana? In the BIOS, the bus timing is shown at 133 MHz. In reality, however, it was not possible to adjust the FSB to 133 MHz (as per specification). In the benchmark results, this board achieves acceptable ratings.

Only of interest for OEMs: The brown ACR slot next to the AGP.

Included: Slot cover for fitting the motherboard inside a casing.