Late Vintage: High Degree of Maturity of the KT133

ECS (Elitegroup) K7VZA

BIOS Version : 28th August 2000

Board Revision : 1.0

The K7VZA from Elitegroup did surprisingly well in the test. It came first in almost all the benchmark categories. An outstanding feature of the K7VZA is the built-in temperature sensor and the temperature monitor integrated in the BIOS. In a range from 60 to 75 degrees, automatic shutdown can be activated. The fine adjustment takes place in 5-degree increments. If the adjusted temperature is reached through a fan breakdown or another heat accumulation, the system automatically shuts down to protect the processor. This is especially useful for future CPU’s from AMD, as the K7VZA is prepared for processor speeds of up to 1.5 GHz. Altogether 5 PCI slots, 1 AMR slot, 4 USB ports and a maximum of 1.5 GByte SDRAM (100 or 133 MHz) complete the equipment of the new K7VZA main board from ECS.

This product offers few possibilities for overclocking. Thus, the CPU bus clock can only be adjusted from 100 to 112 MHz and not even in 1 MHz steps. Furthermore, the DRAM clock can only be switched between 100 and 133 MHz. An adjustment of the Vcore voltage is not possible. Two UDMA/66 cables are included in the delivered items. As with many other main board manufacturers, no connection cable is included for the USB port 3 and 4. The ECS K7VZA can only be purchased from specialised retailers.

Uwe Scheffel