Athlon64 Motherboards: First Look at Chaintech, FIC, and MSI

FIC K8-800T: Great Athlon64 Features in a Basic Board

FIC is a very large supplier of OEM motherboards, which means they manufacture many boards that you will see in the market under other brand names. Their own Athlon64 offering, the K8-800T is a pleasant, excellent-performing board based on the VIA chipset. In most comparisons, it would be considered loaded with features, since it includes 8 USB 2.0 ports, on-board LAN, 6-channel audio, a Digital I/O bracket, and 2 firewire ports. It is only in comparison to the Chaintech ZNF3-150 and MSI K8T Neo that we would consider the feature set more basic. The FIC will more likely sell at the mid to low-mid range of Athlon64 motherboards, and it certainly will offer a lot of value at that price. It would be an excellent choice for building a top-performing Athlon64 system, especially if you have a budget and money is an object.

The design of the FIC K8-800T is extremely flexible. FIC can add options for a full-featured board, or manufacture without certain features for a price point. Even the on-board LAN is designed so that either a 10/100 or GigaLAN can be dropped in. The advantage of FIC’s approach is that the board is adaptable to whatever direction might develop in the Athlon64 market. However, this means that the buyer needs to check on-board features carefully, since they will likely see several versions of the FIC available from different sources. Just make sure to check the features list of the K8-800T before you buy and then you will not be disappointed in the motherboard.