Transcend TS-AVD1 VIA Apollo Pro 133 Slot-1 ATX

The Bad

The layout is pretty standard other than the fact that the power cable must be stretched across the board making the cables more jumbled. Unfortunately, the Winbond 83781D which is included on the TS-AVD1 is an older hardware monitoring chip that does not read the temperature straight from the CPU's on board thermal diode, in contrast to the 83782D.

With overclockability being an important feature of any board, the ability to adjust CPU voltage is becoming more and more common in the latest motherboard releases. Unfortunately, the TS-AVD1 is not one of those boards. Further, there are not as many FSB speeds on the TS-AVD1 as there are on some other Apollo Pro 133 boards.

Something missed by many motherboard manufacturers, including Transcend, is the ability to control the power state of the system when AC power is restored following a power outage. This is an issue with ATX boards since they don't use a physical power switch, bur rather software/BIOS controlled power states. The power switch on an ATX case is nothing more than a momentary switch that, when temporarily closed, signals the motherboard to turn on, off, or suspend.

As AnandTech has shown previously, the VIA Apollo Pro 133 consistently performs below that of an i440BX chipset. The difference is not huge, but it should not be forgotten.

In terms of software included, the Transcend CD doesn't provide much. The CD is a generic one that is included with all their boards. Thus, it includes manuals and specifications for all current Transcend boards. The manual does a pretty good job of covering the board's features, but, unfortunately, it does not include much help for the first time installer.

USB Compatibility

• Number of Front Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 0

• Number of Rear Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 2

• USB IRQ Enable/Disable in BIOS: Yes

• USB Keyboard Support in BIOS: Yes

Recommended SDRAM

Recommended SDRAM: 1 x 64MB Mushkin SEC Original PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 64MB Memory-Man SEC Original PC100 SDRAM

SDRAM Tested: 1 x 128MB Mushkin SEC Original PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 128MB Memory-Man SEC Original PC100 SDRAM

Manufacturer: The Memory Man
Purchase Web-Site: http://www.memory-man.com

Manufacturer: Mushkin
Purchase Website: http://www.mushkin.com