ASUS A7V Socket-A KT133 ATX

AnandTech Motherboard Rating

Performance

The A7V performs among the best of the KT133 motherboards we've seen, the only thing that keeps it from attaining a higher performance rating is its lack of IDE RAID support.

Price

The A7V is among the more expensive boards out there because of the price tag that the ASUS name carries, however it is noticeably cheaper than ABIT's KT7-RAID.

Stability

ASUS' rock-solid trend continues with the A7V as the board was excellent in our stability tests.

Quality

ASUS has always been a name that's synonymous with quality and the A7V is no different than what we're used to seeing from them.

Features

The A7V has a very impressive feature set, it's multiplier control, jumperless FSB/voltage adjustment, ATA/100 support and ability to use up to 7 USB ports are all positive features. The only downsides are that the board doesn't feature a jumperless multiplier adjustment utility and has no IDE RAID support, the latter which isn't a problem for most users.

Layout

The layout of the A7V is very clean, and all dip-switch settings are clearly documented on the PCB itself. The positioning of the Socket-A connector is superior to that on the ABIT KT7-RAID, unfortunately the only problem we had was with the location of the ATX power connector.

Availability

ASUS boards are typically relatively easy to find among online, and even local, retailers. Some local retailers unfortunately don't carry the boards because they aren't as easy to get as ABIT boards (for smaller vendors that is) and are sometimes more expensive than the former.

Documentation & Software Bundle

The A7V user's manual was excellent and the bundled drivers included everything necessary for proper setup of the board.