Review: VIA KT600 / EPoX 8KRA2

System setup and notes

• AMD Barton XP3200+ S462 CPU (2200MHz / 200FSB)
• EPoX 8KRA2+ KT600
• Shuttle SN45G XPC SFF Cube (nForce2 Ultra 400)

Other components

• ATi Radeon 9700 Pro (324/310)
• 2 x 256MB Corsair XMS3500C2, run at 2-6-2-2 @ DDR-400 for the SN45G in DC mode (a single 256MB stick for the SN45G and KT600 in SC modes)
• Liteon 16x DVD
• Samcheer 420w PSU
• Samsung 181T TFT monitor
• Akasa Silver Mountain cooler

• Windows XP Professional Build 2600.xpclient.010817-1148
• DirectX9
• Hyperion 4.46 VIA service pack
• NVIDIA nForce 2.03 drivers
• ATI CATALYST 3.4 drivers and control panel (6343s)
• Pifast v41 to 10m places
• Lame v3.92 MP3 encoding with Razor-Lame 1.15 front-end using U2's Pop album
• SiSoft SANDRA 2003 (9.44 release with SP1)
• Hexus SETI benchmark
• 3DMark 2001SE
• UT2003 Demo (Build 2206)
• Comanche 4 benchmark
• Serious Sam 2 Demo
• Quake 3 v1.30 HQ

Notes

We'll be comparing the KT600's performance against the nForce2 Ultra 400. The latter will be run in its preferred dual channel memory mode and in single channel mode (by simply removing a stick of Corsair RAM). The KT600 will be run at the same 2200MHz / 200FSB / DDR400 (2-6-2-2) settings as the nForce2. Both boards clocked in at 2205MHz, thereby slightly inflating the FSB.

The KT600 had tremendous difficulty in running a 'Fast' system performance option. The very few times it was able to complete any benchmark resulted in a slightly faster result than 'Normal' settings. However, as it was not stable under load, we shall go with the Normal option. A Radeon 9700 Pro had to be used due to the early demise of our resident Radeon 9800 Pro. An able substitute, we think. In terms of features, everything appeared to install and operate properly. All non-essential features were toggled off on both boards before benchmarking; we're simply looking to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of the chipset implementation here.