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Its been a roller coaster ride the past few months. AMD is totally at the top of their game while Intel has seemed to falter along the way. With AMD being such a threat to Intel, it is no wonder that nearly every mainboard manufacturer out there provides a platform for AMD's ever popular Socket A platform.
75% Rating: 
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Transcend AKT4 |
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Overclocking and Stability
With the Socket A platform, the most desired method of
overclocking comes in the form of having multiplier switches on the motherboard
(or through BIOS settings). Unfortunately, the AKT4 lacks this option. However,
what is possible is overclocking your Duron or T Bird by way of
manipulating FSB speeds.
All overclocking is thankfully done through the
system BIOS. Interestingly, Transcend has implemented FSB speed changes in a
different way. Rather than having a predefined number of FSB speeds, the AKT4
allows the user to enter a value which can define FSB speeds between 100 and
132MHz. With our current test setup, we were able to overclock our FSB to 115MHz
(the highest we have been able to achieve, similar to the Soltek SL 75KV)
resulting in a 690MHz overclock. Anything higher and the system would not even
POST.
In addition to FSB speed control, the AKT4 allows the user the
option set their memory speeds +33MHz which will bring your DRAM clock to
133MHz. This would certainly provide for an added advantage in overclocking as
there are some PC100 DIMMs out there which do allow for such a high overclock.
You also have a choice to run your memory at either CAS 2 or 3 but success
purely depends on the quality of your memory.
For those interested, the
AKT4 also provides for hardware monitoring and allows for 5 voltages, 3
temperatures and 2 fan speeds which should provide enough info for those users
who like to go in depth. As it appears that the AKT4 is not meant for serious
overclocking, it is quite appropriate that only 2 fan headers have been
included.
On the stability front, we
were more than happy with this motherboard. With the highest FSB overclock
attainable, the AKT4 ran extremely smooth without a single lock up during hours
of usage. This is one of the characteristics we remember from the AVE 3
motherboard and we certainly expected the same out of this board. And in the
end, it truly delivered.
Conclusions
Good performance and
excellent stability make this motherboard a good choice for servers and
end users alike. Even the AKT4 audio sounds good! : ) For computer enthusiasts
looking to do some heavy tweaking, this motherboard might not be on your
shopping list.
From what we have already seen of Transcend's
motherboards, stability seems to be the key word over here. From the
general end user to the mission critical server, the AKT4 certainly shines
through in what they need most stability. Its performance is on par
with other Socket A boards out there but we expected more after witnessing the
AVE3 take the Asus P3B F head on in performance. As the board tested here is
not a retail sample, perhaps Transcend may have been able to tweak the
board further before hitting the store shelves.
We certainly look forward
to reviewing more of Transcend's products. Who knows, they just might walk away
with that Editor's Choice award which had eluded them not too long
ago...
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