Introduction.

AMD introduced its DDR (Double Data Rate) SDRAM compatible chipset, the AMD 760 back in November 2000 to somewhat mixed reviews. Whilst it was widely recognised as being a chipset which offered strong performance, there were also many reports that testers had found a number of compatibility and stability issues with the chipset. Quickly, AMD set about fixing these problems and subsequent revisions of the AMD 760 chipset gained better reviews from testers as more boards appeared from the major manufacturers.

Ironically AMD never intended the 760 chipset to be the main DDR SDRAM compatible core logic for its Athlon and Duron range of processors, but hoped that products such as the VIA KT266 and ALi MAGiK1 would be the main choices in the market. Overall AMD intended that the 760 would perform the same task as the original AMD 750 chipset did at the time of the Athlon’s original launch; be a chipset designed to launch a new technology/product but then hand it over to other manufacturers. AMD has made it known that it does not want to be a chipset manufacturer, but like the original 750, it appears to be finding out that it is.

The AMD 760 is not the first chipset we have tested which is designed to support DDR SDRAM. Back in April of this year we looked at the VIA Apollo Pro266 which provided DDR SDRAM support to the Intel Pentium III / Celeron processor range. Housed in the Aopen AX37 Pro, we found that whilst the Apollo Pro266 is a very good chipset, the benefits of running DDR SDRAM were not immediately obvious on the P6 platform. This point had often been made before, so for our second DDR board review we decided to look at a solution designed for the AMD Athlon / Duron (K7) platform to see whether there were any obvious benefits.

The board which we received came in the form of the Epox EP-8K7A. Readers of other PC hardware web-sites will be aware that this board has gained a formidable reputation amongst testers due to its overclocking ability. There were also positive reports concerning its stability. So far, the Epox boards which we have tested at Processor Emporium have been very good indeed as they exhibit very high standards of build and design, as was demonstrated by the FC-PGA compatible EP-3VCA and the superb Socket A EP-8KTA3+.

If anything the EP-8K7A has been one of the more interesting boards that we have tested at Processor Emporium. To find out why it is so interesting, read on...

AMD 760.

The EP-8K7A has a rather unusual chipset arrangement in that its North and South Bridge controllers are supplied by two separate manufacturers. The North Bridge controller is the AMD 761 chip, which provides support for either PC-1600 or PC-2100 DDR SDRAM as well as many standard features such as AGP 4X.

The South Bridge controller is the VIA VT82C686B chip which features support for U/DMA 100 Hard Drive support and also support for up to 4 USB devices to be attached. The 686B also provides support for an AC97 audio codec, a feature which is becoming increasingly popular with many new motherboard designs.

Specifications.