ASUS K7V-RM KX133 Slot-A microATX

AnandTech Motherboard Rating

Performance

The K7V-RM was perfectly on-par with the EPoX 7KXA thus it gets an average performance rating of 5.0

Price

The K7V-RM is clearly a cost effective Athlon solution. Not only did ASUS use the highly integrated VIA 686A South Bridge, but that combined with the microATX form factor of the motherboard makes for a very affordable combination.

You can expect the K7V-RM to be priced in the low $100s at first but finally dropping to its rightful price point below the $100 mark.

Stability

The stability of the K7V-RM was definitely commendable, and it's what we've come to expect from ASUS. The board had no problem running our suite of stability tests while at the same time had no problem running the benchmarks for our 1GHz Athlon review either.

Quality

The name ASUS has always been associated with clearly superior quality not only in their selection of components, but in the quality of the finished product as well. The K7V-RM follows closely in this age old ASUS tradition of quality above all.

Features

The ASUS K7V-RM is very feature rich, from its overclocked FSB settings to its adjustable core voltages.

The board also benefits from the KX133 chipset which allows for its 133MHz memory bus operation.

Unfortunately the features are weighed down by the poor expansion which is limited by the microATX layout.

Layout

For a microATX motherboard, the K7V-RM features a surprisingly roomy layout. The ATX power connector doesn't obstruct the installation of any components and the front USB port connector is placed near the front of the case, where it should be.

The CPU fan connector is placed in an awkward area between two capacitors in the space between the Slot-A connector and the DIMM slots, that was the only major downside to the layout other than the obvious constraints placed on the board because of its microATX form factor.

Availability

ASUS is normally pretty easy to find among online and even local vendors (although they are a little pricey to stock), but since the K7V-RM is at least a month away from hitting most distributors and since we don't know for sure if ASUS is going to be promoting this board as well as the rest of their line we can't rate it based on availability.

Documentation & Software Bundle

The K7V-RM's user's manual was excellent and the bundled drivers included everything necessary for proper setup of the board.