Athlon Boosters - Three AMD 760 Boards for DDR SDRAM

Trio Of Boards: Asus A7M266, Biostar M7MIA, Gigabyte GA-7DX

The three boards we tested have one thing in common: All three are equipped with the AMD-760 Northbridge (AMD 761B). The Southbridge used is the VIA chip VT82C686B, known from its use with the KT133A or 694X chipset. Board makers prefer this 'mix' over a pure AMD-AMD solution, because the VIA south bridge is supposed to cause less compatibility problems.

In regard to memory, Asus as well as Biostar and Gigabyte are showing limitations: Restricting the number of DIMM sockets to two limits possible RAM to 512 MB.

In addition, the Gigabyte GA-7DX and the Biostar M7MIA are equipped with a highpoint IDE chip, which is even able to function as RAID controller when used with the Biostar.