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Overclocking
Overclocking
isn't this board's forte. You can make FSB adjustments to get a few extra
MHz but realistically Tyan focused their energy in a much better direction.
By allowing 4-way interleaving and making more options available in the BIOS
I was able to get a very impressive amount of performance without having to
increase the speed of the CPU. This is a good time to point out that my PC100
that normally has no problems running all the way up to 138 MHz ran well at
133 MHz until I enabled 4-way interleaving. Takes a good stick of memory for
4-way interleaving to work but at least you can still use your trusty PC100
until you are ready to move up. Again, for around $70 you can pick up a stick
of PC133 like I did at BestBUY and take full advantage of 4-way interleaving.
For those of you who wish you could do this but your motherboard doesn't support
the feature please see this page
at VIA Hardware. This program can enable 4-way interleaving even if your
motherboard BIOS doesn't. Just make sure that your chipset is one of the units
listed - and do I have to mention that we're not responsible if this hoses
your system? Hate to throw in a disclaimer when I put a link to a great program
but you wouldn't believe the angry e-mail I get sometimes. Everyone who has
good results with this program throw our Andrew
Oliver a note of thanks for finding this little program.
Conclusions
The
AK73 claimed to support 266 MHz FSB CPUs but in reality didn't. I was able
to begin booting into Windows before the KTa's overly sensitive temperature
mechanism would shut the computer down. Yes, at 1.2 GHz the Athlon can second
as a room heater so I would hope that there will be a BIOS fix for this. Take
note that even though it was running hot this Athlon ran stable on the FIC
AD11 at 1.2 GHz without any problems.
The layout on the KTa is the best
I've come across. Most of us still have soundcards we can use with it so this
is a pretty good upgrade path for those of you who decided to hold out for
the 266 FSB Athlons. So, for a system that has near the performance of the
DDR FIC AD11 you can pick up the Tyan KTa and not have to deal with the expense
of DDR. You'll notice that the FIC AD11 and this board share the same score
on the first page of their reviews. I could have easily awarded the KTa an
Editor's Choice award but I'm concerned that the issue with the thermal sensor
may appear if high speed 200 MHz Athlons are used. AMD is releasing several
Athlons with the 200 MHz FSB that are clocked equal to the the 266 parts so
I'm dubious of this board being overly sensitive to the temperatures that
they emit.
Despite the poor layout of the AD11
it makes a simpler upgrade. In the last month DDR prices have dropped so you
should be able to find 128 MB of DDR2100 for around $100. That is something
to consider, especially since the AD11 had no hangups with the 266 MHz Athlon.
Overclocking
isn't this board's forte. You can make FSB adjustments to get a few extra
MHz but realistically Tyan focused their energy in a much better direction.
By allowing 4-way interleaving and making more options available in the BIOS
I was able to get a very impressive amount of performance without having to
increase the speed of the CPU. This is a good time to point out that my PC100
that normally has no problems running all the way up to 138 MHz ran well at
133 MHz until I enabled 4-way interleaving. Takes a good stick of memory for
4-way interleaving to work but at least you can still use your trusty PC100
until you are ready to move up. Again, for around $70 you can pick up a stick
of PC133 like I did at BestBUY and take full advantage of 4-way interleaving.
For those of you who wish you could do this but your motherboard doesn't support
the feature please see this 
The
AK73 claimed to support 266 MHz FSB CPUs but in reality didn't. I was able
to begin booting into Windows before the KTa's overly sensitive temperature
mechanism would shut the computer down. Yes, at 1.2 GHz the Athlon can second
as a room heater so I would hope that there will be a BIOS fix for this. Take
note that even though it was running hot this Athlon ran stable on the FIC
AD11 at 1.2 GHz without any problems.
