Conclusion
This content was originally featured on Amdmb.com and has been converted to PC Perspective’s website. Some color changes and flaws may appear.
So, what is the conclusion you are going to draw from this review and tests? That depends solely on your purpose: are you looking for a performance motherboard that will make your machine faster than your neighbors, or are you looking for an inexpensive integrated motherboard for a second machine or workstation? The answer you give basically points you in the right direction.Let’s compare the costs, something I don’t often do in review because it can vary so much from county to country and from day to day. The cheapest price you are going to find on the Asus A7V133 motherboards is around $130 compared to the price of the Matsonic 8308E motherboard that is around $90. That is quite a difference for a cheap system build. Not to mention that you do not necessarily need to buy a sound card, video card, network card or modem (AMR Riser). That money can quickly add up to a couple hundred dollars saved in your pocket.
The benchmarks showed that the SiS board didn’t and couldn’t keep up with the big boys of the AMD market, but that is not what it is meant to do. Keeping the motherboard cheap to the OEMs and end users is exactly what they wanted, and what SiS accomplished. If you are building a second machine for your house, your maybe your mom needs a PC to get on the internet, the Matsonic 8308E is a perfect fit.
Being the first entry into the budget market, SiS and Matsonic have a chance to reap some grand benefits. VIA has released the KM133 chipset which promises to heavily compete with the SiS730s chipset. The market for your dollar on the budget end, is starting to heat up. I only wish this had started months earlier so that perhaps we could have had 5-10 viable motherboards available in the market now with Duron processors so cheap to the consumer. Overall, however, the Duron market got a great first addition to help it beat out the competing Intel Celeron in the budget PC market.
If you are looking to find a 133/266 MHz Athlon processor, I suggest you try Monarch Computer or TC Computers.
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