Chipset: SiS 630E Price: Rs 4,300 Software: Driver CD, PC-Cillin anti-virus, AWDFlash update for the BIOS, MediaRing Talk, Gamut, Super Voice Website: www.kobian.com |
This is an average board based on an SiS 630E chipset with a socket 370
interface. The board supports a maximum FSB of 133 MHz. It’s is pretty low on
PCI slots, with a count of only two. It has two built-in USB ports and even an
Ethernet port for network connectivity. All other ports are also built-in with
proper color-coding making the installation very easy. Its component layout is
also pretty good as it’s not unobtrusive.
The board has a jumperfree mode, and the accompanying manual is also quite
detailed with installation procedure and visual elements. On the flip side,
though the driver CD has a main interface, it doesn’t have an automated driver
installation. You have to browse through the various folders to install the
necessary drivers.
On the performance front, it faired well in productivity applications and
gave a Business Winstone99 score of 21.2 Winmarks. However, the graphics and
gaming scores weren’t very impressive, even after we added more RAM. In Quake
III, the average frame rate stood at 9.25 fps. The CPU utilization in
AudioWinbench was also quite high at 24.7 percent.