Introduction:

    Just a few months ago, I reviewed the KA1 MVP motherboard from ECS, which featured the Radeon 200 chipset that supports CrossFire. Now ECS has released a new motherboard: the KA3 MVP Extreme. It is touted to be the first motherboard to support the new AMD Socket AM2 Platform CPU's. The KA3 MVP supports DDR2 and uses a completely new chipset - the ATI CrossFire Xpress 3200 - which, of course, supports CrossFire technology, and also takes unrestricted advantage of two full-bandwidth x16-lane PCI Express slots. This 3200 chipset is the first to ever offer dual x16 lane on a single chip.

    With these and its many other features, the KA3 MVP Extreme gives the end user a faster, more reliable system. It allows for what ECS calls "extreme overclocking and unprecedented control" over a system's performance and behavior. Considering that I prefer AMD myself, I've been looking forward to this opportunity to review the KA3 MVP Extreme and find out first hand how much it can really improve my own system. Many thanks to ECS EliteGroup for providing this chance to review what may be an excellent example of the recent innovations with AMD technology.   

About the Company:
 

     ECS, the Elitegroup Computer Systems (TSE: 2331), has been a pioneer in designing and manufacturing computer motherboards since 1987. It was the first motherboard maker in Taiwan to be listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange in 1994. Today, the company also designs and manufactures barebone and complete systems, such as notebook computers and high-end servers, for distributors worldwide.

     Headquartered in Taiwan with business partners and distributors in over 60 countries, ECS has ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001:2004 certified manufacturing facilities in China, capable of producing over 2.5 million motherboards and 200,000 notebook computers every month. The company currently has branch offices throughout the world in Americas, Europe and the Pacific Rim. To further extend its quality products and services, ECS plans to open additional branch offices in the new emerging markets including Brazil, India and Russia.

     With its 18 years of experience in designing and manufacturing motherboards, the building block of many of today's personal computers, ECS is expected to remain as one of the major contributors in the IT industry. The company is very fortunate to work very closely with many major chip designers in the PC industry on the design, development and manufacture of future IT innovations. Together with its business partners and its team members around the world, ECS is ready to provide a rich variety of new products and great services to its customers in the years to come.

Specifications:

CPU Socket AM2 with AMD Athlon 64 FX/ Athlon 64/ Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core/ Sempron processor Support for 64-bit extended operating systems Support transfer rate of 2000/1600/1200/800/400 mega-transfers per second. Highly overclockable and robust Hypertransport interface

CHIPSET ATI® CrossFire Xpress 3200 North Bridge: ATI® RD580 South Bridge: ATI® SB600

MEMORY Dual-channel DDR2 memory architecture 4 x 240-pin DDR2 DIMM socket support up to 32GB Support DDR2 800/667/533/400 DDR2 SDRAM

EXPANSION SLOT 2 x PCI Express x16 slots 1 x PCI Express x1 slot 2 x PCI slots

STORAGE Supported by SB600   -- 2 x Ultra DMA133/100/66/33 device   -- 4 x Serial ATA2 devices   -- RAID0, RAID1, RAID10 configuration Supported by JMB363   -- 2 x Ultra DMA133/100/66 devices   -- 2 x Serial ATA2 devices   -- RAID0, RAID1& RAID 0+1 configuration   -- Support NCQ&eSATA & Hot plug&Port Multiplier

AUDIO Realtek ALC883 8-channel audio CODEC

IEEE 1394a VIA® VT6308P support 2 x IEEE1394a ports

DUAL LAN Agere E1310I Gigabit LAN controller Realtek 8100C 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet controller

REAR PANEL I/O 1 x PS/2 keyboard & PS/2 mouse connectors 4 x USB ports 2 x RJ45 LAN connectors 1 x Serial port (COM1) 1 x Audio port (Line-in,4x Line-out, Mic_in) 2 x Digital SPDIF (Optical & Coaxial) out

INTERNAL I/O CONNECTORS & HEADERS 1 x 24-pin ATX Power Supply connector 1 x 4-pin ATX 12V connector 1 x Auxiliary 4-pin +12V connector 2 x IDE connectors 1 x FDD connector 6 x Serial ATA connectors 1 x Speaker header 1 x IrDA for SIR header 2 x 1394a headers 3 x USB 2.0 headers support additional 6 USB ports 1 x Front panel switch/LED header 1 x Front panel audio header CD in header 1 x 26-pin LPT header CPU / Chassis FAN headers 1x CPUFAN/1x SYSFAN/3x CASFAN connectors

SYSTEM BIOS Award BIOS with 4Mb Flash ROM Supports Plug and Play 1.0A, APM 1.2, Multi Boot, DMI Supports ACPI revision 1.0 specification

FORM FACTOR ATX Size 305mm*244mm