AMD K7 mainboard with K8 upgradability arrives

Asrock has innovation coming out of its ears - three Combo boards for the Netburst and K8 platforms, and now a K7 mainboard, which can be upgraded to the latest and greatest by just plugging in an additional card.

We can thank OCworkbench for the pics and details as they appear to be first with the scoop.

From an enthusiast standpoint, the budget constrained individual who buys the "K7 Upgrade-880", which happens to be the name of Asrock's triple function motherboard, would probably match that board with an AMD Athlon XP 2500+ processor. Having raised the FSB frequency to 200MHz (400MHz data rate), he'll be hoping to hit the 3200+ jackpot. If like many others he achieves that goal, he would have gained 700 model number points for free, which would be cause for celebration.

But all new toys eventually lose their novelty and appeal. Having maxed out the performance of his K7 platform, the enthusiast has the option of upgrading to K8 based technology. That is achieved by adding a plug-in card - either socket 754 or socket 939 based (754Bridge or 939Bridge) - which would gracefully put him on the next performance footing.

The K8 upgrade card requires two sockets to function, which appear to be AGP and AMR sourced. There are two AGP slots either side of where the K8 upgrade slot is located. It seems evident that the slot next to the north bridge is used for normal board operation. But when the upgrade card is inserted, which would cover the aforementioned slot, the other AGP slot should come into play. The pic of the 754Bridge shows two DDR DIMM slots. There isn't a pic of the 939Bridge, but one would expect it to have at least three memory slots.

As the "K7 Upgrade-880" name implies, Via's KT880 chipset is the core logic used on that motherboard. The socket 754 module is fitted out with Via's K8T800 chip, which is the AGP graphics/processor/south bridge interface. No specific details of the socket 939 based module was given. So the better specced K8T800Pro chip could be used in that particular setup.

With Nvidia's Nforce2 mindshare advantage, Asrock's triple function offering might help Via's KT880 regain some of that lost ground. A Nforce2 based K7/K8 triple function board would be more expensive to upgrade as Nvidia's Nforce3 is a single chip platform processor, which makes it more expensive than the aforementioned chip from Via. So for cost reasons, it's not likely that we'll see a Nvidia based solution. This is one example where Via's two chip flexibility delivers.

No launch or price details were given. µ

See Also
Second K8 Combo board makes an appearance
Will 60% of AMD's Q1-05 shipments be Sempron?

L'INQ
OCW Mainboard details