The Soyo KT333 Dragon Ultra has potentially the best feature set of any motherboard in the roundup. Soyo has gained notoriety for including everything but the kitchen sink with their Dragon Ultra products and the KT333 version is no different. USB 2.0, ATA-133 IDE RAID, on-board LAN, integrated hardware audio, and AGP Pro are the most prominent features, and the KT333 Dragon Ultra looks to be a compelling all-in-one solution.
Along with a long list of features, the KT333 Dragon Ultra has a similarly-robust collection of hardware stuffed into the retail box. Standard components include the motherboard, floppy cable, three (!) ATA-66/100/133 EIDE cables, a driver/utility CD, and a 162-page hardcopy user manual. In addition to these, the KT333 Dragon Ultra also features a nifty 8-in1 Bonus Pack of software, including Norton A/V 2002, Ghost 2002, WinDVD, and others.
There are also hardware extras such as an audio bracket (line-out, SPDIF-in/out), and even two motherboard spacers and a small amount of heatsink compound. Rounding out the component list is a SB-P4SX front-mounted USB 2.0 faceplate. This can mount on either an open 3.5" or 5.25" (with included rack adapter) drive bay and not only provides easy access to quad USB 2.0 ports, but also has two indicator lights for LAN and USB activity. Soyo has done an exceptional job selecting the included hardware and software, and you'll feel like a kid at Xmas once you pop the seal.
The layout of the Soyo KT333 Dragon Ultra is actually quite good given the wide selection of onboard hardware. The CPU socket is horizontally positioned, with enough room between the DIMM sockets to add or remove a HSF. The three DIMM sockets are also raised above the AGP slot enough to facilitate installing RAM with an AGP card present. The ATA connectors are quite unique, and although the two standard IDE connectors are in their usual place adjacent to the DIMM sockets, the IDE RAID and floppy connectors are farther down the board and positioned vertically. This gives a nice balance between easy access and providing adequate real estate for other components. The location of the ATX power connector is a bit troublesome, with it situated right behind the audio portion of the ATX backplate. This means a long journey for the ATX power cable, potentially over either the CPU or the DDR memory. The KT333 Dragon Ultra does conform to ATX standards and when fully installed, there is absolutely no board overhang.
Other than the sharp purple color of the PCI slots, the only real surprise is the presence of an AGP Pro secondary power connector. But instead of using the now-standard ATX 2.03 power cord, Soyo has elected to go with a basic 4-pin design instead. This power cord is only required for AGP Pro cards, but it is unusual that the ASUS board does not require one, and that Soyo elected not to support the standard ATX 2.03 format in doing so.
Installing the KT333 Dragon Ultra ranked in the middle of the pack in terms of complexity and time. Not that it was overly difficult, but with the wide range of integrated hardware (not to mention the USB 2.0 faceplate), the driver installation and setup naturally takes a bit longer than some basic software-based solutions. After we finished the hardware and software install, we found the Soyo KT333 Dragon Ultra to be a very impressive option for system builders. The onboard features all work quite well and their hardware-based nature makes us feel a lot better about recommending the KT333 Dragon Ultra as the best overall option for a highly-integrated KT333 system.
The KT333 Dragon Ultra's System BIOS is a great combination of high-end features and ease-of-use and making the final adjustments to the system was a quick and painless job. All of the power features are included, such as CPU FSB speeds and multipliers, CPU core voltage, DDR voltage, AGP voltage, and DDR speeds. This is a very powerful System BIOS, and the KT333 Dragon Ultra also includes all of the important tweaking options under their Combo BIOS section. This is one stop shopping at its best, and this area also includes options to disable the various IDE RAID, LAN, and integrated audio hardware to boot. As great as the BIOS is, it cannot make up for the single failing of the KT333 Dragon Ultra design; disappointing overclocking. While the board does not feature a hardware jumper per say, the standard 100/133 FSB dividers have simply been moved to the System BIOS instead. As will see a bit later on in the overclocking section, the KT333 Dragon Ultra does not fare well at high FSB speeds and this really costs it for a Top-3 finish.
The Soyo KT333 Dragon Ultra seems to have it all; a selection of hardware-based integrated features, a hotrod System BIOS and a great look and feel to the overall product. This is certainly true, but the board does not excel in the overclocking arena, and that costs it a few important marks. We evaluate based on a wide range of criteria, but if overclocking isn't one of yours, then the KT333 Dragon Ultra is an exceptional all-in-one solution for both the gaming and performance crowds.
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