Soyo kt400 dragon ultra: Soyo KT400 DRAGON Ultra: Basic Features

Soyo SY-KT400 DRAGON Ultra

Soyo SY-KT400 DRAGON Ultra

Also known as:
Soyo SY-K7VX4

DescriptionDownloadsCPUs

Form factor

ATX (max 305 x 244 mm)

PSU connector

ATX 1.x (20-pin ATX)

Chipset

VIA KT400

Chipset parts

VIA VT8368 (KT400)
VIA VT8235

Dimensions

305 mm x 244 mm

CPU socket

Socket A (PGA462)

CPU platforms

AthlonAthlon XP

Supported FSB speeds

200MHz, 266MHz, 333MHz

Supported RAM size

3 GB

Supported RAM type

DDR UDIMM

Audio chipset

C-Media AC97 (CMI9761/9761A)

I/O ports

1x 

Floppy interface

1x 

Gameport

4x 

IDE interface

1x 

PS/2 keyboard

1x 

PS/2 mouse

1x 

Parallel

2x 

Serial

6x 

USB 1.x

1x 

RJ-45 LAN

Expansion slots

5x 

32-bit PCI

1x 

Universal AGP Pro

Notes

PDC20265R IDE RAID

Last updated 2023-01-20T18:36:18Z

Drivers:
2 entries

Language

Media type

OS Compatibility

Name

Version

1x

Windows 98

Windows ME

Windows 2000

Windows XP

VIA 4in1 Chipset Driver

5. 24A

1x

Windows 95

Windows 98

Windows ME

Windows NT 4.0

Windows 2000

Windows XP

VIA 4in1 Chipset Driver

4.56V

BIOS images:
3 files

Manuf.

POST String

Note

Core Ver.

BIOS Ver.

Award

09/02/2003-KT400-8235-6A6LYS29C-00

6.00PG

2AA8

Award

04/17/2003-KT400-8235-6A6LYS29C-00

6.00PG

2AA7

Award

02/25/2003-KT400-8235-6A6LYS29C-00

6. 00PG

2AA6

Documentation:
1 entry

  • User Manual
    (English)

No CPUs listed.

No NPUs listed.

Image 1 of 1

Disclaimer

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SOYO SY-KT400 DRAGON Ultra Motherboard







Bjorn3D.com Reviewer


March 21, 2003
Hardware, Reviews & Articles

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In recent days Soyo’s short period of fame has started to fade, with new companies like Soltek and Epox sprouting up offering comparable features and performance. With this motherboard Soyo hopes to regain some of the fame offering a board filled with the latest technology as well as lots of features.

Introduction


In recent days Soyo’s short period of fame has started to fade, with new companies like Soltek and Epox sprouting up offering comparable features and performance. With this motherboard Soyo hopes to regain some of the fame offering a board filled with the latest technology as well as lots of features.

Specifications


Chipset Type
– VIA KT400

Chipset Description
VIA KT400 / 8235 chipset
– Supports 266/333 MHz FSB

Graphics Info
– AGP Pro slot supporting 8X AGP

Form Factor
– ATX

Memory Type
– DDR400/333 SDRAM

Memory Description
– Three DDR 2.5V DIMM sockets support up to 3GB (DDR 333/266/200, 2GB for DDR 400)
– 184-pin PC3200/PC2700/PC2100/PC1600 non-ECC, unbuffered DDR SDRAM memory

Expansion Slots
– Five 32-bit Bus Mastering PCI slots (V2. 2 compliant)
– One Universal 8X AGP Pro slot (supports 8x/4x modes)

Expansion Slot Types
– Five 32-bit Bus Mastering PCI

IDE Type
– UDMA 66/100/133

IDE Description
– Optional serial ATA support (rated at 150 MB/sec) through the use of riser cards
– Four independent channels for 8 IDE devices (2 for RAID)
– Supports up to PIO mode 5 & Ultra DMA 66/100/133
– Two PCI bus mastering ATA E-IDE ports

Audio Description
– On board CMI 8738 audio chip providing 4-channel audio solution
– 6-channel audio ready when used with a SPDIF audio connector, available for purcahse at SOYO e-Store

IO Port Description
– Two RS-232 serial ports (16550 UART compatible)
– One parallel printer port (SPP/EPP/ECP mode)
– One FDD port (supports 3 modes, 1.2/1.44/2.88MB FDD)
– Provides IrDA with optional cable for transceiver
– Provides 6 USB 2. 0 ports (2* rear, 4*front)

IO Connection Description
– PS/2 Mini-DIN mouse & keyboard ports
– Two USB 2.0 ports
– One RJ45 connector
– Two D-Sub 9-pin male serial ports
– One D-Sub 25-pin female printer port
– Audio I/O: LINE-OUT x 1, LINE-IN x 1, MIC JACK x 1
– One game port

BIOS Description
– Award PCI BIOS with ACPI function
– Supports multiple-boot from E-IDE / SCSI / CD-ROM / FDD / LS120 / ZIP
– 2 Mbyte Flash ROM
– Health Monitoring Description

On board voltage monitors
– CPU fan speed monitor
– CPU fan speed monitor
– CPU temperature monitoring through flexible thermal sensor
– CPU overheating protection

Dimension Description
– Four layers, 30.5 cm x 24.5 cm (12″ x 9.6″)
– ATX form factor

This board has some nice features that help the overclocking crowd. ABT (Anti Burn Regulator) makes sure that you won’t burn you CPU when overclocking (or when the fan dies). You also can set the PCI dividers to 1/5 or 1/6 so that you don’t overclock the PCI bus to much. The board also has a few distinct overclocking features that are available to be changed by the user.

One small controversy with this board is that the KT400 chipset does not officially support DDR400 though Soyo has marketed that their board actually does. DDR400 ram does in fact operate in this Soyo motherboard.

The Motherboard


Looking at the board-layout the motherboard is a bit inconsistent. Some things are very good layout and others not as good. The Stigma Bay that is included with the motherboard has 2 USB 2.0 ports and a Compact Flash/SmartMedia reader. The bay fits into a 3.5” bay in your case and is rather easy to install. However – when you are hooking the hardware cables to the motherboard the problems begin.

The bay has several individual cables that you not only need to distinguish but also need to find the corresponding pins on the motherboard for. It’s not a big deal but one might wonder what the engineers were thinking when they built this. I’m sure a large portion of consumers that buy this board will not end up using the Stigma Bay due to the difficulties caused in installing it.

(Note from Bjorn – I have tried to see if the Stigma Bay actually is included in the retail package or if Fuse received it as an extra when reviewing this motherboard. It does look like the Stigma Bay is an optional extra that has to be bought separately. End note from Bjorn).

Throughout the Dragon series of Soyo motherboards the BIOS has always been very friendly to overclocking as it has a lot of options that is changeable for the user.

Another small but very useful feature is the built in calculator so it tells you what the new speeds will be so that you don’t have to estimate and hope for the best. As far as the ram features you get the basic overclocking features such as CAS latency a few minor settings.

One noteworthy thing about this board is the software bundle. Often you will find yourself making coasters out of the bundles you get but Soyo choose software that would actually be beneficial for their customers. What you get is: Adobe ActiveShare, InterVideo WinDVD, Norton Antivirus 2002 and Norton Ghost 2002.

Benchmark


The computer used for testing is a fairly high end Athlon XP based system with Corsair ram. For testing and overclocking purposes Corsair has proved to be the best suited ram for our purposes.

The benchmarks that will be used are as follows:

• Business Winstone 2001
• Content Creation Winstone 2001
• 3D Mark 2001 SE
• Commanche 4 Demo benchmark
• Serius Sam benchmark
• SiSoft Sandra

The Results:

The outcome of this benchmark resulted in the KT400 chipset on the Soyo board scoring the best, which comes as a surprise as the P4 CPU most often wins in comparative benchmarks in my testing platforms.

The Content Creation Winstone followed my assumptions with the P4 in the lead followed by the KT400 and 333. This test is a lot more demanding than Business Winstone running software like Photoshop etc.

Sandra memory benchmark is a memory bandwidth test. As noted before the KT400 does not officially support DDR400.

3Dmark 2001 SE seems to be the most reliable these days as there has been some controversy with the 3Dmark 2003. The KT400 did the job here though the scores do a good job in showing that the newer chipset enhances the entire systems performance. This makes it sensible to upgrade the motherboard for a system upgrade opposed to all the add-on cards, as the motherboard is the mainframe of the computer.

The lasts of the tests was the Commanche 4, this and the 3Dmark are the most interesting benches as they have all the eye candy and the reward of seeing how good your system performed, here the P4 took the lead. The gap between all 3 platforms was no more than a little over 2 fps though. This also backs up the often-heard comment that P4 dominates the graphics/gaming market in performance.

Conclusion


The Soyo KT400 motherboard has stuck to the standards of the Dragon series. There are several improvements in this board over its K333 predecessor. There still is room for improvement but a lot of the problems the board has are due to the drawbacks of the KT400 chipset.

The DDR400 claim for this board is not completely false though it is entirely shaky. The board seems to be very prone to flaws and errors when using DDR400 as well as decreased and unsteady speeds.

For the overclocker the board offers a lot of nice features. Soyo motherboards have a good reputation for overclocking and while I didn’t test this in this review I have no reason to think that there should be a problem.

Overall the SY-KT400 DRAGON Ultra is a good buy. Soyo has managed to create a very good package. If they can fix the flaky performance with DDR400 via the bios the board also will be a good board for the future.

Find the best prices for the SY-KT400 motherboard at Pricegrabber


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BIOS update from SOYO | Drivers and firmware BIOS

← Back to the section «Drivers and firmware BIOS»

Author: igcomp
Posted: 01/18/2003 13:38

New BIOS versions for Soyo SY-K7VEM Pro, SY-KT333 DRAGON Plus motherboards :

Soyo SY-K7VEM Pro BIOS v. 2DA1
http://www.soyousa.com/downloads/count.php?id=1983&next=%2Fbios%2F686%2Fvemo2da1.zip v.2AA4
http://www.soyousa.com/downloads/count.php?id=1984&next=%2Fbios%2F686%2Fvx4l2aa4.zip

Author: igcomp
Posted: 01/25/2003 18:21

New BIOS for Soyo SY-K7V DRAGON Plus

Soyo SY-K7V DRAGON06 BIOS http ://www.soyousa.com/downloads/count.php?id=1987&next=%2Fbios%2F686%2Fkvxa2ba6.zip

Author: igcomp
Posted: 01/29/2003 12:37

New BIOS versions for motherboards Soyo SY-P4VDA, SY-P4X400 DRAGON Ultra Platinum Edition

Soyo SY-P4VDA BIOS v.2AA3
http://www.soyousa.com/downloads/count.php?id=1991&next=%2Fbios%2FP4%2Fpvda2aa3.zip

Soyo SY-P4X400 DRAGON Ultra Platinum Edition BIOS v.2AA5
http://www. soyousa.com/downloads/count.php?id=1993&next=%2Fbios%2Fp4%2Fp4v22aa5.zip

Author: Widok
Date posted: 01/29/2003 12:39

SY-KT333 DRAGON bios version 2AA6

— KT333 DRAGON Ultra (Black) bios version 2AA6
SY-KT333 DRAGON Ultra (Platinum Edition) bios version 2AA6

Author: igcomp
Date posted: 30. 01.2003 20:41

New BIOS versions for Soyo motherboards SY-P4S-645DX DRAGON Ultra, SY-P4S DRAGON Ultra

SY-P4S-645DX DRAGON Ultra BIOS v.2AA2
http://www.soyousa.com/downloads/count.php?id=1995&next=%2Fbios%2FP4%2Fpsx22aa2.zip

SY-P4S DRAGON Ultra BIOS v.2BA6
http://www.soyousa.com/ downloads/count.php?id=1994&next=%2Fbios%2FP4%2Fp4sx2ba6.zip

Author: igcomp
Posted: 21.02.2003 12:34

New BIOS version for Soyo SY-K7VEM Pro V1.0 motherboard. New BIOS for Soyo SY-7ISA+ motherboard

Soyo SY-7ISA+ BIOS v.AA4

Author: igcomp
Date posted: 03/06/2003 14:25

New BIOS version for Soyo SY-KT400 DRAGON Lite motherboard.

SY-KT400 DRAGON Lite BIOS v.2AA7
From March 5th offer to choose from:

SY-KT400 DRAGON Lite BIOS v.2AA5

SY-KT400 DRAGON Lite BIOS v.2AA6

Author: igcomp
Posted: 03/08/2003 13:04

SY4X0 motherboard BIOS updates for SY4X0 motherboards Lite, SY-P4X400 DRAGON Ultra Platinum Edition.

Soyo SY-P4X400 DRAGON Lite BIOS v.2AA8
Soyo SY-P4X400 DRAGON Ultra Platinum Edition BIOS v.2AA6

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Posted: 04/16/2003 20:38

Soyo motherboard BIOS P4VGA. nine0003

Soyo SY-P4VGA BIOS v.2AP1

Posted by igcomp
Date posted: 04/30/2003 13:13

Soyo SY-P4VDA BIOS v.2AA4

Posted by igcomp 1:0003 5.20205 Date posted

New BIOS versions for Soyo SY-KT400 DRAGON Ultra (Platinum Edition), SY-P4VDA motherboards.

Soyo SY-KT400 DRAGON Ultra (Platinum Edition) BIOS v.2AA7
Soyo SY-P4VDA BIOS v.2AA4

Author: igcomp
Posted: 07.05.2003 13:47

9New BIOS versions for Soyo SY-P4I 845PE Lite, SY-P4I 845PE motherboards.

Soyo SY-P4I 845PE Lite BIOS v.AA3
Soyo SY-P4I 845PE BIOS v.AA2

Author: igcomp
Posted: 05/19/2003 06:54 PM

PlaumP4I82 BIOS Edition SY-P4I82 .AA1

Author: igcomp
Date posted: 05/24/2003 13:58

New BIOS versions for Soyo SY-P4X400 DRAGON Lite, SY-P4I865PE Plus DRAGON 2 motherboards.

Soyo SY-P4X400 DRAGON Lite BIOS v.2AA9
Soyo SY-P4I865PE Plus DRAGON 2 BIOS v.2AP1

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Posted: 06/11/2003 12:14

BIOS v.2AP1 Soyo SL-K4C40. AW2
Soyo SL-KT400-C BIOS v.AW2

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Posted: 06/24/2003 20:28

SOYO SY-P4I865PE Plus DRAGON 2 bios version 2AA1
SOYO SY-P4I version 8425PE3

Author: Dr StandBy
Post date: 07/04/2003 12:47

SOYO SY-KT333 DRAGON Ultra (Black) bios version 2AA7
SOYO SY-K7V DRAGON Plus bios version 2BA8

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Post date: 07/15/2003 10:34

SOYO SY-6ILA bios version 2AA2

Author: Dr StandBy 14008.2 Post date: 1 22

Motherboard BIOS ver. Motherboard BIOS ver. Description

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Post date: 28.08.2003 11:54

Motherboard BIOS ver. Motherboard BIOS ver. Motherboard BIOS ver. Motherboard BIOS ver.

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Pages: 123

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nine0266

The most interesting in the reviews


01/08/2017 [11:55],

Alexey Stepin

The processor determines the face of the platform, but without the appropriate infrastructure it is a useless piece of silicon in a textolite case — this thesis will not be disputed by anyone who is at least minimally familiar with the design of modern PCs. This is also true for the new AMD Ryzen processors. They need matching motherboards with AM4 connector and a variety of functionality demanded by different user groups. At CES 2017, MSI is showcasing new AM4 gaming boards designed to meet the demands of AMD Ryzen gamers. Two high-end boards are getting the most attention: the X370 XPower Gaming Titanium and the B350 Tomahawk. The first of them is the most interesting, since it is based on the X370 chipset, which is still unfamiliar to the general public. nine0003

Curiously, MSI decided to choose silver white as the base color for the PCB: this solution has not been seen in mass-produced products for a long time, but some graphics cards and motherboards used this PCB before, for example, those produced by the now forgotten SOYO brand (KT400 board DRAGON Ultra Platinum Edition). According to the latest fashion trends, the X370 XPower uses reinforced PCI Express and DDR4 DIMM slots, but the lowest PCIe slot, electrically having an x8 construct, is deprived of such a “shirt”. The processor power system of this board is ten-phase, which will be useful for future overclockers: in standard mode, Ryzen processors are economical and their heat packs do not exceed 95 watts, so by themselves they do not require a powerful power stabilizer. Power transistors are well cooled: they have two radiators connected by a heat pipe. Please note: despite the TDP of 95 watts even for the older processor of the series, power is supplied to it on both boards through an eight-pin connector.

Interestingly, the AM4 processor socket is black in contrast to the usual one. This makes the design of the board more interesting, although with the processor and cooling system installed, the color of the connector ceases to matter. But the mount for the cooler can cause criticism, unless it provides for the dismantling of the frames and the use of a screw mount. The board supports memory up to 64 GB and a frequency of up to 4000 MHz in overclocking mode. Two of the three PCI Express slots have a full-fledged x16 design, which allows you to implement full-fledged graphics systems with two video cards. There are also two M.2 connectors with a bandwidth of 32 Gb / s, which, when using two fast NVMe drives in RAID0 mode, will allow you to achieve monstrous speeds by the standards of a home system. There is also a U.2 connector, but it is not yet known whether all three NVMe ports can be used and whether this will limit the overall level of performance. nine0003

The board is clearly designed for overclocking enthusiasts: it has the appropriate controls, a POST code indicator, and a curious opportunity to fix them in case of problems with the BIOS firmware by booting from a special internal USB connector. By the way, USB 3.1 support is fully implemented on this board, although there are only two ports — one each type A and C. But they are complemented by 8 USB 3.0 ports and seven USB 2.0 ports. And for owners of their favorite old keyboards, a PS / 2 connector is intended. The board is APU compatible, for which there are HDMI and DisplayPort connectors on the rear panel. And the presence of built-in support for Gigabit Ethernet and eight-channel sound has long been impossible to surprise anyone, especially since Hi-Fi lovers still use better sound cards or external DACs. nine0003

The B350 Tomahawk board is obviously simpler: only the top PCIe x16 slot is equipped with a metal jacket here, and there is no such on the other slots and DIMM connectors. The processor power supply on this board is six-phase, which, however, will upset only extreme overclockers. But the owners of expensive sound cards will be glad to have two PCI slots; to support them, there are corresponding controller chips on the board. There is only one M.2 connector, but it will be enough if you install a high-speed SSD, such as Samsung 960 Pro or Toshiba RD400. There is no such exotic as U.2 on the board, but it is intended for fans of games with a limited budget, who are unlikely to find an extra drive with such a connector; besides, M.2 is corny more convenient. A set of video interfaces is provided if the board is used in conjunction with an APU. In general, we can say that MSI is quite ready for the arrival of AMD Ryzen in the gaming sector. AMD is also ready: three chipsets available in the 300th series cover all the needs of the AM4 platform in all price segments.

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