VIA Apollo Pro 133A with Dual Processors

Final Words

We were extremely impressed with Microstar's 694D Pro, and if more motherboard manufacturers can put VIA's 133A into a solid dual processor motherboard design, VIA may just have created a brand new market for motherboard manufacturers.

Performance-wise a dual 133A board obviously isn't going to be as fast as the i840 but at the same time it's not going to be nearly as expensive as a dual 840 board.

From a price to performance standpoint, the 133A chipset makes quite a bit of sense to be included in entry level dual processor workstations, however since the chipset isn't quite as mature as the older BX/GX chipsets, we wouldn't suggest trying to build a mission critical server around it.

Also remember that one of the main reasons we were so successful with the chipset running with two processors is because Microstar managed to design a solid board based on the chipset. VIA can only design the chipsets, it's up to the motherboard manufacturer to step forward and properly implement the design.

Before we go, for those of you that are wondering, you can't run the newer Celerons in SMP mode on this board, the 694D Pro will only initialize one of them.