Price: $90 ESP   Available: Now

Taiwanese hardware manufacturer Soyo-Tek has a reputation for being both willing and able to go out on a limb technology-wise to provide the buying public with great PC hardware solutions.

Today we're going to be looking at one of the more interesting recent Soyo mainboards to come down the pike, the new Socket370 based SY-6VZA.

Powered by VIA's capable Apollo Pro core logic AGPset, the SY-6VZA takes the best of the Intel 440BX world that the Apollo Pro core logic set competes with, and places it on a board that's designed to run CPUs based on Intel's S370 PPGA format.

High-end versions of S370 mainboard boards will likely be few and far between the rest of this year, as the somewhat limited Intel 440ZX-66 and 440ZX-AGP chipsets begin to flourish over the next few months. Being that the ZX versions of the Intel 440 chipset have reduced capabilities when compared to the Apollo Pro or Intel 440BX chipsets, Soyo's decision to provide buyers with an option to go with an Apollo Pro-based S370 mainboard becomes both understandable and desirable.