The 810DTC was reviewed in our motherboard shootout last year. However, refusing to retire, the board has managed top spot in the entry-level category this year as well. Though it was an average performer, the board gained points due to its attractive pricing and two-year warranty.

The board has a good set of features. It supports both Socket 370 and Slot 1 processors and even has connectors for both ATX and AT power supply, making it a good upgrade option. However, it supports a maximum FSB of 100 MHz only, so you can’t put in 133 MHz Coppermine PIII processors. It has one AMR and four PCI slots. Its driver CD has a neat main interface, making it fairly easy to install all necessary drivers from a single place.

The board comes with a good software bundle, consisting of StarOffice, Mandrake Linux, and a utility called Virtual Drive. On the flip side, the motherboard doesn’t have any built-in ports, so you have to look for them to plug in the necessary cables. It has a header for two USB ports, but we didn’t get any connectors for them.

On the performance front, the motherboard didn’t top the charts, but did fairly well in all tests. In Business Winstone it scored 21.9 Winmarks, which is good for running productivity applications. Graphics and video performance was also average. Its sound sub system gave an average CPU utilization of 6.3. The board is also good for occasional gaming, giving an average frame rate of 16.7, fps in Quake III Arena.