Pine Technology ZA3 i440ZX Socket-370

The Test

In recent times, choosing a motherboard cannot be completely determined by a Winstone score. Now, many boards come within one Winstone point of each other and therefore the need to benchmark boards against each other falls. Therefore you shouldn't base your decision entirely on the benchmarks you see here, but also on the technical features and advantages of this particular board, seeing as that will probably make the greatest difference in your overall experience.

AnandTech Motherboard Testing Methodology

The Final Decision

With Pine Technology being a relatively unknown manufacturer, the question of reliability and future support is up in the air. As for support, Pine's technical support site was not functional during testing of this board. That three year exchange warranty should hopefully alleviate some of those concerns, especially with the fact that many other manufacturers do not even offer direct warranty support.

Overall, this is pretty much just an average board with an average price - only $75 on the street. However, coming from a smaller company, it may be a little harder to find Pine boards. Only time will tell what kind of reputation Pine will earn in the extremely competitive motherboard market. With more established companies offering more complete solutions for just a slight increase in price, it's hard to recommend the Pine ZA3.

How it Rates