Abit AT7 Max2 (VIA KT400) Motherboard Review
Overclocking and stability
Of special interest is the info on overclocking options. So I took the
tests most seriously.
A few introductory notes. Some reviewers say, the first MAX
motherboard on the KT333 chipset was poorly cut out for overclocking.
On the vast majority of processors, the maximum clock speed was less
than on the Abit KX7-333 board (also built on KT333 chipset). Nor was
the latter superb at its overclocking functions. Comparative tests of
KT333-based motherboards showed that the Abit KX7-333 board could not
fall within the list of leaders because of its very narrow processor
voltage variation range (max Vcore =1.85).
And that flaw has been fixed. More than that, the AT7 MAX2
board is a true champion at this parameter - the maximum possible Vcore
= 2.325V (the minimum Vcore=1.1V, in 0.025 - 0.05 increments).
So far, the highest Vcore (2.3V) has been attainable only on
the Shuttle AK37GTR board.
It's very important to note that keeping track of the
processor temperatures allows pushing the voltage much higher. It's
just this function I did miss when testing the overclocking options on
the Shuttle AK37GTR board.
To measure the temperature of the integrated thermal sensor, I
used Motherboard Monitor v5.2.1.0.
Now on to another no less important function in terms of
overclocking. I mean raising the RAM voltage. AT7 MAX2 is OK at that -
the Vmem variation range is between 2.55V and 3.25V (also the maximum
value among all KT400-based boards)
And that's it. Strangely enough , but there is no function for
raising voltages on the chipset and AGP bus.
Now down to the overclocking.
Set the processor multiplier. The parameter can be adjusted
within the range from 5 to 22.5 in 0.5 increments.
This rather wide range has become possible because 5 bit (5
Bit Frequency ID), not 4 was allocated for the multiplier encoding, as
is the case for most motherboards.
Then we select the FSB speed within the range 100 to 250 MHz.
In practice, the maximum FSB speed at which the system was
running stably was as high as 180 MHz.
Since this has been the third motherboard that showed the same
result, I can freely make a conclusion that a limit for that processor
specimen is reached. When testing the overclocking, I didn't like it
that quite frequently (at FSB > 175MHz) the system was not
always able to perform the "warm re-boot". As a result, I had to
power-off the board and power-on again with the 'Insert' key pressed
and then set the FSB speed repeatedly (which was reverted back to 100
MHz). Besides, I had to set the PCI/AGP combination again.
Evidently, these are BIOS flaws which will be hopefully fixed.
The BIOS stored only the info on Vmem and Vcore voltages.
By the way, a new remarkable item has appeared in the SoftMenu
III section, it's "Enhance for Benchmark". But the user's manual gives
no details of that parameter. I think enabling it might give a little
performance boost, but at the expense of decreased stability. Anyway, I
did enable it and found no negative consequences.
Now regarding the operational stability. During the tests, I
didn't come across any failures or issues in the operation.
The power supply module of the AT7 MAX2 board follows the
3-phase scheme and has five 3300uF capacitors as well as three 1200uF
capacitors.
It's now up to you to make conclusions on the overclocking.
At the overclocking results, the Abit AT7 Max2 board is firmly among
the leaders, and at some parameters it is even second to none (I mean
the ranges of Vcore, Vmem; however, I have not yet tested the Abit KD7
and Epox 8K9A motherboards).
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