Abit AT7 Max2 (VIA KT400) Motherboard Review
Performance
I compared the performance of the tested board with that of its direct
competitor, Asus A7V8X based on the KT400 chipset.
In the test setup we used the following hardware:
- AMD Athlon XP 1600+ processor
- Video card Ti4200(315620) on the chip NVidia GeForce4 64Mb
(NVIDIA Detonator v40.41);
- Sound Card Creative Live 5.1;
- HDD - IBM DTLA 307030 30Gb;
- 256 MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM, manufactured by Samsung;
- Power supply - PowerMan 250W;
- Operating system Windows 2000 English SP1
So we gauged the performance in the toughest most for that board: we
set the FSB to 166 MHz, the memory speed to 166 MHz, with the following
timings:
- CAS Latency - 2T
- Bank Interleave = 4 Bank
- DRAM Command Rate = 1T
- Trp = 2T
- Tras = 6T
- Trcd = 2T
- Enhance DRAM Perfomance = Enable
- Enhance for Benchmark = Enable
First, take a look at the synthetic tests which show the theoretical
performance.
Then, the results for Office productivity tests.
And finally, the gaming performance results.
The board takes a slight lead over Asus A7V8X at performance,
and therefore over most KT400-based boards.
Findings
As we could see, the MAX concept in practice means complete lack of LPT
and COM ports, but instead the user gets four additional USB2.0 and
three Firewire ports as well as a 4-channel RAID controller with
support for SerialATA.
Besides that, note the excellent overclocking options which
include unmatchedly high ranges the processor and memory voltages can
be varied. Remember the support for integrated Athlon XP thermal
sensor.
Of note are the excellent expansivity options and the very
high performance of the Abit AT7 MAX2 board.
As a result, the Abit AT7 MAX2 board appears to be an
excellent product for the exigent buyer. What is more, the board has it
all to appeal to the overclocker and experienced user.
Conclusion
Pros:
- Excellent expansivity options (10! USB2.0, 3 Firewire, 5
PCI, 4 DIMM);
- High stability and performance;
- Excellent overclocking potentials (Vcore can be pushed up
to 2,325V, Vmem adjustable to 3.25);
- Support for integrated thermal sensor, and hardware
protection against overheat (Abit CPU H.T.P);
- Excellent overclocking results (FSB=180 MHz);
- 4-channel RAID;
- Integrated 6.1 audio controller and LAN;
- Rich package bundle (including the Abit Serillel).
Cons:
- Minor flaws in the BIOS;
- MediaXP panel missing in the bundle.
The board's specific features:
- Additional 4-pin power connector.
Additional:
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