ABIT AT7 MAX KT333
Oct 23rd, 2002 | By Archive
ABIT AT7 MAX KT333
Date
: 10/23/02 – 11:39:25 PM
Author
:
Category
: Motherboard
Page 1 : Introduction
Manufacturer: ABIT
Price: $140
Introduction
A few weeks ago, Steven tested and reviewed the ABIT IT7 MAX which showed to be one of the most promising motherboards available for the Intel Pentium4 processor. Of course the AMD crowd couldn't be left in the dark, so ABIT delivered an AMD counterpart for the IT7 MAX: the
AT7 MAX
was born. Just like the IT7 MAX, this board is totally legacy free meaning there are no PS/2, serial or parallel ports onboard. Instead you get a truckload of USB2.0 and FireWire IEEE1394 ports to fulfill your needs, as well as several other interesting onboard features that will make your heart beat faster! Speaking of hearts, the AT7 MAX is based upon the VIA KT333 chipset, supporting all the latest technologies and of course a 166MHz FSB (which will come in real handy since AMD is switching over to 166MHz instead of 133MHz).
What kind of features does the AT7 MAX offer? How does it overclock? Is it stable and how does it perform in the usual bunch of benchmarks? Overclockers Online fires up the engines and heads in for an in depth look of the ABIT AT7 MAX … Faster your seatbelts!
Page 2 : Specifications
Specifications
Here's the good old copy paste from the ABIT website:
VIA KT333 Based AMD K7 Mainboard
ATA133 RAID, DDR 333, USB 2.0, IEEE1394, 6-Ch Audio
SoftMenu Technology
CPU
Supports AMD-K7 Athlon /Athlon XP Socket A 200/266MHz FSB Processors
Supports AMD-K7 Duron Socket A 200 MHz FSB Processors
Chipset
VIA KT333 / VIA VT8233A
Supports Ultra DMA 33/66/100/133 IDE protocol
Supports Advanced Configuration and Power Management Interface (ACPI)
Accelerated Graphics Port connector supports AGP 2X(3.3V)and 4X(1.5V)mode (Sideband) device
Supports 200/266/333 MHz (100/133/166MHz Double Data Rate) Memory Bus Setting
Ultra DMA 133/ RAID
High Point HPT374 IDE Controller
Ultra DMA 133MB/sec data transfer rate
RAID 0 (striping mode for boosting performance)
RAID 1 (mirroring mode for data security)
RAID 0 + 1(striping and mirroring)
Memory
Four 184-pin DIMM sockets support PC1600/PC2100/PC2700 DDR DRAM modules
Supports DDR333 unbuffered DRAMs up to 2GB and registered DRAMs up to 3GB
Supports 6 banks up to 3GB DRAMs for unbuffered DDR200/266 modules
Supports 8 banks up to 3.5GB DRAMs for registered DDR200/266 modules
Audio
-Realtek ALC650 (AC-Link)
-Supports 6CH DAC for AC3 5.1 CH purpose
-Professional digital audio interface supporting 24-bit SPDIF OUT
Media XP (Optional)
-Supports card reader function for Memory StickTM, Secure DigitalTM and Type I/II CompactFlashTM
-Supports Wireless Remote Control and S/PDIF Out / Mic In / Headphone Out / USB 2.0 / IEEE 1394
System BIOS
-SoftMenu III Technology to set CPU parameters
-Supports Plug-and-Play (PNP)
-Supports Advanced Configuration Power Interface (ACPI)
-Supports Desktop Management Interface (DMI)
-Write-Protect Anti-Virus function by AWARD BIOS
LAN
-On board Realtek 8100B single chip Ethernet controller interface
-10/100Mb Operation
-User friendly driver included
Multi I/O Functions
-2 Channels of Bus Master IDE Ports supporting up to 4 Ultra DMA 33/66/100/133 devices
-4 Channels of Bus Master IDE Ports supporting up to 8 Ultra DMA 33/66/100/133 (RAID 0/1/1+0) devices
-4 USB 1.1 Connectors
-On board VIA VT6202 USB 2.0 header for four extra USB channels
-Three 1394a fully compliant cable ports at 100/200/400 megabits per second
-Audio connector (Line-in, Center/Sub, Surround Spk , Front Spk , Mic-in)
Miscellaneous
-ATX form factor
-1 AGP 1.5v slot, 3 PCI slots
-Hardware monitoring – Including Fan speeds, Voltages, System environment temperature
With the launch of the MAX series, ABIT introduced a new box to put the boards in: the outside consists of a cardboard box with a plastic handle on it to carry it around. On the inside you'll find one plastic box with all the stuff in it. Very clean packaging and it looks pretty nice, so well done ABIT! It sure beats the old way of packaging.
So, what's on the inside of this nice box:
- The AT7 MAX motherboard
- 3
black
IDE cables and 1
black
floppy cable (in case you still use that last one ;))
- A USB2.0 bracket for two additional ports
- Driver CD, floppy disk with the RAID drivers and a good manual
- A MAX approved backpanel for your case (your standard one will not be suited for this job as the board is legacy free remember?)
- A bag with blue zip ties to keep your case clean and smooth
As I mentioned a few ties in the review so far, the AT7 MAX is totally legacy free. In other words, it does not have PS/2 ports, no serial ports and also no parallel ports. Instead you get a total of 8 USB2.0 ports and 2 FireWire IEEE1394 ports to connect all your hardware too. Of course this means that you need a USB keyboard and mouse setup, as well as a printer, scanner, modem, … and everything else that you normally hook up to one of the missing ports! Perhaps this is a good time to finally get yourself that optical mouse you have been dreaming of for ages ;).
Apart from the USB and FireWire ports, the board "only" has one AGP slot and three PCI slots. At first, I though this was way too little, but if you look at the onboard stuff on the AT7, you just know those three PCI slots will do just fine. ABIT has decided to equip the AT7 MAX with onboard 6-channel sound with optical out, onboard 10/100Mbit LAN and an onboard HPT374 RAID controller supporting up to eight IDE hard drives! Previous boards were fitted with the HPT372 controller which only supported 4 IDE hard drives, but with High Point releasing the HP374, ABIT decided to jump the wagon and offer this great controller to its end users. When combining both the onboard IDE controller and the RAID controller, you can use up to
12
IDE devices … now I don't know about you, but for my needs this is certainly overkill :D! But I like overkill as it is always good to have something up your sleeve ;).
The AT7 MAX is based upon VIA's KT333 chipset, a very popular and stable chipset found on most AMD motherboards out there. With official 166MHz FSB support, the KT333 is a perfect match for any AMD processor currently available so you are good for the long run.
As I mentioned, the board comes with a 6-channel onboard sound solution. Just like the IT7 MAX, ABIT uses the Realtek ALC650 (AC-Link) chipset which supports 6 channels (5 speakers and 1 woofer) DAC for AC3 5.1 CH purpose and it also comes with a digital audio interface supporting 24-bit SPDIF output! This config is suited for the average users out there who play games and listen to mp3's often. As usual, true hardcore sound freaks are better of buying an add-on soundcard with even more features!
The onboard network card is also powered by Realtek, as the chip they used is the Realtek RTL8100B, which offers 10/100Mbit network support. Performance is very good and no different from an add-on NIC, so for godsake use it :). It saves another PCI slot …
Also note that the AT7 MAX scores points on the memory departement: the board has a total of 4 memory slots, supporting up to 2GB unbuffered memory and up to 3GB registered memory. It supports up to 6 banks for up to 3GB of unbuffered memory and up to 8 banks for up to 3.5GB registered memory. Of course the board supports PC2700/DDR333 sticks!!
Having all this said, the specs are pretty much commented on so it's time to look at the layout of the AT7 MAX.
Page 3 : Layout
Layout
By now you already figured out that the ABIT AT7 MAX is not "just another socket A" board. Not only the boards features are out of the ordinary, the layout is too. Since there are so many onboard features, the board only has three PCI slots located at the bottom of the board. This gives a lot of room between the AGP slot and the first PCI slot, giving you a LOT of space to heavily mod your video card with some high-end monster heatsink or peltier setup!!
Not only the video card can be cooled by large heatsinks, the CPU can too! The smallest border around the socket is around 0.5cm (0.25") where the three other borders offer a lot of space. The capacitators are sitting far away from the CPU socket and of course the AT7 comes with mounting holes, making Swiftech heatsinks or watercooling setups who use these holes a valuable option. Way to go ABIT!
The memory slots are installed less fortunate: three of four memory slots are being blocked by the video card, making life a tad harder when you want to add memory to your system.
Of course the AT7 MAX needs juice, just like all motherboards out there, in orde to operate :). To supply "juice" to it, you'll need an ATX power connector … pretty obvious huh? Now, the placement of that connector sometimes gives me headaches because the cable has to be routed all the way over the CPU socket, blocking airflow, looking ugly when you have a window in your case and being just plain annoying. ABIT's engineers have done an excellent jow with the placement of the ATX connector, as they have installed it to the left of the memory slots, an ideal place I.M.H.O.
The two standard IDE channel connectors are next to the memory slots, placed vertically, whereas the four HPT374 IDE RAID connectors are put at the right bottom of the board, sitting horizontally. Underneath those, you'll find the floppy connector awaiting a connection.
The AT7 MAX comes with four fan headers to provide your fans with power. Three of them are situated around the CPU socket (two at the top right of the socket, one just above the AGP slot whereas the forth fan header sits above the IDE RAID connectors to power your frontal case fan.
Note that the north bridge comes with an active cooled heatsink, making sure the system remains on it toes at all circumstances.
Page 4 : BIOS & Overclocking
BIOS & Overclocking
With ABIT being known as one of the "overclocking friendly" motherboard manufacturers, the AT7 had to come with several overclocking options! Thanks to ABIT's SoftMenu III BIOS, all the necesarry features are available: extensive memory settings, voltage adjustements for the AGP slot, DDR memory and CPU, multiplier changements, front side bus selection in 1MHz increments all the way up to 250MHz and more.
Our testbed uses an Athlon XP 1700+ CPU, running at 1466MHz stock speed. With the AT7 MAX, I was able to push it all the way up to 1683MHz @ 153MHz FSB. The benchmarks were run at 150MHz FSB (overclocked) as well as 133MHz because that way we can compare it to other boards. Note that it was the CPU that inhibited us from pushing the FSB any higher, something that can easily be resolved by unlocking the processor. With an unlocked 1.4GHz TBird CPU, I was able to hit 182MHz FSB, running rockstable and completing benchmarks 24/7!! Isn't that a great overclock? Word is out 200MHz is obtainable, but very good RAM will be needed of course and also make sure you're using good cooling! The board supports a 1/5 divider for the PCI bus etc, meaning you can run your rig at 166MHz bus without overclocking your add-on cards, hard disks, …
All in all, the BIOS is very satisfactory and the board behaves like a true overclockers dream! All is well on this departement …
Page 5 : Benchmarking
Benchmarking
Test System:
- ABIT AT7 MAX KT333 Motherboard
- AMD AthlonXP 1700+ CPU
- 256MB Samsung DDR2700 Memory
- Western Digital 20GB IDE 7200RPM HDD
- ABIT Siluro GeForce3 Video Card
- Windows XP + SP1 + Latest Drivers
MadOnion's 3D Mark 2001SE
16-BIT
32-BIT
Quake3
Demo001
Torture Demo
Sisoft Sandra Memory Benchmark
Page 6 : Conclusion
Conclusion
The AT7 MAX is one sweet socketA motherboard! I dare to say that this is one of the best socketA motherboards I ever tested: it comes with a lot of excellent onboard features like 5.1 sound, onboard LAN, a HPT374 RAID controller offering not two but four IDE RAID channels, giving you a total of 12 IDE devices! The board also features a truckload of USB2.0 ports, as well as a set of FireWire ports, making expansion easy. Since the AT7 MAX is legacy free, you do have to make sure you can run your devices on USB or FireWire connections as there are no PS/2, serial or parallel ports on this piece of silicon! Apart from the above features, the AT7 showed to be a sweet overclocker giving us a sweet 182MHz FSB (with reports of 200MHz and more rockstable). What more can I add? This board really has it all, and it comes with black IDE cables ;)! Because of all this, ABIT takes home the O² Power Award!!
Good
- Great package
- Truckload of USB2.0 and FireWire ports
- Onboard features: LAN, sound, RAID, …
- Overclocking results
Bad
- Only three PCI slots (although it should be more than enough since there is so much onboard)