Abit KT7 : Best of the Bunch, and Why...
Written: Nov 03 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: stable, overclocker's dream, ISA SLOT!
Cons: 30$ more, no ata100 support (dont need it!)
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| duenor's Full Review: Abit KT7 Motherboard |
This article address : EXACTLY why the KT7 is the best K133 board to choose for the money (the KT7-RAID is even better), HOW MUCH you should expect to pay, and ALL the tips and details that make or break your purchase satisfaction.
With the Duron being such an awesome performer, one would expect that there would be equally good boards to support it. Well, that just doesn't always happen with technology. Until, of course, the KT7 arrived in september 2000.
The KT7 (6pci, 1 isa, no stupid amr/cnr slot, softmenu, matx or fullatx with RAID) is the de facto standard right now for K133 ViA motherboards. Besides its inherent stability, its fluidity of construction (small atx or full), good placement of cpu socket, documentation, and good general design (ie., 2 usb slots are outside, the other 2 are not normally exposed unless you choose to use the usb slot cable/port card included so they dont' take up precious case backside space), the KT7 has two major advantages over the competition : an ISA slot for your good old CONTROLLER BASED (I really really really hate winmodems - they SUCK) 56k modem or AWE64, and SoftMenu, which since the removal of dipswitches on Asus's K7V boards makes the KT7 the best overclocker's board there is on the market. I know of a gentleman at planethardware (i think) that got his Duron up to an amazing 1000MHZ! with only a Golden Orb Fan/Heatsink!
Not to mention that the lack of lousy "crystal 3d" sound reduces your irq/dma conflict problems since you probably would rather use a good sound card like the creative labs SB awe64 gold etc...
While some of my colleages prefer the Asus K7V, I must point these things out... and one more thing. The k7v debuted in april 2000. the kt7 came out in september. which one do you think will have more bugs worked out of its system?
I welcome comments. "amount paid" is price of current kt7 non raid board.
Best Regards
Kevin C.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID: duenor
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Member: kevin c
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Reviews written: 30
Trusted by: 3 members
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