Great Stability
Written: Nov 28 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Color, functionality, stability, board arrangement.
Cons: 100Mhz official bus support
The Bottom Line: If you don't need official 133Mhz support and want to save a few dollars I highly recommend this board.
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| ebjack's Full Review: Abit KT7E Motherboard |
I made a choice between the ASUS A7V133 and this board by price. The KTE was about $20 cheaper.
It's details are:
Supports AMD Athlon/Duron 700MHz~1.2GHz Socket A Processors based on 200 MHz
Chipset: VIA KT133E /VIA 686B
Memory: Three 168-pin DIMM sockets support up to 1.5 GB PC100/PC133 SDRAM module
BIOS:SoftMenu™III Technology to set CPU parameters
Multi I/O
2 Channels of Bus Master IDE Ports
support 4 Ultra DMA 33/66/100
1 AGP slot, 6 PCI slots and 1 ISA slot
I really liked the look of the blue board. I wish I had a see through case.
I had about 192MB of 100Mhz memory on an old board and decided to stay with it rather tha buy a DDR board or PC133 ram. Given that the 266 chipsets were less mature than the 133A/E, I decided to use the "old" memory along with an 850 Mhz Duron. I put off my super system for one more upgrade.
The Abit manual did not recommend the pencil trick to close the L1 bridges; it claimed the board would not boot. I ignored that advice and did it anyway. The board did not boot. I removed the CPU, erased the pencil and the board booted up without further problems; it even recognized a 4 year old 3 GB WD hard drive.
Over clocking an 850 Mhz Duron on the second boot to 952 Mhz was easy. The Abit BIOS gives you up to a 12x multiplier. There are also many selections for FSB/PCI combinations and if that is not enough you can add 1Mhz to the FSB part of the FSB/PCI for more control. You can also control core voltage in .01v increments.
I run ACAD and Solidworks without any problems. Rotating 3D objects is very smooth after replacing the PII, 233Mhz I had been using.
For kicks I borrowed 128MB of PC133 ram and OC'd the Duron to 1.07Mhz. My 100Mhz memory had a problem trying to get over 968Mhz. The only thing I saw that was of interest is the PC clock was unstable. I noticed this when I tried to set the clock to the official Naval Observatory time. The adjustments were about +/- 90 seconds each time I tried to update the clock. Normally the adjustments are +/- .05 secs.. Other than that, all else ran fine for three days.
I gave back the PC133 and am now running at 850Mhz/100Mhz. I don't want to risk losing a drawing for a few more Mhz.
I noticed that the disk drive is faster with this board. I don't plan to run an ATA100 HD with this board but it has the BIOS to do it. The open GL drivers worked just fine with Solidworks and the BIOS. Doom II plays just fine. I don't have any other games.
I liked the ISA slot as I have an older SB card that I love. I don't need super sound, just stability.
The NB chip has a fan mounted on it. There are three other fan plugs on the board that are open for the CPU and whatever else you want to plug in. They are located near the CPU, near the back and near the front.
I bought the board and a Coolermaster [DP5-6H51] at NewEgg and are very happy with that vendor.
The combination of Duron and Coolermaster has not exceeded 48deg C under heavy use [1.07Mhz]. Nominal CPU temp as measured by the ABIT monitoring software is 41 deg C. Keep in mind that I have not tweaked the board at all except for the 1.07Mhz trial for three days.
I did not use thermal paste on the heatsink but used the material that came with the heatsink. The installation of the heatsink was uneventful. You have a very unobstructed view of the slot given the cap layout.
The DIMM [3] memory slots are located about two inches from the edge of the board that is nearest the 5 1/4 drive slots. If you have a small case [less than 8" wide, less than 15" long or deep] this may help the board fit into the case. On some cases and board combinations you need every inch. That two inches may allow you to squeeze the board between the 5 1/4 bay [that normally might hold a CDROM] and the side of your case.
The FDD and two IDE connectors are in the center of the board on the same end. This location ends up to be about where the 5 1/4 and 3 1/2 drive bays meet on most smaller cases. If you have a smaller case you can manipulate the cables under the hard drive slots very easily. If you have an interference with the CDROM and the system board however, you cannot manipulate it without bending the system board. The designers may have planned this or it may be an accident but that two inches does help in tight fitting cases.
I am very pleased with the board workmanship and manual. My only real dislike was that the accompanying CD interface was rudimentary.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 82
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Epinions.com ID:
ebjack
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Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 0 members
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