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Abit KT7A: First Impressions
Since the Athlon-C's are hard to come by, I slapped in an 800 MHz Duron to get some initial impressions of what the board could do versus a KA7-100 with a 750 MHz TBird.
My KT7A shipped with the WW BIOS. Warning: the board will shut down in seconds unless there is a CPU fan plugged into FAN1. Delta 38 CFM fan users, who plug their heatsink fans directly into the power supply, should take note. You have to flash to the WZ_01 BIOS to turn this feature off. Of course, you're not going to be able to flash to the WZ_01 BIOS unless you can boot into DOS or Windows. You must have a proper CPU fan plugged into FAN1 from the get-go.
The WZ_01 BIOS is different than the WZ BIOS. WZ (Beta 00) still defaults to the FAN1 error check. WZ_01 (Beta 01) disables the error check by default and provides a switch to re-enable it if you like. Both fix some memory timing issues.
The board is very fast. Even with the Duron, SiSoft Sandra CPU and Memory Benchmarks and Q3 Demo001 scores are a bit higher than the KA7-100/TBird 750's numbers. 3DMark 2000 scores are a little lower. I'll post numbers a little later.
The board has dual-channel ATA-100 support. I guess I was on autopilot when I installed the KT7A and used a standard IDE cable for the secondary channel. I had a Kenwood CD ROM as the secondary master, and it seemed to function properly for a while, although the BIOS reported PIO Mode 4. I had no problems installing Windows, for instance.
Installing Quake3 was another matter entirely. After a couple of failed installs, the bug hunt was on: BIOS's were flashed (both motherboard and ROM), I replaced the Kenwood with a Toshiba ROM, etc. No luck. Finally, I got up the strength to pull my head out of my butt. I replaced the old cable with an ATA-100 compatible cable and (eureka!) Q3 installed properly.
Space around the CPU is good. I installed a large Taisol heatsink without a problem. Abit put a thermistor directly in the middle of the socket, so CPU temperature is taken from the bottom of the processor. The ZIF socket's lever is made out of plastic and seems a little flimsy.
Front panel connector pins are clearly marked. Installation was about as easy as these things get.
Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net
[This message has been edited by paulcs (edited 01 February 2001).]
My KT7A shipped with the WW BIOS. Warning: the board will shut down in seconds unless there is a CPU fan plugged into FAN1. Delta 38 CFM fan users, who plug their heatsink fans directly into the power supply, should take note. You have to flash to the WZ_01 BIOS to turn this feature off. Of course, you're not going to be able to flash to the WZ_01 BIOS unless you can boot into DOS or Windows. You must have a proper CPU fan plugged into FAN1 from the get-go.
The WZ_01 BIOS is different than the WZ BIOS. WZ (Beta 00) still defaults to the FAN1 error check. WZ_01 (Beta 01) disables the error check by default and provides a switch to re-enable it if you like. Both fix some memory timing issues.
The board is very fast. Even with the Duron, SiSoft Sandra CPU and Memory Benchmarks and Q3 Demo001 scores are a bit higher than the KA7-100/TBird 750's numbers. 3DMark 2000 scores are a little lower. I'll post numbers a little later.
The board has dual-channel ATA-100 support. I guess I was on autopilot when I installed the KT7A and used a standard IDE cable for the secondary channel. I had a Kenwood CD ROM as the secondary master, and it seemed to function properly for a while, although the BIOS reported PIO Mode 4. I had no problems installing Windows, for instance.
Installing Quake3 was another matter entirely. After a couple of failed installs, the bug hunt was on: BIOS's were flashed (both motherboard and ROM), I replaced the Kenwood with a Toshiba ROM, etc. No luck. Finally, I got up the strength to pull my head out of my butt. I replaced the old cable with an ATA-100 compatible cable and (eureka!) Q3 installed properly.
Space around the CPU is good. I installed a large Taisol heatsink without a problem. Abit put a thermistor directly in the middle of the socket, so CPU temperature is taken from the bottom of the processor. The ZIF socket's lever is made out of plastic and seems a little flimsy.
Front panel connector pins are clearly marked. Installation was about as easy as these things get.
Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net
[This message has been edited by paulcs (edited 01 February 2001).]
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