Motherboard Reviews
Omega65
Philadelphia, Pa
<a href="http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1835" target=_blank>Anandtech</a> Fires up the Epox 8KRA2+ (KT600) Motherboard. Let's see if the Nforce2 finally has some competition! (2003-07-01)
<i>"Despite the somewhat mediocre performance of the 8KRA2+ there are some very positive features this motherboard carries. The most positive feature is the 8KRA2+’s Serial ATA and IDE support. The VT8237 South Bridge natively supports two SATA drives (not taking into account daisy chaining) and eight USB 2.0 ports. This type of South Bridge is something nForce2 Ultra 400 motherboards cannot provide, and probably won’t be able to provide for at least the next one to two months when MCP-S (or some sort of name like that) is released. Another positive feature the 8KRA2+ brings to the table is an onboard PCI HighPoint HPT372N controller that supports RAID 0, 1, & 0 + 1 arrays via two IDE connectors and is Hot Swap capable. In combination with the VT8237 South Bridge and Primary/Secondary IDE connectors the 8KRA2+ supports a grand total of ten SATA/IDE disk/optical drives. This is worth reiterating because these particular combinations of features are unique among high-end Socket A desktop motherboards."</i>
Read the whole report <a href="http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1835" target=_blank>here</a>
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<a href="http://www.viperlair.com/reviews/cpu_mobo/abit/p4/is7/is7.shtml" target=_blank>ViperLair</a> Bites into the Abit IS7 (i865PE)! (2003-07-01)
<i>"ABIT IS7 Max II Advance Motherboard: We take a look at the ABIT IS7 Springdale today, and if our benchmarks are any indication, this mainstream board demonstrates that the Canterwood is not the only game in town."</i>
<a href="http://www.viperlair.com/reviews/cpu_mobo/abit/p4/is7/is7.shtml" target=_blank>Viperlair's Review</a>
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<a href="http://www.ocworkbench.com/2003/dfi/nf2ultra/nf2ultra-1.htm" target=_blank>OCWorkbench</a> Takes a look under the hood of the DFI Lan Party NFII Ultra (2003-07-01)
<i>"Based on the nVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset, this mainboard supports AGP 8x, Dual Channel DDR400, Dual 10/100Mbps LAN, 6 ch audio, IDE RAID 1.5, SATA, IEEE 1394, 6 USB 2.0. Most importantly, this board has Genie BIOS which allows you to fine tune your multipliers, fsb, voltages. Multipliers can be tuned up to 22x, FSB to 300MHz, Vcore up to 2.0v etc.
In our tests, we will compare it with EPoX 8RDA3+, Gigabyte 7NNXP, ASRock K7S8X and SiS 748 Reference board."</i>
Read the review <a href="http://www.ocworkbench.com/2003/dfi/nf2ultra/nf2ultra-1.htm" target=_blank>here</a>
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<a href="http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2003q3/abit-ic7-g/index.x?pg=1" target=_blank>Tech-Report</a> bangs the gavel and passes judgement on the Abit IC7-G (i875P)
"As it stands, I like the IC7-G just the way it is. Abit has succeeded in building a fast, stable, and feature-rich Canterwood board that should delight overclockers, enthusiasts, and workstation users alike. The IC7-G's value lies entirely with the board itself. Abit doesn't have to lean on a packed bundle of extras one bit to make this one a good deal. Looking for a Canterwood board with all the features you need and none of the extras you might not want anyway? Look no further than the IC7-G."
<a href="http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2003q3/abit-ic7-g/index.x?pg=1" target=_blank>get the whole story here</a>
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<a href="http://www.amdzone.com/articleview.cfm?ArticleID=1303" target=_blank>AMDZone</a> reviews the new Asus A7V600 (KT600) (2003-07-03)
"Gigabit Ethernet, SATA and PATA RAID, 6 channel sound, and a 400MHz FSB bring many improvements to the VIA platform. Asus has taken advantage of all of them. They have also included plenty of features to overclock and tweak performance in the bios. They also include plenty of helpful software and utilities including the new Instant Music Lite. Stability of the board was also excellent, and Asus always provides great bios support with new bios files several times a year."
Read the review <a href="http://www.amdzone.com/articleview.cfm?ArticleID=1303" target=_blank>here</a>
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<i>"Despite the somewhat mediocre performance of the 8KRA2+ there are some very positive features this motherboard carries. The most positive feature is the 8KRA2+’s Serial ATA and IDE support. The VT8237 South Bridge natively supports two SATA drives (not taking into account daisy chaining) and eight USB 2.0 ports. This type of South Bridge is something nForce2 Ultra 400 motherboards cannot provide, and probably won’t be able to provide for at least the next one to two months when MCP-S (or some sort of name like that) is released. Another positive feature the 8KRA2+ brings to the table is an onboard PCI HighPoint HPT372N controller that supports RAID 0, 1, & 0 + 1 arrays via two IDE connectors and is Hot Swap capable. In combination with the VT8237 South Bridge and Primary/Secondary IDE connectors the 8KRA2+ supports a grand total of ten SATA/IDE disk/optical drives. This is worth reiterating because these particular combinations of features are unique among high-end Socket A desktop motherboards."</i>
Read the whole report <a href="http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1835" target=_blank>here</a>
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<a href="http://www.viperlair.com/reviews/cpu_mobo/abit/p4/is7/is7.shtml" target=_blank>ViperLair</a> Bites into the Abit IS7 (i865PE)! (2003-07-01)
<i>"ABIT IS7 Max II Advance Motherboard: We take a look at the ABIT IS7 Springdale today, and if our benchmarks are any indication, this mainstream board demonstrates that the Canterwood is not the only game in town."</i>
<a href="http://www.viperlair.com/reviews/cpu_mobo/abit/p4/is7/is7.shtml" target=_blank>Viperlair's Review</a>
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<a href="http://www.ocworkbench.com/2003/dfi/nf2ultra/nf2ultra-1.htm" target=_blank>OCWorkbench</a> Takes a look under the hood of the DFI Lan Party NFII Ultra (2003-07-01)
<i>"Based on the nVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset, this mainboard supports AGP 8x, Dual Channel DDR400, Dual 10/100Mbps LAN, 6 ch audio, IDE RAID 1.5, SATA, IEEE 1394, 6 USB 2.0. Most importantly, this board has Genie BIOS which allows you to fine tune your multipliers, fsb, voltages. Multipliers can be tuned up to 22x, FSB to 300MHz, Vcore up to 2.0v etc.
In our tests, we will compare it with EPoX 8RDA3+, Gigabyte 7NNXP, ASRock K7S8X and SiS 748 Reference board."</i>
Read the review <a href="http://www.ocworkbench.com/2003/dfi/nf2ultra/nf2ultra-1.htm" target=_blank>here</a>
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<a href="http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2003q3/abit-ic7-g/index.x?pg=1" target=_blank>Tech-Report</a> bangs the gavel and passes judgement on the Abit IC7-G (i875P)
"As it stands, I like the IC7-G just the way it is. Abit has succeeded in building a fast, stable, and feature-rich Canterwood board that should delight overclockers, enthusiasts, and workstation users alike. The IC7-G's value lies entirely with the board itself. Abit doesn't have to lean on a packed bundle of extras one bit to make this one a good deal. Looking for a Canterwood board with all the features you need and none of the extras you might not want anyway? Look no further than the IC7-G."
<a href="http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2003q3/abit-ic7-g/index.x?pg=1" target=_blank>get the whole story here</a>
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<a href="http://www.amdzone.com/articleview.cfm?ArticleID=1303" target=_blank>AMDZone</a> reviews the new Asus A7V600 (KT600) (2003-07-03)
"Gigabit Ethernet, SATA and PATA RAID, 6 channel sound, and a 400MHz FSB bring many improvements to the VIA platform. Asus has taken advantage of all of them. They have also included plenty of features to overclock and tweak performance in the bios. They also include plenty of helpful software and utilities including the new Instant Music Lite. Stability of the board was also excellent, and Asus always provides great bios support with new bios files several times a year."
Read the review <a href="http://www.amdzone.com/articleview.cfm?ArticleID=1303" target=_blank>here</a>
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