ABIT IT5H (rev 1.5) Review Baltimore MD

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Originally published at Internet.com

* Specifications * CPU Soft Menu * BIOS Options * Documentation * Performance * Advantages/Disadvantages * Overall Report * Contacting ABIT Computer Corp. -----------------------------------------------------------------

Specifications: ----------------------------------------------------------------- CPU:

* Supports Intel Pentium CPUs from 75MHz to 200MHz including the P55C MMX CPU. * Supports all AMD-K5 and AMD-K6 CPUs. * Supports all Cyrix 6x86 CPUs: P120+, P133+, P150+, P166+, P200+. * Also supports the Cyrix M2. * Reserved circuitry for future sixth generation CPUs. * CPU type, voltage, and bus speed / clock multiplier are set through the Soft Menu BIOS Setup.

Chipset

* Intel Triton 430HX * Supports PCI 2.1

L2 Cache Memory

* Supports 256K or 512K Pipeline Burst SRAM (NOTE: If the motherboard has 256k on-board, the board will contain a COAST socket to allow you to upgrade to 512k. If the motherboard has 512k on-board, then the IT5V will not have a COAST socket.)

System DRAM

* Four 72-pin SIMM sockets that support Fast Page and EDO DRAM. * Supports 512MB Maximum Memory BIOS

* Award BIOS * Supports Plug-and-Play (PNP) * Supports Advanced Power Management (APM) * Supports Desktop Management Interface (DMI) Multi I/O

* Two Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports * Infrared remote Connector * PS/2 Style Mouse Port * Standard AT Keyboard Connector * Four fast IDE channels (PIO mode 0-4 and Bus Mastering) * One EPP/ECP parallel port and one 16550 serial port * Two floppy disk drive connectors (FDD) (360K, 720K, 1.2M, 1.44M, and 2.88M) Other features

* Dimensions: 13in. x 8.7in. * Four (4) ISA bus slots and four (4) PCI bus slots, * Supports 3-MODE for Japanese floppy disk drive, * Supports two bootable hard disks - enables the use of two different operating systems.

CPU Soft Menu (TM) ----------------------------------------------------------------- The CPU Soft Menu is a menu within the BIOS Setup that allows you to setup the speed and voltage of the CPU, as well as the bus speed and multiplier factor. Because the CPU is setup completely through the Soft Menu, there is no need for jumpers or DIP switches.

Soft Menu's outstanding features:

* The ability to specify the the CPU speed and have the external clock and multiplier settings automatically set, * The ability to manually specify the external clock settings. The IT5H supports bus speeds (ext. clock) of: 50MHz, 55MHz, 60MHz, 66MHz, 75MHz, and 83MHz. * The ability to manually specify the clock multiplier settings: 1.5x, 2.0x, 2.5x, 3.0x, and 3.5x, * The ability to manually specify the voltage from single or dual. Single processors such as the Pentium P54C, the Cyrix 6x86, and the AMD-K5, use only one voltage. However, more advanced processors such as the P55C MMX Pentium, the Cyrix 6x86L, and the M2, require dual voltages - one for the internal processing of the CPU and one for external processing.

The single voltage options are: 3.38v, 3.52v, and 3.6v. The Dual, Core Plane Voltage options are: 2.50v, 2.70v, 2.80v, 2.93v, and the I/O Plane voltage options are: 3.30v, 3.38v, 3.52v.

The table below is a reproduction of the Soft Menu in the BIOS Setup:

ROM PCI/ISA BIOS !! CPU SOFT MENU !! AWARD SOFTWARE, INC. CPU Name Is : Intel Pentium MMX CPPU Type (Speed) : User Specified -External Clock : 83MHz -Multiplier Factor : 2.5 CPU Power Plane : Dual Voltage -Core Plane Voltage : 2.80v - I/O Plane Voltage : 3.30v

BIOS Options ----------------------------------------------------------------- Besides the Soft Menu Setup, the BIOS Setup contains a Chipset Features Setup Menu, a Power Management Setup menu, and a PCI & Onboard I/O Setup Menu. The BIOS Setup options for the Chipset Features menu are detailed in the tables below. (See the review of the IT5V for detailed options for the other menus)

(SETUP OPTION CHARTS COMING SOON)

Documentation ----------------------------------------------------------------- The manual for the IT5H is detailed, accurate, and very complete. There are explanations for all of the external connectors, all of the CPU Soft Menu settings, and almost all of the BIOS settings. It is by far one of the most complete manuals I have seen. By comparison, most manuals give pictures of what settings are present in the BIOS Setup, and some even say what the options are for each setting, but few offer explanations on what the settings do.

The only shortcoming of the manual's explanations is on the DRAM memory settings. Instead of detailing what each of the settings does, the manual simply states:

"... If you do not understand this very well, don't make any changes. Our BIOS is able to autodetect the characteristics of your DRAM and to choose the best settings."

There are a ton of diagrams in the manuals that include information such as:

For Pentiums: What multiplier factor and external clock settings should be used with a certain speed CPU. The diagrams even go so far as to list the CPU model number to be certain that the voltages/clock settings are set correctly for each model.

For Cyrix and AMD:

Tables that describe the different parts of the CPU model number to help you decifer the codes into different things such as Internal Clock speed, processor name, P-Ratings, Package Type, Case Temperature and Operating Voltage.

All of the tables are extremely detailed and contain very useful information.

Performance ----------------------------------------------------------------- The performance of the IT5H was evaluated using a number of benchmarking programs. They are: CPUmark16, CPUmark32, Winstone 97, Quake FPS, Norton SI, and CacheCHK v4.0. Take a look at the results:

Test System Specs:

Pentium P55C-200MHz MMX CPU Matrox Millenium w/ 4MB WRAM Video Card 32MB 72-pin EDO DRAM SIMMs (Two 16MB) Western Digital Caviar 22100 2.1GB

Windows Benchmarks

Setup: 1024x768, 16 bit color, Bus Master PIIX3 Driver...

Processor/Bus Speed Winstone 97 CPUMark16 CPUMark32 Norton SI for Win95 200MHz (66 x 3) 39.7 425 419