Abit KA7 KX133 Motherboard Cincinnati OH

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Originally published at Internet.com

Click for 800x600 KA7 Photo When AMD launched the Athlon processor last year, they had a CPU superior to Intel's then best offering. Yet, many users didn't choose it because the available motherboards were unstable. Choices were limited to only a handful of boards, all with stability issues, and none was as refined as boards designed for Pentium III processors. Most motherboard manufacturers decided to sit on the sidelines for the first generation board release cycle. Abit was one of them. They released the KA7, after ironing out the problems other boards were encountering, in time for the second generation release cycle.

Abit's KA7 Motherboard Specs CPUs Supported AMD-K7 Athlon-Slot A, 200MHz FSB 450-800 Bus Speeds 100-183MHz (in 1MHz increments) System Memory Four 168-pin DIMM sockets support PC100/PC133 SDRAM modules Supports up to 2GB max. (Chipset supports only 1.5 GB.) 6 chip Data Buffer Set Supports ECC Chipset VIA VT8371(KX133)/VIA 686A Expansion Slots 1 AGP, 6 PCI, and 1 ISA Internal/External I/O On board Bus Master IDE Ports supporting UDMA 33/66 PS/2 Keyboard and PS/2 Mouse Connectors 1 Floppy Port (up to 2.88MB) 1 Parallel Port (EPP/ECP) 2 Serial Ports 2 USB Connectors On board USB header for two extra USB channels Form factor ATX (approximately 30.4 x 23cm) Miscellaneous Built-in Wake on LAN/Wake on Modem Built-in IrDA TX/RX header One Thermal Sensor Cable Included VIA VT8371(KX133)/VIA 686A Supports Advanced Configuration and Power Management Interface (ACPI) Supports AGP 2x/4x (Sideband) 3.3V device Supports 100/133MHz Memory Bus Settings SOFTMENU III Technology Summary --------------------------------------------------------------------- Price Street$127 + Six PCI expansion slots Four DIMM slots 84 FSB settinngs Excellent stability - AMD moving to Socket A architecture No onboard sound Not OEM friendly Overall The KA7 is a virtually flawless board. It is for overclockers of the Athlon CPU as well as any midrange to high end Athlon user. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Setup as tested: AMD Athlon 700MHz 128MB PC133 SDRAM Sony 5x DVD drive 20.4GB Maxtor ATA/66 7200rpm hard drive Diamond MX400 sound card Diamond Viper II 32MB Windows 98SE The Board

The board is definitely geared towards individual user needs instead of the desires of system integrators. The first and most obvious example is the lack of a now common AMR slot. While rarely used by home builders, major OEMs use this slot to add features like 56K modems. People building their own systems will rarely find a use for an AMR slot, so it is generally a non-issue for non-OEMs. The board also lacks onboard sound. Many motherboards today include CPU powered AC'97 codecs for low cost integrated sound solutions. This is another OEM favorite that is not present on the KA7, but most custom PC enthusiasts would rather add in one of today's inexpensive audio boards due to their lower CPU utilization and superior quality/feature sets.

Another feature of the board is its four layer PCB design. For quite some time now six layer motherboards have been out in force. The six layer design is slightly more expensive, but at the same time has shown itself to result in more stable boards. VIA's reference board for the KX133 chipset was on a four layer PCB, so Abit felt safe using the cheaper process.

Abit did go all out when it came to memory expansion. Unlike most Athlon motherboards today, the KA7 incorporates four DIMM slots. The KX133 chipset supports a maximum of 1.5GB of memory, and at today's 512MB densities, three DIMM slots would be enough to reach the maximum. The fourth slot is there so that a user can use a larger number of cheaper, lower density modules to reach high levels of onboard memory. Near the DIMM slots, there is a Texas Instruments memory buffer made up of six chips. The usefulness of this feature can be debated; it will come into play only when all four memory slots are filled, meaning that, for most users, this is a small concern.

Abit also was nice enough to go with a 6/1/1 expansion slot arrangement. One AGP slot has been standard issue for a long time, thus is nothing special. The one ISA slot is there for users who have ISA peripherals that they need in their new Athlon powerhouse system, and will probably not be used very often. The inclusion of six PCI slots is nice. Since the ISA slot is all but dead for today's peripherals, the more PCI slots the better.

Three things would help the board be the best on the market, and could perhaps be included in a future updated version. First, the DIMM slots will get in the way of larger cooling assemblies. While not a major issue unless all four slots are needed and the cooling unit is a monster, it still may be a concern for some people. Second, on the board there are silk screened spaces for ATA/100 slots. (This has already been accomplished on the KA7-100.) Although few hard drives can utilize that much bandwidth today, it would be a nice feature for forward expandability. Last would be onboard IEEE-1394 (FireWire) connectivity. While probably not feasible today due to the extra cost involved and the limited availability of Firewire peripherals, it would make a nice addition to a future revision of the board when the cost and benefit of adding this would be justified.

Overclocking

Early Athlon motherboards had limited overclocking options, specifically in the user selectable bus speeds area. Abit designed the KA7 with selectable bus speeds in 1MHz increments from 100MHz to 183MHz. Most of the bus speeds will never be used because the current Athlon processors simply cannot handle extreme FSB increases. While most may not be used, it is a great feature to be able to fine tune the FSB setting to a precise point without having to worry about large gaps in available FSB settings. The SoftMenu III makes it easy to tweak overclocking settings. Stability

Relative to first generation Athlon motherboards, the KA7 is far and away more stable. A long term torture test consisting of continuously running three instances of Winamp and cracking RC5 managed to crash the system in approximately three days with crash times of 77:19:34, 73:46:58, 74:56:13. This test was conducted with CPU utilization at 100 percent running around the clock, which is not typical. During real world usage, with the system on all the time, it managed two and a half weeks before crashing. Conclusion

The days of Intel based motherboards being a step above Athlon boards are gone. The KA7 addresses the stability issue of early Athlon boards. VIA's KX133 chipset gives the KA7 the ability to house a 4x AGP enabled slot and 133MHz SDRAM memory. The designers at Abit have added a fourth DIMM slot for greater memory combinations and SoftMenu III to ease the setup and overclocking processes. Any person or company in the market for an Athlon motherboard should definitely consider either the KA7 or KA7-100. The major downfall of both boards is that they are based on the Slot A architecture, not the soon to be standard Socket A, which may limit forward compatibility. Otherwise though, the KA7 is another excellent motherboard from Abit.