Need lots of input about KT7-RAID mobo

[OS]

how are these motherboards, in terms of problem spots, stability, and compatibility? For example, I hear about residual USB problems with this motherboard and I've heard about multiplier adjustments causing occasional nonboots. So what's the story? And please be BRTUALLY honest, I'd like keep potential headaches in my next system to the minimum.

 

[Spearfodder]

Overall, I'm satisfied with mine, had it for 2 months now. However, I could not get the highpoint raid controller to work properly, even in non-raid configuration. I'd get random crashes referencing the hpt370 driver, or odd bsod's in win2k. I dual boot to 98se/win2k. I had a bitch of a time installing it on 2k, finally had to put it back on the standard pci controller to install, then put it on the raid and edit the ARC names section of the boot.ini file. It still didn't work perfectly stable. It's possibly a problem with the maxtor hd in the system--abit is supposed to be looking into it.

Feature wise it's a dream. Overclocking is simple, easy, and works well. I think it's finicky on cheap ram, others say it's ok. I had no problems with usb or interupt assignments. You will need to get very comfortable with the bios, regardless of whether you are tweaking for stability or performance. This is *NOT* a board that you can just install & ignore if you want it to work right. However, if you take the time to play with it, it'll reward you.

If overclocking is what you want to do, this is the board for you. If utter stability is your goal, you would be better off with the asus a7v or the msi board.

 

[OS]

surely more than one person owns this motherboard. . .

 

[PCResources]

Do not buy an Abit board, i have used them before, but i had to recall every one of them, because they were not stable.

When you look at the specs, you can see that the components used are very low end, Abit didn't make the statement "we will not produce a mobo with more than 4 PCB layers" without a reason (six layers would be more expensive to produce).

I would suggest a mobo from MSI, ASUS or Tekram instead, preferably MSI.

Patrick Palm

Am speaking for PC Resources

 

[PCResources]

<< Overall, I'm satisfied with mine, had it for 2 months now. However, I could not get the highpoint raid controller to work properly, even in non-raid configuration. I'd get random crashes referencing the hpt370 driver, or odd bsod's in win2k. I dual boot to 98se/win2k. I had a bitch of a time installing it on 2k, finally had to put it back on the standard pci controller to install, then put it on the raid and edit the ARC names section of the boot.ini file. It still didn't work perfectly stable. It's possibly a problem with the maxtor hd in the system--abit is supposed to be looking into it. >>



So many problems and you are still satisfied with it??????????

What if your car would work like this, sometimes it just changes it's mind and drives me right back home, when i'm halfway to the store, sometimes it just stops, the AC doesn't work at all, even though i have tried to fix it (of course, i wouldn't return the car, they are supposed to be like this, right?), but GM is looking into it, maybe they will solve it someday, maybe they won't, however, making this car go real fast is no problem, but only for a few hundred meters, then it goes back to where i started, but i am satisfied with this car, overall...

Abit boards lack stability, and if you are choosing between stability and speed, stability always wins.

Patrick Palm

Am speaking for PC Resources

 

[Lanius]

I have 2 of them. One with a t-bird 800 at 950 and the other with a Duron 600 at 1G. Both work great as long as you follow the instructions if you use the raid controller as your boot device. You have to load in the driver (supplyed on a floppy) when installing win2000 during the very start of the setup when it says press f3 to add additional controllers. I have a single maxtor ata66 in the duron on the raid controller and it works fine. I have the t-bird with dual IBM 15 gig ata 100 drives in stripping raid, and they were easy as pie to setup and fast as h*!! I don't think there is another board out there right now that is as easy to setup and maintain. There is a flash upgrade for the raid controller, and I've done it on the duron system but not on my t-bird and they both work fine (If it ain't broke don't fix it). I'd recommend the upgrade if someone is unstable though. New bios also allows higher voltage settings for CPU too.

Good Luck.
If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask.

 

[flood]

I buy only abit boards.
I build systems for people... I've done at least 50.
I've had one dead board from abit.
Whenever I've bought a board from another company, its just been a headache for me.

PCResources-
the the problem Spearfodder is having is most likely a driver issue, not a motherboard problem.

 

[ToBeMe]

I've got 3 of the KT7-RAID boards up and running beautifully! Like stated before, if you do things the way they are supposed to be done and have good quality components, the boards are the fastest, most stable around. Now, that's not to say there aren't some bad ones as it seems Abit has a high RMA percentile, I attribute a lot of this to the following.... a lot of people buy this cutting edge board and use &quot;sub-par&quot; stuff like generic ram etc. and expect great results.....it ain't gonna happen! Also, a lot of users buy this borad without much knowledge of O/C'ing and push all setting to the max not really understanding what they are doing....there are just so many &quot;tweaks&quot; with this board, unless you understand what you are doing each time you mess with one.....it can lead to many assorted problems in which case you are better off staying with an MSI as they are very stable boards without much &quot;tweaking&quot; ability! Like I said, I have 3, all running raid set-ups and good quality cas2 ram, all my settings are tweaked to provide maximum speed &amp; stability, I use Abit exclusively and have for some time therefore I have figured out each little nuance and have no problems with them whatsoever! Now, I will reiterate, Abit does seem to have a high RMA and I will say that some of this has to be due to poor QC, but boy, when you get it right......they are SWEEET!!!!