**World Exclusive** Abit AT7 Review *UPDATE* Another review up

[NFS4]

http://www.hardcoreware.net/reviews/motherboards/abit_at7/1.php

 

[Electric Amish]

WHAT?!?!

Is Anand slacking or something??

amish

 

[cjsketchy]

I kinda choked when I saw his final score. I wouldn't give a board a score that high unless it cooked dinner for me. Nice find though

 

[billyjak]

Could be very tempting, all you need is on it.

 

[MazerRackham]

Wow, no legacy ports at all! It's about time!

Very nice looking board. A bit pricey, but I guess you get a whole lot of stuff included...

 

[zzzz]

Actually it is cheaper than I expected it to be. I remember when the KT7-raid came out it was something like $170 :Q

 

[ElFenix]

where do you plug in the keyboard?

 

[lowlight]

I was joking when I said World Exclusive in my news release

It was referring to HardOCP posting like 3 or 4 "world exclusive" reviews hehe

But yeah I think this is the first review of the board... I haven't slept for 2 days, working on the board... Hope you guys do enjoy the review! It is a wonderful board, and it got a high score because, not only is it an excellent high end board, but it innovates and pushes the industry like no other board has. You won't see many products get that score on hardCOREware.net

 

[NFS4]

<< where do you plug in the keyboard? >>


USB port

This is the board for me. I use NO legacy ports. My PS2/Serial/Parallel ports are all disabled. My Shuttle AK31 Rev 3.1 is configured as such:

PCI Devices
5-port USB 2.0 Card
TV tuner
10/100 NIC
Santa Cruz
56k PCI modem

USB Devices
SmartMedia/CompactFlash Reader
Planar 18.1" LCD (4-ports on back)
USB 2.0 PCI card (4 ports external, 1 internal)
Logitech Optical Mouse
Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro
Gravis Xterminator Gamepad
Epson C60 Printer
HP Scanjet 3300C
USB Headset

I could ditch the USB 2.0 card and NIC to fit into the 3 PCI slots of the AT7. Happy Happy Joy Joy

 

[John]

<< where do you plug in the keyboard? >>



In one of the USB ports.

 

[passign]

<< where do you plug in the keyboard? >>



in the usb port

 

[ElFenix]

<< in the usb port >>

well... yeah what happens when you accidentally disable USB? (like it did with my kt266pro-2 when i set it to "performance defaults")

and for that matter... is there a USB keyboard out there with no extraneous keys, a straight key layout, and a full-sized backspace key? a larger keyboard than this no-frills one won't fit on my tray, and the full size backspace key because those ones the size of a normal key suck big balls.

 

[NFS4]

<<

<< in the usb port >>

well... yeah what happens when you accidentally disable USB? (like it did with my kt266pro-2 when i set it to "performance defaults")

and for that matter... is there a USB keyboard out there with no extraneous keys, a straight key layout, and a full-sized backspace key? a larger keyboard than this no-frills one won't fit on my tray, and the full size backspace key because those ones the size of a normal key suck big balls. >>


I think someone is bitter

 

[AmdInside]

I think I'll stick to my nForce motherboard until winter. Nothing there that would make me want to upgrade.

 

[ElFenix]

i really hate those half sized backspace keys. it took me a day and a half to figure out why my mouse wasn't working.

 

[NFS4]

<< i really hate those half sized backspace keys. it took me a day and a half to figure out why my mouse wasn't working. >>


I use a MS Natural Keboard Pro and it has a full-zie backspace key on it. You can also get "regular" keyboards with no split keys and a full size backspace key. All you have to do is LOOK!

As for mouse and keyboard working in BIOS, I just set the option to enable USB keyboard in DOS/BIOS and it works just fine. I've never had a problem.

 

[AA0]

the board is awesome except the onboard sound. What crap is that, cmedia sound uses a load of cpu, but that sound is the worst I've seen.

 

[Martin]

<< WHAT?!?!

Is Anand slacking or something??

amish >>



I'd say so. Last article is from over a week ago

 

[rickn]

hehe, no legacy. still has a floppy connector

you can't much more legacy than that, hehe

 

[billyjak]

I highly doubt you will be able to disable the keyboard USB port, it's built in , you maybe able to disable the other one though,

 

[FishTankX]

All it needs is onboard Serial ATA/SCSI.

I'd love to have onboard SCSI 160..

And Serial ATAII. Darn it! Whatyamacallit adaptec is even shipping SerialATA kits!! It's not fair..

Someday everyone will start complaining about a certian mobo company dropping IDE ports in favor of serial ATA ports, just like you guys are complaining about dropping of the PS2 ports. (not the guys in the thread, others around here).

I say what we need is firewire keyboard/mouse, heh.. no more massive CPU utilization from the prehiperials..

 

[NFS4]

<< All it needs is onboard Serial ATA/SCSI.

I'd love to have onboard SCSI 160..

And Serial ATAII. Darn it! Whatyamacallit adaptec is even shipping SerialATA kits!! It's not fair..

Someday everyone will start complaining about a certian mobo company dropping IDE ports in favor of serial ATA ports, just like you guys are complaining about dropping of the PS2 ports. (not the guys in the thread, others around here).

I say what we need is firewire keyboard/mouse, heh.. no more massive CPU utilization from the prehiperials.. >>


Well, Serial ATA drives aren't quite ready yet....and as far as I know, IDE drives aren't even fast enough to take advantage of the cabling yet.

 

[FishTankX]

Hmm.. that's what I could have said about SDRAM back in the pentium Era.. that PC66 is still useful today.

Anyways, I still would have liked some form of onboard scsi. Even the 40MBPS variety.

 

[Dasterdly]

Good review cept the poopy popups, I wont be visiting that site again ...

 

[SmirnoffIsTasty]

Man that board sucks! The MEAGER speed improvement, the bad cpu placement, horrendous audio. blech!