ABIT KT7-RAID Features

The following features summarise the architecture of the KT7-Raid Motherboard:

• The Abit KT7-Raid provides support for currently all AMD Duron and Thunderbird processors available in Socket-A packaging with support for 200MHz FSB. Featuring three 168-pin DIMM sockets supporting PC100/133 SDRAM or VCM Modules. The inclusion of six PCI slots is impressive and the allowance for one ISA slot for upgrading is a sound move. The VIA KT133 chipset features open up the possibility of having four USB ports, of which two come as standard, and the other two are accessible by means of an extra header provided. The features that set the KT7 apart from others are the inclusion of the Highpoint Technology's HPT370 PCI Dual Channel Ultra UDMA/ATA 100 RAID Controller that supports the full features of UDMA/ATA 100 drives. The Controller supports up to four UDMA/ATA 100 disk drives and is backwardly compatible with UDMA/66, and 33 drives. The icing on the cake has to be the inclusion of Hot Swapping which allows the removal of drives without shutting the system down and the inclusion of RAID 0,1 and 0+1 support allowing the connection of multiple drives for data mirroring and striping, an excellent feature which was until recently unheard of for IDE based drives. The System Bios consist of Abit's innovative SOFTMENU III technology, which provides the highest level of flexibility for setting CPU parameters, signalling Abit's commitment to overclockers and tweakers alike. One problem we need to point out is it's inability (even after upgrading Bios) to auto detect the 1.1GHz processor, it merely reports the processor as being a 1GHz, so you will have to set the processor in the "User Define" section to ensure it is set correctly.

• The most difficult dilemma facing buyers or even us hard working under paid lab guys is to distinguish which motherboard stands out from the crowd from a carefully laid down but difficult criteria. Many motherboards have identical functions, but performance, reliability, and compatibility are foremost in our decision making process. To date all motherboards we have tested offer as standard a 2-Phase power configuration (4 transistor solution), whilst this is currently acceptable, it is difficult to envisage whether this solution would indeed suffice for future processor offerings. Excess heat generated by processors and chipsets shortens the processor lifespan, and creates instability within the system environment. ABIT it seems is only too aware of these issues and has made provision for this by providing a 3-Phase power configuration (6 transistor solution), which dissipates heat more effectively, and this was clearly borne out by us testing the heat dissipation on the 1.1GHz processor, it is no exaggeration to say after leaving the system overnight, we had no burned fingers to complain about, it really was cool to touch. Abit has also added a cooler fan to the VIA Northbridge VT8363 chipset to ensure optimum cooling stability. Nice touch.

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