Abit NV7-133R

<p>I don't have that many hardware companies I dislike, but Abit has been one of the few to make the list. Now, of course, you'll wonder why do I have the Abit NV7-133R even near me. Firstly, I needed a good motherboard after the unexpected demise of the recently reviewed Epox 8K3A+, and was going to try the KR7A-RAID, but the tech at the local shop recommended this one. So, here I am with another Abit motherboard, maybe it will change my stance on Abit's products. I did have a few product shots I took on my own, but I didn't retrieve them before one of my sibling's got ahold of it. So, yeah, here's Abit's dinky product shot of the board for your squinting pleasure...</p>

<p><b>Specifications</b></p>
<p>Nvidia NForce 415 IGP/MCP-D --Support for Athlon/Athlon XP/Duron CPU's --3 184-pin DIMM slots supporting upto 1.5GB of PC2100/1600 DDR SDRAM --4 x USB 1.1 --2x USB 2.0 --On-board 10/100 LAN --5.1 Ch. Dolby Digital --SPDIF In/out connectors --1 1.5V AGP 4x slot --5 32-bit/33MHz PCI slots --On-board HighPoint HPT372 ATA133 RAID --20-Pin ATX power connector --4-Pin Aux power connector --ATX formfactor</p>

<p>The box contains quite a bit (ha-ha) of hardware. There is, obviously, the NV7-133R motherboard, and the appropriate backpanel as Abit has decided to place the on-board USB and LAN stack a little differently than standard ATX boards. You also get a USB 1.1 bracket, and another bracket with the rear and channel speakers and the SPDIF connectors as well as the USB 2.0 ports. Finally, you get two ATA133 cables, a floppy cable, 1 driver and utility CD-ROM, a floppy disk with the HPT372 drivers, and Abit's thorough manual. While the board can support up to 4 USB 2.0 ports, Abit has only included the means for two, which is better than none I suppose.</p>

<p>Let me say something about this board: the only expansion card I need use is my GeForce 3. There is a lot of integration on this board, which is atypical for Abit, as they normally don't provide much past the standard serial/parallel/ PS/2 and USB ports. This time, we're dealing with the NForce chipset which ups the ante for integrated components. I know, integrated sound--well, it usually sucks. Lately, there's been a trend in on-board audio, especially from Asus and Iwill using 6 channel (read 5.1) C-Media sound, however that's not like the NForce.</p>

<p>For those in the dark on the NForce, I'll give a quick rundown on it. The NForce chipset is video chipset giant Nvidia's first venture into motherboard chipsets. There are two versions of the so-called "IGP", or <b>I</b>ntegrated <b>G</b>raphics <b>P</b>rocessor--a lavishly named Northbridge chip: the NForce 420, and the NForce 220. The 420 (heh, 420, heh-heh) and the 220 differ in one major item: bandwith. The 420 uses a 128-bit memory interface, and the 220 uses a measly 64-bit. So what's this 415 IGP? Simple: it's the 420 without the integrated graphics part, thus cutting down the cost, and a good thing Abit went with it. Now we have the "MCP" or <b>M</b>edia <b>C</b>ommunications <b>P</b>rocessor. This provides such goodies as the LAN and legacy ports controls, along with other tasks typical of southbridge chips. If it has the "-D" this means you have the 5.1 channel Dolby Digital--which the NV7-133R does. Lastly, the NForce makes use of AMD's HyperTransport for communication between the IGP and MCP, and this is to the same effect as Via's V-Link and Intel's Hub Architecture. Normally, I don't go into much detail, if any, about the chipset, but as the NForce board's have had so little attention, I felt it necessary to give a quick overview of the technology before diving into the review.</p>

 

<p>To get a feel for the board, let's start with the layout. The first thing that is a major concer is the AGP slot. Abit has done a poor job here, simply put. Not only does it necessitate removing your video card if you want to add memory (only the first slot has this "problem" with my Gainward GeForce 3), but there is a capacitor that is indeed out of the AGP spec. Over at [H]ard|OCP, Kyle Bennet did say that this can be gently pushed aside for those with strong stomachs, but that's something you shouldn't have to do. If you currently own, or intend to buy, a GeForce 4, this board is not GF4 friendly. I'd have liked to see Abit have moved all the expansion slots down one, which would've at the very least not had the DIMM slots being an issue with the AGP slot. However, I have recently been hearing about a new revision of the board that features a shorter capcitor, showing that Abit is quickly putting up a remedy for this issue. The other layout fubar is with the ATX power connector. It is placed wher you do have to route the cable over the CPU socket, which does block airflow. You may notice the "Pentium 4" 4-pix auxillary is also made to cross over the socket here. Also, Abit's positioning of the CPU socket will pretty much mandate removing the board from the case if you want to change the heatsink. I've seen other Socket A boards from Abit, and I really wish they'd change the socket placement.</p>
<p>On the subject of other problems is the NForce 5.1 audio. The drivers I have installed for the review (on the NV7-133R CD) were pretty lame in the audio arena. The volume controls were through the Windows volume control panel, and the rear speaker outputs did not work. During the review, new NForce drivers have been released to remedy this. Another problem that's cropped up has been with Plextor CD-RW drives. I'm not sure why, but this is supposed to be fixed in the next BIOS release, which probably will contain support for the Thoroughbred core Athlons.</p>

<p>While there are problems with the layout, it's not all lost. Thanks to the NForce chipset, you have on-board 5.1 channel surround. Another item courtesy of the NForce is the on-board 10/100 NIC. Abit gives MSI a run for their money in the USB department: there are the standard two USB 1.1 ports on the back, a bracket and header for two more USB 1.1, and USB 2.0 supporting 4 USB 2.0 ports, 2 of which are supplied with the board. The USB 2.0 is powered by Via's VT6202 chip. HighPoint is the controller of choice once again here. Like the Epox 8K3A+, the HPT372 is used, providing RAID or simply extra IDE controllers, plus support for the latest ATA133 hard drives. Considering the level of integration, Abit provides a generous 5 PCI slots and 1 AGP 4x slot. The AGP slot has a clipping mechanism to hold the cards in place--good if you lug your PC around. One thing I found odd was the back panel. Abit has swapped the places of the Serial/Parallel connections with the USB/LAN connctions.</p>

<p>The BIOS is one thing that people look forward to in Abit motherboards. Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot to look at in the overclocking department here. How could Abit do such a thing? While it might be conceivable that Abit simply chose not to, it is suspected that Nvidia has said what will go into any NForce motherboard BIOS. Considering that Abit made overclocking mainstream, this seems like a more logical choice. Even Asus and MSI's NForce solutions are pretty skimpy in the overclocking arena. Any way you look at it, the overclocking options are not there. It's just not a good sign when the maximum Vcore Voltage is 1.80 volts, no multiplier options, and a limited handful of FSB speeds. If you don't get the hint, don't buy this board for overclocking.</p>

<p>Having said that, I truly believe this is the best NForce board available right now. Asus and MSI do not have extra IDE RAID controllers for one. Additionally, this board retails online with shipping for around the $130USD mark. While the MSI and Asus 415's are a tad cheaper, for the extra 20 bucks, you can get the on-board HighPoint controller. Right now, the NV7-133R is the <i>only</i> NForce motherboard with extra IDE ports.</p>

<p>This board is extremely stable. I ran it without the P4 auxillary connector without a problem. Plugging it in can't hurt, and may be necessary in the future, but even with the 1.4GHz T-bird, I didn't have problems. In fact the only problem I had with it was the BIOS reporting a CPU temp as high as 80 degrees Celcius!!! Flashing to the 84 BIOS did a major drop in temp. While I think it's being reported a tad higher than it really is, I'll take a maximum temp of 56 degrees Celcius over 80 any day. I haven't been a big fan of Abit's board's in the past, but I really have to say this board is a solid pick.</p>

 

<p>Ahh, on to the benchmarking. I used SiSoft Sandra 2002, Mad Onion's 3DMark 2000 version 1.1, AMD's N-Bench version 2.0, CliBench 0.7, ScienceMark, and Quake 3: Arena Demo version 1.11. Driver's used were the NForce drivers off the NV7-133R CD-ROM, Detonator driver 21.81 off Gainward's website, HPT372 driver version 2.00 , and Hercules Fortissimo II drivers v 4.10.</p>

<p>Test setup:
-Abit NV7-133R
-1.4GHz Athlon (Thunderbird core)
-512MB (2x 256MB) Samsung PC2100 DDR @ CAS 2.5, in banks 1 and 2.
-Maxtor 20GB, 7200RPM & 40GB, 5400RPM, ATA100
-Toshiba 12x DVD-ROM
-Samsung 48x CD-ROM
-Gainward GeForce 3 @ 250/571 core/mem
-Lucent 2-port IEEE1394 PCI card
-Hercules Fortissimo II
-Sparkle 350 Watt ATX 2.03 power supply
-Windows XP Professional</p>

<p><b>SiSoft Sandra 2002</b></p>
<p>First up is the popular synthetic benchmark: Sandra. While it's not the best program to use, it gives quick results and some indication of what to expect.</p>
<p><b>CPU Bench</b></p>

<p>Here we see the CPU speed is running fine at the stock speed for a 1.4GHz Athlon. We're fine in this department.</p>

<p><b>CPU Multimedia</b></p>

<p>Again, we see the CPU checking out fine for the Thunderbird core. The NV7-133R is not throttling the CPU's raw power at all.</p>

<p><b>Memory Benchmark</b></p>

<p>This is why I would not put a whole lot of stock in Sandra's included chipset database. The NForce 415 is the same thing as the 420, except it lacks the integrated video. I cannot really show how this compares to another NForce board, as I do not have one handy at the moment. Remember, this is a <i>synthetic</i> benchmark and should not be considered to be real-world performance</p>

<p><b>3D Mark 2000</b></p>
<p>I am aware that this is not the latest version of 3DMark, however, it is much more sensative to the CPU and memory than 3D Mark 2001. It gives a better test of the system, whereas 2001 is much more video card dependent. All tests were run in 16-bit color.</p>

<p><b>640x480</b></p>

<p>I was hoping for a score around the 10k mark, but a score of 9505 is nothing to sneeze at.</p>

<p><b>800x600</b></p>

<p>There's about a 400 point drop from the previous results. While the results were higher, we saw a similar effect on the Epox 8K3A+.</p>

<p><b>CliBench</b></p>
<p>This is another benchmark that runs similar tests to Sandra. However, these tests better reflect real-world scenarios.</p>

<p>Here, the bandwith isn't as great as the KT333, but it still performs rather well. A KT266 with DDR @ CAS 2 matches the memory throughput on the NForce with memory running at the slower CAS 2.5.</p>

<p><b>AMD N-Bench</b></p>

<p>AMD has this spiffy benchmark that is more video card intensive, but the results are around 200 points below the Epox board I had in here recently.<p>

 

<p><b>Quake 3</b></p>
<p>Ahh, Quake 3. You probably know this isn't a real favorite of mine, but as it's such a staple in benchmarking, I feel obliged to keep it. I've not done a graph for this one, as you may have seen some that are nearly unreadable. Anyway, here are the results.</p>

<p>640 x 480 x 16---149.1 FPS 800 x 600 x16---148.3 FPS</p>

<p> As you can see, there is not even a 1 FPS difference between the resolutions here. The system doesn't have a problem keeping the scores almost equal at these resolutions. If we were to go higher, the video card would have to start kicking in more to keep things speedy---and this isn't really what's being tested.</p>

<p><b>Science Mark</b></p>
<p>Another CPU and Memory test, like Sandra and CliBench, this is another benchmark I've been using for the past couple motherboard reviews, because it is a solid benchmark. I have linked the benchmark to the HTML generated form from Science Mark instead of scaling it down</p>
<p>NV7-133R Science Mark results</p>

<p><b>Overclocking</b></p>
<p>I've already said it before, but I'll say it again: Don't buy this board for overclocking. Even Kyle over at [H]ard|OCP hasn't gotten this board very high in the overclocking arena, and my hopes were pretty low. Sure enough, the highest speed I was able to post at was 142 MHz, however, it was unable to stay stable at these speeds. While this could be due to my RAM, I have had the CPU and RAM at a 150 MHz FSB running at CAS 2 on two different boards. I also know for a fact this CPU can hit 1575 MHZ stable. If the CPU voltage was at least 1.85, I probably would've gotten better results, as it is, this is a good reason <i>not</i> to purchase this board for overclocking.</p>

<p><b>Final Words</b></p>

<p>This is a solid motherboard, but, unfortunately, it's gotten here a bit late in the game. The KT333 boards are out and are much more overclocking friendly. For the enthusiast, this is simply going to disappoint. This is fine for OEMs and non-tweakers Had Abit gotten this board out earlier, it might have had a better shot at success. The good news is this is a fairly mature board. The only real issue I had with it was the temperature reporting and there was a BIOS update already out that fixed this. The NForce is not the fastest solution out on the market for AMD processors, but it is one of the most stable. The chipset is by no means slow, but it's not going to do as well as a KT266A or KT333 board.</p>
<p>The NV7-133R's biggest draw is the features it packs: 10/100 LAN, 5.1 channel audio, ATA133 RAID, and USB 2.0, all for around $130 USD on-line with shipping. The NForce 415 saves you big bucks if you want an NForce board without the integrated video, and really makes it look like an enthusiasts board. Sadly, this part appears to be thwarted by Nvidia. The board has performed flawlessly for me--something I have been able to say about past experiences with Abit motherboards. Abit is apparently fixing the capcitor out of spec with the AGP slot, and they've been pretty good about getting the BIOS issues fixed. In fact, Abit seems to be working very hard to smooth out the fine points on this board quickly. Nvidia has released newer drivers for the NForce chipsets that fix the audio issue, so most of what I've mentioned won't be a problem much longer. While Abit gets an 'A' for effort, it's a case of just being too little too late in the game for the NForce.</p>

<p><b>The Good</b></p>
<p>5.1 channel audio - USB galore including USB 2.0 -HighPoint ATA133 RAID -LAN -Stable -Good price</p>
<p><b>The Bad</b></p>
<p>GF4 unfriendly -DIMM slots too close to AGP slot -Late to market, faster chipsets available -Lack of overclocking options</p>

<p>Rating: 3.5 out of 5</p>