ABIT KV7 (KT600): Budget Performance in a Small Package
by Evan Lieb on September 7, 2003 10:42 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
ABIT KV7: BIOS and Overclocking
ABIT utilizes their standard Award BIOS setup for the KT600-based KV7. ABIT dubs their enthusiast BIOSes “Soft Menu III”, but it’s simply an Award BIOS with some code modified to make Soft Menu III look like an ABIT-centric invention.
The KV7’s PC Health section doesn’t include any options that we haven’t seen from the hundreds of modern-day motherboards we’ve looked at. The KV7 includes such readings as Active, Power, and CPU temperatures, CPU and North Bridge fan speeds, Vcore, PSU readings (all rails), VAGP, VDIMM, and battery/standby voltage readings. It’s certainly a plus to see a PC Health section with viewable VAGP and VDIMM readings; there are far too many BIOSes out there without these basic readings. Another excellent addition to this section, and one that is more standard, is the addition of a CPU fan control option, dubbed “CPU FanEQ Fan Control”. This option comes in very handy for users that are sensitive to high noise levels within their PC and therefore do not want to worry about noise coming from their CPU’s HSF. Some other options that are less interesting, but are standard nonetheless, include: CPU Shutdown Temperature, CPU Warning Temperature, Fan Fail Alarm Selectable, and Shutdown When CPU Fan Fails options. All in all, the KV7’s PC Health section is one of the better available system monitoring resources out there.
The “Soft Menu III” section is where the majority of your performance optimizing time will be spent. In this section are options for adjusting the FSB, CPU multiplier, VAGP, VDIMM, Vcore, and chipset voltage. This section is the overclocker’s bible, as everything related to extreme, out-of-spec performance enhancements are available here. We’ll go into detail about the range of these options in just a minute.
The KV7’s Advanced Chipset Features is set up similarly to the many other KT600 motherboards we’ve reviewed. Within the KV7’s Advanced Chipset Features section are six performance-enhancing tweaking sections. However, the enthusiast will be doing the majority of their performance tweaking with the first section, dubbed the “DRAM Clock/Drive Control” section. In this section are memory timing options such as CAS Latency, RAS to CAS Delay, RAS Precharge, Precharge Delay, Bank Interleave, Command Rate, and Fast Command. These are all the memory related options that you’re ever going to need for maximum performance. One additional option that isn’t usually found in the Advanced Chipset Features section is the DRAM frequency adjustments, which are available in DDR266, DDR333, DDR400 and SPD (DDR400).
The KV7’s FSB frequency adjustments, found in the “Soft Menu III” section, are high enough for even the most adventurous overclockers. Up to 250MHz FSB is available in the KV7’s BIOS in 1MHz increments. Even with an expensive overclocking kit (be it Vapochill or liquid nitro setup), 250MHz FSB is going to be hard to come by. Serious overclockers who aren’t insane (i.e. air cooling overclocking enthusiasts) will be more than accommodated by the KV7’s FSB flexibility.
The KV7’s VDIMM range is fairly standard, available up to 2.80V. While there are several memory modules now available on the market that are under warranty between 2.9V and 3.1V, they aren’t applicable here. Due to the Athlon XP’s limited FSB bandwidth, there is no need to install high speed memory modules (anything too far over DDR400) in an Athlon motherboard. The same certainly isn’t true of Intel motherboards, as the Pentium 4’s FSB bandwidth is much larger, and therefore main memory needs to supply enough bandwidth to maximize the Pentium 4’s performance. Still, even the Pentium 4 can perform quite well with main memory operating much slower than its FSB.
The KV7’s Vcore range is absolutely superb, the best we’ve seen from any Athlon XP motherboard to date. The KV7’s Vcore is adjustable in the BIOS, up to 2.325V in 0.0250V increments, excluding 1.925V, 2.050V, 2.150V, and 2.250V. Some overclockers and overvolters may have preferred 0.0125V Vcore increments instead of 0.0250V increments because of the natural fluctuation in Vcore when set at a certain value. We believe, however, that 0.0250V should satisfy just about anyone considering the KV7 allows up to 2.325V.
ABIT continues their tradition of somewhat low VAGP ranges, this time from 1.50V to 1.65V in 0.5V increments (located in the “Soft Menu III” section). Even if you’re a video card overclocker, any VAGP over 1.6V is simply unnecessary. If your motherboard requires higher than that to reliably operate at stock and even many different levels of overclocked speeds, something is wrong with your motherboard.
One option that seems to be popping up on more Athlon XP and Pentium 4 motherboards are chipset voltage options. Also located in the “Soft Menu III” section, chipset voltage is dubbed “NB Core Voltage” by ABIT. This is a more appropriate name really, as all motherboards that display “chipset voltage” are really referring to the operating voltage of the North Bridge. The South Bridge has very little to do with how well a motherboard overclocks, though some motherboards do benefit from South Bridge cooling. Anyway, “NB Core Voltage” is available up to a friendly 2.95V, which is more than enough, and can be quite dangerous if set at that level.
The ABIT KV7, like every KT600 motherboard before it, lacks an AGP/PCI lock. As we have reiterated time and again, any motherboard that doesn’t have an AGP/PCI lock really shouldn’t be taken too seriously among overclocker, unless they were somehow able to magically reach high FSB speeds without this option. We have not encountered such a motherboard, and are about to prove yet again in our overclocking section, that such a motherboard (with no AGP/PCI lock) doesn’t exist.
FSB Overclocking Results
For FSB overclocking, the following setup was used on the ABIT KV7:| Front Side Bus Overclocking Testbed | ||
| Processor: | Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton Core) | |
| CPU Vcore: | 1.65V (default) | |
| Cooling: | Thermalright SK-7 with 80mm Thermaltake Fan | |
| Memory: | Two 256MB Corsair 3200LL at SPD | |
| Power Supply: | Enermax 350W | |
It’s not at all surprising to see that KT600 motherboards are coming up considerably short of nForce2 Ultra 400 motherboards in the overclocking department, as evident from our numerous KT600 motherboard reviews lately. However, that doesn’t take away from the fact that the ABIT KV7 is one of the best KT600 FSB overclockers we’ve come across. The KV7 was able to reach 211MHz FSB without any reliability issues to report, using our standard overclocking setup listed above.
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Anonymous User - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link
Oh, so since I'm anonymous, I'm not a human being with feelings? Your behavior is completely unjustifiable because for one, it was only *your* opinion that my original post was cold and rude, and for two, I really don't think Mr. Lieb would give a shit even if I *was* cold and rude. This is a professional site and based on his response to my original comment I believe Mr. Lieb is also a professional who acted appropriately to a legitimate comment about his work. I really doubt that you're the difference-maker who makes Mr. Lieb feel good about the work he has done. Who told you that his feelings were hurt anyway? Are you Mr. Lieb's big brother or something? I'm simply amazed at how you can assume so many things based on my original comment. Egregious? That's frickin' hilarious. How the heck did you deduce that from my little comment? I mean, LISTEN TO YOURSELF. "After my first post, I have to admit that I just kept going because I was having fun..." Do you not see the hypocrisy in your words my son? You preach sensitivity and the sparing of feelings, you rush to the defense of "poor, hurt feelings" Evan, yet you enjoy acting like an asshole to others. The best part is when you tell me to lighten up, and then you tell me to be more sensitive. So which one is it? This whole thing started because *you* were overly sensitive about my comment, so maybe *you're* the one who should lighten up.I wonder when the mods will delete these useless comments, or whether they're getting a good laugh out of them. haha!
Anonymous User - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link
In all sincerity, I initially posted #13 because I thought your original post was rather cold and rude. As a result, I wanted to help Evan laugh it off and feel good about the work he had done. I think that sometimes when we are in a forum such as this, we forget that the people receiving our comments and criticisms are human beings with feelings. I find this particularly inappropriate when they are identifiable by name, as is the case for Evan (but not for you or me). I would have preferred to see something like, "Hey, great review, but you had a typo." At least then you spare the person's feelings, and are ultimately more successful in getting your point across if you truly believe that the omission of a word is such an egregious error.After my first post, I have to admit that I just kept going because I was having fun since you appeared to respond to every post I made. In terms of making everyone miserable, please review the posts above and see if you can find anyone else complaining. In closing, lighten up. I encourage you to think before you post (advice that equally applies to me and others) and try to be more sensitive.
Anonymous User - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link
Oh, and yes, Evan, I just meant to point out that you were missing a word in that sentence. I take back what I said about you not caring, because I had read your comment #14 before #11. I was just a little bit upset with the rudeness of #13. Keep up the good work!Anonymous User - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link
Wow, you really need to get a life. Did you even have a point to make in your original post #13? Or are you just here to make things miserable for everyone? Talk about taking things to the extreme...Anonymous User - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link
#18 Cease! Desist! I surrender. I concede. You win. You are right. I apologize.P.S. When beginning a sentence with a clause that starts with because, you should separate the clause from the remainder of the sentence with a comma. The truth is that you forgot the comma.
Anonymous User - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link
To #18: Again, I really don't see why you have to be so sarcastic. This is a page for making comments and a comment about a "minor" typographical error is still a comment. If there are rules against making observations like the one I made, then please point me to it so I won't repeat it. Because of your tone and attitude I am explicitly *not* going to share my thoughts on the content of the review with you, but I doubt that you were serious when you were saying that anyway. I just don't see why you have to get so worked up about a little comment. Even the author didn't say anything about it, because as you said, it's a "minor" error that's easily corrected. It was just that at the time I read the article, it was incorrect. Finally, unlike you all my comments have been honest and sincere, and I maintain that I have taken the high road in response to your blatant sarcasm. The truth is you did omit an "s" in your comment, and I was merely stating a fact (and not being sarcastic) as well as demonstrating to you that some people do in fact notice these things.Anonymous User - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link
Thank you, #17, for your observation as to my omission of the letter "s" in my previous post as #13. I have no problem with acknowledging errors when I make them and I appreciate your bringing this to my attention. At the same time, I am pleased to see that I may have been helpful to you. In contrast to your initial comment as #5, you actually discussed the content of my post rather than focusing exclusively on a minor typographical error. It seems that progress has been made! I welcome reading any thoughts you may have as to the content of the review of the Abit KV7.P.S. If you were trying to take the high road, you seem to have abandoned it with your P.S. Cheers!
Anonymous User - Friday, September 12, 2003 - link
#13, there is no need to be sarcastic. I don't understand why you're so offended by my pointing out a simple grammatical error. I did not take any time to carefully proofread the article, as you put it. I encountered it on my first read. As a news and review website, I believe that AnandTech.com should at least make an effort to write articles that are free of errors and I was merely trying to point out a mistake in case it was missed by the author and/or the editor. Based on #14's response, however, I doubt that the author cares very much about this issue. I was very tempted to take #13's sarcasm route but I think I'll take the high road here. Thank you for taking the time to read my comments.P.S. #13, you spelled "consistent" incorrectly. Sorry, I'm just an astute reader, these things pop out at me.
Anonymous User - Tuesday, September 9, 2003 - link
About the mentioning about a natural increased voltage fluctuations at "certain values", is there a good rundown of around what specific values those values would be? Perhaps it might be worthwile to raise the voltage by a 0.025 increment if less fluctuation could be achieved.Anonymous User - Tuesday, September 9, 2003 - link
Evan, thanks for helping out on the FSB/RAM question. It seems that when setting the FSB with a manual option then the RAM frequency is kept in sync at all times, regardless of what the separate DRAM speed setting is set to. It's reassuring to be able to confirm such things with CPU-z.