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: Board Layout
The general layout of the ABIT KV7 is barely acceptable, mostly due to the KV7’s tiny dimensions. In fact, the KV7 is one of the smallest motherboards in an ATX form factor that we’ve ever come across, challenging even the tiny Albatron PX845PEV Pro.
One of the less important, but still notable, layout mismanagements of the KV7 is the location of the ATX connector. The ATX connector is placed on the left-hand side of the motherboard, just below the lower left portion of the CPU socket. As we’ve mentioned time and again, standard PSUs usually do not have an extra long ATX cable, and this becomes a problem with motherboards that have their ATX connectors located on the left-hand portion of the motherboard. It will increase clutter and can obstruct the installation/uninstallation of the CPU HSF, memory modules, and any other components in that area in which a user may decide to modify or uninstall. If you're using a high-quality PSU with an extra-long ATX connector, you have nothing to worry about. Still, the vast majority of ATX cases come with standard PSU’s with short cables. If you are thinking of purchasing a KV7, you more than likely aren’t going to spend any extra money on anything you don’t have to.
Unfortunately, we see that ABIT continues to place the Primary and Secondary IDE connectors of their enthusiast motherboards at a 45 degree angle to the board. Not only that, but the Primary and Secondary IDE connectors are located at the edge of the motherboard below the AGP slot. This location will make it nearly impossible for a user to use the KV7’s bundled IDE cables, as they will simply be too short to reach the upper bays of an ATX case. What this means is that you will be unable to install optical drives in the first drive bay of your computer case and possibly the second drive bay as well. In the end, we still see no reason for ABIT to continually use this type of location on their desktop motherboards.
One of the more positive aspects of the KV7’s layout is the location of the Floppy connector. If you’re going to install a Floppy drive, the Floppy connector location on the KV7 makes it easier for the user to route the Floppy cable under and alongside the motherboard’s edges. This will reduce any possible cable collision and case clutter, making for a much more neat and organized computer case. Air flow is also improved, though this is less of a concern unless you’re going to load up every imaginable drive and device on this budget motherboard.
The KV7’s DIMM connectors are nicely located well away from the AGP slot. This makes it possible for users to install or uninstall memory modules easily without having to uninstall their video card, which is a time-consuming process that includes steps like unscrewing your video card, unplugging your VGA cable, and physically uninstalling your video card from its AGP slot. This location is becoming more and more common, thankfully.
As always, ABIT is accommodating to enthusiasts, and this couldn’t be better portrayed than with the addition of the four mounting holes required for more powerful Athlon XP CPU HSFs. Cooling enthusiasts will be delighted to hear this, as will the most serious overclockers. Despite this excellent addition, there are good copper HSFs out there that can be bought very cheaply (between $10 and $15) that don't require mounting holes.
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Evan Lieb - Tuesday, September 9, 2003 - link
Haha, thanks for clarifying that #13. ;)Take care,
Evan
Anonymous User - Tuesday, September 9, 2003 - link
I think #5 is referring to the apparent omission of the word "look" in the sentence. I congratulate #5 on taking the time to carefully proofread the article in search of typographical errors. As I was more focused on the substance of the review (which I thought was excellent, conistent with my general experience with Anandtech), I missed this major point that seriously affected the readability of the entire article! :)Evan Lieb - Tuesday, September 9, 2003 - link
Oh, forgot to comment on a couple other things.#1, Anand does more than you'll ever know. Right now he's been relegated to two things: 1) Technology reviews, which he is best suited for because he is easily the most well versed AnandTech editor. And 2) administrative duties such as hiring new editors (Andrew Ku, Wesley Fink, and more people you'll hear about soon), getting the products and content editors need, and just running the web site (which includes a countless list of things).
#3, set your FSB to 175MHz (350MHz DDR), set your DRAM speed to DDR400, download CPU-Z v. 1.18, and then look in the memory section and see what your memory is running at. Your memory should adjust itself accordingly to its FSB.
Evan Lieb - Tuesday, September 9, 2003 - link
#10, I was unaware that ABIT has that policy. I'll have to confirm that with them. Even if that is the case, other motherboard makers do the same thing, and quite honestly it's not that big of a deal IMO.#5, how is that sentence not readable? Do you have any suggestions?
Take care,
Evan
Anonymous User - Monday, September 8, 2003 - link
#7, they're not charging for standard shipping, just the upgrade to express, which is understandable and was only in my message for info (since it wasn't included in the review). I even don't have a major problem with the $7 "processing fee", but to charge $150 ahead-of-time and then the additional time of waiting for the "check is in the mail" refund seems to be less of a good policy compared to other's policy of charging only if the defective unit isn't returned with 30 days.Anonymous User - Monday, September 8, 2003 - link
#7, what he explained is a quite common thing on nForce2 motherboards, especially among advanced users. I cower in fear everytime I update my bios or drivers fearing either my system or board will be hosed. You never know when you'll download that bios or driver that will just decide to kill everything (*cries about having to repair install windows xp after installing 2.41 and again 2.42, as if I didn't learn my lesson first time :P*).Granted most of these problems disappear if you leave your system alone and stick to the 2.03 driver set (if you can stand the little quirks about it), the occurrence of such problems are seemingly less in the latest VIA chipsets.
Anonymous User - Monday, September 8, 2003 - link
#6, I (#3) did not want to run FSB/RAM asynchronously. I want to run it in sync no matter what the FSB is set to, but the board has no clear setting for that. The available RAM settings are 266, 333, 400 and SPD in wich it goes with whatever the RAM module is rated to run at. There is no setting to simply let it follow the FSB as in all other boards I have ever encountered. I could guess that it does in fact follow the FSB anyway, but have no way to confirm it. Especially when the BIOS reports one of those set RAM speeds when booting up, regardless of FSB frequency. (I know of the AGP/PCI business but it's irrelevant to this specific technical issue)Anonymous User - Monday, September 8, 2003 - link
#2, of course ABIT is going to charge for shipping, it's ridiculous to think they're going to eat those fees.And by the way #4, nForce2 motherboards are much better than KT600 motherboards in general. This is fact, why try to deny it by claiming your experience is the norm. Idiot.
Anonymous User - Monday, September 8, 2003 - link
to 3there's no need to run amd based systems FSB/mem async, it doesn't get you more speed. you'd better manipulate with multiplier. if you raise your CPU's FSB the mem/agp/pci come all along. for example if you raise your kt600 fsb to 220 your mem speed will also be 220MHz (you can't run it on pc2100 or 2700 levels to normalize your mem speed, but only on pc3200 mode) and yor agp/pci will be 73,5MHz/36,7MHz.
for example, I'm running my kt333 at 200FSB and my agp/pci is 80/40. and I cant understand how come anantech guys only got out maximum of 210 mHz fsb, i belive some peolple here need to learn more about overclocking. I've got even 215MHz of FSB out of my kt333. isn't that strange? has there been a downward evolution by VIA.
Anonymous User - Monday, September 8, 2003 - link
"Anyway, today we take a close at ABIT's latest creation, the KV7."Please take the time to make your articles more readable. Thank you.