ABIT KV7 (KT600): Budget Performance in a Small Package

ABIT KV7: Stress Testing

We performed stress tests on the ABIT KV7 in these areas and configurations:

1. Chipset and motherboard stress testing, conducted by running the FSB at 211MHz.
2. Memory stress testing, conducted by running RAM at 400MHz with one DIMM slot filled and at 400MHz with both DIMM slots filled, at the lowest memory timings possible.

Front Side Bus Stress Test Results:

As standard practice, we ran a full range of stress tests and benchmarks to ensure that the ABIT KV7 was absolutely stable at each overclocked FSB speed. These stress tests included Prime95 torture tests, which were run in the background for a total of 24 hours.

In addition, we ran several other tasks: data compression, various DX8 and DX9 games, and apps, like Word and Excel. Moreover, Prime95 was running in the background. Finally, we ran our benchmark suite, which includes ZD Winstone suite, Unreal Tournament 2003, SPECviewperf 7.0, and Gun Metal Benchmark 2. While we were able to boot and run some tests at speeds as high as 220MHz FSB and at default voltage on the KV7, 211MHz was the highest achievable overclock without encountering any reliability issues.

Memory Stress Test Results:

This memory stress test is very basic, as it simply tests the ability of the KV7 to operate at its officially supported memory frequency (400MHz DDR) and at the lowest supported memory timings that our Corsair TwinX LL modules support:

Stable Dual DDR400 Timings (2/3 banks populated)
Clock Speed:	200MHz
Fast Command:	Fast
CAS Latency:	2.0
Bank Interleave:	Disabled
RAS to CAS Delay:	2T
RAS Precharge:	6T
Precharge Delay:	2T
Command Rate:	2T

Here, we see the KV7 performed decently with two, on par with other KT600 motherboards on the market. The reason you don’t see a Fast Command of Ultra mode is because the KV7’s BIOS did not allow from any mode but Normal and Fast. This may have contributed to the KV7’s somewhat slow stock performance in our benchmark suite. However, the difference would never be noticeable in any real world situation; it’s simply something of note.

Filling both available memory banks is more strenuous on the memory subsystem than testing one bank in single-channel mode, as it tests two DIMMs running 400MHz DDR at the most aggressive memory timings available in the BIOS:

Stable DDR400 Timings (3/3 banks populated)
Clock Speed:	200MHz
Fast Command:	Normal
CAS Latency:	2.0
Bank Interleave:	Disabled
RAS to CAS Delay:	3T
RAS Precharge:	6T
Precharge Delay:	2T
Command Rate:	1T

In this scenario, we see that the memory modules we used needed quite a bit of relaxation operating in the KV7. This means that the KV7 was unable to operate at the fastest available performance timings located in its BIOS. nForce2 motherboards are somewhat notorious for their excellent multi-DIMM performance, so this is one area where the KV7 (and all KT600 motherboards for that matter) fall short. The real world performance is still quite small though, so we urge users not to base their purchases on these findings, but on the accumulation of our findings (stock performance, overclocked performance, price, etc.).

We tested all these memory timings using several stress tests and general applications to guarantee stability. Prime95 torture tests were successfully run at the timings listed in the above charts. We also ran Sciencemark (memory tests only) and Super Pi. None of the three stress tests created stability problems for the ABIT KV7 at these memory timings.