Abit 400s

[KnownKiller]

Damn hehe that AT7 Max 2 is cheaper then i thought it would be after seening the price of the KD7... 180 with the serial addaptor and cable... Crap it has serial raid! hehe.. Damnit i want it... I'll take 2!

 

[xgman]

I have a AT7 Max2 and the shipping bios was broken and should not have had the 6-2-1 bios since it did not work. This also was true of the KD7 I understand. I wasn't able to use the 1/6 divider at any seeting period. In addition with the shipping bios, I could not get over 180fsb. I was ready to RMA but then as soon as I flashed to the new beta bios, at 5-2-1 since they removed the faulty 6-2-1, I got 214fsb at 2.5-2-6-2-1T but more stable at 2T with one stick. 2 sticks of Twinmoss 512 -5 winbond would not boot to windows at that speed if instealled at the same time. The board is good (with new bios)with lots of features, but performance is no better than KD7.

 

[Sonny]

So a few mixed reviws & Beta BIOS floating around & still not too many happy people with their KT400.

 

[Sonny]

Anybody read THIS? Looks like the KT400 Northbridge will now be "RENAMED/REBADGED" to replace the KT333 chipset's NorthBridge.

X-BIT LABS Monday September 23, 2002

The idea was to offer the remarked KT400 North Bridge as KT333 North Bridge with AGP 8x transfer rate lowered to 4x, since generally it is the only difference between these chipsets. Unfortunately, VIA KT400 and KT333 North Bridges are not pin-to-pin compatible, according to THIS news-story based on the statements of mainboard makers. Since VIA plans to start the shipments of such new KT333 North Bridges in late September or early October, a lot of mainboard manufacturers are worried, as some of them already have PCBs for KT333 based devices (that are incompatible with new KT333), while the others are anxious about the lack of proper inventory and components that may be needed to manufacture such mainboards.

 

[xgman]

Why hasn't Abit posted an official "fixed" bios for the AT7Max2? This kinda makes me wonder what they are up to. They must be aware of the initial bios problems and the beta bios fix by now.

 

[Sonny]

Thread update

The boards have been out for a while now & I purchased the KD7 - RAID rev 1.1 Nov. of last year.

Pros

• VCore Max = 2.325V
• VMem Max = 3.25V
• Amazing SouthBridge = VT8235
• Capable of reading the In-Die Temp Diode
• 5BIT FID Readings
• 12V ATX2
• CPU Compatibility
• No Screen Flashing past 200MHz/400FSB

Cons

• Slower Asynchronous running of the FSB & Memory
• NO 6:2:1 Option (The Bug is true, not likely to be useful anyways for AMD CPUs)
• HOT Running System
• Crazy BIOS updates(B8 & CS)
• Death by RESET Switch (do yourself a favor & unplug the reset switch from the header)

So far the issue with DATA Corruption past the 200MHz/400FSB issue is still a problem but affects users at different bus speeds. I get hit at 208MHz/416FSB another member get's it at 215MHz/430FSB, both on the HP372 running RAID0, so it looks like how good your HDDs will function in the 40MHz+ PCI BUS Speeds. Does this call for a 6:2:1? Well if the CPUs can actually make use of it it would be needed. If they do is really a debate & I stand in the NO camp.

That really annoying "feature" of failing to reboot after using the reset switch when overclocked at 180MHz/360FSB shouldn't have been done. Some have had their systems never boot up again. There is a shortcut to reboot the system after a failed BIOS adjustment attempt were your system fails to boot but seems to be a case by case basis. Hold the Insert Key while you power up, this caused my system to not recognize the CPUs timings & I get a NON WORKABLE CPU error at the P.O.S.T. screan so IMNSHO forget that this is possible. Some people have had luck with it but I would rather not use it. Clear the CMOS like how the manual says to clear it & you will have no problems.

If you would like to share your experiences to help others just post away

 

[The_wiZ]

Is it possible to reach the 200fsb with a palomino and pc3200 twinmos ram on a KD7-raid?

 

[Sonny]

I could with my 1600+ but that doesn't mean everyone can. It's really different from person to person.

 

[The_wiZ]

Cool, hopefully it will arrive today. Then ive got a fun filled weekend ahead of me. Otherwise...it'll be party with my coworkers. Love it when the company pays for that stuff.