Abit Kt600 ..... Doh!!!!!

[Sonny]

ABIT KV7

Terrible layout & not enough IDE Ports. I hope this board performs like the earlier reference boards & not like the preproduction rev 0.6 Epox boards.

 

[Graphic67]

I beleive that the Epox board uses the older southbridge chip, not the 8237 which was just released a week or so ago. Also, the Epox was such an early release that I think it was thrown together too quickly.

Two unfortunate things about the KT600 boards...

1. Without a pci lock, VIA failed to implement a 7-2-1 divider for overclockers.

2. It appears that the memory subsystem in the KT600 is still weak like the KT400 in that it has limited capacity in terms of maximum ram and number of modules when using ram faster than PC2100.

 

[Sonny]

I'm glad there are no PCI Locks on any VIA chipset, it doesnt benefit their architecture, since you get a lot of performance with VIA chipsets running at higher BUS Speeds as compared to the NF2 doing better with locks. That would make the 7:2:1 ratio even harder for the overclocker, to get in the range of 38MHz PCI on a 1/7 your going to need ram that can run 266MHz at the most agressive timings at normal voltages.

Your right about the max number of modules when running faster ram but there is a work around for that. The problem is rooted with capacitance issues with modules of increasing density so you will have to run more voltage for it to run more memory than rated.

What we would do for boards that can do anything

 

[Graphic67]

Did you see the Abit page in the early hours while it stated that:

"The KV7 is the next generation of high-performance motherboards for Intel CPUs."

I thought it was a pretty funny typo.

(That would have been a board that could do anything!)

 

[Sonny]

Yeah, the first 2 sentences were so messed up.

 

[IR1]

Whats up with Abit and putting the PSU plug right under the heatsink. I had to route my psu cable behind the PSU and back out infront on my NF7-s, hard to explain... anyway doesnt matter it was still a bi#$H. Like I want my cable going right over my CPU fan or the NB fan. Come on Abit! I do love my NF7-s... im just glad I found a good way to route the cable.

Thats a fairly skinny board too. Those Nvidia cards are gonna extand out past the width of the mobo. But smaller is easier to work with... if only that plug was somewhere else!

 

[J2T]

Yea, that is my only complaint with Abit is the location of the stinking PSU plug. Any ideas as to why? I would think that would be something they would hear some flak about.

 

[Trips]

I alway thought that it was better to have the ATX connection as close to the power regulators and the cpu socket as possible. Wouldn't that give you better voltage lines?

 

[Graphic67]

They put the power as close as possible to the three most demanding power users on the motherboard: CPU, northbridge and AGP slot. They probably tried to get it close to the memory as well, but discovered (or knew already) that the northbridge and memory had to be close to each other.

 

[gtsimmo]

I hate the ATX connector location, it'll probably get in the way of large heatsinks like the Thermalright 900u i use. The floppy connector is also alittle bit too low, making that a problem with some people with full atx towers where the floppy drive is mounted on top of the case. I really do hope this is released with the 8237 southbridge, I really want native sata support, maybe even at the cost of Dual channel ddr.

 

[Graphic67]

About the floppy connector, if you have enough ribbon cable, the location is great for folding the cable around the sides of the case.

 

[Sonny]

There's just not enough room on the board. Could they have slimmed down the PCB to reduce signaling issues? With all the additions on the KT600 chipset why do we see less functionality, 4 IDE ports should be the minimum these days with a pair of SATA ports added in as extra. This thing is as slim as my KT7A - RAID

Anybody think ABIT will be releasing a KV7A - RAID?

 

[Graphic67]

This board is so slim on features that it makes me believe that a KT600 based max3 board will be rolling off the abit assembly line in a month or two.

 

[altec]

Really disappointed with the layout on that board. Why are the IDE slots angled like that? And why in the world is the floppy slot under the PCI slots? The ATX connector is too close to the NB and the CPU socket, and the places for the extra USB cables are really really close to those two PCI slots. The only good thing that I have to say about that board is that the mosfet's look like they are in a pretty good place to put heatsinks on them. The NF-7 has them in an area that is pretty difficult to get things epoxied to them without fingers that are the size of a 4yr old.

 

[grunjee]

I sure hope this is a joke... that board layout can't be for real!

 

[Sonny]

Supposedly

• Ratio (FSB:AGPCI): 3:2:1 | 4:2:1 | 5:2:1 | 6:2:1
• Multiplier Factor: X5 - X22.5
• AGP Voltage: 1.50V - 1.65V
• DDR Voltage: 2.50V - 2.80V
• NB Core Voltage: 2.55V - 2.95V
• CPU Core Voltgae: from 1.100V - 2.325V

I think the VMem is wrong though, they probably have either a 2.85V or 3.250V max.

 

[Ferg]

other than the placement of the floppy connector and the atx connecter this board makes a lot of sense. Sure it small and only has 2 IDE ports, but the performance should be competitive with nforce2 Ultra400 boards, and its going to be under 100 bucks with SATA. This is a board i might buy to get a cheap upgrade. I mean think about it, get some decenet ram, this board and a 1700+, overclock it to 2Ghz and youve got a pretty good machine for 200 bucks, thats hard to beat.

 

[Breadfan]

Wow...I hope that design serves a purpose, like timing or something...becuase otherwise, it's a bad departure from Abit's usual logical, clean layout. One reason I became an Abit fan was because of how clean the layout of their boards were...but not this one!

The other thing bothering me is...only 3 dimms? Come on Abit! I remember Abit working extra hard on the KT333 to have 4 dimms!

As for RAID, I honestly don't see how...look at that board...there's no silkscreen or reserved area for a RAID chip that I can see...and I don't even see SATA ports.

Guess we'll see...

 

[Sonny]

The RAID is an added function on the new SB that's why we don't see a RAID Chip on the board. SATA Ports are neer the battery;

 

[markedmundb]

I'm Glad I got the NF7-s. With my full tower case (only floppy bay at the top), it would be impossible to plug the floppy drive onto the board...