Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C., November 12 -
Hardware enthusiasts know that with it comes to top-notch quality, stability and
performance, ABIT motherboards are tough to beat. But with the release of ABIT's
MAX Series, beating out an ABIT board just got a lot tougher. This time,
ExtremeTech held a gigantic roundup featuring 10 i845 boards from 9
manufacturers, and after a gauntlet of tests, declared the ABIT IT7 the best
overall.
ExtremeTech was impressed with the vast array of features on the IT7: "...the
rear riser panel is unique. For one thing, it has not only the usual three audio
ports (stereo out, mic in, line in), but another pair (rear out, center/sub out)
in case you want to take advantage of its codec without the need for a bracket.
There's also an optical S/PDIF-out. And surprisingly, the sound from the codec
is clean... Besides all that, the IT7 features the remarkable SoftMenu III, with
all the trimmings mentioned in the previous ABIT review... Another surprise is
that the board features four RAID channels. Powered by a HighPoint HTP374, with
raid 0, 1 and 0+1 support. It supports up to eight ATA/133 devices. Right next
to the raid, there's a two-digit LED status readout. Of course, there are two
standard IDE channels as well."
So what makes the IT7 so tempting? According to ExtremeTech: "ABIT's IT7 took
some amazing chances and came up with, if not the best board in the world, one
of the most interesting...its four-channel RAID, extra USB 2.0 controller and
other goodies, like the beach ball, make it a tempting buy. ABIT boards are also
the most overclockable of the bunch."
Here's the conclusion: "ABIT did a lot of interesting things with this
motherboard, and it would be a hell of a conversation piece among your techie
friends at the very least. The ABIT IT7 is truly a work of ingenious
engineering, and the clear winner in our test…The winner of the roundup is the
ABIT IT7, provided you have a USB keyboard and mouse. It packs more than any of
the other boards, it's FireWire ready without the need for an extra bracket, and
it features the fabulous SoftMenu III…if we had to choose one to build up our
own machine, we'd pick the IT7."
Rating: 9/10
For the full verdict and review, click here:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,547520,00.asp
For more information on the IT7,
click here.
For more information on ABIT and other ABIT Engineered products, click here:
http://www.abit.com.tw |
