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Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C., November 21th, 2003
- Discussing the latest in computer games and hardware, HardCoreWare.net
looked at the ABIT IS7. Here are the highlights:
Today we will be looking at ABIT's I865PE offering, the IS7,
which just so happens to have the 'PAT-like BIOS' optimizations included...I
like the little mantra at the bottom. Speed - Stability - Power. Right
On! That pretty much describes what every gamer is looking for in a motherboard.
Aside from the "MAX" line of exotic, over-the-top motherboards,
ABIT also offers some basic motherboards that are rock solid. Although
they are more conventional than the MAX boards, they do not skimp on the
OC features at all.
The IS7 is one such board. Based on the Intel 865PE chipset,
this board has a plethora of tweaks and overclocking features, including
the ability to enable "PAT" thus effectively making it an 875P
board in every way but name.
 BIOS
Optmizations
The advanced chipset features submenu is where we find out PAT'like optimization
settings located. You are also given options to change some nitty-gritty
low-level RAM settings here. If you're not aware of what exactly each
setting does, just leave everything on auto and stick with changing the
Game Accelerator setting.
Finally the IS7 also contains a PC Health submenu. Here you will
find fan RPM values, current temperature vales as well as maximum values
before warning or shutdown. There are also values located here for each
of your PSU voltage rails which is nice.
The Overclocking
ABIT boards have historically been known as very good overclockers. The
ABIT NF7 nForce2 offering is known as one of the best overclockers on
the AMD platform side of things, and the IS7 looks poised to be one of
the best on the Intel platform side. With tons of BIOS tweaking options
available and a nice submenu dedicated strictly to overclocking features
is was quite easy to get the 800mhz P4 3.0 running smoothly at 1000mhz
FSB with only a Vantec Aeroflow and stock motherboard cooling.
All in all the IS7 is a very solid motherboard. With the multitude
on onboard features offered, a competitive price, as well as the ease
of overclocking, I can very highly recommend this motherboard for your
next Intel computer purchase.
If you absolutely must have the fastest...then check out ABIT's IC7 series
of motherboards.
For the full review go here: http://www.hardcoreware.net/reviews/review-180-1.htm
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