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Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C., January 22th, 2004 -
Self described as a site for "Quality Gadgets for Hardware Zealots"
Envy News recently did a review of the new ABIT AN7,
a board that includes all of the bells and whistles for an incredibly
affordable price. Here are the highlights:
"Do You Guru? That's the question ABIT has been asking these
last few weeks, especially since they added their new µGuru system to
their three most popular chipsets. Of course you are going to see the
µGuru system on the KV8-MAX3, the VIA K8T800-based chipset for the Athlon
64 CPU. Then, both my friend and yours, Ken O'Rielly reviewed the AI7
that's based on the i865PE chipset. And we now come to today's review,
the AN7 that's based on the ever-popular nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset which
is basically a reworked NF7-S to support the µGuru system.
What is µGuru? It is basically a hardware and software combination
to give you better monitoring and controlling options to your motherboard.
ABIT has their µGuru chip on the motherboard itself, and a software suite
that gives and takes information from the chip.
Not only do you get the regular user manual, but you also get
something that didn't come with the NF7-S, a quick installation guide
as well as a µGuru quick guide. Even the quality of the manuals has drastically
improved since my last ABIT board. Everyone hates hunting for dipswitches,
connections and fan headers on the boards, so ABIT on each page has them
clearly labeled, circled and giant arrows pointing at them. Quick and
concise, it just makes things much easier.
After viewing the final installation, I was very pleased with
the improved layout, it made the case tidier than what I had with the
NF7-S. From the reduced clutter of not including USB/FireWire brackets,
and the design of the IDE headers, I'm very happy with the way ABIT is
listening to their customers in this regard.
Although not directly related to the µGuru chip, FlashMenu is
part of the µGuru software suite. FlashMenu is just that, it flashes your
motherboard BIOS within Windows either from a file that you have downloaded
already, or it will download one and do it for you. I know some of you
are still skittish about flashing within Windows, but it has come a long
way and is much safer than when it first came out.
ABIT's BlackBox utility is for those that need support from ABIT.
You gather your system information (or let BlackBox do it for you), and
send it off to ABIT in the hopes that it can diagnose system incompatibilities
or problems. ABIT will dig through your setup and help you get back up
and running again.
Coming into where the µGuru helps you to tweak your system, ABIT's
FanEQ system is one of the more exciting things I've seen in quite some
time. We've all come to know fan controllers (a.k.a. rheobuses), and we
know that if we want extra cooling, we have to reach over and turn our
fans up manually. But what if we don't need that extra cooling power just
yet? ABIT takes the guessing out of this by letting you control all of
your fans off the motherboard headers. You can control the voltage supplied
to the fan headers based on the temperatures you deem appropriate for
your setup. Choose the low temperature and the high temperature and the
FanEQ system will lower the voltage (down to 8V) on the motherboard fan
header to slow the fan down. There are 3 presets, and a custom setting
to let you take total control.
Standing back and looking at the overall package that ABIT provides
you with, you almost feel like you got too much for your money. The price
is about the same as the NF7-S currently, but you get so much more. The
inclusion of the µGuru chip along with the FanEQ is enough to get me to
bite. But when you include the rest of the µGuru software suite, it just
makes it that much more tempting to dive in. The board layout, the great
stock performance, it all comes together to bring a smile to your face.
This is a very good board, and when it matures with more BIOS
revisions and updated software, it will be a great board. Highly recommended,
and with online prices under $95, it's almost a no-brainer.
Conclusions
Excellent packaging and manuals
BIOS layout and options
Component layout
Software fan control w/ FanEQ
Great real-world performance"
For the full review go here: http://www.envynews.com/index.php?ID=618&page=1
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