The Board

Abit KA7 KX133 Motherboard Review

This content was originally featured on Amdmb.com and has been converted to PC Perspective’s website. Some color changes and flaws may appear.

In this review, I will go over the Abit KA7 motherboard and hope to answer some questions. I will go over what drivers to install, which BIOS version to use, as well as BIOS settings. I bought this motherboard more than a month ago and have been very pleased. I would have had this done review earlier, but with three new BIOS revisions in less than a month, I had to reevaluate the board each time. This review will be more of a FAQ type summary. And away I go.

Below are the spec, ripped shamelessly from the Abit site:


[ Specifications ]

CPU
1. Supports AMD-K7 Athlon 200MHz FSB Processors

Chipset
1.
VIA VT8371(KX133) /VIA 686A
2. Supports Advanced Configuration and Power Management Interface (ACPI)
3. Supports AGP 2X/4X (Sideband) 3.3V device

Memory
1.
Four 168-pin DIMM sockets support PC100/PC133 SDRAM module
2.
Supports up to 2 GB MAX. (8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512MB SDRAM)
3. 6 chip Data Buffer Set
3. Supports ECC

System BIOS
1.
SOFTMENUTM III Technology
2. Award Plug and Play BIOS
3. Write-Protect Anti-Virus function by AWARD BIOS
4.
Year 2000 Compliant

Multi I/O Functions
1. On board Bus Master IDE Ports supporting UDMA 33/66
2. PS/2 Keyboard and PS/2 Mouse Connectors
3. 1x Floppy Port (up to 2.88MB)
4. 1x Parallel Port (EPP/ECP)
5. 2x Serial Ports
6. 2x USB Connectors
7. On board USB header for Two extra USB channels

Miscellaneous
1. ATX form factor
2. 1 AGP slot, 6 PCI slots and 1 ISA slots
3.
Built-in Wake on LAN/Wake on Ring header
4. Built-in IrDA TX/RX header
5. One Thermal Sensor Cable Included

A very clean layout, six PCI slots, one ISA slot and one AGP-4X slot; and Abit has decided to exclude the silly AMR slot that is seen on almost any Athlon board. Two ATA/66 IDE controllers with what seems to be plans for two additional IDE controllers. We already know that Abit is going to make the KA7-100, which will have two ATA/66, and two ATA/100 controllers, like Abit’s famous BE6-II. Four DIMM slots provide room for up to two gigabytes of PC133 SDRAM; all other Athlon boards hold a measly 768MB of RAM. The six TI data buffers to the north of the DIMM’s make this possible, hmmmm, just like Abit’s BX6. The data buffers are not necessary but provide a lot of stability. In addition, more stability brought along with the eleven 1500-microfarad capacitors behind the processor slot, providing the KA7 with a constant supply of power.

This board is huge, measuring in at 30.5cm by 23cm; it is defintely not going to fit in your smaller case for LAN parties. Four three-pin fan headers make an overclocker happy, two monitored from within the BIOS. A thermal sensor cable is included to monitor the temperature of your processor; this is a nice surprise, you usually have to hunt these down and pay a premium.

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