ABIT BH7

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Lets face it. When you think of overclocking today, you'll more than likely hear the word "ABIT" from anyone that really has a clue about the enthusiast industry. I still remember cutting my teeth on my very first setup which consisted of the now legendary ABIT BH6 and Celeron 300a CPU. ABIT was the first company to release a motherboard that had BIOS options to let you "juice" up your voltage and change your FSB incrementally in order to increase the actual SPeeD of your processor, thus began overclocking in it's purest form.

This review is bittersweet for me. On one hand, I was exited at the chance to review ABIT's latest and greatest overclocking workhorse, the BH7, but at the same time saddened, not knowing if it could even remotely live up to the reputation it's predecessor had set. Filling the shoes of the mighty BH6 would be no easy task. And this brings us to why we are here today. To review the ABIT BH7 Intel 845PE based P4 Motherboard.

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Specifications
Lets take a quick look at the actual specs of this particular motherboard.

Processor
- Supports Intel® Pentium® 4 Socket 478 processors with 800MHz FSB (OC)
- Supports Intel® Pentium® 4 Socket 478 processors with 533/400MHz FSB
- Supports Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology

Chipset
- Intel 845PE/ICH4 chipset
- Supports Hi-Speed Universal Serial Bus (USB 2.0)

Memory
- Three 184-pin DDR DIMM sockets (Un-buffered Non-ECC DIMM)
- Supports 1 DIMM DDR 400 (OC)
- Supports 2 DIMM DDR 333 (Max. 2GB)
- Supports 3 DIMM DDR 266/200 (Max. 2GB)

Serial ATA 150
- On board Silicon Image Serial ATA PCI Controller
- Supports 1 port SATA 150 (1.52GB bps)

Audio
- 6-Channel AC 97 CODEC on board
- Professional digital audio interface supports 24-bit S/P DIF optical IN/OUT

LAN
- On board 10/100MB PCI Ethernet Controller

System BIOS
- SoftMenu™ Technology to set CPU parameters
- Supports Advanced Configuration Power Interface (ACPI)
- Supports Desktop Management Interface (DMI)

Internal I/O Connectors
- 1 x AGP slot
- 5 x PCI slots
- 1 x Floppy Port supports up to 2.88MB
- 2 x Ultra DMA 100/66/33 Connectors (Support 3 devices)
- 1 x Serial ATA 150 Connectors
- 1 x USB 2.0 headers
- 1 x CD-IN, 1 x AUX-IN
- 1 x IrDA

Back Panel I/O
- 1 x PS/2 Keyboard, 1 x PS/2 Mouse
- 1 x Serial Port connector, 1 x Parallel Port connector
- 1 x S/PDIF IN connector, 1 x S/PDIF Out connector
- 1 x Audio connector (Center/Subwoofer, Surround Speaker, Front Speaker, Line-in, Mic-in)
- 4 x USB Connectors, 1 x RJ-45 LAN Connector

Miscellaneous
- ATX form factor
- Hardware Monitoring - Including Fan speed, Voltages, CPU, and System temperature
- Supports Wake Up by LAN, Modem Ring, RTC Alarm, Keyboard and Mouse Power On

 

In typical ABIT style, we see a bevy of goodies packed into this motherboard. ABIT has clearly built the BH7 from the ground up as an overclocker's delight. With support for the Intel P4 Processors with 533MHz FSB and overlcocking possibilities well beyond that, we're off to a great start. Mix in the tried and true Intel 845PE chipset, Serial ATA 150, supported 333MHz Memory Bus and ABIT's SoftMenu™ special sauce, and we have the ingredients for a genuine powerhouse overclocker.

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Out of the Box
The BH7 comes in your standard blue motherboard box and includes the following items.

• 1 Driver Disc

• BH7 User's Manual

• 1 IDE ATA/133 ribbon cable

• 1 Floppy cable

• 1 Serial ATA Cable

• 1 ATX Face Plate

What you get here is the basics. Only what you'll need to get this motherboard hooked up and running and ready for some serious tweakage. Not nearly as many goodies as you'll see in other packages, but at this price, whose complaining?

Next: ABIT BH7 >>
 

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