ABIT IS7 Motherboard Review
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The wait is over, NDA's lifted, no more speculation, the i865 chipset from Intel is now official. Coming so soon in the wake of the Canterwood (i875) release why is this Springdale chipset such a big deal? Quite simply because we at OCAddiction feel that this will be the chipset being run in the majority of Intel based performance systems. It's less expensive and sports what is supposed to be close to the same performance as it's partner the Canterwood.
All of the hype in the world (and in this PC enthusiasts community we see a buttload of it!) doesn't mean jack if the product doesn't meet our expectation. That said, we've got the ABIT IS7 in house sporting the Springdale and plan to put it thru the wringer. Just for fun we've decided to compare this board to boards sporting the 845PE (Intel's last best thing) and the brand new Canterwood chipset to truly see where this new i865 falls in line.
Before we get the cart ahead of the horse, let's take a look at the i865 chipset.
SPRINGDATE I865 CHIPSET SPECS
The Springdale chipset sports a pretty hefty feature list. The first thing that comes to mind as monumental for an Intel chipset is Dual Channel DDR. For those of you unfamiliar with DCDDR it is actually pretty simple. In the past Intel chipsets have all been single channel. This means that no matter how many sticks of memory and regardless of size, the memory was combined to share the same bandwidth and path (or channel) to the CPU. With Dual Channel what this basically means is that there are two separate banks, each with it's own pipeline, theoretically doubling your memory speed. As benchmarks will show later in this review, this claim is very close to accurate.
Let's take a look at all of the key features of the i865PE chipset...
| Features | Benefits |
| 800-/533-MHz System Bus | Supports platform longevity for the fastest Intel® Pentium® 4 processor frequencies and delivers greater system bandwidth. |
| Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology Support | Increases memory and system-level performance by optimizing internal data paths. |
| 478-pin Processor Package Compatibility | Dedicated data paths deliver maximum bandwidth for I/O-intensive applications. |
| Intel® Hub Architecture | Flexible memory technology allows a full spectrum of DDR usage from highest performance to more cost-effective systems. ECC ensure data reliability and integrity. |
| Dual-Channel DDR 400/333 SDRAM Memory with ECC Support | Highest bandwidth graphics interface enables upgradability to the latest graphics cards. |
| Integrated Hi-Speed USB 2.0 | Eight ports offer up to 40x greater bandwidth over USB 1.1 for a variety of today's demanding high-speed I/O peripherals. |
| Dual Independent Serial ATA Controllers | Facilitates high-speed storage transfers and easy hard drive upgrades. |
| Integrated Intel® RAID Technology | Additional storage performance for Serial ATA hard disk drives(HDD), without the added cost of an external RAID controller. |
| Ultra ATA/100 | Takes advantage of the existing industry HDD and optical drive interfaces. |
| AC '97 Controller | Supports Dolby* Digital 5.1 surround
sound(1), delivering six channels of enhanced sound quality. |
| Intel® Communication Streaming Architecture | Wire-speed GbE with the Dedicated Network Bus for performance network connectivity. |
As you can see this chipset is no slouch. Marking more than marginal increases performance-wise over the 845, and a feature set that is downright impressive. With native SATA controllers, the Dual Channel memory, Intel Hyper-threading capability, and native support for the 800Mhz front side bus, there isn't much lacking in the i865PE.
The only real difference between this 865 and it's bigger brother, the Canterwood i875, is the fact that the 875 features Intel PAT (Performance Acceleration Technology). While this is certainly a nice feature, it's anticipated performance gains appear initially to have been overstated a bit. When you look at this board and compare it to the ABIT IC7 you come to realize that the PAT is the only real difference between the boards and their $20+ price difference and it makes you have to wonder if it's worth it. But hey, we'll let you decide that for yourself in the benchmarks section of this review.
Since this is a motherboard review, what do ya say we take a look at the motherboard!?
IN THE BOX
When you open the box of your brand new IS7 ABIT motherboard, this is what you should find inside.
- ATX Case Plate
- 1ea Floppy Ribbon Cable
- 1ea ATA100 Ribbon Cable
- not 1, but 2ea SATA Data Cables
- 2ea SATA Power Cables
- Add-on Plate with 2 USB and 2 IEE1294 Connectors
- User's Manual
- Quick Installation Guide
- Drivers Disk
- Sticker with all Wiring and Jumper Settings
Now a few things on that list made me more than a little happy to see and one thing made me unhappy. I loved that ABIT was forward thinking enough to include two SATA data and power cables. They give you RAID capability so it's nice to see that they made sure you could run it.
I have never seen this before but it's one of the smartest things I've ever seen included in a motherboard box. They include a sticker that you can put inside your case that shows you what each jumper setting is for, as well as how all of the case wiring is to be installed. No more trying to read minute PCB writing or digging out the manual. Wanna know where the HDD LED goes? Just look at the sticker! It's cheesy I know, but hey, it's the simple things that separates a pack of similar products.
Let's go take a look at the motherboard, benchmarks, OVERCLOCKING, etc...
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