ABIT IS7 Motherboard Review - ABIT IS7 Motherboard Review

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(Benchmarking Continued...)

UT2k3 w/[H]ardOCP Benchmark Utility

Now here the leggier Canterwood chipset of the IC7-G stretches out in max frames per second acheived, but again we see that the average is pretty much minute at best. Nothing earth shattering here, pretty much what we've come to expect in the course of these benchmarks.

BENCHMARKING SUMMARY

The trends we saw in the benchmarks were uncovered early and rarely let us down thru our benchmarking. The Canterwood is the class winner, but a very strong showing was shown by both Springdale boards, with the IS7 narrowly pulling off that battle.

As I stated before the benchmarks began, benching motherboards is not always an exact science. With so many variables affecting the real world benchmarks, and the fact you have to be weary of synthetic benchmarks, you pretty much have to draw your conclusions by the trends more than the actual scores. The trends lead us to believe the Canterwood is a better performer, but they also clearly show that very little is lost by going with the slightly cheaper IS7 motherboard.

OVERCLOCKING

When working with a CPU that has a known ceiling, this is one of my favorite parts of the performance section of a motherboard review.  While it's true as you can see in the benchmarks that performance even on the same chipset varies from board to board, one of the big things is which manufacturer has put together a package that can push your system to the limit.

This IS7 from ABIT did not disappoint us in the overclocking arena.  In our IC7-G review we saw that this CPU petered out (at least with air cooling) right at the 3.5Ghz mark.  We saw in the FIC Springdale review that the FIC just didn't have quite the juice necessary to go as far and hit a stability wall around the 3.3GHz mark.  What did our IS7 push the chip to?

Not too shabby at all, and that speed with air cooling (stock) and only a .25 voltage increase to 1.575!  I know for a fact that heat is actually an issue with this and to me that's a good thing, because we can fix a heat problem.

Here's full screenie's of both the CPU and the logical CPU (via the Intel Hyper-Threading:

 

With the potential of the lower speed C stepping Pentium4's here and on the way, it's safe to say in my opinion that running an ABIT IS7 will in no way hinder your ability to push the CPU's to their max.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I would be hard pressed to say anything other than overall I was pleased with the IS7. That said, there certainly are some issues that I have with it.

I am not pleased that this far into the motherboard manufacturing process, (which has been what?  Oh yeah, SINCE THE BEGINNING OF PC'S!) that we're still having some layout issues.  It would seem to me that manufacturers could lay out the design in a way that everything is functional, easily accessible, and not interfering with the other components on the board.  That being said, I'm sure it's no walk in the park cramming everything that is supported by modern chipsets on the same size PCB that we've been using for years.

I was insanely impressed with the additional memory bandwidth available via the dual channel memory option.  I've been running quite a few nForce2 boards and frankly, I've never seen anything even approaching this increase when configuring the nForce boards dual channel.

The little things done that ABIT has been known for haven't slowed down.  From including 2 sets of data and power SATA cables, to the sticker for your case that shows wiring and jumper settings.  The T's are crossed and I's dotted with this product, exactly what we've come to expect from ABIT.

The raw speed demonstrated via not only this Springdale board but the Canterwood as well tells me that Intel is not only well on their way back to the top, but actually there.  It will be interesting to say the least watching the next six months in this community develop. 

We didn't show SATA benchmarks in this review but we did run them with our Maxtor DiamandMax Plus 160GB SATA drive and again were just as pleased with the performance.  SATA is becoming a staple quickly and it's nice to see that even on the low end motherboards and chipsets it's being integrated as main stream.

So yes, overall it's safe to say I was pleased with the performance, features, and stability of the IS7. Don't let this comment surprise you though, read the conclusion to see where these final thoughts have led.

CONCLUSION

While I have a hard time finding more than a few negative things to say about the IS7, the same can be said for the not so much more expensive IC7 motherboard or most any other Canterwood based boards out there.  As we've seen in the benchmarks the Springdale definitely demonstrates a great showing and holds it's own in a few of the marks, the Canterwood seems to be more the ticket currently for the 100% performance keen crowd.  This statement may end up being hogwash (I always wanted to use that word in a review!) if BIOS development for the Springdale is enhanced a bit. This board is a production board, but as we reviewed it before the 865PE was even officially acknowledged by Intel, it's a safe bet that BIOS revisions will be coming rather soon.  Be that good or bad I cannot tell you, but a safe bet definitely.

The IS7 is a board that I could wholeheartedly recommend to 99% of PC users and to about 70% of our current readership.  Not only does it demonstrate stability that, let's face it, we've come to expect from Intel chipset based boards, but it has a feature set that rivals even the most outrageous high end boards out there, and the performance speaks for itself.  If you're an enthusiast that will spend sleepless nights trying to get those extra 92 3dMarks or that extra 11FPS in UT03 with FSAA maxed, well, the Canterwood is more than likely the chipset you need to build your P4 based motherboard around.

So in the end this conclusion, like every other review on the net and in print, is utterly worthless to you.  You've seen the features, the drawbacks, the positives, and the performance via the benchmarks.  The real conclusion was actually written in your head (and heart for you diehards!) as you read this review.  Is it the right board for you?  Only you can truly answer that question, I just hope we gave you the information and tools needed to lead you along the right path..

HIGHS

1. Dual Channel Memory is where it's at, impressive!
2. Features are endless, for a value board it can't be beat
3. Comes with Sticker for your case that diagrams wiring and jumpers
4. Nice job with a REAL chipset active cooler, not just eye candy
5. Overclockability, nuff said on that!
6. Performance rivals that of the Canterwood chipset
7. Price.  How can you not call this performance a good deal at $USD109?

LOWS:

1. No fan header near the front intake fan on most cases
2. Mounting hole blocked by IDE connectors
3. DDR Voltage adjustment limited to just 2.8v
4. Performance rivals that of the Canterwood chipset

Now you are wondering how the heck "Performance rivals that of the Canterwood Chipset" can be listed as a high and low right?  Well, because it's both.  It's a high because this is a value board that competes in an impressive way with the high end Canterwood.  That's no passing comment, it's a VERY high "High".  However, with the Canterwood boards being as close in price to the Springdale boards (USD$25 or so) it also has to be considered a low when you can buy a "better" motherboard for not that big of an out of pocket expense.  So really it depends on your perspective whether it's a high or a low, so we covered all the bases. :)

That'll do it from here I suppose. Thanks go out to ABIT for working with us to get this review out as early as we did!  I definitely appreciate you checking out our look at the IS7.  It's an exciting time to be an enthusiast again and we're about to have a lot of fun.  If you want to discuss this review head into the forums, or truck on back to the front page to check out the rest of the GooSH!™ here on Dev Hardware.  If you're looking to pick up the ABIT IS7 or even the Canterwood version, the IC7 simply check the links and you'll find the best prices on the net.  THANKS!

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