Abit KX7-333/KX7-333R DDR Athlon
Motherboard
Last updated: 10/3/2002
CPU SUPPORT. According
to Abit's web site the KX7-333 motherboard supports Thunderbird and Palomino
(XP) core processors with 200 and 266 MHz FSB's through the XP 2100+
and will support future processors with these characteristics. This motherboard
is relatively new and has not appeared on AMD's
recommended motherboard list yet.
MEMORY. The four 184-pin
DDR-SDRAM slots PC1600/PC2100/PC2700 DDR DRAM modules
for up to 3 GBytes of unbuffered memory or 3.5
GBytes of registered memory.
SLOTS. The KX7-333 has
six PCI expansion board slots and one 4X AGP display adapter slot. This is
the second motherboard we have used that does not have an ISA expansion board
slot. The ISA bus is now dead. There is no MODEM riser slot. Good. If
you don't know what one is, hopefully, you won't have to.
 I/O. There
are PS/2 keyboard, PS/2 mouse, 1 printer, two serial, and two USB ports along
the back of the motherboard. The configuration fits all of the ATX
cases we have reviewed to date. All connectors are of good quality
and color-coded. The KX7-333 supports four USB ports. Two of
them are taken to the exterior of the case by the I/O back panel. The
other two are available from the headers on the motherboard. A USB
cable and bracket set is supplied with the motherboard to accommodate the
header. The board has headers for IrDa infrared for remote devices,
wake-up on LAN (WOL), and wake-up on MODEM (WOM).
Noticeable omissions as compared to many competing
products are onboard audio, a game port, and a header for two of the six
USB ports that the chipset can accommodate. Personally, I couldn't
care less about that many USB ports and I would rather not have one-board
audio for some applications such as shop computers. However, the problems
with onboard audio have now been licked by the major motherboard manufactures
and it is a cost-effective way to provide acceptable PC audio to office and
other users that do not have a need for high-end audio. One thing we
would really like to see, which is not widely implemented in competing products,
but is supported by the chipset and available with some motherboards, is
an onboard Ethernet capability. That should be "standard' equipment
on all quality motherboards now.
HARDWARE MONITORING. Like
most, if not all, recent motherboards, the K7X-333 does not fully support
the Athlon XP processor. This processor has a built-in diode circuit
to monitor processor temperature and to shut down the system before damage
can result from a defective heatsink-fan. Instead of using this feature,
the KX7-333 employs an inferior combination of the temperature monitoring
capabilities of the Winbond 83697HF super I/O chip and a thermister mounted
in the center of the socket A, which are a hold-over from previous motherboard
designs and are necessary for monitoring and compatibility with older Thunderbird
core processors. Another diode next to the W83697HF monitors the system
temperature.
Fan monitoring by the W83697HF is inadequate. It
can only monitor two fans and the jack that the Northbridge heat-sink fan
plugs-into is not one of the ones that is monitored. The processor
heat-sink fan jack and the chassis fan jack at the front, right of the motherboard
are the only ones that are. The Northbridge fan jack and chassis fan
jack at the rear of the motherboard should be monitored.
 The
CD includes Winbond's Hardware Doctor. This spiffy Windows Utility
allows one to see at a glance critical temperature, fan, and voltage settings
and compare them to the actual values in real time. Note the º42.5C/º108F
CPU temperature which is very good for an AMD XP 1900+ processor. The
utility would be even better if it allowed setting CPU shutdown parameters
for temperature and fan failure. As it is, those settings have to be
made in the CMOS Setup.
There are three LEDs along the font of the board. D14 is
lit whenever +5 volts standby power is available (the power supply is plugged
in and is receiving power), D16 is a power indicator (the the front panel
power-on button worked, the motherboard told the power supply to wake-up,
and the power supply is producing the normal 5 volts DC), and D17 lights
when the reset button is pressed (trivial). Although nice to have,
in comparison, the digital BIOS post LEDs on the EpoX 8KHA+ motherboard are
a better troubleshooting tool. Most motherboards have neither.
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