Abit KX7-333/KX7-333R DDR Athlon
Motherboard
Last updated: 10/3/2002
STABILITY. When
it comes to motherboards and other computer hardware, stability and reliability
are just about everything to the business user. I have had this motherboard
in my computer for over a month and have been testing it longer. Windows
XP, 2000 Pro, Me, and 98 have been run on it. The Abit KX7-333 is both
the fastest motherboard and probably the most stable I have yet seen.
Abit's WEB SITE. Abit's
web site has a new look, but speed and availability are not always good. The
FAQ/tech support section is well-organized, but rather skimpy.
SHORTCOMINGS. Other
than the shortcomings already mentioned, this motherboard does not
support USB 2.0 and Firewire.
BOTTOM LINE. The
KX7-333 and KX-333R motherboards are very stable motherboards, but lack
some of the features found in competing, similarly-priced products, which
may or may not be of consequence, depending on the customer's requirements. Recommended.
Larry
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Notes.
We plan to add additional benchmarks for an
ATA/133 drive when one with comparable cache' to the WD 80 arrives (Maxtor
just announced one). I do not believe an ATA/133 with less cache would
be as fast as the WD ATA/100 with eight MBytes of cache'. We may add
benchmarks for an Athlon XP with a 333 MHz Front Side Bus when we get one. They
were just announced and will not be available for quite some time.
There have been several reports of reduced RAID performance on VIA chipsets.
VIA has a patch for this problem, but I found that this patch and others made
no difference.
At the time we started the benchmarks for this review, VIA recommended not
installing the 4-in-1 drivers unless there was a problem. There were
no problems that I could relate to the chipset, so I did not install them. Now,
they are recommending that the drivers be installed. We may try the benchmarks
again with the drivers when an ATA/133 drive arrives.
The latest version (2.0.1019) of the highpoint drivers were downloaded from
Highpoint and installed even though Highpoint's web site said do not use them
for motherboards. The version that came on the CD with the motherboard
did not work with Windows XP. I would have downloaded the version on
Abit's web site, but none were listed for Windows XP. The driver that
came with Windows XP did not work either.
WinStone and WinBench are registered trademarks
or trademarks of Ziff-Davis Inc. in the U.S. and other countries.
Test
Computers:
1) 1.6
GHz AMD XP 1900+ Athlon processor: Termaltake Volcano 6 CPU
Heatsink-fan; Abit KX7-333R motherboard: Crucial
256 MByte, PC2700 333DDR memory; Maxtor 53073H6,
30 GByte, 7,200 RPM, ATA/100, 2 MBytes cache' hard
disk drive; Western
Digital WD800 80 GBytes, 7,200
RPM, ATA/100, 8 MBytes chache' hard disk drives; Actima
A44T 44 X CD-ROM Drive; Panasonic 1.44
MB Floppy Drive; Diamond V770 AGP Display Adapter; Acerview 79G 17" Monitor;
Focus 2001W keyboard; Logitech M-BG58 optical mouse; and Antec SX-840 workstation
case with two Antec chassis fans;
Windows XP Professional with NTFS file system (partitioned into 8 GByte C:
drive, defragged).
2) 1.4 GHz AMD XP 1600+ Athlon processor; Termaltake
Volcano 5 CPU Heatsink-fan; EpoX 8KHA+ motherboard; Crucial 256 MByte, PC2100 266DDR memory; Western Digital WD300BB 30 GByte, 7200
RPM, ATA/100 Hard Disk hard disk drive; AOpen 52 X CD-ROM Drive; Panasonic
1.44 MB Floppy Drive; Abit Siluro GeForce1 MX200 32MB AGP Display Adapter;
Acerview 79G 17" Monitor; Focus 2001W keyboard; AOpen S48 PS/2 Mouse;
and Antec KS 282 Mid-tower case with one optional Antec chassis fan, Windows
XP Professional with NTFS file system (partitioned into 8 GByte C: drive,
defragged).
Other computer configurations and benchmark details
are detailed in their respective reviews.
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