X-bit labs

ABIT KV7 Mainboard on VIA KT600 Chipset Review (page 3)

Category: Mainboards

by Grigoriy Gubankov

[ 11/25/2003 | 11:19 PM ]

Let’s go on with our excursion around the mainboard to take a look at its back connector panel:

Quite away from the standards, as you see. First of all, the second COM port is missing. There is nothing bad about it, since COM peripherals are gradually leaving the market. At the same time, this makes me suspect that ABIT will be preparing a modification of this mainboard with an integrated graphics core (such mainboards often have a 15-pin video output instead of the second COM port). On second thought, this may be just another cost-saving measure – both on the connector and the wiring.

The audio connectors are interesting enough, too. As far as I know, ABIT is the only company to use such a configuration. Its advantage is the back panel having everything necessary for simultaneous exploitation of a 5.1 speaker system, microphone and line input. Moreover, ABIT puts an optical S/PDIF output to the back panel, too. An optical S/PDIF connector is usually covered with a small cap when non-operational. ABIT equipped the S/PDIF of this mainboard with spring “curtains” that protect the output from external forces and never get lost, as the usual cap is likely to do so. Overall, ABIT mostly focused on the audio when developing their KV7.

The KV7 comes in ABIT’s traditional red-and-black package without a handle. I never thought this handle to be much important, but changed my opinion having carried a number of mainboards. The handle is a useful and necessary thing!

Although the mainboard is clearly a budget solution, the accessories are numerous. So, we have flat Parallel ATA and FDD cables, two Serial ATA cables, a CD with drivers, a bracket with two USB ports, a user guide and an I/O shield. I found a second guide in the box (Quick Installation Guide) in a larger (album) format. The box also contained a splitter from one 4-pin 12V power connector to two Serial ATA power connectors, and two stickers for the system case with a brief description of the mainboard’s jumpers. Why two? One of them is for the IC7-MAX3 mainboard. It somehow crept into the package with another mainboard.

Closer Look

Although ABIT KV7 belongs to the budget class, it has an exclusive feature called FanEQ. As you may have guessed, the purpose of this technology is to reduce the noise produced by the coolers. If the CPU temperature is lower than specified by the user, the rotation speeds of the coolers on the CPU and North Bridge are reduced to lower their noise. The critical temperature as well as the reduced rotation speed is set in the BIOS. The speed may be set to 60, 70, 80 or 90% of the maximum. You can also choose the Full Speed option to have the fans rotate at their maximum speed. The critical temperature can be set from 30^oC to 90^oC with 1^oC increment. It’s nice you can type in the number rather than scroll through the list. It’s only not quite clear why the CPU temperature should determine the rotation speed of the North Bridge fan.

Of course, FanEQ is a very simple implementation of the idea. For example, AOpen’s SilentTek offers more flexibility in terms of setup. On the other hand, FanEQ offers the easiest use and requires no additional software. It does its job well, allowing you to decrease greatly the noise from your system, especially if the system is not used to solve tasks that require high computational power. The bold plus of the FanEQ as implemented in the KV7 is that it really works. When we reviewed the IC7-MAX3 mainboard, FanEQ was only half-operational (see our ABIT IC7-MAX3 Review).

The rest of the ABIT KV7 features do not have anything exclusive about themselves. I should only note that the mainboard supports eight High-Speed USB ports, but only six of them have been implemented on the mainboard. This is no big problem, as there are many system cases with USB ports at their front panel. Just keep in mind this feature of the mainboard.