ABIT KV7 Mainboard on VIA KT600 Chipset Review

by Grigoriy Gubankov
11/25/2003 | 11:19 PM

The VIA KT600 chipset was released quite a long time ago. Since its announcement we have already reviewed two KT600-based mainboards: ASUS A7V600 and MSI KT6 Delta (see our ASUS A7V600 Mainboard on VIA KT600 Chipset Review and MSI KT6 Delta-FIS2R Mainboard on VIA KT600 Chipset Review for more details).

The two mainboards performed differently and were not very similar to one another. However, they did have a common trait. They were both redesigned versions of KT400 and KT400A-based mainboards from ASUS and MSI, just adapted for another chipset. Their PCBs were practically identical to the PCBs of the products on the KT400(A). The reason is simple – the North Bridges of the KT400(A) and the KT600 are pin-compatible, while the wiring for the South Bridges (VT8235 and VT8237) is not too different to require a total redesign. Mainboard makers are willing to go for any cost-saving measures under current market conditions, so it’s rather natural for mainboards on the KT400(A) and KT600 chipsets to be so much alike.

Still, there are exceptions to the rule. The well-known ABIT Company decided to stand out on this transition from the KT400(A) to the KT600. We posted once on our site the review of ABIT’s KT400A-based mainboard (KD7-S), which was actually the same as the KD7-S on the KT400 chipset. It seemed like ABIT refused to release a mainboard on the KT400A. Suddenly, the company’s policy changed and we saw the KD7A mainboard on the KT400A chipset. This product appeared unannounced and had no trace of the KT400-based mainboard about itself. And this mainboard was to become the foundation for the ABIT KV7, which is based on the KT600 chipset. That’s about how it is.

I should admit that ABIT is known for non-standard actions, although they are not always a success among the users. For example, the MAX series mainboards, which didn’t have the legacy ports (COM, LPT and PS/2), were rather coldly received by the market. The KV7 is not trying to be a revolution, but its very difference from the previous products might be not good. So, the hero of our today’s review is the KV7 mainboard from ABIT.

Specifications and Accessories

The KV7 mainboard is the only product from ABIT featuring the KT600 chipset. It doesn’t have any more or less functional analogs under slightly different names, like it was the case with the MSI KT6 Delta with its four modifications. The lack of modifications is actually an untypical thing for the modern mainboard market.

The ASUS A7V600 also came without any other modifications, but that was the position of the company. ASUS doesn’t like to make several products with similar-sounding names. As for ABIT, they usually roll out the whole family. The only exception is the MAX3 series. The MAX3 mainboards are overloaded with various controllers and technologies and come into this world as truly unique products.

First, let’s look at the snapshot of the mainboard. I placed a standard-sized ASUS A7N8X for the sake of a more illustrative comparison:

As you see, the ABIT KV7 is substantially smaller in dimensions. Maybe ABIT specially targets users with smaller cases where the optical drive may interfere with the memory modules. Anyway, the short size of the mainboard may be good even for the owners of normal system cases. Particularly, they will have more freedom in laying the IDE cables out.

By the way, the KV7 is not the only mainboard from ABIT to have such small dimensions. The VI7 mainboard (for the Pentium 4, on the VIA PT800) is similar-looking; we had a news post about it. Is it a new standard for inexpensive mainboards from ABIT? This looks logical enough, since the smaller dimensions of the PCB mean cost savings. In the current market environment, when every dollar is important, this small economy might come in handy.

The following table lists the official specifications of the ABIT KV7 mainboard:

The specifications are another proof of the mainboard’s “value” nature. There are no FireWire or IDE RAID controllers or Gigabit Ethernet. This is of course no drawback, because the users it is intended for don’t need those functions.

The only quirky point is the use of the VT1616 codec from VIA rather than the popular Realtek ALC650. VIA’s solution should provide higher sound quality. This chip is unlikely to have increased the cost of the mainboard, as VIA Technologies is almost sure to discount its partners who buy the codec together with the chipset. Interestingly, the physical-level network controller on the ABIT KV7 comes from VIA, too. It is the VIA VT6103 chip.

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.

PCB Design

The first thing to strike you in this mainboard is its small dimensions. The small dimensions had a negative impact on the PCB design. The front of the PCB where the FDD connector is usually found is now occupied by memory voltage regulators. ABIT engineers had to move the connector down, right below the PCI slots, where other mainboards usually have onboard USB plugs.

So, the FDD cable should go through the entire system case, hindering proper airflow and provoking difficulties with expansion cards installation. I should admit, however, that it was simply impossible to put the FDD connector anywhere else on the PCB – the small dimensions impose their restrictions.

But what about those onboard USB connectors? They moved behind the PCI slots and very close to them.

As the snapshots show, the ABIT engineers tried to place the connectors aside from the center of the slot. Anyway, PCI cards installation will be difficult if the cables are attached to the onboard USB pins. Moreover, as there is a cable going to the back panel bracket between the PCI slots, installation is going to be even harder than that.

Still, you should keep in mind the following: ABIT never positioned this product for enthusiastic users, who usually have a lot of PCI devices in their systems. Considering the good level of integration of the ABIT KV7 (and its high quality sound!), the owner of the KV7 might get along without any PCI cards at all. In this case, you won’t bother about the USB cables. Mainstream users don’t often take the system case cover off to install or remove the PCI card, too. It means they won’t suffer from the improper placement of the onboard USB connectors much and often. However, this is clearly a drawback in the PCB design from the professional point of view.

The IDE connectors don’t follow the standard, either. They are parallel to the mainboard surface.

This is a forced solution. Try to extend the line going along the AGP slot farther: it will cross the IDE connector. Thus, if it were located the same way as in most mainboards, the attached IDE cable would make it impossible to install a long AGP graphics card like a GeForce4 Ti4600 or GeForce FX 5900. That would be really bad. So, ABIT had to “rotate” the connectors in order to avoid this sort of problems. This unusual placement of the IDE connectors doesn’t bring any inconveniences, rather otherwise.

The rest of the components are all in their proper places, maybe save for the additional 12V power connector. It is at the very top of the PCB. The corresponding cable from the PSU is usually long, so the cable may form several loops near the CPU cooler. This loop cannot of course bring any distortion into the airflow, but can get chewed into the fan blades. Just be careful about the assembly process and this will never happen to you.

The CPU voltage regulator circuit is at the very top of the PCB, too.

Although the mainboard is inexpensive, ABIT used a three-phase CPU voltage regulator circuit in it. Maybe the company thinks that even the most undemanding user might one day try out overclocking? Just to remind you: more phases in the CPU voltage regulator circuit make the voltage purer and the system with the overclocked processor (and especially with increased CPU voltage) – more stable. The memory in the ABIT KV7, on the contrary, is powered by a linear regulator.

You can see one more curtsey to the overclockers in the CPU socket neighborhood: four holes for coolers like Zalman CNPS7000 or processor blocks of liquid (or cryogen :) cooling solutions. The last feature of the “overclocking image” of this mainboard is the active cooler mounted on the chipset North Bridge. The MSI KT6 Delta also used active cooling for the chipset North Bridge, but that mainboard was not positioned as a budget product. The value ASUS A7V600, on the contrary, features a passive cooling solution on the North Bridge. Actually, KT600-based mainboards don’t necessarily need active North Bridge cooling; this is rather an “image-making” move. By the way, the maximum rotational speed of the fan on the ABIT KV7 North Bridge is about 4,700rpm. It is quiet and can be made even quieter with the help of FanEQ technology.

BIOS Setup and Overclocking

The ABIT KV7 uses the BIOS from Phoenix-Award, as other ABIT products do. The main menu of the BIOS Setup is ordinary, so let’s browse through the main sections: SoftMenu Setup, Advanced Chipset Features and PC Health Status.

The SoftMenu Setup page is designed the same way they do it for any of the latest mainboards from ABIT. You can set up the FSB frequency, PCI/AGP divisor and CPU multiplier according to several presets (in our case, you can choose from 2500+, 2600+, 2800+ and two versions for 3000+ and 3200+ with a different FSB frequency) or set up everything manually. In the latter case, you can change the FSB frequency from 100 to 250MHz with 1MHz increment. New BIOSes from Phoenix-Award allow typing the value in without scrolling through a long list. You can then set up the divisors for the PCI and AGP busses with respect to the FSB frequency (6:2:1, 5:2:1, 4:2:1 and 3:2:1) and select the CPU multiplier from 5 to 22.5 with variable increments.

The Power Supply page comes next. The name is true – we can adjust the voltages here: Vcore (from 1.1V to 2.325V with 0.025V increment), Vmem (2.5-2.8V with variable increment from 0.05V to 0.1V), AGP (1.5V-1.65V with 0.05V stepping) and North Bridge (2.55V-2.95V with 0.05V-0.1V increment). The CPU voltage range is really wide, enough for any overclocking experiments. The rest of the ranges are not that wide (save for the North Bridge, but its optimal voltage range is not at all clear).

This page also contains a mysterious parameter called CPU Fast Command Decode. Without delving deep, I would just like to say that “at Normal” leads to a higher stability of the system, while “at Fast” provides a slightly higher performance. I preferred “at Normal”, because “at Fast” the system worked somewhat unstably.

We are now approaching the Advanced Chipset Features page with two interesting subsections: DRAM Timing Control and AGP & P2P Bridge Timing Control. Let’s go into the first one first:

It’s clear this BIOS Setup subsection offers us wide opportunities for the memory subsystem fine-tuning. We can select the operational frequency of the memory (DRAM Clock). ABIT followed the example of some manufacturers who offer a menu of “133MHz”, “166MHz” and “200MHz” rather than a list of divisors.

I said that numerous times and I say it again. This way you will have some problems at overclocking: the FSB and memory busses being set asynchronously, you will have to spend some time thinking about the memory frequency corresponding to this FSB clock-rate, because the divisor is never shown! Moreover, you cannot see the true memory frequency during the POST procedure. Actually, I think the best way of selecting the memory frequency should be implemented as a simple selection of the divisor, while the BIOS Setup showed the resulting memory frequency (in brackets, for example). Such a system is employed in BIOS Setups of many mainboards, why ABIT went the other way? Maybe the company has a different notion of what is better for the user.

Anyway, let’s move to the DRAM Timing Control page. You can choose one of the memory timing presets: by SPD, Turbo and Ultra (regrettably, the BIOS Setup never tells which exactly timings are selected when you choose a preset). Of course, it is possible to adjust the timings manually.

I won’t dwell upon the next four parameters. Three of them refer to the internal latencies of the chipset North Bridge and comply with the rule “the smaller the value, the faster and less stable the system becomes”. The search for the stable configuration is much relieved by each of the parameters having only two possible values. As far as I know, only the Command Rate option significantly influences the overall performance, although this statement needs more evidence. By the way, none of the KT600-based mainboards we tested (including the ABIT KV7) could work at Command Rate = 1T if the memory frequency was set to 200MHz (400MHz DDR). This seems to be a peculiarity of the chipset.

The last but one option, DDR DQS Input Delay, is curious enough. It is of no exceptional value (I confess I don’t quite understand its actual meaning as well as that of the last option), but its effect is surprising. If you set this option to Auto in the Input Delay Value column, the value as selected by the BIOS is shown. There is nothing extraordinary about it. But if you try to move the cursor “in the neighborhood” of this option, its value somehow starts to change. It seems like the value depends on the number of strikes on the cursor keys. :)

Now, we are in the AGP & P2P Bridge Timing Control section of the BIOS Setup. There is no need to describe each of the options in detail. I just want to admit that the flexibility of the settings is enough to satisfy most of the users who want to “play” with fine AGP settings.

The PC Health Status page gives you a bit of information about the system. We have a lot of voltages, the CPU voltage regulator temperature – it has become fashionable to show it in the BIOS. With all this exuberance, the chipset North Bridge temperature is missing. As the mainboard allows controlling this temperature, it would be good to have some monitoring as well.

That’s about all I wanted to tell you about the BIOS Setup of the ABIT KV7 mainboard. We will now get to practical overclocking capabilities of the product. Although never positioned as an overclocker mainboard, the KV7 and its BIOS offer you numerous purely overclocking options. It’s time we checked them out in action. The methodology remains the same we used for checking the overclockability of the ASUS A7V600 and MSI KT6 Delta mainboards.

Let me briefly remind you what we will actually be doing now.

Test 1. I increase the Vcore to 1.85V, the FSB clock-rate to 166MHz, and the multiplier to x13.5, thus making the processor work at 2250MHz. After that I tested the system stability by running 3DMark2001 SE (three times), four standard demos from Unreal Tournament 2003 Demo and SPECviewperf 7.1. However, the ABIT KV7 could only make it to the Dragothic test of 3DMark2001 SE, hanging up soon after the start. I looked up in the BIOS Setup and was much surprised to see the CPU voltage regulator temperature at 90^oC! I am sure this cannot contribute to the system’s stability. So, the mainboard didn’t pass our first test.

Test 2. FSB Overclocking. I would like to say it beforehand that we cannot hope for a high result. Of course, we shouldn’t blame the mainboard for that. It’s because the AGP and PCI frequencies depend on the FSB clock-rate in mainboards on the VIA KT600 chipset. That’s why the overclocking is often limited by the AGP graphics card rather than by the mainboard itself. The ABIT KV7 just cannot compete with nForce2-based mainboards that often speed up to 230MHz FSB. Anyway, let’s see what it can, just to make sure the mainboard is all right as far as the quality of manufacture is concerned.

So, we drop the AGP speed to 4x, increase the memory timings to 2.5-3-3-7 and set it up to work synchronously with the FSB, while the CPU multiplier is reduced to x7. Moreover, I raised the chipset voltage to 2.75V. After that, I was speeding up the FSB, starting at 200MHz. The stability check was the same as in the first test. This way we performed overclocking allowed reaching 218MHz FSB frequency. This is the best result among all KT600-based mainboards we have reviewed, although just 4MHz above the result of the MSI KT6 Delta. So, we can claim that the ABIT KV7 is a quality product.

Performance

Let’s now measure the performance level of the ABIT V7 mainboard in our traditional benchmarks. The testbed hasn’t changed since the previous test session:

The VIA KT600 chipset is rather fastidious about memory settings, while the reviewed mainboard provides high flexibility with respect to those settings. So, I would like to offer you a snapshot of the BIOS page with the settings I used in the tests:

Before proceeding to the actualtest results, I have one more thing to point out. It’s no secret some manufacturers increase the FSB clock-rate of their mainboards above the standard so that their products could boast an advantage compared to competitors which don’t resort to such tricks. This is not right, since it is none other but overclocking and overclocking should be only performed by the user and voluntarily. Let’s see whether ABIT is tricky:

They are! The FSB frequency is 2.8MHz (1.4%) above the nominal. Considering that the bus overclocking means an automatic growth of all the other frequencies (CPU, memory, AGP and PCI), the real performance gain might be even higher than 1.4%. You should keep this in mind when checking the following table:

Well, the mainboard showed rather average performance. Notwithstanding the above-the-nominal FSB frequency, the ABIT mainboard could only significantly outperform the ASUS A7V600 (and be a little faster than the MSI KT6 Delta) in one test only, Content Creation Winstone 2003. In other tests, the mainboard from ABIT showed the same or a little better level of performance compared to the solution from ASUS. And it is a long way behind the leader among KT600-based mainboards we have reviewed so far, the MSI KT6 Delta.

Conclusion

We have just reviewed a mainboard on the VIA KT600 chipset, which is a good representative of the budget class. The mainboard conforms to this positioning with its good integrated functions, particularly, very good sound and Serial ATA (thanks to the VT8237 South Bridge). At the same time, ABIT always known for overclocking friendly mainboards provided its KV7 with good overclocking opportunities. It’s another question whether you will be able to take the full advantage of them or not.

Anyway, that’s not crucial for a budget solution. The mainboard is stable at its regular frequencies, and I encountered no problems with its fucntioning. Overall, the ABIT KV7 performs the role the manufacturer cast it for, well enough. The price is appropriate, too. You can purchase this mainboard for about $70.