The poor mainboard from ABIT based on VIA KT266A chipset, aka KR7A, appeared in Japanese retail stores. During the time we’ve been waiting for this mainboard to come, its specs got subject to improving changes several times, so that now this mainboard is a very promising product with numerous advanced features. The name of the mainboard has also been changed, as you might have noticed. The first mention of the ABIT’s DDR Socket A solution based on a VIA chipset touched upon KR7-RAID. It was expected to be built on VIA KT266 chipset. However, the launching of the new chipset revision allowed ABIT to upgrade its mainboard up to KR7A-RAID, as it was now built on VIA KT266A. Later on the mainboard acquired an integrated ATA/133 RAID controller instead of the formerly planned controller to support ATA/100 HDDs. So now the newcomer is sold as KR7A-133R.
Let us remind you of the mainboard final specs. KR7A-133R is a Socket A solution on VIA KT266A chipset featuring an integrated HPT372 ATA/133 IDE RAID controller, 4 DIMM slots for PC1600/PC2100 DDR SDRAM, an AGP 4x slot, and 6 PCI slots.
The mainboard is selling in Japan for $150, while its modification without the ATA/133 controller – for $145. As far as we know, ABIT has already started shipping KR7A-133R to its distributors worldwide, so the board should become available in other countries within two weeks, we suppose.