Today ABIT has announced TH7-RAID - a new mainboard based on i850 chipset for Intel Pentium 4. Like similar products of other manufacturers, the newcomer is equipped with Socket 423 and boasts a dual channel RDRAM support. For this purpose the board is provided with four RIMM slots. At the same time, TH7-RAID is a bright individuality. Unlike other boards for Pentium 4, this one features two peculiar things: integrated ATA100 RAID (HPT370) and POST controllers, resembling those installed on mainboards by EPoX.
TH7-RAID also has a 4x AGP slot, five PCI and one CNR slot. Furthermore, the board features three USB ports.
As a final comment, we can’t but pinpoint the fact that many manufacturers keep on launching Socket 423 products and thus deprive the users of the possibility to upgrade the CPU, since Intel plans to switch the Pentium 4 line to Socket 478 this August. Eventually, Socket 423 mainboards are not likely to become popular with the buyers.