by Ilya Gavrichenkov
03/13/2002 | 05:47 PM
This Korean website has shared with us the information about new ABIT AT7 mainboard, based on KT333 chipset, which is to about to appear on the market in the nearest future. I think, it is worth to look at it:
It seems that the company’s engineers decided to integrate everything into it. Except for SCSI controller and ATI video-chip, probably. ;) This "high level of integration" doesn’t even leave enough space for the standard number (5-6) of PCI-slots. Frankly speaking, I am not quite sure that it makes sense, but what can we do? The ABIT engineers decided that all the consumers will definitely need Firewire controller and 4-channel RAID, and the consumer will decide for themselves. :)
Now – more detailed specifications: ATX form-factor, Processor Socket A, 4 PC2700/PC2100/PC1600 DDR SDRAM DIMM, 3 PCI, AGP 4x, ATA-133 (VT8233A South Bridge), 4-channel ATA-133 RAID (HighPoint HPT374), two IEEE 1394 ports, USB 2.0 (VIA VT6202), integrated sound (SP/DIF in/out available), 10/100 Fast Ethernet controller (Realtek 8100C).
And how much will it cost? Around $200. How many people will need it? However, ABIT can release some "AT7-LITE" without extras. Yet, it won’t be easy to add PCI-slots to it... :)