Request straight from ABIT

[OPPAINTER]

This is your chance to voice your opinion straight to ABIT (http://www.abit.com.tw/abitweb/webjsp/english/index.jsp) .

Here’s a little poll for you folks:

Abit wants to know about what you think of their products. What you like or don’t like, what you would like to see from them.
Pretty basic, this thread will be Read by Abit so try and watch your Ps and Qs :D

I’ll go first:D

Of coarse I think they make the best motherboards. They have shown me better benches and max performance against all other brands time and time again. Who ever is the brains behind their bioses does a fantastic job.
As far as improvements I would like to see higher adjustable mem voltage and v-core. One other thing that is a bummer is that Abit seems to be the last one out of the Gate with the newest chipset mobos. This of coarse could be a good thing seeing how they don’t rush the product out before its time.

As far as what I like in a mobo it’s a few things, I like onboard Raid, a parallel port for my printer, onboard Lan and sound.

That’s it guys something like that.
So post away and let Abit know what you think of them:)

Thanks,
OPP

[Chong345]

I love my abit boards. I have the KX-7 and the IT7. I too would like to see more voltage options like OPP said. True that Abit is out last but they do make the better board in the end. The only thing that I wish at the moment is that I could actually get 3.2v out of this board. The option is there but it doesn't go any higher than 2.96. As an overclocker I need my voltages but other than that keep up the good work. :D

[mook]

I'll have to agree with OPP and Chong. They make some of the best boards in the world, and I haven't owned anything but an Abit. Reliable and stable to boot.

I think I can echo most peoples thoughts when I say we're all looking forward to the KD7-Raid. If the specs are true (Voltage primarily, going upwards of 2.2/3.2 volts), you've just helped every overclocker out there.

Keep up the fabulous work.

[DDTUNG]

Considering what I have done with and for Abit boards in the past, I think they should make me a beta tester like OPP. The same goes for MrIcee.

DDTUNG:cool:

[OPPAINTER]

Originally posted by DDTUNG
Considering what I have done with and for Abit boards in the past, I think they should make me a beta tester like OPP. The same goes for MrIcee.

DDTUNG:cool:

I second that, all though I sure havn't gotten to do much beta testing:D

OPP

[DaGooch]

I personally have had over a dozen Abit boards since the BE-6 days and they have performed on a much higher level than boards from other manufacturers.

Personally, I like the recent legacy free boards with onboard LAN and hardware sound. I have always used the R versions of any board available from Abit because IDE Raid is a must for me.

For me, the Vcore and Vmem modifications that we have been utilizing is not a problem but it would be a nice feature to see in future boards possibly in finer increments. I know that you may cringe at the prospect of higher Vcore and Vmem settings that seasoned enthusiasts are able to utilize safely due to their knowing the limits and what cooling methods and such to use compared to a beginner. The only idea that I can recommend is for the boards to have the higher settings supported in hardware and a beta enthusiast bios which would support the higher settings but not supported or selectable in an official release bios.

Eagerly awaiting the Abit versions of the nForce2 and 850E boards. :thumbsup:

[IFMU]

*EDIT*
Post deleted.

[PMM]

It would certainly be nice to have an increased voltage selection in
BIOS for us overclockers and at a minium of what others have
said, however it would be best to impliment this extra increase
in the form of a Overclockers Bios.

That said would like a bit more than 3.2v on the Ram ;) my old
Abit KA7 was running my PC2100 @ 3.65 volts until something
on the board went!! so if you do go for something like max 3.2
make sure you keep with those Intersil Hip chips nice and easy
for us end users to hardwire mod for more Volts.

Northbridge: Changing the heatsink is good many find does
wonders for stability however I would like 4 holes around
the northbridge for mounting large heatsinks/waterblocks
rather than the 2.

Not sure how many have found this but certainly on the KA7
I found that the connectors PN1 & PN2 for leds/speaker etc etc
is to far over to the far edge & up slightly, I had problems
getting the cables to reach due to now being left edge located
rather than bottom edge of board over to left e.g like KT7 board,
not much in it but far enough move to cause me probs. prob just
my cases :/

Apart from that keep up the good work :)

[edit] o'yes as above nice to be able to lock the PCI/AGP speed
but still allow high FSB overclocks for the ram.

[mbrock]

Short of having closer and higher voltage choices or maybe getting my Boards for free. I can not think of a thing that I would like changed. I have been a loyal Abit user since the days of the KA7. things have steadly gotten beter and better since.

PS Keep up the GREAT work.:toast:

PSS Don't forget to make a note "Free Mother Boards for Mbrock" LOL.:)

[QuadDamage]

hmm, what else can i add here... Abit makes the most overclocker-friendly boards. i'm glad they use HIP voltage controllers so volt modding couldn't any easier.
Now, lemme put my hands on KD7/AT7Max2.

[sysfailur]

Wonderful! This is a great thread. First off, I love Abit boards. I just upgraded my friends computer with a KX7-333, and what did I upgrade his computer from? An Abit KT7A, which I also installed for him heh. I also own a Siluro 4200 and am very pleased with it as well, and 4 Abit mobos to boot. Now then, here's my list of demands! :smileysex

Motherboard Demands!

- Windows based software that lets you change fsb, voltage, multiplier, monitors temperature, monitors voltage and lets you upgrade your bios. All in windows w/o a reboot.

- Like everyone else said, higher mem and ddr voltages. Also agp voltage should be an option you can change on every board.

- NEVER USE THE DISGUSTING YELLOW/GOLDEN/PEE COLOR PCB AGAIN! :flame:

Graphics card demands!

- Bios Level overclocking options.. while it boots, the ability to go in and change frequency _AND_ voltage. How sweet would that be? Built in voltage control for the memory and core. And of course a jumper to reset the bios or something to that effect.

- Better ram! Just because the normal ram is 2.8ns DDR, who says you can't put on 2.5ns DDR or 2.3ns! (I'm talking about the 4600 obviously.)


I'll come up with more demands. I'm sure I can think of some.


EDIT:

- Do NOT put those silly "hook latch method" on the northbridge on future mobos. How am I supposed to peltier and watercool it without the holes? :P

[Nico]

The only thing that has kept me from using Abit boards is the location of the socket on AMD solutions. In the case of my Vapo modded Lian li, I prefer the socket to be high up in the centre of the board. I have been using Epox boards as they do the job perfectly, but I would like to go Abit for the performance.
Also as mentioned by most guys above, plenty of good overvoltage options always will be met with great response, another thing I like about Epox.

[TheDude]

Well there's not much left to say...I concur with the above statements...an overclockers bios with those features would be great!
The few times that I have tried other boards, like asus and epox...I have always come back to abit pretty quick! Higher voltages...onboard lan...cooling block mounting holes...all the stuff above would make a board that no one could come close to! One Overclockers Special Edition Board with these features would test the waters and FLY off the shelves!:D

[Ewok]

I think everyone agrees we want more voltage adjustments and that its been a long time comming and should have been here before now.

Abit boards are the fastest and most stable at the same time, I think this is what people value more than anything, would we be using them if they werent the fastest and stable at the same time? I doubt it so they need to keep that up.

I think the bios is the best ive seen apart from the lack of voltage adjustments.

As for features, I have a NIC so I dont really wanna be paying for another one build onto my board every time i replace my motherboard, I also have a soundcard so again I dont wanna be paying for a new one along with my new board every time.

I dont think most people would use raid and I think the reason most do right now is that its (or at least was on older boards, im at 191fsb on KX7 on standard ide without trouble and have heard others are higher) more reliable than the IDE connectors so unless its needed to keep the hdd corrupting at high fsb, I dont think many would pay the extra for it, and certainly not if pci locks were used because then it wouldnt be needed unless you were actually going to use raid (or had to have the extra ide ports which could be pot on the boards instead of raid anyway). The pc also boots one HELL of a lot faster when the raid controller is turned off because it takes a bluddy AGHE detecting stuff EVERY SINGLE time you boot up (WHY??!?!?! why cant it just remember it like any normal bios does and go past it instantly, problem sorted! people can hold down ctrl h or something similar if they wanna change something, again like every other bios) so for anyone that turns their pc off, they would also probably rather use the non raid version given the choice.

I would stick with a standard non Raid, non NIC non Sound board, and a board with Raid, and possibly onboard lan. I think pretty much everyone has their own soundcard and I doubt there will be many that would really want onboard sound, or many that would like to pay for it when they arent going to use it, so I wouldnt bother with that, of course people like opp will want onboard sound so as to have less pci cards to stop him getting the worlds best 3dmark score at a FSB of 5000, but 99.99% of the population wont, and neither would opp if they had agp and pci locks on the AMD boards like the intel ones do.

I wouldnt suggest an "overclockers special edition" board since it would do nothing other than give Abit an excuse to charge a premium (on top of the prices which arent the cheapest as it is) for features the boards should include anyway, you dont see Epox needing a special overclockers board just to add more voltage do ya?, I dont think abit should either, make it standard.

[PiLsY]

OK going against the flow a bit here.

First off Abit boards have always been my board of choice.

HOWEVER....

Having now owned 3 of the recent "Blue Box" manufactured by ECS boards I have nothing but complaints. Personally I think you need to get shut of ECS as their boards are nothing but trouble. Having had my bios go on my previous (and much loved) IT7 (red box) I replaced it with a blue box IT7-2. Voltages all over the place, unstable, wouldnt boot at 44mhz. The list was practically endless. To top it all off I lost over 170mhz cpu speed and 15 mhz mem speed to get any vestige of stability. It went back due to the dodgy voltages. This was NOT a one off - Having spoken to the shop it seems they all do it. I now have a blue box IT7. No voltage issues, all works ok except yet again, 170mhz down on cpu and 15mhz down on memory. This is my one big problem with Abit at the moment, and is likely to drive me off to another manufacturer.

The only other thing Id like to see is more adjustability on voltages. If you could take the step of making voltages adjustable on Vtt, Vagp and Vddq I believe wed see far better results clocking. Also a more finely adjustable voltage range as was on the KG7 would be good. The superb range of DDR voltage adjustment let everyone squeeze the absolute max out of their memory. If you could re-implement this feature and expand it to the vcore as well (and the other voltage adjustments if ever made) youd certainly have the best board for overclockers out there.

I for one tho would settle for the old Abit boards, and no more of this ECS crap. C'mon guys, do the right thing. I know its a cheaper option but I certainly wouldnt be opposed to paying a price premium for a quality PCB and manufaturing process. Maybe set up a platinum line of boards or something and charge more but have much higher quality components and PCB.

PiLsY.

[Charles Wirth]

AGP x8
DDR400 + or RIM4200
Legacy free
vcore settings up to 2v with safty jumper
xmem settings up to 3.3v with safty jumper
MediaXP w/ LED display w/ temps, fed from standby 5v always on
Rigid carbon plate glued behind the core extending passed the screw holes.
IDE cables @ 90 degree angle off the side edge of the board. no straight up on the face somewhere.
Study the TurboPLL and design a choice board for overclockers.

[Tweaked!]

Ok, I really don't have anything to add that hasn't already been said here, other than the fact that I've thought Abit boards to be the best boards I've had the pleasure of playing with yet. They also make impressive features when it comes to using them to represent to a prospective buyer. I just sold another custom build to a somewhat buddy using the Abit It7 and a P4. After showing what all can be done with these compared to any proprietary computer, it's a hands down sell :):D

[sjohnson]

Basically agree with PiLsY and FUGGER - except I DO want PS2 KB and mouse. USB is a nightmare of cables, and while the PS2 connectors arent exactly tight the USB cables and connectors often fall out just by looking at them hard. Plus, I want LESS cabling, not more. Plus, USB doesn't always O/C so well - but perhaps that's a quality control issue. USB is a regression to the old HPIB daisy-chaining.

[twiggy]

more voltage, onboard sound & lan.. enuff said...

[DOA]

Legacy free!
No floppy, no PS2, no serial, no parallel.
This means we have to have a reliable Windows BIOS flasher.

Time for Gigabit ethernet as well. Unless Abit wants to put out a low cost Firewire switch.

I have the AT7, it was a little slow getting up to speed with the Athlon 2200+. It took a week of running around to get it to work. After 4 Abit mbs, these (I built one for a friend) were the first to refuse to boot. The first AT7 rev1.0 did not recognise the Athlon 2200+. Did Abit not get samples of this chip?

The Athlons need more overclocking options. Where is 14, 14.5 and 15 multipliers for Athlon boards? How about 6:2:1, 6:3:1 or any other combination FSB/AGP/PCI that MAY be needed?

I ran this board all the way to 205 FSB. Pretty nice, too bad I had to UNDERCLOCK my video card to do it. 5:2:1 has its limits.

Each system has:
Abit AT7, 512 Kingston PC2700 RAM @ CL2, Athlon 2200+, Volcano7+, Dual WD 120 Mb (240 total) RAID
Mine has GFarce3 - 188 FSB 10.5X
Friend's GFarce4 4400Ti - 175 FSB 11X

OOPs almost forgot - keep the space below the AGP clear like the AT7 has, I put lots of fan there and a PCI slot just gets in the way.

[DDA]

. vcore, up to 2.0
. vdimm, real 3.2
. 4:5 fsb/ram divisor
. 4 holes around chipset for alternative cooling

[sysfailur]

Originally posted by DDA
. vcore, up to 2.0
. vdimm, real 3.2
. 4:5 fsb/ram divisor
. 4 holes around chipset for alternative cooling

Ahh good point. I second that, 4 HOLES ARE A MUST!

[mdzcpa]

I am also a long tme Abit user for my serious perfromance rigs. I've had the KA7, KT7, KT7A, KG7, KR7, and now the KX7. Overall these mobos were at the top of thier class in the OC department. No complaints there.

However, there is one thing that Abit can...and must improve on, and that is better compatability with future CPUs. I'm not expecting Abit to predict the future or anything silly like that, only to provide the same compatability other motherboard manufacturers are able to for new CPU releases.

The KT7A not supporting the Athlon XP, and the early KX7/AT7 mobos not supporting the Thoroughbred XP 2200+ is a complete blunder. With almost all other manufacturers not having this issue, it is apparent Abit blew it....not good.

Aside from that Abit is tops in my book.

[hallowen]

I've have had some problems with other boards(Asus/Soltek)and also with an Abit(BD7II/wouldn't Boot!), but when I RMA'd the BD7II I got What I think is the Best O/C Board I've Ever owned........ The IT7 Max!

Sure,It could be improved(as all of you have said) and I'm sure if ABIT reads all these testimonies,changes will come!

Waiting with Baited Breath for the Next Board to Showup........

[Privateer]

I Have 1 and to do the things i do its been volt modded and a lan card fitted.the temperature diode needs to be more accurate.
Otherwise.:banana: :banana:

[sysfailur]

Originally posted by Privateer
I Have 1 and to do the things i do its been volt modded and a lan card fitted.the temperature diode needs to be more accurate.
Otherwise.:banana: :banana:

Perhaps the could devise a bendy thermal probe outside of the socket that you could slide in next to the core between the cpu and the heatsink. That'd be pretty cool. Temp readings right next to the chip.

[KnightElite]

I'm an avid Abit user, and will probably not use anything else for any performance rig. I really love my AT7, and I loved the KR7A that I had before that. The legacy free is excellent, but for some reason no one thought to remove the floppy, and it is the epitomy of legacy devices ;).

Abit needs to start using the on die temperature diode on the Athlons, and needs to figure out what's going on with the temps on the P4 boards as regards to the other manufacturers.

More voltages, as everyone else said. I want 2.2VCore on AMD boards, and 3.2VDimm, and adjustable AGP voltage.

I agree with CPU compatibility, I had no problems installing an Athlon XP 2200+ in an MSI K7T Pro-2A, with an old BIOS, and it worked fine. Why does Abit's board require a revision?

I would definitely be willing to pay extra for a premium board made with high quality parts, as Pilsy mentionned. This board should not be the yellow colour, and should definitely NOT be that white/silver colour that Soyo is using on some of their new boards. Black is good.

I like having no PCI slots under the AGP slot. Leaves room for putting very large heatsinks under the video card. Anyone who needs more than 3 PCI devices nowadays is probably not going to be running a performance oriented machine.

I think that Sysfailur's idea of a windows overclocking program is good, but I'd rather do it in the BIOS.

I definitely think that the RAM tweaking menu in the BIOS should stay the way it is. I like the plethora of options available. If anything, we should get more options.

That's about it, for now.

[DeadHeart]

I would like to see some dual athlon boards with onboard vga and onboard scsi instead of raid. Don't forget to add all those overclocking and tweaking goodies!! It would rock! :banana:

DeadHeart

[DeadHeart]

oh! and I would love to see some linux drivers for all those 'max' features!

DeadHeart

[Privateer]

Imagine.

Supports.
V.core 2.2v
DDR 3.2v
1/6th devider.
Alt/f2 flash.
onboard lan
6ch audio.

:D

[goldie]

I have been a long time Abit user from the BH6 days and love the boards. My one conplaint is lack of response thru e-mail w/ tech support. I have recently e-mailed twice asking about support of the new 2400+ & 2600+ on my 2 KR7A-133R, without a response in 2 weeks. If you don't want me wasting my and your tech support teams time on the phone please answer your e-mail.....goldie :(

[donny_paycheck]

2.2v core selectable
More than 3.2v DIMM voltage
Onboard POST display a la MSI and Epox
More room around NB chip for larger coolers.
Heat sinks on voltage regulator MOSFETs
Onboard LAN
Faster releases with new chipsets, if possible, but don't sacrifice the ABit quality I've grown to love!

[MrLavender]

Originally posted by mdzcpa
However, there is one thing that Abit can...and must improve on, and that is better compatability with future CPUs. I'm not expecting Abit to predict the future or anything silly like that, only to provide the same compatability other motherboard manufacturers are able to for new CPU releases.

The KT7A not supporting the Athlon XP, and the early KX7/AT7 mobos not supporting the Thoroughbred XP 2200+ is a complete blunder. With almost all other manufacturers not having this issue, it is apparent Abit blew it....not good.

Aside from that Abit is tops in my book. Totally agree, I owned a KT7 before the KX7 that I've got now, and it's the same issue both times!

Apart from that, higher voltages and a 1/6 divider would have made the KX7-333 near perfect. :)

[Qkjhfhaiguihfma]

I think they need. . .

1. VCORE up to 2.2v, DDR up to 3.2v

2. The clock generator on the KX7 already supports a 1/7th divisor, why not try and make use of it?

3. Fixed AGP/PCI. Forget the 1/7th thing. :)

4. Built in thermal diode reader.

5. Heatsinks on MOSFets, and every other chip on the board.

[Creative]

VCORE to 2.2volts and DDR up to 3.2volts

Thanks
:)

[Ragnarok]

I wanna know exactly whats the deal with Abit contracting mobos to ECS and which boards are acutally made by ECS..

I am very skeptical about the quality of ECS products in past..

[MrIcee]

First off..a big hello to those at Abit reading this thread, a big thank you for taking the time to read and evaluate the needs and wants of the true enthusiasts represented here:)

Abit has produced the highest performing, tho sometimes finicky, motherboards for the AMD and Intel platforms bar none. I have been a devoted Abit user since ditching the board in my first AMD system for the KG7-lite..and have progressed thru the KR7A-Raid and now KX7-333R.

DDTUNG and OPP...thanks for the beta tester plug...I would be highly interested as I flog my boards as you guys do to the nth degree. I believe we could assist Abit in attaining the next level in performance.

I will not comment on previous products...as I believe we've flogged these as far as they will go..but I'll make comments on the next generation that affects me..the KD7 Raid.

I am liking the fact you've now built in high VCore and VMem options...kudo's to the engineers !! I am tho concerned about what I'm reading from early adopters of the board. Apparently when using the 1/6th divider the board will not post at any FSB speed. It may be just THAT boards problem...but we need you to look into this. Its essential at this time to have 1/6th divider while utilizing the Radeon 9700 Pro videocard on an AMD system, as the card does not function well or at all on an elevated AGP bus. Right now on the KX7..we are at a distinct performance DISADVANTAGE as we can no longer run 200Mhz FSB+ with this card in competetive benching. We need 200Mhz+ FSB and MEM to keep pace with the Intel based systems.

I do like the onboard Lan and Sound..and hope you continue that trend..as it allows me to not have to fill my PCI lots with cards that may or may not like elevated FSB levels..tho if the 1/6th divider works will not be an issue.

Your engineers have always done an outstanding job building performance into the bios thru their register adjustments compared to other manufacturers...keep up the great work there.

As mdzcpa mentioned....bacwards compatibility of cpu's thru the Barton core Athlon is imperitive. I was one stung by the T-bred 2200+ not functioning on the KX7....enthusiasts can't afford BOTH cpu upgrades and a board upgrade simultaneously....this mistake must have been costly and should have been avoided.

Thank you much for your time, I and my forum brothers appreciate you listening to our concerns and thoughts..:)

Randi:D

EDIT: After reading much more into posts on the 1/6th divider issue..it appears both the AT7 MAX2 and KD7 will not post with 6:2:1 chosen in the bios. I want to buy this board as do many others...I hope Abit can shed some light on this issue and resolve it soon...we need the 1/6th divider now as many are now running 200Mhz FSB on a daily basis.

[Privateer]

Originally posted by DDTUNG
Considering what I have done with and for Abit boards in the past, I think they should make me a beta tester like OPP. The same goes for MrIcee.

DDTUNG:cool:

Back on the 29/11/2001 DDTUNG got hold of a KR7.
He called it .
KR7-the new KING.
I know i bought 1, and if only 5% of 24000+ views bought one thats still over a 1000 boards,so being a Beta tester goes without Question.Imagine KX7- The new KING !!!

Abit ,Look here.
http://www.icronticforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16946

Theres very little info on the KD7,people who have them are having big problems,are you fixing it.

[DDTUNG]

May I just add that MrIcee ditched an EPOX(or is it EPOS) for the KG7-lite after I sent OPP one from Hong Kong.:D

Privateer - Thanks. Didn't know you were a fan.:)

DDTUNG:cool:

[Privateer]

I bet a Few of your HOT MOBOS are ABIT !!:D :D

[Privateer]

I think if ABIT are reading this,then this thread about the KD7 is just as important.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3043&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

[ABIT Marketing]

Thank you all for your feedback regarding ABIT products. To summarize, RMA service, BIOS tweaking abilities (AGP/CPU/DDR voltage, PCI divider, etc) and quaility control are the 3 main categories that ABIT is concentrating on in order to provide all ABIT users with the best products.

I will be monitoring this forum from now and on and I will do my best to deliver ALL comments and concerns to the appropriate staff member, in addition to responding here so that every Abit user can benefit from our quality S^2 (Service and Support).
http://www.abit-usa.com/boundaryless.html

Remember!! Abit IS listening to YOU!!!

P.S. BTW, I cannot guarantee that I will respond to all posts immediately; therefore, if I miss any important issues that require immediate attention, please e-mail me directly at marketing@abit-usa.com

Once again thank you for supporting ABIT!!!

[MrLavender]

Hey!!! Nice to see you here! :toast:

The KD7/AT7 MAX2 1/6 divider issue seems to be the biggie at the moment, we really need some clarification on this. I'll be (reluctantly) looking elsewhere for my next upgrade unless this is sorted out.

[OPPAINTER]

Originally posted by ABIT Marketing
Thank you all for your feedback regarding ABIT products. To summarize, RMA service, BIOS tweaking abilities (AGP/CPU/DDR voltage, PCI divider, etc) and quaility control are the 3 main categories that ABIT is concentrating on in order to provide all ABIT users with the best products.

I will be monitoring this forum from now and on and I will do my best to deliver ALL comments and concerns to the appropriate staff member, in addition to responding here so that every Abit user can benefit from our quality S^2 (Service and Support).
http://www.abit-usa.com/boundaryless.html

Remember!! Abit IS listening to YOU!!!

P.S. BTW, I cannot guarantee that I will respond to all posts immediately; therefore, if I miss any important issues that require immediate attention, please e-mail me directly at marketing@abit-usa.com


Once again thank you for supporting ABIT!!!

Welcome to Xtreme ABIT :toast:

This is where the Real Abit Gurus hang out.
We have got to talk:D

OPP

[sysfailur]

Leet! Yeah like OPP said, we have the best Abit modders/users here, which you'll soon see. It's nice to have the ability to talk directly to the company you buy your stuff from via forums. :)

Btw, nice computer specs ;)

[Creative]

I remember that thread over at icrontic also and used to use the KG7 tweak thread sticky by Oppainter all the time for reference.....thats when i got into all the business with Ocing...when I got the KG7, it replaced my POS A7V133 :D

Since then its been KR7, BD7, IT7 and Im locking them all....apart from the undervolting issues on the IT7 and BD7 :mad:

Abit...very good to see an appearance on xtreme...welcome :D The only place I see manufacturer reps on forums is over at Rage3d.com forum where an few ATi guys hang out....oh and the Corsair forums....:p

If you read this, can you explain why the board undervolt so much? Is there an explanation or is it just the law of science? Im not cluey with this type of stuff so if you could let me know Id appreciate it.

Abit boards rock, thats about all that needs to be said :p

[sysfailur]

And also there is an Epox Tech @ the aoaforums. ;)

[Creative]

Originally posted by sysfailur
And also there is an Epox Tech @ the aoaforums. ;)

Rogerthat :)

also just remembered there an Epox one at amdmb.com or is that the same place? :p
hehehehe

ahh well, its still good that more and more companies are doing it these days. I mean how else are they meant to get feedback...:)

[IFMU]

Originally posted by Creative
also just remembered there an Epox one at amdmb.com or is that the same place? :p
hehehehe


Thats a negatory there, 2 seperate sites intirely. :D

[Jupiler]

Got the IT7 and I love the board. Great performance, good stability and a good overclockers board. Same as the KT7A Raid and KR7A Raid, which I once owned ;)
- The IT7 has some undervolting problems, like most Intel boards. Don't know if something can fixed this but it would be nice if this could be resolved.
- VCore only up to 1.7V. Disappointing for the many overclockers around here. Why not 1.85V and even more (2.2V ??). It shouldn't be that hard to change it, right? Can help us to oc the cpu a 100-200 Mhz more (with some luck too :))
- Memory voltage only up to 2.80V. I really like to see 3.2V Max, allowing us to get the max out our memory. If I'm correct, the original 78H bios had this option. Why has it been removed?
- Active cooling on the NB would be nice.
- As posted before, 4 holes around the NB, for alternative cooling options.

[Ragnarok]

lol refer to sig :)

my allegiance to abit product is undying :)

[Blue078]

First off this is GREAT that Abit wants to listen to us:D

From the BH6 on up ABIT is tops for overclockers:cool:

The things I wish Abit would improve, is higher vcore, and vdimm
for Intel mobos.

Would be nice to use at least the C Media chip for onboard sound.

But mainly we NEED more than 1.7vcore, and 2.8vdimm, on Intel boards.

[cabojoe]

;) DDR slots on Abit Video Cards.

[biCker]

maybe better communication between their departments: My IT-7 died so I contacted tech support in Holland asking if warranty stands with non conductive thermal grease (supplyied by asetek) used in the socket , they aswered me that warranty doesn't void; so I didn't bother cleaning the socket in detail and rma'd the mobo, now all of sudden I have to pay for the new mobo I received cause using Vapochill by the instructions seems to be user abuse, they claim the thermal grease in the socket caused the death :rolleyes: but why doen't my kt7a-raid die then when using the same grease in the socket?

[Privateer]

Originally posted by biCker
maybe better communication between their departments: My IT-7 died so I contacted tech support in Holland asking if warranty stands with non conductive thermal grease (supplyied by asetek) used in the socket , they aswered me that warranty doesn't void; so I didn't bother cleaning the socket in detail and rma'd the mobo, now all of sudden I have to pay for the new mobo I received cause using Vapochill by the instructions seems to be user abuse, they claim the thermal grease in the socket caused the death :rolleyes: but why doen't my kt7a-raid die then when using the same grease in the socket?

My KX7 has just died,ive got die electric grease in socket,

Could it be a ABIT Problem.

[Yodums]

To be completely honest. Abit provides good performance and stablity at a very affordable price. However I'm quite disapointed at Abit sometimes. For instance the BE6, BH6 etc all had bad caps and alot have failed. The KR7A was released as like a beta. There was a defective batch which Abit decided to sell anyways and the board has long memory traces in which caused an error @ Test 5 Memtest86.com stock speeds. I wouldn't use this board for people I build PCs for because I want to run their PC at stock and I don't want to calling me telling me that they are running into problems which I was running in at stock. Anyways, you have to overclock to a 136fsb and rearrange your memory. In the Abit KR7A manual it even tells you to fill up the ram slots from DIMM 1 > 4 and don't leave empty DIMM Slots in between. I'm not sure about Abit RMA Department but I was told it sucks. You're also paying 25.00 for labour and shipping which I think sucks, especially if it's defective. You buy it and it's defective, your vendor directs you to their RMA Page then you realise you're paying 25.00 for something you are not responsible for. Surely if you damaged the board by getting Arctic Silver and then sending it in, that's a different story but then again users that didn't damage their mobos won't be happy.

I'm sorry for being so specific for the downsides but the performance, stablity and price makes up for it.

Also, I haven't heard anything bad about the KX7 other than Rev 1 doesn't support the T-Bred 2200+ Stock and over, and I recommend it to everyone wanting a KT333 motherboard or any sort of motherboard.

Yodums

[RichBa5tard]

I'd like to see a 2-digit display which shows the current state of the mobo, much like on epox motherboards. My brother has an epox mobo ans he's very found of that future, i can see why.

I've got ambivalent feelings about higher vcore though, i think many ppl will fry their athlon because they don't know about the risk involved raising vcore. 1.85v is high enough for me.

[bito]

I'd like Abit to put the four mounting holes around the socket on all boards, including their new Nforce2 offering !!

[zakelwe]

I'd like Abit and all the board manufacturers to standardize the LED jumpers on the motherboard so that the LED leads could be attached in one simple plastic plug in socket, like the motherboard power connector.

Then I wouldn't have to spend ages putting them on and the hdd LED only coming on when data is being accessed ;)

Not all of us have small hands like a Taiwanese lady.

Regards

Andy

[Covenant]

Most people have said all there is to be said about ABit - definitely the most consistent motherboards out there, but could do with more voltage options in the BIOS - we all know about the BD7 and its undervolting.

Only one thing concerns me, there has been a rumour (and I dont know whether its true or not) that Abit is handing over the actual manufacturing to ECS.
As I build PCs for a living as well as a hobby (true geekdom:p) I really hope that ABIT keep en eye on Quality Control from ECS if the rumour is true. DOA and faulty ECS motherboards are alarmingly common.

[dmitriyaz]

i haven't posted in this thread yet, as i thought i wasn't worthy :)
you guys make the best mobos, its a common fact;
but for the love of god, include the mounting holes in NF2 board!
Abit brand has the most popularity among enthusiasts,
including people who use water, TEC and custom built phase-change to cool their CPUs,
and no matter how awesome your NF2 board may be (and i am plenty sure it is the best),
without the stupid holes, guess where all these people are going to put their money in next? uh-huh, EPoX. :eek:
you dont want that to happen, now do you? :D

[toddalaska]

Ijust want themn to keep putting the wb mounting holes on everything amd

[Fewture]

1st I would like Abit to continue their great work and uphold their name as THE overclockers board.
2nd Some clarity about the KD7 and the problems you see on the forums. Like the extreme heat of the caps near the system temp sensor.
3rd PCI/AGP locking on AMD boards would be fantastic!

And did I mention the KD7 problems? Ahh yes, I did! :D

Tnx, Abit rulez..

[ABIT Marketing]

Sorry guys I haven't been posting much or reading the forums much for the last month. Been really busy cause Comdex is coming up and also working on ABIT official Forum. Just want to let you guys know that I am back now and I will be monitoring the forum from time to time. (I will try.. i promise this time)

:toast:

[Charles Wirth]

I got my Abit invite for the venitian hotel iirc, why so far away from the convention center?

"FUGGER" will drop by the booth, who shall I introduce myself too?

[DaSnIpE]

Better voltages (the new kt400's are a great step) and AGP voltage would be great 2.

[kanedazan]

I have owned ABit motherboard since the early day of the first amd K6, and run all the way with different motherboard up to the AT7 Max I have actually, but I must admit that even if this board is great, the failure with my athlon 2200+ has killed my mood, where I live, ABit mobo cost a lot, and a failure with the cpu wasn't my best joyce moment of this years.

Though, what I'd like to see:
- 1/6 divider for a good fsb200 support
- more cpu/ddr voltage
- legacy free
- space under the AGP slot like with the AT7
- more space around the chipset for better cooling solution

That's kinda all I would like if I were to buy a new ABIT mobo...alongside with an upcoming compatibility with the Barton,that is.

[Kunaak]

I would like to see two small things.

an AGP overvolting option.

and just a small preference from boards I had in the past.
visually seeing the PCI divider speeds.
I know it's not necessary, but it's just nice to have a idea of how far your actually pushing your divider speeds.

I think most people would agree it would be nice to see a option in bios so you can physically see a "AGP mode 4x or 8x"
not this "enable DBI trans" thing.
although I know thats the 8x feature, I want to see something that says 8x not "DBI trans"

[Kunaak]

this is kinda a ghetto idea maybe, but I liked what the dude said.
about a special edition board for Overclockers.

even if it was a special order board that you have to get directly from ABit, and it came with no warranty if you fry it, and they made me sign a paper stating I know what I am doing and have the gear to cool something like that...
I'd still get one.

in photography I am use to having the option of super gear you can't get anywhere else, except from the makers.

like nikons 1200-1700, F5.6-F8 ED lense.
costs 83 thousand, and takes 6 months to order cause it's made on demand, but it's sure cool to have that option.
other special demand lenses like the 6mm fisheye, and 2000 mm mirror lense. they are the same.
you can't get them anywhere else except from nikon.

that would be a cool option to have in computer gear too.

[MoveX]

I was very happy with the boards BH6, BE6II, KT7-R, TH7II ans especially the BP6, but

the Abit support is the worst ever seen, the MAX boards have cheap components like ALC650 codec, some boards have buggy caps, no windows flashtool or ez flash like Asus and other manufactures, no possibility to read out the XP diode, no overheating control and the bioses are at first always §§§§
now there are comunities programming their own bios, which is much better than Abit's
Why is there no i850E (TH7III)??

Conclusion: Abit is not so good anymore, like in the past.
Beside other manufactures have more inovation by the time and that was Abit's most common image: always a_bit better!!

[ralfaford]

I am very happy with my BD7II without RAID, especially the overclockering options, except for the undervolting problem, but I use a williamette P4 so I guess it doesn't matter that much. Overall, gonna keep buying ABIT as there is no higher quality and reliable board.

[Ascario]

If it can be done, i'ld love an Abit Max-board based on the nForce2 chipset (preferably with PS/2 ports)! I don't mind if it wouldn't be out before new year or if it costs > $200, i'ld just love to have one. So according to max-standards it should have soundstorm, firewire, usb2.0, serillel-ata raid, DualNet (preferably) and last but certainly not least Softmenu III! :slobber:
I wouldn't be able to use my parallel HP PSC500 anymore, but i'm willing to make that sacrifice! :D

If it can't/won't happen, i might still get the Abit NF7-S board, seems to be the only one of the nForce2 variety that can offer a punch. Perhaps the Epox board too, if they make up their minds about the final specs. :D
I just love the performance of the nForce chipset and the fact that agp & pci are lockable, cause my hardware is very picky about PCI speed. :(

[Piotke]

I worked exactly 2 hours with an abit, and it overclocked very well and seemed stable. Had no time for more specifik benches.

What I missed was a 2 digit display or a D-bracket or Smartled (From MSI mobo's).

[antipop]

I've never bought any other mobo than an Abit one and when i build comp for my friends i always go with an abit solution. What i like to see, it's some cheap well performing great oc'er mobo without the onboard sound and all the small things that add up to the price of the card

[Stoffie]

I've been using abit ever since the KT7, then KT7A, KG7, KR7A, and I bought an AT7MAX recently.

I was disappointed that my new xp2400 didn't work on it, and I didn't feel like messing with my cpu, so I got rid of it. So here's another vote for much better future cpu support.

Ditching my 8 month old KR7A cuz it didn't support the newer xp's and finding out the much newer at7 didn't support it either, was quite a surprise, although not totally.

It's just sad, because the boards themselves are great for overclocking and tweaking. And I don't see what excuse you guys could give because other manufacturers like Asus and MSI have much better compatibility.

Also, higher vmem and vcore would be nice.

[DeBastaard]

I'm really, really happy that i bought an Abit KD7-Raid. it's my first abit, but after that crappy MSI K7T266Pro-R i don't want anything else :) Abit rulez, it's much faster... can't really think of anything that i would really, really want on it... maybe serial ATA or so but that's standard on the newer mobos anyway....

[spinky]

i purchased my Asus A7V133 6 months before i got my Abit KT7A-Raid

and guess what? my A7V133 officially supports Athlon XP.. as for my Abit..its a rev 1.02..so in the webpage it says it doesn't officially support Athlon XP.

that is not good. so i ain't buying another board from ABIT since they can't be upgraded. i don't really buy a new motherboard every 6 months. just cause that time everybody said it overclocks well and its great.

[Silversink]

I've always favored Abit, I've tried many other brands but I always find myself coming back to Abit.

My only suggestion is to not Skimp on the capacitors (http://www.overclockers.com/tips054/) and such.

I'd gladly pay a dollar or two more knowing that the board is implementing top grade capacitors and components.

The term 'you get what you pay for' applies to manufacturer as well as the consumer.

[DaGooch]

I believe it depends on the version of the A7V133 as well. I have the earliest retail version which is 1.04 and does not officially support the XP. If you have version 1.05 which was released several weeks after the 1.04, the XP is fully supported.

[Privateer]

Originally posted by DaGoochMeister
I believe it depends on the version of the A7V133 as well. I have the earliest retail version which is 1.04 and does not officially support the XP. If you have version 1.05 which was released several weeks after the 1.04, the XP is fully supported.

Bl**dy versions.
My V1 kx7 doesnt support XP 2200+,
That sux !!

[DaGooch]

Originally posted by Privateer
Bl**dy versions.
My V1 kx7 doesnt support XP 2200+,
That sux !!

I know what you mean Privateer with the versions. I have to send back some AT7 V1.0 boards for Thoroughbred 2200+ incompatability.

[Aly]

I never owned an Abit before but I considered it a few times.
latly the legacy free system got me allmost there. 2 things were wrong with it:
I still want the PS/2 ports (I love my keyboard)
Why does it still have Floppy?

Considering all the posts here I am pretty sure it WILL be an Abit MB now.

Why did you chose this generic name to post here? That looks fishy... it's like unofficial/anonymous. Thats just me tho

[spinky]

well, that could be the reason, but 6 months later i got an old board, that really is bad. maybe abit can do something bout it, maybe not.. cause abit don't have direct control over distributors and dealers.. still..something they can look into :)

apart from that however, i am very happy with my abit kt7a-raid board..never crashed once. thats for sure.

[OPPAINTER]

Originally posted by Aly

Why did you chose this generic name to post here? That looks fishy... it's like unofficial/anonymous. Thats just me tho

What Generic name?? I don't get it.

OPP

[DaGooch]

I believe he means Abit Marketing.

[OPPAINTER]

I see :D So he think's that the name Abit Marketing sounds unofficial/anonymous, what could be more official then that ?? :D

OPP

[Aly]

well you dont know who he/she is. it's like you cannot quote the person. ppl have names you know. I am reto BTW :=)
(not to be a hypocrite)

P.S Still awesome for someone from Abit to come to a hardware site

[MrIcee]

Aly:)

The most important thing is that OPP, DDTUNG and I all personally know and work with ABIT Marketing. He's a great guy and reads and listens to the guys here in the forums, relaying that info back to ABIT. We are truly fortunate to have such representation here from ABIT....it will definitely be a benefit to the hobby as a whole as all suggestions and feedback from the hobbyist community will assist ABIT in improving and continuing to make the finest, highest performing boards in the world:)

Best Regards,
Randi:D

[Dr. Conley]

Great boards, all i have bought since my BH6. I personally would like to see some distinct colored PCB's :). I dont like the brown ;)

[OPPAINTER]

Originally posted by Dr. Conley
Great boards, all i have bought since my BH6. I personally would like to see some distinct colored PCB's :). I dont like the brown ;)

Good point, those suckers are Ugly:D

OPP

[sysfailur]

Originally posted by FUGGER
I got my Abit invite for the venitian hotel iirc, why so far away from the convention center?

"FUGGER" will drop by the booth, who shall I introduce myself too?

I would presume Lyle Wagner. He said he's going.

[Method Man]

More Vcore settings, locked agp/pci, and heatsinks on the little chips on the motherboard that get hot...:toast:

[Hausmeister]

me thinks the color is ok... it's not a beauty, but form follows function;)

btw: is the new Bios kd7c8 also for the KD7r? It's only on the usa site and says something like 'first bios for kd7e' - but it's listet under KD7....
hmm think i'm gonna try it anyway.:stick:

Edit:
hmm, ok, just found the Bios thread.... think i'm gonna wait until they release a fixed one..

[STEvil]

What we need (not want.. NEED! 8-))

Ability to LOCK the PCI bus at 33mhz to 50mhz
Ability to LOCK the AGP bus between 66mhz and 133mhz (heh)
A RAID controller that doesnt :smileysex: sound cards (like my sound card - Hercules Game Theater XP, heh)
Better capacitors.

Multiplier manipulation without worring about lock/unlock... 8-)

[Paladin]

Abit was my favorite. I've built systems around BE6, BE6-II, and BX133-RAID boards. Was my favorite til the caps started bulging and leaking killing the boards.

<sarcasm>
Maybe it's a conspiracy along with Nichicon or Panasonic -- Abit has planned obsolescence while the quality caps manufacturers have a new distribution market in m/b repairs. :rolleyes:

Maybe have more subchoices for motherboard models:

basic mb $100
el cheapo componants +$0
raid +$20
lan +$5
sound +$6
quality componants +$2
shipping +$5
</sarcasm>

Nothing worse than just upgrading your CPU only to have the m/b die a week later as happened to me.

[NoEcho]

I would like to see three things, one general and two specific:

a) extreme tweakability options in the bios with a disclaimer toggle stating something to the effect that 'triggering this option affords opportunities to modify components into a realm that may yield performance gains or component destruction, you cede all right to future claims for damages of this board or any connected component by executing this event'... and thus we can gain some more tweakability that the legal department would presently disallow, and
b) cooling of the clock generators and voltage regulators, and
c) prestaging and post-POSTing power levels... basically a software level capacity to modify power levels and fsb - too many things won't work because of the anomalous demands of the POSTing process that could be made to work with a pre and post-POST setting process.

Presently I have an Abit BE7 +R whose tweakability I have yet to engage but whose stability I already welcome.

[Dagon]

First off I'd like to say that I like my Abit board (KT7A-R) but I'm not sure I'll get another ABIT.

First off, I have a vs 1.1 board so no XP for me. I would have never bought it, if I'd had known about the incompatability issues.

2nd many other MB companies have really stepped up to the plate for the O/C community. There is so much more competition now.

3rd. I ended up having to get a Hacked BIOS (newer Highpoint drivers) to get XP to install. Search for the saga on Amdmb.com

[NoEcho]

It would help to have servers for the downloads in America. Nothing like trying to download a 12 meg file from Taiwan at 11 kbps.

[saaya]

a locked agp pci divider! ...well or a 1/6 and maybe 1/7 divider

[saaya]

What we need (not want.. NEED! 8-))

Ability to LOCK the PCI bus at 33mhz to 50mhz
Ability to LOCK the AGP bus between 66mhz and 133mhz (heh

http://www.spao.de/pict/smilies/smash.gifgreat idear!!!

[Inverter]

Drop VIA and support the NForce2 chip.

[SupaMan]

Originally posted by Inverter
Drop VIA and support the NVIDIA2 chip.

....or keep VIA and still support the nvidia chip. :)

[Charles Wirth]

I stopped by Abit suite 3 times and did not see Harry.

[freeloader]

How about boards that actually support future versions of the XP. My KT7A V1.0 board wouldn't support Athlon XP and now my KR7A-Raid board won't support XP2200 and up. Asus, Epox, Gigabyte and God only knows what other manufacturer's don't seem to have this problem, so why does Abit? I won't be buying an Abit board anymore for this reason. Hell, I'd venture to say that the KD7 probably won't support the Barton when it's released or if you have a V1.00 it won't support it. You need V1.0x....where have I heard that before?

[Kunaak]

I hope someone hears me here...

I recently had a problem with my prometeia (after much denial, I finally concluded it was for the most part me and my impatience) anyways, after a failed overclock on the prometeia, I needed to clear the CMOS.

the problem was other then the overclock, it was that the microfreezer wasn't making full contact, but was powering up.

now since I cleared the CMOS, the CPU protect was off by default, and the prometeia sent power to the board and me sitting there wondering what happend...
didn't get the clue till I saw my XP 2700 in smoke.

I think had the CPU protection been enabled by default this may have helped save the CPU.

thats what I would like to suggest.
the CPU be enabled by default so this kinda thing doesn't happen more, especially with more and more people getting more extreme cooling like water blocks and the vapochill and prometeia.

it could probably be as easy as a thing in the next Bios update, I think... well hope...
anyways, I just hope someone from ABIT sees this and understand what I am saying.

[scrllock]

I helped a friend choose the components for his first comp, and i chose Abit for his mobo. He got the AT7, and we were never able to get his original board working. After a month of working with it, he eventually RMA'ed it, and we've had no problems at all with his new replacement board. The other abit boards ive had experience with worked quite stably as well, with the exception of a KR7 that was due to excessive heat during the summer. So keep up the good work.

[Schitzo]

I'll agree on the capacitor thing. I was really looking forward to the KA7, and it treated me really well, for a while. Then the leaking and the intermittant posting :(

Was an excuse to move on to that newfangled socketA, though.

Definately keep the four mounting holes. Part of the reason I'm still not moving over to the intel side of thing is my waterblock is socketA, and it's convenient to keep it.

[STEvil]

Seperate memory voltage controllers for each memory slot..
- Im running a Shuttle AK11 rev 3.2 (latest BIOS) and cant run more than 1 stick of ram at over 133mhz FSB... 8-(

Beefer 5 volt and 12v lines on the motherboard
- The shuttle im running is ok power wise, but boards I have previously owned have had issues delivering enough power along the miniscule power traces provided... I think you abit guys could look into how amplifiers are manufactured... they are buit tough for a reason 8-)

[WxChaser]

The most important thing is that OPP, DDTUNG and I all personally know and work with ABIT Marketing. He's a great guy and reads and listens to the guys here in the forums, relaying that info back to ABIT. We are truly fortunate to have such representation here from ABIT....it will definitely be a benefit to the hobby as a whole as all suggestions and feedback from the hobbyist community will assist ABIT in improving and continuing to make the finest, highest performing boards in the world

Totally agree with Randee on the above. Harry did a lot with the new Abit forums setup also.

Harry is a good dude, was lucky enough to meet him in Vegas at the Venetian suite - he's the one who set up my appointment and helped me out. Also one more thanks for the good schtuff you gave me at the hospitality suite, Mr. Marketing! The OTES shirt is very cool.

http://webpages.charter.net/carmels/DSC00858.JPG

http://webpages.charter.net/carmels/DSC00856.JPG

[Creative]

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?postid=69791#post69791

Im not buying Abit again untill you guys clean up your act.....:mad:

Not happy :(

[calimero]

Originally posted by hallowen


Waiting with Baited Breath for the Next Board to Showup........


It seems early next year, the SIS658 RDRAM powered SI7 board would be released.

http://www.gzeasy.com/newsphoto/y2k2-10/1025/ab1-b.jpg

[Tweaked!]

Ok, I've got a special request here. I would like to see Abit produce a nice high end dual Amd server mother board. But only if they can maintain their levels of overclockability. Right now, We're really limited in dual choices, and in my opinion, right now the only choice available is the MSI and Iwill. The Asus is a decent board, but can't compare to the other two, so it's not in my consideration. And since the Iwill doesn't have multiplier support, that only leaves the MSI. If Abit would consider producing a dual, I'm sure they could easily dominate the market on them. Just my 2c's:D

[IFMU]

Abit had a dual AMD board, however from what I heard they were only open to business' or something. I tried to see if I could find it on Abit, but no luck... odd.....

Ah yea, it was called the Abit WA-2A if I recall correctly and it hasnt changed.

*EDIT*
Ah well couldnt find it there, but did find it here.

http://www.2cpu.com/images/cebit/Abit_WA-2A.html

[Tweaked!]

Yeah, I knew they had one at one time, but I do believe they've dropped it. I had searched their site extensively trying to find it, that's when I thought about posting about it.:)

[mikoto]

NF7-S

Must.....have.....voltage......

1.85.....so.....lame......

Since you are at it, consider active cooling for NB with an easy way(i.e. screws) to remove it so we can put decent TIM on there. I hate prying glued-on HS off the NB.

ty:D

P.S. I second Tweaked!

[Grentarc]

When i set out to buy my ultimate computer.. first on the list - Abit KT7A-RAID...
I now have an Athlon XP 1700+ with the new Thoroughbred core... overclocked to 1900MHz with a FSB of 152MHz... I am pretty sure that there are'nt many KT133a chipset motherboards around still being used and tweaked like this.
When buying motherboard for clients of mine, i only build on Abit boards.. and my friend and i just undertook a project of a Vapochill, XP 2400+ and an AT7 Max2.....
Softmenu III is perfect from my KT7A to the AT7 Max 2. This board is well laid out, missing the #1 PCI slot which i dont care about seeing as the watercooling of the Geforce4 Ti4600 takes that out of the question, the gap between the RAM slots makes the ventilation around RAM with heat spreaders better (ie. Corsair XMS series) and the general layout is great!
the only two problems are -
A) The AT7-Max2 didnt come with 2 Sirellel adaptors. (and it was a brown PCB.. not the sexy Black one :( )
B) The KT7A-RAID bios only goes up to 12.5x multiplier (i want higher, as the HDD controller starts to fail at 153 or higher FSB.)

Things i love:
A) Softmenu
b) The fact that a KT133A chipset board posts at a 173 MHz FSB.. (only the HDD controller holding the board back)

[charlie]

Any word on if the Abit GB board will ever materialize??? If not I'm buying the garba-byte
C

[Tweaked!]

A free t-shirt w/ every mother board would be a nice touch too:thumbsup:

[psykes]

What I would like to see is also Special Edition boards, manufactured for the overclockers 100%

High quality components, high vcore, vmem and FSB options of course. All the newest features ( S-ATA, Firewire and so on), and good onboard sound, like the Cmedia chip. I thought you guys would make such boards after the TH7-II, and the hype about the abit enginered features.

Well hoping for the best, I really would like a great Abit Canterwood board, with the above mentioned features. :D

[ExtremeAMD]

More VOLTAGE!!!

That's about my only complaint. :)

[Mono]

Originally posted by ExtremeAMD
More VOLTAGE!!!

That's about my only complaint. :)

Yes, more voltage and less undervolting :(

[gobbo]

I'd have to say more voltage availalbe at default and to keep the 4 mounting holes around the socket. Thats about all the needs imporving upon!

[MadMax]

The official word I believe was that they aren't releasing a GB board. Too expensive, and the performance increase isn't justified.

My only complaint about Abit is the stock availability in this country (New Zealand), but I sent some emails about that and didn't get another response ;)

[snn47]

My Problem with ABIT is the lack of information to the customer once a product is purchased.

The ABIT Tech-Forum is

*** UNDER CONSTRUCTION ***
Sorry, this bulletin board is temporarily unavailable, while we perform some routine maintenance.Please try back again later. http://fae.abit.com.tw/eng/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi[/URL]

This since the KT7A debacle, when the KT7A & Palomino problem why it can't and why it still works were discussed!


What happended
ABIT maintained and still maintains, that none of KT7A below Rev.1.3 can support a Palomino (never got to TBreds).

- never said why ABIT-Boards can't,
while allmost all Boards can (including KT7 requiring at worst with a warm boot after an unsuccessfull cold boot)
- strangely the Rev.1.3 never appeared in some areas
- Then as said before the Online Forum has been down since then!

Unless they change their policy and acknowledge the consumer desire for facts and reply to their questions, I will not give them the benfit of a doubt for their fututre products However god someone may claim they are.

So until ABIT will kick some ...es in their company and change the way they treat consumersthey've lost a lot of consistant ABIT customers.

I remember ABIT asking questions before in another forum, but I can't remember any reaction/reply to the problems raised there.

[snn47]

It's mostly some of the "small" guys of a company who really try to compensate/help customers and who are trying to make up for problems created higher up, thanks to whom most companies can survive. I know you don't get much credit but thank you.

However unless the principle problems, aren't solved at it's source (hint TW) not to much can change.

So in case you think I don't care about ABIT, that I don't want o buy ABIT boards youre wrong. Now to the technical side of items I would recommend (from the engineering side nothing I propose should be expensive/time-intensive).

1. Make the boards modular
Use add-on-PCB's in production and allow customer upgrading (e.g. add RAID 0-5, SCSI IDE/SCSI 160 bridge, temp-protection, SSD or RAM-Disk, stronger voltage regulators for OC ...). This is a bit more more expensive at the start but is not different from the ISA-/PCI/AGP-Slots idea. While many of the items I list may be available as PCI-cards, (e.g. RAM-Disk, IDE-/SCSI-(RAID-)controller it's not the same as when it has been included in board design for stable operation (e.g. interrupt assignment).

2. add an overheating-protection-system that automatically reduces systemclocks/voltages, that are above normal for a cooling period. Rather then having a part of the system ( CPU/GPU/Chipset/HDD) crash the whole system make it a bit slower for a moment, to avaoid a crash.
I am thinking of something like power now used in the mobile Athlons, that reduces all system frequencies/voltages by using a fail saife setting BIOS until the system cooled down.

3. option to add additional external Temp-Detection-Diodes for monitoring with definable limit for thermal protection.

4. Allow hot switching from a safe BIOS to an OC-BIOS

5. Add second BIOS chip one as backup/standard

6. support of Booting from external drives like firewire (IEEE-1394a, b and maybee USB 2.0 like in FirstBIOS)
or Flash-drives or USB-sticks. If you have only one liscence for a program it would be nice to install it on an external drive and just connect it to the PC where it's needed.

7. put cost-intensive add-ons like RAID, SCSI onto a add-on PCB so it can be reused with the next board (how about >Raid 1 like Raid 5, Solid State Drive/RAM-Disk 4 sticks of 512MB/1024MB RAM should do until the 2048MB are out)

8. Same applies to Legacy support OS-Keyboard Floppy unless you support external boot options

9. Cooling:
how about offering a forced airflow duct system that first goes through the CPU-HSF, then Chipset and voltage reglators, for reliable cooling. This would require a high pressure radial fan >80m³/h (hint Papst;))
just using a bit of PCB-cooper-surface as heatsink for the high-current-transistors provides to much thermal stress to a board or at least provide forced cooling.
provide as option better Chipset-coolers

10. reopen the Support forum or if ABIT hesitates because of liability considerations then

11. contribute it unofficially (=in the extreme forum?) e.g. technical details what works/what doesn't (e.g. why more then two mem.slots if the system won't be stable with 3 or you don't know which ones to select), how many/whichmem accuracy of voltage&temp-sensing, current rating of PCB-traces, regulator, or on electronics/function/timing e.g. influence of BIOS settings onto the chipsets. If to many options are used performance gets worse then better.

12. support Bus-parking and other features if available in chipset like the new VIA Southbridge

13. better quality control on components use (capacitors) or more efficient chipset cooling (apply thermal paste evenly)

14. For OC-BIOS inofficial support/information could be given to e.g. extreme or http://www.biosmods.com/?

It's nice to know that some part of ABIT is listening, but may I dare ask if we can we hope for some feedback from the source that created these problems?


PS.: OPPAINTER couldn't we add a summary of the items proposed/ABIT-feedback to your first post/seperately? Once a post with many details exceeds 3 pages it gets hard to keep track of details?

[DeBastaard]

Well check this out, i flashed my BIOS for my KD7-Raid, wich is KT400 chipset, and what do i get ? check the pic below...
i'm not sure if this is bad for my performance or so? the readme said it was for KD7-E/KD7-Raid ...

[AnvilDemon26]

I am very new to Abit mobo's as my first one is a NF7-S. I have always enjoyed OC'ing and such and would really have to agree with most of the posters here that higher voltage options should be included. The thing that I have not seen mentioned yet is that I would really like to see a 64 bit PCI slot standard on new and upcoming motherboards. For me one slot is technically enough, the other option is that I would like it if we could adjust at least one PCI slot upto 66mhz. I use equipment that can run on a 64bit (66mhz) pci slot and with benchmarks that I have seen would really appreciate an option like this.

[Justintoxicated]

I used to own ABIT boards untill i ran into some crappy problems.

for example, my KT7-RAID (not KT7A) was not compleatly compatable with GF4 4600. I could not install win 2k or xp with a 4600 in the AGP slot. WIn98 however installed fine. This was most likely due to a bug in the bios and im not sure if they ever corrected it, but i did try all the new bioses at that time. Lack of support or older boards stinks!

I have since had much better luck with EPox in the present time, althought they have some problems themselves, like no number to call for tech support. And i did recieve an 8rda+ that was defective upon arrival where as i have had no defective abit boards so far. THey jsut pissed me off when i got my 4600, i ended up replacing my entire system. (did get me back up to date with hardware though :P )

Nothing too serious though, they are second in my book for now.

[slinkwc2k]

I have to really thank Abit for this one. The weekend I was going to do a Pin mod on my P4 to get higher voltage, Abit releases the BIOS for the IT7 Max 2 ver 2 that allows higher CPU voltages. God, that is so awesome. Keep it up Abit, and I'll be buying the GeForce FX from ya!

[Nico]

Originally posted by AnvilDemon26
I am very new to Abit mobo's as my first one is a NF7-S. I have always enjoyed OC'ing and such and would really have to agree with most of the posters here that higher voltage options should be included. The thing that I have not seen mentioned yet is that I would really like to see a 64 bit PCI slot standard on new and upcoming motherboards. For me one slot is technically enough, the other option is that I would like it if we could adjust at least one PCI slot upto 66mhz. I use equipment that can run on a 64bit (66mhz) pci slot and with benchmarks that I have seen would really appreciate an option like this.

I agree 64bit pci or pci-x would be a good move, but I think it is dependant on the chipset. Not to say that we shouldn't be asking, because Abit can pass the demand on to Via and Nvidia etc.

[Aaron]

I would really like to see a 64 bit PCI slot standard on new and upcoming motherboards

Indeed.


Aaron

[Blooduk]

Make that acpi Removable in bios!!!! plz plz plz i had to get a bios mod for my abit kt7a when it was auto enabled , we should have the choice with what we want or not ;)

[charlie]

Abit,
how 'bout SiS655 board with IT7Max2v.2 build quality, dual ddr400, dividers, etc/??
C

[ABIT Marketing]

I don't think we have plans for SiS655, how about some SiS 658 loving. :D
http://www.abit-usa.com/news/2003/20030123b.php

[WxChaser]

Now if we could just squeeze a release date for revision 2 on the NF7-S out of Abit! ;)

[Blooduk]

plzzzzzzzz release a new bios mod with acpi off abit gurus ;)

[Keeper]

And RAID with the revised NF

[Royal Oaks]

Originally posted by ABIT Marketing
I don't think we have plans for SiS655, how about some SiS 658 loving. :D
http://www.abit-usa.com/news/2003/20030123b.php

Beautiful man. I am definitely looking into going with an Intel/RDRAM based board for my next upgrade when I do a complete overhaul. If I know the SIS chipsets, they will be much more favorable in terms of price compared to the Intel offerings. Also, I do not want stability, I want speed :D Now we just need the price of RDRAM to come down a little bit and this thing will be killer. :banana:

[hipro5]

I have a BIG PROBLEM with THREE Mobos ABIT IT7-Max2 "V.2" ......The one is mine and the other two are my friends......When I put into bios the memory at low and 3:4, then the MAX my memory module works,is 218MHz(436MHz DDR).......When I put it to high and 4:5 then the memory module works till 247MHz(494MHz DDR).....The EXCACT SAME Memory module works on my ABIT IT7-Max2 V.1 and on my ASUS P4B533-E , till 266MHz(532MHz DDR)......This "strange" thing is happening on ALL those THREE Mobos "V.2" .......What the heck is happening here????......Two of them are WITHOUT the "famous" resistor and the third one is WITH the "famous" resistor......and HOW it is possible for memory module to run at 4:5 at 247MHz and at 3:4 ONLY 218MHz....?????.....Thanks...... :confused: :confused: :confused:

[OPPAINTER]

Originally posted by hipro5
I have a BIG PROBLEM with THREE Mobos ABIT IT7-Max2 "V.2" ......The one is mine and the other two are my friends......When I put into bios the memory at low and 3:4, then the MAX my memory module works,is 218MHz(436MHz DDR).......When I put it to high and 4:5 then the memory module works till 247MHz(494MHz DDR).....The EXCACT SAME Memory module works on my ABIT IT7-Max2 V.1 and on my ASUS P4B533-E , till 266MHz(532MHz DDR)......This "strange" thing is happening on ALL those THREE Mobos "V.2" .......What the heck is happening here????......Two of them are WITHOUT the "famous" resistor and the third one is WITH the "famous" resistor......and HOW it is possible for memory module to run at 4:5 at 247MHz and at 3:4 ONLY 218MHz....?????.....Thanks...... :confused: :confused: :confused:

I have the exact same problem with a BE7 mobo. The 3:4 just doesn't work very well at all.
What's up with that ABIT..

OPP

[hipro5]

I was a bit dissapointed when I bought the "V.1" Mobo cos I had more Mem bandwidth with my ASUS one ,but at overal Overclockabillity of the ABIT IT7-Max2 "V.1" and it's futures ,I was pleased and happy I can say as well......BUT now with this Mobo "V.2" witch supposed to be BETTER , I'm VERY dissapointed.....You know I used to ADVERTISE the "V.2" one and a lot of my friends bought some of them too, but not any more.....Now I just say: "They are ok...." and nothing more......Maybe it's a bios bug,I don't know, or a Mobo's bad dessign.....If it's a bios bug,I think it could be solved but if it's a Mobos dessign,then......NOTHING.... :confused:

[charlie]

Hey,
I'll try it...looks interesting
Mr. Abit...
1) Will it be pc1200 16bit or 32 bit????
2) Is this a top of the line board? As in a competitor to it7m2v2?
or better??
3) Voltage options, updated SoftBios?
4) Will this chipset run to 200+ fsb?????
C

[Senzo]

With a north and south bridge cooling kit installed!

[hipro5]

Any news from ABIT yet???....... :confused:

[hipro5]

Knock-knock...!!!....Anybody home????......Did you(ABIT) found out what is happening with the 3:4 CPU:Mem problem on the IT7-Max2 "V.2" boards or should we through them out to find out "peace"....???..... :confused:

[KnightElite]

I have another thought:
One thing Abit should definitely add to their BIOS is the ability to save "New BIOS defaults" so that when hit the load BIOS defaults thing, it puts in the ones that you want. The original ones should also be there, but should only come when the CMOS is cleared. I know this can be done, as I've seen some SOYO boards (I think it was SOYO) that have this feature, and it's very handy ;).

[schrickvr6]

i need more voltage for my nf7-s,especially vcore,as i select 1.85v and only get 1.8v.:stick:

[sequoia464]

I don't know if this is still being read but my last experience with Abit was my KT7-raid that died early because of the capacitor problem. Kind of like water over the dam at this stage but left a bad feeling nonetheless here for ABIT products. The Abit nForce2 board's reviews haven't helped my feelings towards Abit either.

[str8_blunted]

MORE VOLTAGE MORE VOLTAGE MORE VOLTAGE

[.:KmK:.Hell.SG]

Hi guys!

Abit is definitelly the best mother board!

Stable, fast as hell...

Like the other, I think that it would improve in higher voltages, like EpoX do. I think it is the only reason that EpoX actually chalenges against Abit is because that fact.

Higher FSB:PCI:AGP divisor are always welcome too.


Well, even without those things, ABIT RuleZ anyway!!





:toast:

[Kalway]

I'm going to say pretty much the same things everyone else has said. Give more voltage control, mounting holes, pci/agp bus controls, and good cooling on the board.

The only things that drove me from the NF7 to the 8RDA was the vcore's adjustment up to 2.2v and the mounting holes.

[hipro5]

ABIT, ABIT......WHERE are you???......Don't bother solving the 3:4 bug on ABIT IT7-Max2 V.2 Mobo any more...!!!.... I solve that problem myself......I bought an ASUS P4G8X Deluxe GB Mobo and now I have no more problems confusing my head.......Thanks....... ;) :D

[unregistered]

For 4 years I have had nothing but problems with ABit boards until they finally outsourced their manufacturing to ECS. Granted, some boards were stable and did overclock pretty well but then those boards were slow as dogs compared to ASUS or anybody else in the world.

The last few boards, though were decent.

[faruquehabib]

i also just purchased an NF7-S 1.2. i also owned a siluro and it really was great. keep up the great work, ABIT!!

[afbrat]

well I have built a few computers since my first (and last) shelf bought sony vaio. the first self built was a mistake and since i have stuck with abit (6X) except once & I will be RMA'ing that one soon!
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK

My requests:
I like those requests for more voltage control
& better cooling on the NB and SB chips!!
YES SCSI ONBOARD WOULD BE NICE

[Vatt]

I don't know if this thread will lead to anything, but here goes:

- make a reset switch that holds the reset, so we Prometeia users can use it.
- make the connectors for the RESET and POWER switch on opposite side of each other. We Prometeia users have to put thicker cables on it, and it barely fits.
-keep legacy ports, such as serial and parellel ports. I have stuff that needs those ports. It would be a definite dealbreaker if it didn't have those ports
-as everyone else said, increase the voltage possibilities
-mounting holes around everything (CPU, NB, SB etc.)
-like Pilsy said, maybe make a premium line with only high quality components
-never use HighPoint-Tech for onboard RAID ever again :D
-make sure the board will never be the limit for overclocking, make it so good, that when it doesn't work , you know it is the CPU that limits you.
-include 2 Serillel2 adapters instead of only 1
- and never put any chips/IC underneath the heatsink mounting unit. Prometeia users will benefit from a completly flat surface.