Abit AT7 Motherboard Review

Conclusion

Well, what more can I say? I was extremely pleased with all aspects of the Abit AT7. It is not only one of the highest performing motherboards we have tested for the SocketA platform, but it is also one of the most feature-rich. Abit took a huge risk here, trying to be innovative while at the same time trying to please all users. Its lack of legacy ports such as PS/2 will force a lot of you to go out and upgrade your devices to USB/Firewire, however, its additional features such as USB2.0, Firewire and 6-channel audio certainly justify the extra cost.

Continuing with the innovations, the AT7 is also the first ever motherboard to provide a 4-channel RAID controller and its support for a total of 12 IDE devices is very impressive to say the least. The fact that it only features 3 PCI slots may be a problem for some of you, however, due to the fact that there are so many onboard controllers there really wasn't a way of getting around this. Most people should find that 3 PCI slots is just enough, with the exception being people that need to run multiple video cards and/or SCSI cards as well as a network and sound card.

The bottom line is, if you are looking for a high performing, feature rich motherboard for your shiny new AthlonXP, I have no problem recommending the Abit AT7. Due to the reasons mentioned above, I am pleased to award the AT7 with the TweakTown Editor's Choice award!

- Pros

Innovative

High performing

Great overclocker

Stable

Onboard 6-channel 5.1 audio

Onboard USB 2.0 and Firewire

4-channel ATA133 RAID controller

Four DIMM slots

- Cons

CPU socket placement

Lack of legacy ports may force some users to upgrade to USB/firewire devices

3 PCI slots

Rating - 9.5/10 and TweakTown's Editor's Choice Award