Socket-A VIA KT133 Motherboard Roundup - August 2000

ABIT KT7 RAID

ABIT KT7-RAID
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CPU Interface	Socket-A
Chipset	VIA KT133
Form Factor	ATX
Bus Speeds	100 - 183MHz (1MHz increments)
Voltages Supported	1.10 - 2.05V in 0.05V increments
Memory Slots	3 168-pin DIMM Slots
Expansion Slots	1 AGP Slot 6 PCI Slots (4 Full Length) 1 ISA Slot (Shared)
On-board Audio	N/A
BIOS	Award Modular BIOS 6.00PG ABIT SoftMenu III

ABIT is most definitely back. Although the company went through a phase where we weren't very impressed with their boards, their past few releases have really turned our heads. From the KA7, to the BX133 RAID and now to the KT7-RAID, ABIT is on a roll that has them back on the level they were at when we were all first taken by the name ABIT and their SoftMenu setup.

The KT7-RAID adds a number of features to the standard KT133 based motherboard. In addition to completely getting rid of any AMR slots in favor of a full 6 PCI slots and a single shared ISA slot, the KT7-RAID features an onboard HighPoint 370 controller that supports ATA 100 as well as IDE RAID in modes 0 (striping), 1 (mirroring) and 0+1 (mirroring + striping).

Since the HPT370 controller is present in addition to the VIA 686A south bridge, you have a total of four IDE channels, two of which are powered by the HPT370; the remaining two can be used with ATA 33/66 devices provided by the VIA south bridge.

We didn't have any problems with the HPT370 controller in our tests and setting up the RAID on the controller wasn't too difficult at all (the same as any other RAID controller).

The second interesting feature about the KT7-RAID is that it features a modified SoftMenu III setup that allows for clock multiplier manipulation, voltage tweaking, as well as a handful of other performance and stability enhancing settings.

The board features a heatsink/fan on the north bridge which is nice to have but doesn't really help stability to any noticeable degree, it basically drives up the price of the board. Speaking of stability, the KT7-RAID crashed only a single time during our 24 hour stress test, putting it on par with the best of the best in this roundup.

ABIT is also very good about making sure their boards are available at both online vendors as well as your smaller local stores, so it shouldn't be too hard getting your hands on a KT7.

Overall, the KT7-RAID definitely picks up on where the ABIT KA7 left off. It is overall a very impressive solution.