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Taking
a look at the physical aspects of the board yields
some nice findings.
The
expansion capabilities are excellent with Abit's
choice of slot configuration. Instead of
opting for an AMR slot, Abit added a single ISA
slot for those users still stuck with legacy
products. The 1 AGP, 6 PCI and 1 ISA
configuration is probably the most flexible
solution available today. It's nice to see
the 6th PCI slot on the KT7A-RAID, especially
since the board ships with an on-board HPT-370 IDE
RAID controller also (it's under the pretty green
sticker). :)
If
you take a close look at the Northbridge chip,
you'll see it is turned 45 degrees.
According to Abit, mounting the Northbridge this
way shortens the length of some key traces,
increasing stability. The ATX power
connector is mounted at the far edge of the board,
eliminating the need to drape cables over your
CPU, RAM and expansion cards. As that power
comes into the board, it has to be
"cleaned" in order to provide an even,
smooth flow of current. The KT7A-RAID
handles this in 2 ways. First, notice the
large power capacitors around the CPU socket and
power array. These caps "filter" the
current eliminating spikes that hinder
stability. Secondly, the KT7A-RAID utilizes
a 3-Phase power array. Most other boards use
2-Phase power...the main difference is that
3-Phase power spreads the load across 6
M.O.S.F.E.T.s (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field
Effect Transistor) whereas 2-Phase spreads the
load over 4 M.O.S.F.E.T.s. To put things
very simply, less load per component equates to
less heat which in turn yields cleaner power and
longer life. There has also been some
speculation that without 3-Phase power some boards
won't be able to run AMD's future Palomino
CPUs. We were happy to find an active
heatsink / fan combo mounted to the Northbridge to
keep it cool. We were even happier to find
thermal grease used as the interface material
between the chip and heatsink...kudos to Abit for
taking these steps.
Abit
places virtually all the connectors to the far
edge of the board ensuring airflow to all components
is not hindered in any way. The case
connectors are clearly labeled and placed at the
corner of the board. The IDE / Floppy
connectors are placed high up behind the DIMM
slots where they won't get in the way of any
expansion cards. Also take a look at the
external case connectors...no on-board sound or
video to raise the price of this board!
We're
sure many over-clockers are looking at this board
with wide-eyes. Luckily, there is ample
space around the CPU socket to house larger than
average coolers. Even with our rather large
Global Win unit mounted there is some space to
spare. The last thing we'd like to mention
is the amount of fan headers found on the
KT7A-RAID. You should see some in almost
every picture! The KT7A-RAID has four 3-Pin fan
headers available...once again we have to commend
Abit, especially now when finding 3 fan headers is
becoming more rare.
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| Setup
and Installation |
| Good
Stuff... |
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Installing
and setting up the KT7A-RAID is as simple as any
other standard ATX motherboard. With
jumperless setup and a standard form factor, all
you have to worry about is using the proper screws
and stand-offs to mount the board in you case.
The
BIOS, Over-clocking and some Numbers
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