by Keith Schleicher

Troubled Beginnings 

     When I started testing this board, one of the first things I worked on was updating the BIOS.  The board came with the Version 15 BIOS, and Version 17 was newly available at the Abit web site.  I downloaded the new BIOS and tried to copy the BIOS to the floppy disk.  However, I couldn’t get the floppy drive to work.  I switched the cables, tried a different drive, everything I could think of to make sure there was a problem with the board and not something else. 

Plenty of room around the CPU for oversized heatsink/fan combos.  Note the four mounting holes.  The northbridge fan/heatsink does a solid job of keeping it cool.

     Eventually I burned the BIOS and Abit flash utility to a CDROM and booted from a CD using a Win98SE CD.  Once I was able to boot, the BIOS flash went smoothly.  However, this experience shows me how outdated the floppy drive is and how useful it would be to be able to boot from a USB drive or smart memory card. 

Note the space between the AGP slot and the first PCI slot.  Owners of this board will have no complaints about the extra PCI slot taken up by the GeForce FX 5800/5900 cards.

     I also had to reboot the PC to get the motherboard to register the CPU as a 2500+.  It eventually did, after going into the BIOS, but it would cause the system to reboot at the initial POST screen until I got it set up. 

BIOS 

     Abit has been known to provide a plethora of settings for the enthusiast, and the NF7-M doesn’t disappoint.  Here are some of the BIOS options: 

• CPU Speed:  can be automatically detected (1500+ and above), or can be user defined by the multiplier (5X to 22X) and bus speed (100 – 300 in single number steps)

• AGP Frequency: 66 – 99

• CPU FSB/DRAM/PCI ratio: By SPD, and 3/3/1 to 6/6/1.

• CPU Core Voltage:  1.1 v to 2.3v, with settings generally in .025 increments, with smaller increments at the higher settings

• Boot Device Order: Set up the first, second, and third boot devices for the PC

• Memory Timings: Three presets exist for this

• Optimal: Best memory compatibility

• Aggressive: Better memory performance

• Expert: User defined settings for the Row-Active Delay, RAS-to-CAS Delay, Row-precharge Delay, and CAS Latency Time

• Onboard USB Controllers: Disabled, V1.1 support, and V1.1 and V2.0 support

• Onboard IDE Controllers: Separate controls for IDE1 and IDE2

• Onboard LAN Controller: Enable or disable, with support for LAN boot ROM

• Onboard audio Controller: Enable or disable

• PC Health: Set up CPU shutdown temp, CPU warning temp, and if PC should shut down at CPUFAN failure.

Testing 

     Here is the setup of the testing: 

Memory 

     The two DIMMS were placed in the DIMM-1 and DIMM-3 slots.  Testing seemed to go better with them there, although the documentation suggests putting in the DIMM-2 and DIMM-3 slots.  Recently a new BIOS was introduced that will auto-detect the Dual Channel DDR functionality in the DIMM-2 and DIMM-3 slots.

     The bus speed was set to 166 MHz, with the memory also running at 166 MHz.  Timings were set to SPD.  Running the FSB at 166 MHz with the memory at 200 MHz typically results in lower overall performance due to latency issues.

     At 166 MHz, the processor communicates with the system at 2.7 GB/sec, while the dual channel memory gives up to 5.4 GB/sec of memory throughput.  In most applications, using the integrated video should provide a minimal performance decrease.

Next: Benchmarks

Copyright 1999-2003 PenStar Systems, LLC.