Nearly all in one mobo, ABIT AT7

[lokem]

Nearly all in one mobo from ABIT

Check the mobo from this news article:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/story.html?id=1016059661

A little bit info on the mobo:

Now – more detailed specifications: ATX form-factor, Processor Socket A, 4 PC2700/PC2100/PC1600 DDR SDRAM DIMM, 3 PCI, AGP 4x, ATA-133 (VT8233A South Bridge), 4-channel ATA-133 RAID (HighPoint HPT374), two IEEE 1394 ports, USB 2.0 (VIA VT6202), integrated sound (SP/DIF in/out available), 10/100 Fast Ethernet controller (Realtek 8100C).

A bit overkill don't you think?

 

[svtcobra]

If it had 2 more PCI slots I would probably buy one. The USB 2.0 and the Firewire are very nice additions. I also like the integrated NIC.


I dont think its overkill. In todays market it may actually do quite well.

 

[Arris]

Sounds fully featured. I think a lot of users would use all of that.
But it is a little limited in the PCI stakes. Network card, sound card, modem, .... oops all gone

 

[boeingfixer]

I agree, with all there is out there its alittle short on PIC's. It would be nice to have 5.

 

[SuperCheetah]

I must also agree with you guys. I was really excited about this new series until I saw that it only had 3 PCI slots. I already have a sound card, network card, and modem so what if I would like to put in a raid controller card or something like that. Too bad!

I think I'll wait and see what Abit does about this, because I'm sure they'll get many complaints about it.

 

[lokem]

I guess 3 PCI slots should be fine since most of the stuff are already in there i.e. integrated sound, RAID, network card. That would usually take up 3 additional PCI slots. The least used feature would be the integrated sound IMO.

Don't even need an PCI slot for the USB2.0 and firewire interfaces. With all that, the 3 PCI slots should be sufficient for let's say a modem, TV capture card and uhh... PCI vid card?

Hope I didn't miss anything

 

[SuperCheetah]

I guess your right. The more I look into the new Abit board the more intrigued I am by it. If it is compatible with the new Clawhammers I might have to try it out!!!

 

[boeingfixer]

Originally posted by SuperCheetah
I guess your right. The more I look into the new Abit board the more intrigued I am by it. If it is compatible with the new Clawhammers I might have to try it out!!!

I don't think it will Super. According to stories and pic's I saw 2 weeks ago, Clawhammer is going to be like 754 pins and Sledgehammer is gonna be like 940 pins....yes 940, let me tell you, that is a ton of pins!!!

 

[lokem]

Originally posted by boeingfixer


I don't think it will Super. According to stories and pic's I saw 2 weeks ago, Clawhammer is going to be like 754 pins and Sledgehammer is gonna be like 940 pins....yes 940, let me tell you, that is a ton of pins!!!

Unless they can simply change the socket and be on their way to produce the mobos (like what they did from the KT266 -> KT266A chipset), but guess that's VERY unlikely.

 

[boeingfixer]

Originally posted by lokem


Unless they can simply change the socket and be on their way to produce the mobos (like what they did from the KT266 -> KT266A chipset), but guess that's VERY unlikely.

I am just guessing here Lokum but with that many more pins, I would think they would have to redo all the trace routes too along with the new technology Hammer is suppose to have. But alas, sign me up....I'll try one when they come out...if the price is not out the roof.

 

[Arris]

Socket A on future Athlon processors

From that thread :
First viewing of Hammer CPUS at Intel Developer Forum

From www.anandtech.com :

By far the most interesting thing about the CPUs from a physical standpoint is their pincount. The ClawHammer has 754 pins (up from 462 on the Athlon and even up from 603 on the Xeon) and the Sledgehammer has a whopping 940 pins which is just over twice as many as the current generation Athlon.

..........

The AMD reference board goes by the name Solo, and is a pretty standard ATX motherboard. There is a single 754-pin Socket on the board for a ClawHammer CPU and it introduces what will most likely become the new (or something very similar to it) retention mechanism for AMD's Hammer line of CPUs.

I think we can safely say that the Hammers won't be making use of Socket A motherboards...

 

[PHATMAN5050]

4-channel raid? What's the use, especially if 'everyone will need firewire.' That means that there compatibility for 8+ hard drives! 8 hard drives, a cdrom, burner, floppy drives, zip drives...i'd like to find a power supply that can handle all that... When i first looked at it i immediately noticed that it had only 3 pci slots, which isn't such a bad thing when EVERYTHING is on-board, lol, there will be no need for more than 1!

 

[boeingfixer]

Originally posted by PHATMAN5050
4-channel raid? What's the use, especially if 'everyone will need firewire.' That means that there compatibility for 8+ hard drives! 8 hard drives, a cdrom, burner, floppy drives, zip drives...i'd like to find a power supply that can handle all that... When i first looked at it i immediately noticed that it had only 3 pci slots, which isn't such a bad thing when EVERYTHING is on-board, lol, there will be no need for more than 1!

Unless I read that wrong, its 4 channel for a total of 4 drives, or 2 channel/4 drives.

 

[lokem]

Originally posted by boeingfixer


Unless I read that wrong, its 4 channel for a total of 4 drives, or 2 channel/4 drives.

Correct me if I'm wrong, isn't 1 channel capable of supporting 2 drives? Something like IDE?

 

[boeingfixer]

Originally posted by lokem


Correct me if I'm wrong, isn't 1 channel capable of supporting 2 drives? Something like IDE?

Yes Lokum, 1 channel= 2 drives, I was trying to find out if I said 4 channels or 2 in an earlier post, I can't find where the person above me got 4 channels and 8 drives unless my typing exceeded my thinking and I typed it wrong. Anyway, yes that has alway been my understanding, 1 channel=2 devices.

 

[lokem]

Originally posted by boeingfixer


Yes Lokum, 1 channel= 2 drives, I was trying to find out if I said 4 channels or 2 in an earlier post, I can't find where the person above me got 4 channels and 8 drives unless my typing exceeded my thinking and I typed it wrong. Anyway, yes that has alway been my understanding, 1 channel=2 devices.

Heh... Thanks for clearing that up coz I'm not familiar with RAID stuff.

 

[Arris]

Anandtech - CeBIT 2002 Part 2 : ABIT AT7

The AT7 has a few more disadvantages. One is obvious: the lack of legacy serial/parallel ports (which can be an advantage for some). The other one is the fact that the AT7 cannot read the internal thermal diode of the Palomino core, and relies on a not-so-precise NTC which measures temperature below the CPU instead. ABIT's excuse for this was that "the chipset doesn't support it" - that is very astonishing, especially considering that ASUS, MSI, and DFI all have KT333 boards that do support reading the temperature from the Palomino's on-die thermister.