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nVIDIA have really surprised the AMD-market with the announcement of their nForce2 chipset. In the first nForce both manufacturers and consumers saw a great potential, unfortunately nForce had some child diseases, the performance and stability was not on the same level as the competitor VIA’s chipset. The expected success did not take place and mainboards with the nForce chipset became very rare. nVIDIA however showed up some interesting new features like DualDDR and a very impressive sound processor.
nVIDIA
have really surprised the AMD-market with the announcement of their nForce2
chipset. In the first nForce both manufacturers and consumers saw a great
potential, unfortunately nForce had some child diseases, the performance and
stability was not on the same level as the competitor VIA’s chipset. The expected
success did not take place and mainboards with the nForce chipset became very
rare. nVIDIA however showed up some interesting new features like DualDDR
and a very impressive sound processor.
A
few months have passed since the nForce2 chipset arrived, and with it nVIDIA
truly show that they have learned their lesson. The nForce2 chipset has become
a success with its rich features and impressing performance. nVIDIA themselves
have shown a great confidence in their mainboard chipset and expect to gain
additional shares of the AMD chipset market that until now have been dominated
by VIA.
We will in this review take a look at five different mainboards with the nForce2
chipset.
Time to move on, our first contestant is a board from ABIT.
ABIT
NF7-S v1.0: Specifications
Chipset:
NVIDIA
SPP + NVIDIA MCP-T
Processors
supported:
Duron/Athlon
XP Socket-462, 200/266/333MHz FSB
Memory
supported:
3GB,
200/266/333/DDR400MHz DDR
Integrated
graphics circuit:
–
AGP:
1x
AGP 8X
PCI:
5 x 32-bit bus master PCI
IDE-controller:
4
units, ATA 100/66/33
RAID-controller:
–
SATA-controller:
Silicon
Image SIL3112A, 2 x 150MB/s
Network:
Realtek
RTL8201BL 10/100Mbit (nForce2 LAN)
Audio:
Realtek
ALC650 controller (nForce2 APU)
FireWire
(IEEE-1394):
Realtek
RTL8801B PHY (MCP-T MAC)
USB
2.0:
4
ports (NVIDIA MCP-T)
Price:
~
$110
The NF7-S is
as you see not a member of the popular MAX-series from ABIT. Even though it
doesn’t have the most features of the boards we have tested with the nForce2
chipset there are some goodies we will take a look at later. But first, how
are ABIT compared to the others when it comes to prices?
Price
and Availability
ABIT NF7-S is
one of the cheaper mainboards in this roundup. The price is around $110 –
$130 which is absolutely OK. The NF7-S offers some extra features that can
motivate an even higher price, but this is something we will try to disregard
when rating the different prices, and instead take in count when rating accessories/features.
Even if the price is not a ten-pointer, the availability surely is. After
a look in a buyers guide (a database with retail stores and their products)
we came to the conclusion that this mainboard can be found in more places
than any other of the other reviewed products.
$110 – $130 is an acceptable price and the availability is very good, therefore
ABIT NF7-S gets a good grade in this category.
Price/Availability
We
compare the price to equal products and even the accessibility among retailers.
Accessories
and Features
ABIT NF7-S is,
as mentioned, not packed with the amounts of features and accessories we are
used to from the ABIT’s MAX-series. But this board still has a whole
lot of things to offer and gives its contestants in this roundup some competition.
Besides the usual accessories like manual, CD-ROM with drivers and software,
I/O-panel and IDE-cables, ABIT also sent equipment for the on-board SATA.
In addition to a standard SATA150-cable we also got ABIT’s SATA-adapter
which makes it possible to use a regular IDE hard drive on the SATA controller.
It is in other words a very useful component that also came with the ABIT
AT7-MAX2 in our KT400-roundup. Also two extra “back-panels” were
included with USB 2.0 and Firewire ports to utilize every single percent of
the MCP-T chipset. The included software for NF7-S is not especially impressing,
like all the other mainboards in this roundup a monitoring program was included,
ABIT Winbond, and not much else.
The two first
nForce2 motherboards we tested here on Nordichardware, Chaintech 7NJS Zenith
and EPoX 8RDA+, were both using the MCP-T south bridge to take advantage of
the exclusive features it offers. But here in our roundup, ABIT NF7-S is the
only product using this south bridge, while the other three cards use the
simpler and cheaper MCP south bridge. This means that ABIT NF7-S is the only
card to make any use for features such as firewire and nVIDIA’s Soundstorm
sound circuit. Here below we also see pictures of the PHY circuits for LAN/Audio,
which comes from Realtek, and the small SATA contacts, situated next to the
battery.
We think that
ABIT NF7-S offers a good range of accessories and features. Not any really
unique ones except for the SATA-adapter, but ABIT has managed to fit in most
of the important stuff. The board offers 4 USB2.0 ports, 2 firewire ports
and to our delight the board fully utilizes nVIDIA’s SoundStorm chip as a
digital SPDIF connector is integrated directly on the motherboard. Also, the
future for your storing devices is secured with a SATA controller. This is
something that we think is getting more and more important, even if there’s
still only a few SATA disks on the market.
We miss some
small features but nothing you can’t do without. A PATA RAID controller doesn’t
really feel necessary nowadays but having it integrated on the motherboard
would still be nice. We would like to see ABIT using the the extra ethernet
controller offered by the MCP-T southbridge but this is also just a small
detail. ABIT NF7-S has most of the features we look for but there s still
a few details missing before we can call it the ultimate mainboard.
Accessories/Features
We
look at the amount and usefulness for included accessories and integrated
features.
In true ABIT
style the NF7-S is manufactured on and, in our opinion, boring, brown PCB.
Even if this doesn’t make any difference at all for the functionality, a striking
design is never wrong, especially not today when everybody is totally wild
about style and modding.
Somewhat surprising,
the layout of the card hasn’t got that true ABIT feeling.
During all these years making motherboards, ABIT have always been concentrating
largely on enthusiasts and overclockers. And you have been able to tell that
from their products but on the NF7-S they have messed up a bit with the layout.
First and foremost it’s the CPU socket, or rather the surrounding area.
There is a great deal of space around it which is very good. But what’s
worse is that they have neglected to add the usual four holes for mounting
large coolers and water blocks. This is clearly a mistake from ABIT who use
to be overclock-friendly and always try to provide for the demands of the
enthusiast market.
To their defence they have corrected this on their newly launched NF7-S v1.2,
following shortly.
They have also placed the power connectors badly, situated diagonally beneath
the socket, so you have to draw the power cord over the cpu-fan. This can
lead to an impacted airflow and in a worst-case scenario the cord can get
stuck in the fan itself.
As on their KT400 cards they have provided the NF7-S with a separate ATX 12
volt connector, three-phase system, all to make the power supply a bit more
stable.
On the lower
part of the motherboard we see the connectors for IDE/SATA and the SATA-controller
hidden under the green sticker.
The chipset cooler
is the same as on their KT400 card and doesn’t look very convincing. But never
judge a book by its cover. It keeps the nForce2 chipset surprisingly cool.
Nevertheless if it had had a larger heatsink, in case of a fan malfunction,
I would have felt much better.
ABIT is one of
a few motherboard manufacturers using proper thermal paste under the chipset
cooler and even if we have seen better it is much better than average. Also
we could establish that our board was equipped with an A2-stepping on the
northbridge and this can affect the overclocking negatively. But as you will
soon notice this wasn’t really the case with this motherboard.
Just as all the
other nForce2-boards we have tested the ABIT NF7-S is equipped with three
memory slots and support up to 3GB DDR400-memory modules. Noticeable is that
the ABIT-board has the same problem as the EpoX 8RDA+. They both have a space
deficit between the agp-slot and the dimm-slots making it almost impossible
to change memory modules with a large agp-card installed. And even if the
ABIT-card doesn’t seem to have the destroyed AGP-cards issues it is a really
bad layout flaw.
All the audio connections are integrated and that is appreciated.
The layout of
the NF7-S is not very impressing and in all honesty that is not common on
ABIT boards. It is details as the placement of the power connectors as well
as big bloopers like the lack of holes by the cpu-socket and non-existent
amount of space between the AGP and the DIMM slots. Since the card doesn’t
even have 6 PCI-slots we find it odd the last mentioned problem even occurs.
Also there is the chipset cooler which is kind of small making it a problem,
in case of a malfunctioning fan it would have a hard time cooling enough.
The fan itself is a bit noisy.
What’s positive is that all the audio connections are integrated with
the digital SPDIF-connector giving full support for Dolby Digital 5.1 surround
and also making it SoundStorm certified by nVidia.
The ABIT
NF7-S has a number of layout issues but since the card has got full support
for nVidia SoundStorm without external audio connections it still receives
a decent grade.
Layout/design
We
have considered the physical but also the esthetical aspects of the card’s
design. User-friendliness is also an important factor.
Even
as we were examining the BIOS on ABIT NF7-S we had the feeling that this card
wasn’t really produced for the enthusiast market. ABIT’s well-known Soft Menu
III is included in the BIOS which of course is a good omen, but unfortunately
ABIT have left a lot more to be wished for when it comes to settings for overclocking.
Soft Menu III
ABIT have included the settings most overclockers desire, but unfortunately
the number of different modes has been kept low. Until only about a month ago,
users were unable to set the FSB frequency above 237MHz. Luckily a bios update
from ABIT has been released which enables FSB settings up to 250MHz. However
there are not 1 MHz intervals all the way, but they stretch for as far as 233MHz,
and after that there are still a few more settings until 250MHz is reached.
This is a great improvement in comparison to the original bios, and almost required
for the real enthusiasts.
We think ABIT has been a bit too moderate with the different voltage settings
too, both CPU and DIMM current should have had higher max settings, and higher
voltage can do very much for overclocking which we saw during our Athlon XP
1700+ overclocking.
During our tests the CPU voltage ”undervolted” a bit and remained
around 1.58v when the BIOS setting was at 1.60v, but we also noted that the
DIMM voltage overvolted with as much as 0.1v and at 2.7v the efficient voltage
was at 2.8v, which is a good thing for most overclockers.
Another positive thing is that ABIT have included a setting for chipset voltage
which is an advantage during FSB overclocking.
We have compiled the most interesting settings in Soft Menu III here below to
get a better overview.
BIOS
settings (version: 1.6)
FSB
frequency:
100-250MHz
(1MHz intervals to 233MHz)
Multiplier
settings:
5.5x
to 22x
AGP
frequency:
66MHz
– 99MHz (1 MHZ intervals)
CPU
voltage:
1.10v – 1.85v (0.025V intervals)
DIMM
voltage:
2.4v
– 2.7v (0.1V intervals)
Chipset
voltage:
1.4v
– 1.7v (0.1V intervals)
AGP
voltage:
1.5v
– 1.8v (0.1V intervals)
Furthermore the
BIOS does not offer any greater surprises, but makes a good impression as a
whole. Advanced Chipset Features offers the usual settings we have seen on nForce2
based motherboards and the only new setting we consider of any value is Enhanced
PCI Performance, which did not make any notable differences during our tests.
PC Health offers a great deal of information and in OnChip PCI device the possibility
to turn on and off the integrated features on the motherboard is offered. It
is also possible to turn off the SATA controller in another menu.
Advanced Chipset Features
PC Health
OnChip PCI Device
ABIT is actually once again a bit of a disappointment in what was once their
strength, BIOS settings. But if we focus on the comparison between other nForce2
motherboards the card handles itself pretty well. There is however still a
great deal to gain if we compare to EPoX 8RDA+ and Chaintech 7NJS Zenith which
have presented very nice BIOS settings.
A positive surprise among the BIOS settings is the possibility to change chipset
voltage, which is something no other card we have tested has offered.
ABIT NF7-S is equipped with a complete BIOS, which has a few flaws, such as
the lack of setting possibilities.
Bios/Settings
We
look at the design of BIOS and it s settings, both for regular use and
overclocking.
Overclocking
If we had started
directly with overclocking tests on ABIT NF7-S our expectations would probably
have been very high. But after having seen the very basic BIOS settings on
the mainboard and the fact that our test example was equipped with a A2 northbridge
we didn’t expect that much. It felt somewhat unjust that both our test examples
of EPoX 8RDA+ and ABIT NF7-S were delivered with A2 northbridges, since both
had potential to be strongly FSB overclocked. However, we should probably
not say any more until we have actually tested the overclocking potentials
on ABIT NF7-S. We’ll start with CPU overclocking which was performed on a
T-Bred B-stepped Athlon XP 1700+ (0252 JUICB). The voltage used was the highest
the mainboard allowed, and for cooling we used ThermalTake Volcano 7+. All
CPU overclocking tests were performed with a 11.5x multiplier so that the
card could be compared under the same circumstances. We also want to point
out that all tests were performed with DualDDR activated and using synchronized
bus speeds. ABIT NF7-S managed a good clock frequency of 2.12GHz, with a max
voltage of 1.85v.
If
the mainboard would have had support for a little higher CPU voltage than
1.85V the results would have been better. Although 1.85v is a good objective
for air cooled systems, sometimes you just want to push it further.
Lets move on
to the FSB overclocking which is more or less controlled by the mainboards
capacity and design. Since ABIT NF7-S gives the users the chance to change
the chipset voltage we tested it with both the original voltage of 1.6v and
the maximal voltage of 1.7v. Some mainboards have actually used 1.5v as the
original chipset voltage, so ABIT NF7-S clearly have a lead here. At 1.6v
we managed to push the mainboard to 198MHz FSB which is 6MHz better than what
we got with EPoX 8RDA+. When we increased the chipset voltage to max we got
a real increase.
We
got an increase of 12MHz from the FSB when we pushed the chipset voltage to
1.7v. You will soon see that we also managed to get the newer ABIT NF7-S
model, version 1.2, in time for this review and it will be very interesting
to see if that card it equipped with a A3 northbridge and if so how much it
will do for the overclocking.
ABIT NF7-S really
shows that ABIT still is a king when it comes to overclocking. And even though
the BIOS settings on the card held us back a bit when it came to CPU overclocking,
it really impressed us during the FSB overclocking. The card impressed us
even though it uses the A2 northbridge which is probably not even produced
any more since A3 stepping is taking over more and more. What we would like
to see though is that ABIT would be a bit more generous when it comes to voltage
settings on the mainboard, but otherwise there isn’t much to complain of.
Overclocking
Here
the theoretical overclocking potential of the motherboard is rated through
the use of practical tests.
Even if
the ABIT NF7-s v1.2 "only" is an updated version of the ABIT NF7-S
v1.0 the number of differences are many enough to test these boards as separate
products. We have received a lot of inquiries asking for a comparison of
these, so when the ABIT NF7-S v1.2 arrived to the test lab (a couple of
days before the review was published) we chose to include this board in
the roundup instead of an update.
We hope that you understand our reasoning regarding this and that we will
do our best to make the differences between v1.0 and v1.2 obvious to you.
ABIT
NF7-S v1.2: Specifications
Chipset:
NVIDIA
SPP + NVIDIA MCP-T
Processors
supported:
Duron/Athlon
XP Socket-462, 200/266/333MHz FSB
Memory
supported:
3GB,
200/266/333/DDR400MHz DDR
Integrated
graphics circuit:
–
AGP:
1x
AGP 8X
PCI:
5 x 32-bit bus master PCI
IDE-controller:
4
units, ATA 100/66/33
RAID-controller:
–
SATA-controller:
Silicon
Image SIL3112A, 2 x 150MB/s
Network:
Realtek
RTL8201BL 10/100Mbit (nForce2 LAN)
Audio:
Realtek
ALC650 controller (nForce2 APU)
FireWire
(IEEE-1394):
Realtek
RTL8801B PHY (MCP-T MAC)
USB
2.0:
4
ports (NVIDIA MCP-T)
Price:
~
$120 (Are available for a cheaper price)
The technical
specifications of the ABIT NF7-S v1.2 are identical to the predecessor.
The only thing that seems to separate them is the price but there are some
obscurities that you soon will see.
Price
and Availability
We are not
certain how ABIT will continue their introduction of the NF7-S based boards
but probably they will stop producing v1.0/1.1/1.2 and concentrate on the
latest v2.0 version.
The best price on ABIT NF7-S we have found is $120 but it is unclear what
version we are dealing with. Just like Athlon XP and the T-bred B-stepping
the stores charges a little extra for finding out what exact version it
is. The result of this is that the best price we have found on a board,
which for certain is a v1.2, is somewhat higher. If you are lucky you may
get your hands on a v2.0 from one of those retailers not specifying versions,
but then you probably have to trust luck.
This situation will without a doubt become better but right now the availability
and price doesn’t look as good as it did for the v1.0.
Price/Availability
We
compare the price against similar products and also the availability
among distributors.
Accessories
and Features
There isn’t
much to say about this as the accessories and features are identical with
those on the other NF7-S versions. Fact is that this is the only part where
the grade remains the same on the newer v1.2.
We did find
one difference though; the PCB has got another colour. More about this later.
Due to the
similarities between v1.0 and v1.2, the motivation for this grade is located
on the v1.0 page (under Accessories and Features).
Accessories/Features
We
look at the amount and usefulness for included accessories and integrated
features.
Except
for the new PCB colour you wont find any major changes since the 1.0 model.
But when we look closer at the details we see that ABIT are concentrating
more on the enthusiasts, something we missed in ABIT NF7-S v1.0.
The first
thing we se that ABIT utilizes the four holes around the socket. This
was something we really missed on the 1.0 board (You can find these holes
on the 1.1 board also). There is still a lot of space around the socket
and except for the four holes there are few differences between the boards
here. If we go really close we see that the boards differ in the choice
of capacitors. Looking at power supply we see that the three-phase system
has been tuned up. Three of the mosfets has been changed. On the 1.0 board
two different types of mosfets were used, but now all six of them are
of the same brand and model. To get back to the capacitors we can tell
you that on the ABIT NF7-S v1.0 mostly TEAPO capacitors were used while
v1.2 only has capacitors from Rubycon. These are well known in the motherboard
market for their good quality. This brand is also used on the ABIT BH7
board that should be the overclockers choice for Pentium 4 systems.
Two other changes around the power connectors and capacitors are two new
jumpers. Their use however is unknown to us since they are not mentioned
in the manual (it’s the same manual for 1.0 and 1.2).
Speaking of power connectors we also see that they still are badly positioned.
This is not very surprising since ABIT probably hasn’t had the possibility
(time/money) to make any big layout changes on the PCB.
The lower part of the board is more or less identical to v1.0 but there
are some exceptions in model and size of the capacitors. We find another
change under the SATA connectors, two small leds where one shows if the
board has power and the other when the system is turned on.
To give you a better understanding of the details changed since v1.0 we
have gathered some photos of the two boards.
ABIT NF7-S v1.0 vs. ABIT NF7-S v1.2
The chipset
cooler is the same as on the 1.0 version and even if it feels kind of
small it seems to a good job cooling the chipset. ABIT has used proper
thermal grease and the surface gives good contact between the chip and
the cooler. We have to admit that we were relieved when we got the thermal
grease off the northbridge and found that it had the A3 stepping. The
first real "enthusiast board" we’ve tested where the A3 stepping
has been used on the northbridge as well. With the satisfying overclocking
results we got from the 1.0 board in mind, we have a lot to look forward
to in the overclocking tests with the ABIT NF7-S v1.2.
Unfortunately
we see that ABIT haven’t done anything about the problems with the placement
of the AGP port and memory slots. We assume that it yet again would be
too big of a physical change in the motherboard layout and therefore an
economical issue. It still is a big issue and we hope to see that ABIT
and other manufacturers (unfortunately there are many) change this in
their next series.
The I/O panel layout is a positive bit on the ABIT NF7-S (all models)
and makes it one of only three nForce2 motherboards available with full
support for nVIDIA SoundStorm (The other two are ASUS A7N8X Deluxe and
MSI KN72G-LISR with S-bracket).
The motherboard
layout of the ABIT NF7-S v1.0 did not satisfy us and unfortunately there
are only a few changes in the 1.2 model. The bad positioning of the power
connectors and the problem with memory slots and AGP port remains which
can be a rather big issue.
What’s really positive is the comeback of the four screw holes. These
were standard on the KT400 models tested earlier. Also ABIT have done
some smaller changes like the two leds for example. The fact that only
Rubycon capacitors are used is very positive but makes little difference
in this test. The small changes in motherboard layout in v1.2 gives it
a better score than v1.0 but there are still quite a lot of issues that
keeps ABIT NF7-S v1.2 from scoring very high.
Layout/design
We
have considered the physical but also the esthetical aspects of the
card s design. User-friendliness is also an important factor.
It
s not very hard to understand the similarities between the BIOS on the
ABIT NF7-S v1.0 and v1.2 since they use the exact same BIOS. Soft Menu
III is still the heart in the BIOS’es where all the settings for overclocking
can be found. We will soon find out if these have been changed from
v1.0.
Soft Menu III
We have already mentioned ABIT’s newest BIOS version which allows for
FSB speeds all the way up to 250MHz, meaning that there’s not much more
to ask for in that area. Of course it would have been nice with 1MHz
intervals all the way up to the 250MHz but very few will actually have
a need for this.
We were very disappointed when we found the available voltage settings
on the ABIT NF7-S v1.0s BIOS. It may not have been a catastrophe but
it’s not something we often do, or want to, see from companies like
ABIT. We can, however, tell you that ABIT has thought this through for
the launch of the NF7-S v1.2.
From the v1.0 having a maximal CPU voltage of 1.85v the v1.2 has its
limit at 2.3v(!). It is by far the highest voltage we have ever been
offered on an nForce2 motherboard, though not on other Socket A motherboards
as ABIT’s AT7-MAX2 and KD7-RAID offered an amazing 2.325v. The stability
of the voltage was also a lot better than on the NF7-S which probably
is much due to the change of capacitors and mosfets.
Even the max memory voltage has been increased from 2.7v to 2.9v. Here
we can also see that the effective voltage is actually a little higher
than 2.9v as it read out at 2.95v in BIOS. Most reports we’ve gotten
about the NF7-S v1.2 say that the effective memory voltage would be
around 2.98-2.99v. Why ours was a little lower, we just don’t know.
The settings for chipset and AGP voltages are unchanged from the v1.0.
We really would’ve liked to see a little higher voltages for the chipset
but it feels kind of stupid to nag on about that since there are very
few motherboards that actually need an increase in the chipset voltages
today.
BIOS-settings
(version: 1.6)
FSB-frequency:
100-250MHz (1MHz intervals to 233MHz)
Multiplier
settings:
5.5x
to 22x
AGP-frequency:
66MHz
– 99MHz (1 MHZ intervals)
CPU-voltage:
1.10v – 2.30v (0.025V intervals)
DIMM-voltage:
2.4v
– 2.9v (0.1V intervals)
Chipset-voltage:
1.4v
– 1.7v (0.1V intervals)
AGP-voltage:
1.5v
– 1.8v (0.1V intervals)
From what
we can tell there aren’t really any changes other than those we just
mentioned from the v1.0 to v1.2. But since the boards do use the same
BIOS, there’s not much else to expect.
Advanced Chipset Features
PC Health
OnChip PCI Device
ABIT have,
to our delight, improved most of the things people have been complaining
about in the v1.0 BIOS. Most important is the CPU voltage which has
taken a huge leap and we are delighted that ABIT let the user get more
or less freedom of choice here. Even the memory voltage is increased
which is very positive. If, however, we want to be really picky we really
would have liked to see +3.0v in the BIOS. So far we have only seen
one nForce2 based board that has offered higher voltage and that is
the Chaintech 7NJS Zenith with its perky 3.2v.
ABIT have
done very well with the BIOS settings for the NF7-S v1.2 but a little
higher voltage for the memory and chipset wouldn’t have hurt even if
the NF7-S v1.2 really is the best in this aspect in this roundup.
BIOS/Settings
We
take a look at the BIOS and its tweak possibilities. Both for normal
use and overclocking.
Overclocking
The overclocking
results of the ABIT NF7-S v1.0 left us with split opinions of the boards
overall potentials for overclocking. The pure CPU overclocking was quite
limited by the puny 1.85v of cpu voltage offered, but the FSP overclocking
was very impressive indeed. It was also clearly better than any earlier
results we have seen from AMD boards we’ve had in our test lab.
With
these results in mind it was with great hope we went on to the overclocking
tests with the NF7-S v1.2. And as usual we start with the CPU clocking
where the v1.2 really doesn’t have a problem with low voltages. The
highest we were able to reach with our processor was 2.23GHz. which
is just about 100MHz more than what we managed to squeeze out of the
v1.0. At this rate we used a processor voltage of 2.15v, anything above
this gave us negative results on overclocking.
Even
if it s not an amazing rise in speed we must keep in mind that the processor
we are using is a "model 81" from our overclocking article
(on www.nordichardware.se) on the AMD Athlon XP 1700+ T-bred B. This
CPU wasn’t too happy with higher voltages so with a better cpu it is
very possible to get a greater difference if you increase the voltage.
What
was really positive was that the voltage seemed very stable during our
tests and at 2.15v the effective voltage had only sunk down to 2.13v
which is very good. The fine tuned three phase system and the change
of capacitors is most probably what makes the ABIT NF7-S v1.2 able to
handle such high voltages.
Coming
up to the FSB overclocking we had high expectations again as the results
of the v1.0 were impressive despite its A2 stepped northbridge. The
northbridge was just what raised our expectations for the v1.2 model
since this board is equipped with an A3 stepped northbridge. The changes
that have been made to the board probably doesn’t really make a difference
to the FSB overclocking since they are more aimed at improving the power
supply.
With
the chipset voltage at 1.7v we loaded up our machine and hoped for the
best. It soon turned out that the APID NF7-S v1.2 gave us 8MHz extra
in bus speed which resulted in some impressive 218MHz FSB. A crystal
clear record in the test lab showing that ABIT still is the overclockers
choice.
ABIT
has really made a name for itself in the overclocking tests in this
roundup with both its boards where the v1.2 pulls far away from the
pack and takes the lead. There isn’t really anything to complain about
when it comes to overclocking with the NF7-S v1.2. Of course there are
always a few tweaks to be done to really optimise the possibilities
for overclocking, but the numbers show what they show; together with
the EPoX 8RDA+ the ABIT NF7-S v1.2 is the best board for CPU overclocking
we have ever tested here at NH. In the FSB clocking field there aren’t
even any competitors for the ABIT NF7-S v1.2 which really is on its
own level altogether. The only board which currently seems to be able
to have a go at the NF7-S v1.2 is the EPoX 8RDA+ but since we didn’t
get this card in due time for this roundup we can’t take it into consideration.
According to the reports we have gotten from users on the web the results
we have achieved are in no way extraordinary and many have reached higher
FSB speeds than us. The nForce2 northbridges seem to shift a little
in quality which also means that luck has its play in the potentials
for overclocking. Looking past this the companies building the motherboards
must lay the right foundations for an overclocking scenario and ABIT
have really outdone themselves with the NF7-S v1.2.
We
can tell you straight away that there’s a lot to be shown to achieve
the full marks in any of our partial marks and even here there are a
few minor improvements to be made. There are however very few, or no
boards on the market that can keep up with the ABIT NF7-S v1.2 in overclocking.
Overclocking
Here
we evaluate the mainboard s theoretical overclocking capabilities
with practical tests.
ASUS
A7N8X: Specifications
Chipset:
NVIDIA
SPP + NVIDIA MCP-T
Processors
supported:
Duron/Athlon
XP Socket-462, 200/266/333MHz FSB
Memory
supported:
3GB,
200/266/333/DDR400MHz DDR
Integrated
graphics circuit:
–
AGP:
1x
AGP Pro 8X
PCI:
5 x 32-bit bus master PCI
IDE-controller:
4
units, ATA 100/66/33
RAID-controller:
–
SATA-controller:
–
Network:
Realtek
RTL8201BL 10/100Mbit (nForce2 LAN)
Audio:
Realtek
ALC650 controller
FireWire
(IEEE-1394):
Realtek
RTL8801B PHY (MCP MAC)
USB
2.0:
4
ports (NVIDIA MCP)
Price:
~
$115
The specifications
of ASUS A7N8X quickly reveal that we are dealing with a cheap board, since
the board is far from well-equipped. We’ll take a closer look at the board’s
features right after we’ve looked at a positive side with the board, namely
the price.
Price
and Availability
Despite the
very thrifty equipment on the ASUS A7N8X the price is still not as low as
you would assume. The price is actually very similar to the price of ABIT
NF7-S, which we think is a bit over-optimistic. The availability on ASUS
products are very nice indeed, and a simple search in a price guide gave
us quite some hits, it’s the second best result in this roundup. ASUS A7N8X
has a decent price and very good availability which makes it more than OK.
Price/Availability
We
compare the price to equal products and even the accessibility among
retailers.
Accessories
and Features
ASUS A7N8X
doesn’t offer that much accessories, it comes mainly with cables (1 ATA133,
1 ATA33, 1 floppy), manual and a CD-rom. The I/O-layout is somewhat special
when it comes to ASUS A7N8X, since you also get two back panels sporting
one COM-port and a game-port. The CD contains drivers and some tools such
as ASUS PC Probe, ASUS Update and PC-Cillin 2002.
As we mentioned
earlier ABIT NF7-S is the only mainboard in this roundup that uses the feature
rich MCP-T southbridge. This makes the ASUS A7N8X lack one of the nicest
features the nForce2-chip provide, namely nVIDIA’s powerful sound processor
called SoundStorm. The sound is instead managed by an extern sound chip
called Realtek AC650, which is integrated directly on the mainboard. This
chip can also be found on four of the tested mainboards. Since the mainboard
uses the MCP southbridge it unfortunately has no support for firewire. The
range of features is very basic with Audio, LAN and USB2.0 support (with
4 ports directly on the mainboard).
Even though
we didn’t think that the ABIT NF7-S was that well-equipped, the ASUS A7N8X
is very poor on features. ASUS A7N8X is not alone when it comes to this,
as you will soon notice. However the score will not be especially high.
Even though the soundchip from Realtek does its job as DSP, it’s far from
the league that nForce2’s APU is in. The integrated 10/100Mbit LAN and 4
USB2.0 ports on the mainboard are however positive, although something of
a standard today. ASUS small tools is certainly a plus in the marginal which
helps to push the score up a little bit.
Accessories/Features
We
look at the amount and usefulness for included accessories and integrated
features.
Just
like ABIT, ASUS have stuck to the classic brown PCB boards and those who
take into consideration the looks of the inside of their computers probably
wont find the ASUS A7NX8 too appealing. If, however, you look past the
looks of the board, which most hopefully will do, ASUS have done a much
better job than for example ABIT.
If we start
by taking a look at the area around the socket we can see that there is
loads of space for waterblocks and almost any large aircooler you can
find. The only possible problem in this area may be between the socket
and the chipset where there’s a line of capacitors that are a little close.
ASUS A7N8X also has the four holes around the socket that ABIT left out
on their NF7-S 1.0 meaning that you can probably use any cooling setup
you would like to.
What we weren’t
as fond of was that the board only uses a two phase system to handle the
power supply to the processor. This can lead to unstable power at high
voltages and the mosfets on the board will take more of a beating.
On the lower
part of the motherboard there aren’t many interesting parts but we can
see where on the PCB the SATA controller would have been placed (below
the battery)
If we compare
the chipset coolers on the ASUS A7N8X with the one we saw on the ABIT
NF7-S they are really the others exact opposite. The one on the ASUS board
is passive and relies mainly on its enormous size and is by far the largest
cooler we’ve seen on any nForce2 board until today. This makes the board
nice and quiet but with FSB overclocking we recommend placing a fan aimed
towards it as it otherwise gets rather hot. When we removed the heatsink
from the chipset we were pretty shocked at the sight that struck us. The
chipset heatsink uses a similar TIM (Thermal Insulating Material) pad
we saw on the EPoX 8RDA+ but larger. The problem is that there is almost
no contact between the chipset and the heatsink. This is even more frightening
as we by experience know how hot the nForce2 chipset actually gets.
We do have
to say that we removed the heatsink before we tested the board and that
TIM pads have a tendency to settle a little better when they get warm.
Then again, we think it’s unacceptable with these TIM pads and hope that
ASUS, as well, start using "real" thermal paste.
The three
DIMM slots on the ASUS A7N8X are of course placed better than those on
the ABIT NF7-S. There is a good lot of space between the AGP port and
the three DIMM slots which is very positive and shows that it’s not impossible
to fix a good layout here as well. We also noted that ASUS has succeeded
with the placement of the ATX connector which makes sure that the ATX
cable doesn’t interfere with the airflow to other parts of the board.
We can also make a note of the included AGP Pro port that few other cards
do include, and it’s the only one in our roundup in fact, although only
a few of us will actually have any use of it. The I/O layout on the board
is a little different and a COM port is actually missing and has instead
been placed on a back panel which also comes shipped. A positive note
is however that the board has been blessed with four USB2.0 ports smacked
right on the I/O panel.
ASUS has
in general done a really good job with the layout of the motherboard on
their A7N8X even though that’s not all that strange with such a big OEM
targeted company. The user-friendliness is obviously very important for
ASUS which the mainboard layout gives us proof of. The layout "glitches"
that we often see are a problem for ASUS, they have, however, done a real
good job on this board but there are on the other hand some fallbacks.
We aren’t
really convinced about ASUS and the two phase power supply system that
they have used for the CPU on their A7N8X. As you will see later on in
the roundup ASUS aren’t the only ones that use it. But as they say, two
wrongs don’t make a right. The ABIT NF7-S and the EPoX 8RDA+ is in fact
the only nForce2 boards we have tested that have used the more stable
three phase system and their connection and aim towards the enthusiast
market is clear.
We are also
critical to the contact area between the chipset heatsink and the nForce2
SPP chipset on the board which we hope a big company like ASUS to take
a look at for future boards.
The ASUS
A7N8X has one of the better layouts we have seen on nForce2 boards. Despite
a small lack of features and three phase power supply system we still
can’t take away the great job they have done with the layout.
Layout/design
We
have considered the physical but also the esthetical aspects of the
card’s design. User-friendliness is also an important factor.
ASUS
often puts a lot of time and effort into the user-friendliness of their
products as we got a sniff of when we took a closer look at the ASUS
A7N8X and its layout. The BIOS on a mainboard is also very important
since it is from here that more or less everything on the motherboard
is controlled. There are two well-known interfaces for motherboards
BIOS’es on the market today and the first can be seen in use on the
ABIT NF7-S. The interface used by ASUS is in our opinion not as easy
to use as what we saw on the ABIT board. This can however be due to
us being more familiar with the one the ABIT board uses. Fact has it
that the two different interfaces doesn’t really give or deprive you
of any functions on the motherboard. There isn’t a lot to say about
the BIOS on the ASUS A7N8X since all nForce2 boards seem to use pretty
much the same settings and layouts. Other than the settings for overclocking
which we will soon see, ASUS have included a feature with the name "Q-Fan
Control". This feature can decrease the speed of the system fans
which in its turn lowers the noise level in your pc.
ASUS Phoenix BIOS
Advanced Chipset Features
Hardware Monitor
ASUS have under a long time been verging on to the edge of offering
full-out enthusiast motherboards. They have been one of the companies
that have offered luxury models of their products with tons of extras
and features. From the overclocking and optimising point of view they
have also been looking pretty good the last couple of years but they
never really felt like they took it totally seriously. The case stays
the same with the ASUS A7N8X.
Just as
in the earlier tested EPoX 8RDA+, ASUS offers exemplary FSB settings
where we can tweak the FSB with 1 MHz intervals and can push it to 250
MHz. That wasn’t, however, the case when ASUS launched the board but
they have apparently fixed this by BIOS updates. As we said earlier
physical modifications to the board must be made to even get close to
these clock frequencies, though it seems very possible that the theoretical
possibilities are within reach.
Other settings
are however quite close to the usual standards where we see a memory
voltage of up to 2.8v and the CPU voltage clocking in at 1.85v. Even
though the CPU voltage is a good bit lower than what we’ve seen on earlier
nForce2 boards such as the Chaintech 7NJS and the EPoX 8RDA+, NF7-S
is the only board in this roundup that offers any higher settings.
We must
also add that there is a "modded" BIOS version for the ASUS
A7N8X which also offers the user to control the chipset voltage. The
results running the "modded" BIOS are varying and it is indeed
possible to change the chipset voltage up to 1.7v, though it made no
difference at all in our overclocking tests. So at least it didn’t seem
to make a difference to us. According to articles out there on the web
it does make a difference for some, but not for others so it may very
well be worth a shot for those interested.
BIOS-settings
(version: 1002A)
FSB:
100-250MHz (1MHz intervals)
Multiplier settings:
5x to 13x
AGP:
66MHz – 99MHz (1 MHz intervals)
CPU-voltage:
1.10v – 1.85v (0.025V intervals)
DIMM-voltage:
2.6v – 2.8v (0.1V intervals)
Chipset-voltage:
–
AGP-voltage:
1.5v – 1.7v (0.1V intervals)
ASUS don’t
offer any revolutionising BIOS settings, but do look good in comparison
with other nForce2 boards in this roundup. The board provides the best
FSB settings in the test and does pretty good in the CPU and DIMM voltages
if we compare with the competitors. ASUS Q-Fan Control can also be a nice
perk for some users, but this is otherwise a quite standard BIOS.
Bios/Settings
We
look at the design of BIOS and it’s settings, both for regular use
and overclocking.
Overclocking
ASUS
A7N8X has good grounds to make a good name for itself in the overclocking
tests and especially in the FSB overclocking tests with its nice possibilities
of customisation of the settings and an A3 stepped northbridge. We have
already gone through the test system and we are therefore going to dive
right in to the CPU overclocking. We had expected similar results to the
ones we witnessed from the NF7-S v1.0 and it is not an understatement
if we say that the results are very similar as they are damn near identical
according to WCPUID.
It
was really no surprise that the ASUS A7N8X wasn’t close to the top dog
ABIT NF7-S v1.2, which with its 2.3v have a big advantage to the competitors
in our roundup. But this also indicates that as long as the CPU voltage
is on the same level (and stable) and the other components in the system
are equivalent it doesn’t make the motherboard much different when it
comes to CPU overclocking.
When
it boils down to FSB clocking the motherboards make much more of a difference,
even its chipset cooler, which was very well noticed during our tests.
Despite the chipset’s passive cooler’s big size, it got very hot and the
system became unstable at 198 MHz FSB during our first tests. We then
decided to add an 80mm fan in the equation to see what results we could
achieve with an active cooling on the chipset.
With
the extra fan over the chipset cooler we managed to push the system up
to 203 MHz FSB with full stability. That shows some of the A3 stepping’s
higher quality as the 203 MHz was achieved with no increase of the board’s
chipset voltage.
ASUS
A7N8X is a good overclocking board but it lacks the extra settings to
get all the way to the top of overclocking. Just as on the ABIT 1.0 board
it lacks the higher CPU voltage and also the choice of chipset voltage
would have been real nice to see on this board. Finally we can draw the
conclusion that a passive heatsink on the chipset just doesn’t cut it
all the way up there when you go for serious FSB overclocking, as the
heat makes the system unstable at higher frequencies.
Overclocking
Here
the theoretical overclocking potential of the motherboard is rated
through the use of practical tests.
MSI K7N2G-L: Specifications
Mainboard
chipset :
NVIDIA IGP + NVIDIA MCP
CPU support:
Duron/Athlon XP Socket-462, 200/266/333MHz FSB
Supported memory
3GB, 200/266/333/DDR400MHz DDR
Integrated videocard :
GeForce4 MX (nForce2 IGP)
AGP:
1x AGP 8X
PCI:
5 x 32-bit bus master PCI
IDE-controller:
4 units, ATA 100/66/33
RAID-controller:
–
SATA-controller:
–
Integrated
NIC:
Realtek RTL8201BL 10/100Mbit (nForce2 LAN)
Integrated
soundcard:
Realtek ALC650 controller
FireWire (IEEE-1394):
Realtek RTL8801B PHY (MCP MAC)
USB 2.0:
4 ports in total (NVIDIA MCP)
Price:
~$100
MSI K7N2G-L
is one of MSI’s nForce2-chipset budget versions, but there is one
thing that separates this card from the others in this test. The letter
“G” in the product name stands for Integrated Graphics
and means that MSI K7N2G-L uses the nForce2 IGP northbridge. This
and the other features we shall look into soon, but first a closer
look at price and availability.
Price and Availability
MSI K7N2G-L has a very attractive price at most resellers
and we found this board for less than 100$ at a few places, a bit
lower then the price for ABIT NF7-S and ASUS A7N8X. The availability
on MSI K7N2G-L have not been the best, but now it can be found at
several places. With both a good price and availability the MSI K7N2G-L
gets a very nice grade that not many competitors can match.
Price/Availability
We
compare the price with other equivalent products but also the
availability amongst retailers
Accessories
and Features
MSI K7N2G-L
is not the most feature-rich motherboard of MSI’s nForce2-motherboards,
but has a few basic features to offer. The most striking feature on
the motherboard is the integrated videocard. MSI offer 4 motherboards
based on the nForce2-chipset, and which ones you can see in this table.
MSI nForce2-Motherboard:
MSI K7N2-L
NVIDIA SPP + NVIDIA MCP
MSI K7N2-LISR
NVIDIA SPP + NVIDIA MCP-T
MSI K7N2G-L
NVIDIA IGP + NVIDIA MCP
MSI K7N2G-LISR
NVIDIA IGP + NVIDIA MCP-T
MSI
K7N2G-L is the budget version of the two cards based on the nForce2
IGP circuit.
We will not talk much about the integrated videocard since it is not
very interesting. The major difference between the integrated and
the external version is that the one in the nForce2 chipset has to
share memory bandwidth with the other components. When we will look
at the performance tests later on, we will also look into how this
affects the performance.
Below you can see two print screens where we used the integrated videocard
on the motherboard, the 64MB built-in memory registrated by Windows
is the 64MB that have been taken from our system memory on 512MB (therefore
the system memory is lowered to 448MB with this setup)
Besides
the usual accessories you get two backpanels to the motherboard. One
is an accessory for the integrated videocard and contains two TV-contacts
(RCA Composite and S-video). The other backpanel has been equipped
with two USB2.0-ports and also a diagnostic LED to help in case of
errors. According to the small sticker above one of the USB-ports,
one can not use the USB-port when using the Bluetooth-support included
on the motherboard. This is not included but is available as a choice
of extras.
Besides
the integrated videocard MSI K7N2G-L doesn’t offer a lot of extra
features. But just like the ASUS, MSI sends a lot of software to their
products, some more useful than others. Down here you can se the range
of software on the CD that comes with the package, the last picture
is a screendump from MSI’s monitoring program PC Alert 4.
MSI K7N2G-L
does not have much to offer and just like its competitor ASUS A7N8X
the card is equipped with the MCP-northbridge containing less features.
Besides the integrated soundcard with the external Realtek ALC650
circuit and the 10/100Mbit Ethernet there isn’t any special hardware
features to expect.
Even
though the MSI K7N2G-L doesn’t offers a lot of hardware features the
integrated videocard gives it some credit. How this works and performs
you will be able to see later, but by not having to use an external
videocard you’re saving quite some money.
With
relatively basic features and accessories the MSI K7N2G-L doesn’t
belong to the high-end cards in this category. The integrated videocard
and the relatively large range of programs increase the grade a bit.
For the ones wanting a lot of features MSI got the K7N2G-LISR that
includes most of them.
Accessories/Features
We
look at the amount and usability for the included software and
integrated features
MSI
is the first card in this roundup using a bit more colourful design
with its all red PCB, and even other parts of the motherboard are
colourful.
Even if it’s highly personal we think it’s a bit fun with
a design that stands out from the rest, and with that MSI has succeeded
well. We recognise the colour scheme from earlier MSI products such
as their videocards.
The first
thing we noticed was that MSI just like ABIT chose not to make the
four holes around the CPU-socket. In this case we have a bigger understanding
since MSI don’t aim towards the enthusiast market. But there
are still flaws in the layout making some CPU-coolers unusable.
What’s positive with the MSI K7N2G-L and its layout is, amongst
others, the heatsinks on the four mosfets that’s positioned
below the CPU-socket. This too is only a two phase-system being used
and we can suspect that the mosfets get to work a bit extra when the
integrated videocard is being used. The power connections on the motherboard
are not very well placed, but its better when they are placed at the
top on the PCB so the ATX-cable don’t disturb other components.
We don’t know what the tiny little rectangular black box above
the heatsinks is for, but it has probably something to do with the
integrated videocard.
If you look at the lower part of the motherboard you see that the
PCB has several unused circuit slots, showing that the feature enhanced
MSI K7N2G-LISR uses the same PCB.
We got
a bit surprised when the motherboard didn’t use a active chipset cooler,
the integrated videocard lead to a noticeable higher heat generation
in the chipset. And since we already established that the nForce2
SPP chip generates a lot of heat we can say that it will be tough
for a passive cooler on the IGP-chip.
But the passive cooler has all possibilities to offer an effective
cooling for the chip as MSI has been exemplary in their application
of thermal paste.
We are not really sure how the stepping looks like on the nForce2
IGP chip, but it looks like its using the same system as the SPP-chip
which, as you can see on the last picture, is an A3-stepped northbridge
on our test example.
We don’t
see any news around the dimm-connections but we can se that even here
MSI has managed very well with the placement of the memory banks.
The problem with bad space between the dimm-connections and the AGP-card
is a problem you see more and more often, but ASUS and MSI has as
seen solved the problems. There is space enough between the dimm-slots
and the AGP-card which is very nice for anyone who wants to change
memory modules with the AGP-card installed.
The I/O-panel on the motherboard is undeniably a bit different from
what we are used to see. At a first glance we just notice the two
extra USB-contacts, but if you look at the right COM-contact you see
that its actually not a COM-port. It’s the VGA-connection to
the integrated videocard.
MSI K7N2G-L
has a good motherboard layout that doesn’t distinguish in any way,
neither positively or negatively. A couple of small mistakes such
as the placements of the power connections and the absence of the
four holes hinder the the layout from reaching the top. We are not
convinced that the relatively small chipset cooler can manage the
nForce2 IGP chipset’s heat generation under a longer period of time.
An active cooler would be to prefer.
The positive things are the heatsinks on the mosfets and especially
that MSI managed to place the AGP-connection on a great distance from
the three dimm-connections.
Layout/design
We
consider the cards physical but also its aesthetic design. User
friendliness is also an important factor.
MSI
K7N2G-L is the board in this roundup that is the least suited for
enthusiasts and that is quite obvious in the BIOS. The arrangement
is somewhat like the one we saw on the ABIT NF7-S except for the
Soft Menu III, which of course the MSI board does not have.
The Advanced Chipset Features menu offers a lot of interesting possibilities
and it is arranged just like all the other nForce2 boards we have
looked at. When the integrated graphics chip is enabled, there pop
up two new options in this menu; frame buffer size and TV-Out mode. The first one is the setting that determines
how much RAM that should be dedicated to the integrated graphics
chip and act as graphic memory (8MB, 16MB, 32MB, 64MB or 128MB).
We have not done any detailed tests with the different values, but
64 Mb is a reasonable setting and maybe 32 Mb if you have less than
512 Mb RAM.
Frequency/Voltage control is the place to bookmark if you are about
to overclock, because here you will find the voltage settings that
are available on the board.
Onboard Device
is interesting, as that is where you have the possibility to disable
the integrated features on the mainboard. Once again we see signs
of that MSI K7N2G-LISR is based on the same platform as the K7N2G-L,
as FireWire is shown in BIOS despite the fact that the board does
not support it.
Advanced Chipset Features
Frequency /Voltage control
Onboard Device
There
are still mainboard manufacturers that completely ignore their products
overclocking possibilities, but today the situation is much better
than a few years ago. MSI is not one of those known for making boards
with high overclocking potential, and that is how it turned out
this time as well. But still there are some optimisation possibilities
and that includes overclocking. The processor bus is adjustable
between 100-200 MHz at 1 MHz intervals. Higher frequencies would
have been nice, but 200 MHz is good enough, as this board probably
won’t be used for extreme overclocking. The multiplier settings
are very limited making optimizations even harder.
The CPU voltage can not be set higher than 1.8, the lowest of all
tested boards in this roundup, but it is only 0.05V worse than the
other (except ABIT NF7-S v1.2) so the actual difference is not that
big. There are low max settings for DIMM and AGP as well.
BIOS-settings
(version: 3.3)
FSB:
100-200MHz (1MHz intervals)
Multiplier
settings:
7x
till 13x
AGP:
66MHz
– 99MHz (1 MHz intervals)
CPU-voltage:
1.55v – 1.80v (0.025V intervals)
DIMM-voltage:
2.5v
– 2.7v (0.1V intervals)
Chipset-voltage:
–
AGP-voltage:
1.5v
– 1.7v (0.1V intervals)
The arrangement in BIOS works ok, but we would like to see a little
more options for overclocking. This is something we do not take so
serious, as we guess most people buying MSI K7N2G-L will not use it
for heavy overclocking.
No bigger flaws but not the same class as the other boards in the
test.
Bios/Settings
We
look at the design of BIOS and it s settings, both for regular
use and overclocking.
Overclocking
To
be honest we had no hope to achieve any remarkable results on overclocking
with the MSI K7N2G-L, but it was not that bad actually.
All the tests were performed with an external graphics card (Albatron
GeForce4 Ti4200 128MB) which means the integrated graphics chip
was not enabled. Yet we kept in mind that the complex IGP nortbridge
would prevent the board from reaching high FSBs even if the graphic
chip was disabled.
As in previous tests we started off with straight CPU overclocking.
There were not many differences but one for example is that the
maximum CPU voltage offered is only 1.8 volts. We had to lower the
FSB by 1 MHz to gain full stability.
The CPU overclocking with the ASUS A7N8X and the ABIT NF7-S v1.0
don’t differ much from the one that we see with the MSI-board, as
the board only trails by 14 MHz.
The
ABIT NF7-S v1.2 is of course untouchable and we can already see
that there isn’t any board in this roundup that can come near that
kind of cpu-overclock as the ABIT v1.2 did.
We were a bit uncertain of the FSB-overclock knowing that it wouldn’t
be the best in the test since the BIOS limits the FSB to 200MHz.
Despite the passive cooling solution on the MSI K7N2G-L we managed
to hold the system stable at maximum FSB with no effort at all (remember
that the ASUS-board didn’t manage that). This was very positive and
impressing but a pity since the board probably could have gone higher
if only the BIOS would allow it.
MSI
K7N2G-L was a bit of a dark horse during the overclock-tests. It
managed to hold up well despite the fact that it didn’t really compete
under the same conditions as the other boards.
MSI’s board couldn’t reach the other boards cpu-overclock mainly
because of the lower cpu-voltage, though only one board did allow
really high cpu-voltage.
Even
if we don’t recommend the MSI K7N2G-L to the overclockers,
the board has certainly proven that there is a whole lot more to
it than meets the eye.
Overclocking
Here
the theoretical overclocking potential of the motherboard is
valued through the use of practical tests.
Soltek
SL-75FRN-L: Specifications
Chipset:
NVIDIA
SPP + NVIDIA MCP
Processors
supported:
Duron/Athlon
XP Socket-462, 200/266/333MHz FSB
Memory
supported:
3GB,
200/266/333/DDR400MHz DDR
Integrated
graphics circuit:
–
AGP:
1x
AGP 8X
PCI:
5 x 32-bit bus master PCI
IDE-controller:
4
units, ATA 100/66/33
RAID-controller:
–
SATA-controller:
–
Network:
Realtek
RTL8201BL 10/100Mbit (nForce2 LAN)
Audio:
Realtek
ALC650 controller
FireWire
(IEEE-1394):
Realtek
RTL8801B PHY (MCP MAC)
USB
2.0:
2
ports (NVIDIA MCP)
Price:
~
$85
The
specifications on Soltek SL-75FRN-L are very similair to the boards
we previously saw from ASUS and MSI. The similarities are that the
Soltek SL-75FRN-L is not very well-equiped either.
Price and Availability
Soltek
is a manufacturer who never have been associated with many features
and accessories. However, the price is the main reason to why Soltek
is attractive. An example is when we a couple of months ago took
a closer look at eight KT400 mainboards, where Soltek’s product
had the lowest price. And this product is no exception since Soltek
offers a price almost 30% lower than the second cheapest board in
the test, which is very impressive! The availability is OK and gets
ranked on a good third place, right after ASUS with 11 hits in our
priceguide. Soltek SL-75FRN-L is without a doubt one of the cheapest
and most priceworthy nForce2 mainboards on the market today.
Price/Availability
We
compare the price to equal products and even the accessibility
among retailers.
Accessories
and Features
When
a product has a very good price compared to its equal competitors,
you can easily understand that the low price comes from somewhere.
That is why it is not a big suprise that Soltek SL-75FRN-L is the
mainboard with the smallest amount of features and accessories in
this roundup. Only the most necessary comes with the board, but what
kind of saves Soltek have here is the software package they provide.
Although the software does not consist of the most interesting titles
it still gives the product a increased value.
The
intergrated features on the mainboard are few but still covers the
basics, namely an audio card and an ethernet controller. This makes
the board equivalent with ASUS A7N8X in performance. It is no suprise
that this mainboard lacks of features, although something we miss
is more USB ports. For example, ASUS intergrated two extra USB ports
directly in the I/O layout. So Soltek could have sent with two extra
ports just as ABIT did, but did not. This is clearly negative and
we also saw this on their KT400 mainboard.
There
are alot of features and accessories we miss on the Soltek SL-75FRN-L,
but since it is a cheap mainboard the lack of these comes as no
suprise at all. Instead of going into what the board misses, we
will (as we did in the review of ASUS A7N8X) see what Soltek actually
offers.
Thanks
to the nForce2 chipset design it is very easy for mainboard manufacturers
having support for intergrated sound and LAN, which Soltek clearly
made use of. There is not that much more the board has to offer
from a hardware point of view. The software that comes with the
board is however a real improvement with several full version titles.
These titles are unfortunately far from the most attractive titles
on the market.
Soltek SL-75FRN-L
clearly resemble ASUS A7N8X when it comes to features, although
the lack of USB ports on the mainboard makes the score somewhat
lower than the score we gave to the board from ASUS. If you know
that you will only use two USB ports there should not be any problem,
although with the huge range of USB products on the market today
only two USB ports as standard is somewhat risky.
Accessories/Features
We
look at the amount and usefulness for included accessories and
integrated features.
Soltek
SL-75FRN-L is most definitely the mainboard who catches the most
attention of the ones we have tested in this roundup, most likely
of all nForce2 motherboard we have tested. The light yellow colour
is nothing we usually see on motherboards but Soltek has without
question had this in mind when they launched their “Golden
Flame”-series of mainboards. This does not come as a surprise
from a manufacturer who are behind series like "Glacier Silver"
and "Purple Ray".
Even
if the mainboard gives a, in our eyes, god first impression we can
unfortunately not say that it keeps this impression if you look
at the layout more narrowly.
Just like the boards from ABIT and MSI, Soltek has decided to overlook
the extended compability for coolingappliance offered by the four
holes around the socket. Besides the lack of the four holes there
is plenty of room around the socket, which is positive. The one
thing that could be in the way is the condenser that is placed a
bit to close above the socket. The motherboard uses a two phase
system for the powersupply. It makes ABIT the only manufacturer
who uses a three phase system on a motherboard. Unfortunately Soltek
has made a mistake when placing the power connection. Placed as
it is, the wire from the PSU in most cases has to go above the CPU
cooler, which is very bad for the airflow.
On the bottom of the motherboard we see that even Soltek offers
a more “powerful” model of their nForce2-mainboard which
offers a second IDE-contact and two SATA-contacts. (Soltek SL-75FRN-R
and Soltek SL-75FRN-RL).
Soltek
have managed well with the chipset cooler on Soltek SL-75FRN-L as
it offers both a large physical mass (prepared by the cooler on
the ABIT NF7-S) and a great active cooling. The soundlevel is fully
acceptable and since the heatsink itself is not only a bottom plate
the system should work fine even if the fan stops functioning.
Soltek has to our great enjoyment chosen to use a coolingpaste beneath
the cooler and the contact surface is quite well even if it is not
as good as the one on the MSI-board.
Soltek SL-75FRN-L is the third board in this roundup who is equiped
with a A3-stepped northbridge (nforce2 SPP) which according to our
tests and other reports gives generally higher potential for overclocking
than the A2-stepped northbridges.
Unfortunately
Soltek has as several other manufacturers commited the mistake to
place the memory banks close to the AGP-port. This is shown on the
picture below and also makes a change of memory modules hard when
a long AGP-card is installed. It seems to be a relatively good space
above the memory banks, so it feels like Soltek could have avoided
this mistake. Especially when it only got 5 PCI slots as a difference
to other mainboards that got 6 PCI-slots and manage to do well without
this problem.
The I/O-panel doesn’t offer any surprises but as we mention
earlier we would like to see a similar set like the one on the ASUS-board
with four USB-ports.
Just
like ABIT Soltek has made a few flaws in their work with the motherboard’s
layout and design. These two companies are the ones who have managed
worst with the layout, we often see similar mistakes. The fact that
Soltek SL-75FRN-L does not have the four holes around the socket
is one, but also the bad placement of the memory banks and power
connections.
We simply consider there should be space for a goodlayout on a mainboard
with this small amount of features.
Something positive is the active chipset-cooler that in our meaning
doesn’t have any direct disadvantage. Even the area around
the CPU-socket is relatively open and allows large heatsinks.
We would have hoped that Soltek had made a better layout on SL-75FRN-L
but unfortunately it showed that Soltek, just like ABIT, failed
a bit on this particular thing
Layout/design
We
take notice to the boards physical but even aesthetic design.
User friendliness is an important factor.
Soltek
has used the same BIOS interface as ABIT and MSI, which we thinks
is great. The BIOS itself is nothing revolutionary, considering
the design and ability to change the settings. The Advanced Chipset
Features design is well known by us and the manufacturers seems
to look a lot at the nVIDIAs reference-BIOS since it is more or
less the overclocking ability that differs in this menu.
In earlier BIOS-versions Soltek 75FRN-L didn’t have support
for changing the multipliers, which today is almost a must.
In the most recent BIOS-version this is included and the settings
are attended too, they are introduced under the Frequency/Voltage
control menu.
SmartDoc Anti-Burn Shield is the overclocking part in the motherboards
BIOS where you can control voltage, etc. Here is where Soltek got
their own ABS II-system, which is their overheating protection.
This allows the motherboard, with the help of the internal CPU temperature
diode, to shut down the system if the CPU reaches a critical temperature.
The system is very effective if the heatsink for some reason falls
off.
Advanced Chipset Features
CPU-Ratio /Voltage control
SmartDoc Anti-Burn Shield
Just
like ABIT, SOLTEK managed to release a new BIOS-version before we
published this review. Amongst the few changes made there was an
increase of FSB-settings in the BIOS. When the board arrived to us
the latest BIOS offered FSB-settings up to 200MHz in 1Mhz intervals.
The new BIOS don’t bring any large changes but as you can
se below it offers a few changes above 200MHz FSB, which is a positive
thing. We would like to se higher settings and also in 1MHz intervals,
but you can’t have everything.
The rest of the BIOS-settings are much the same as the ones we saw
on ASUS A7N8X, it is only the AGP-voltage allowing slightly higher
settings on the Soltek board.
BIOS-settings
(version: C1.3L)
FSB:
100-200, 204, 207, 211MHz (1MHz intervals up to 200MHz)
Multiplier
settings:
5x
to 18x
AGP:
66MHz
– 99MHz (1 MHz intervals)
CPU-voltage:
1.10v – 1.85v (0.025V intervals)
DIMM-voltage:
2.5v
– 2.8v (0.1V intervals)
Chipset-voltage:
–
AGP-voltage:
1.5v
– 1.8v (0.1V intervals)
For the most part Soltek SL-75FRN-L has a good interface with nice
overclocking ability.
A neat technological detail is ABS II which literary can be a “life
saver” if anything goes wrong. It is actually far from all manufacturers
who offer protection against overheating on their AMD-motherboards.
Taking this in consideration it’s a pro for Soltek who got their
customers components in mind.
Bios/Settings
We
look at the interface of the BIOS as well as its settings alternatives.
Both for regular usage and overclocking.
Overclocking
Soltek has under a long time developed
motherboards aimed for the budget and enthusiasts market. To succeed,
in particularly in the enthusiasts market, it often takes a lot
of overclocking potential and that’s what Soltek often manages
to supply.
Soltek SL-75FRV that was in our KT400-roundup is
one of the best-suited boards for overclocking and we were very curious
on SL-75FRN-L and its overclocking potential.
Just like ABIT NF7-S v1.0 and ASUS A7N8X the maximum CPU-voltage
is set to 1.85v which should give similar oveclocking results for
the Soltek board.
The nForce2 chipsets clockgenerators shows over again very exact
values as we achieved exactly the same clockfrequency here as on
ABIT NF7-S v1.0 and ASUS A7N8X.
Soltek
SL-75FRN-L doesn’t have as generously FSB-settings as ASUS
A7N8X which is a bit of a shame when our test-board got caught between
two FSB-settings.
The Soltek-board has no problem what so ever to maintain stable at
204MHz FSB but when we increased to 207 MHz, which was our next
step we didn’t manage to get the system fully stabile. 205
or 206 MHz FSB shouldn’t have been a problem if the settings
where available. But 204 MHz FSB is very impressing with no increase
in chipset voltage.
Soltek
has once again shown to be in lead at overclocking and the only
boards being able to beat SL75FRN-L in this category is the two
models from ABIT. If the SL-75FRN-L could supply slightly higher
CPU voltage and maybe a change of chipset voltage it could have
taken Soltek all the way. Unfortunately it doesn’t quite,
but with Soltek SL-75FRN-L it puts in the same class as ASUS A7N8X,
which is not a bad accomplishment.
Overclocking
Here
the motherboards theoretical overclocking potency is being evaluated
by practical tests
Test
systems
NVIDIA
nForce2
CPU:
AMD
Athlon XP 2100+ (266MHz)
For overclocking: AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (T-bred B)
Quake
3:Arena v1.32
Unreal Tournament 2003 demo v.1080
3Dmark2001 SE 330
Comanche 4 SPECviewperf
7.0
Winace v2.20
Audioactive Production Studio 2.04j (Fraunhofer II encoder)
SiSoft Sandra 2003
WCPUID
As
usual all performance tests are executed with equal memory configurations
on the different motherboards. The motherboards who do offer performance
enhancing settings without overclocking have these enabled in BIOS.
The memory timing used was 5-2-2-2 to give them an equal comparison.
In the test we also have included two results from MSI K7N2G-L with
the integrated graphics circuit activated. First with the DualDDR266
that we use in the other nForce2-tests, but also with DualDDR400
which give more memory bandwidth to the integrated graphical chipset,
which can be necessary.
Before
we move on with the performance testing we will look and see whether
any of the motherboards efficiently use the higher clock speed to
achieve a kick start in performance.
The
only motherboard that differentiates from the others is the KT400-based
chipset from Soyo. Between the different nForce2-motherboards there
is only a slight difference of 2 hundredths of a second, which proves
that the nForce2-chipset have a very precise clock generator that
none of the suppliers have manipulated with.
Nowadays
we have started using only Sisoft Sandra 2003 to measure the memory
bandwidths of motherboards. Earlier we have, other than SiSoft Sandra,
used CacheMem but since it refuses to run on some boards (such as
no motherboards based on the nForce2 chipset) we have stopped using
Cachemem.
To
begin with we are going to do a buffered memory benchmark which
is the standard test in Sandra 2003.
Not
completely unexpected it is an even game and the Soyo impresses
us once again, keeping up to pace with the nForce2 based boards.
MSI s K7N2G-L lacks behind a little when we use the integrated graphics
chip which is not all that odd as this uses a whole lot of bandwidth.
Now
we re going to go on to some more realistic memory tests. More precisely
the unbuffered memory benchmark
When
we analyze the above results we can see clear differencies when
it comes to KT400 vs. nForce2. Soyos KT400 board can call it a day
when it is compared to any of the nForce2 boards. Even against the
MSI with its integrated graphics chip and DualDDR266 the Soyo can
just pack it in. In fact, it is the MSI K7N2G-L that takes the top
rank in this test. However, this is with the the integrated
graphics chip activated at DualDDR400. If things stay the same in
the rest of the tests it is a different question, but we are soon
to find out. Furthermore the memory performance between the nForce2
boards is very even.
File
compiling is very dependant on memory bandwidth and is a very good
test for the motherboard. Once again we can see that the boards
uphold good standards and it is only the MSI board that falls behind
a little. We can also see that the integrated graphics chip sucks
out a little of the bandwidth for normal application as both systems
with the IGP activated are a tad behind the rest of the boys.
MP3
encoding (Fraunhofer II codec)
MP3
encoding is more or less reliant on cpu speeds whereby the performance
is more or less identical on the different boards.
As
the first 3D test, we start out with the classic Quake3, which is
not at all very graphically demanding, therefore the bottleneck
will really be the cpu rate and the memory bandwidth. Once again,
it is close to impossible to distinguish any significant difference
between the different boards, it is only the IGP systems that fall,
and stay sat on their backsides with a thump. In other words, no
good for them. We can even see that DualDDR400 gives much better
performance with the integrated graphics chip activated. The extra
memory bandwidth is really critical for the graphics chip.
More
of the same results can be seen in the Unreal Tournament 2003 tests,
where the performance of the boards are again more or less identical
when the integrated graphics chip is activated.
Testdemo
There
is not very much to say here since there are only minimal differences
in performance.
The
Soyo KT400 Dragon is still the best performer in the 3Dmark test,
but the differences are tiny. The board s advantages may be caused
by the fact that KT400 boards have a slightly higher clock frequency
(4 mHz).
The
integrated graphics chip on the MSI board get s another steady push
with DualDDR400. By now it is clear that it is an advantage with
high memory speeds if you are going to use it.
Even
in this reveiw we have used a lot of a pretty advanced tests
and to get a good view of workstation applications we have also
taken a look at the results in SPECviewperf. 7.0 which, in our
opinion, does this job well. SPECviewperf. 7.0 is a test program
that contains six different 3D renderings from six different
programs that are on the market today. The six tests/programs
are the following:
The
tests are run in a window, they are therefore affected by the
systems desktop resolution. In our tests we used a resolution
of 1280x1024x32bit and a refresh rate of 85Hz.
As
usual we conclude our performance tests with SPECViewperf. and
we have to say that the boards using the nForce2 chipset are
the clear winners. This is an application that the nForce2 chipset
really kicks some serious butt in even if the performance is
better as a whole than the KT400 based boards.
Just
as in the earlier performance tests there is no board that really
makes a name for itself more than the others as the differences
in performance between the nForce2 boards we have tested is
miniscule. A clear difference to when we did our KT400 roundup
(still only available on NordicHardware.se in Swedish) where
we had a couple of cards with performance problems.
The integrated graphics circuit could not as expected keep up
the pace in these tests and in the last part we could not get
any results at all.
As a result of our tests we can draw two conclusions
about the performance of the nForce2 chipset from nVidia. The
chipset hosts the best performance you can get your hands on
for AMD based systems today. As well as the fact that the performance
difference between the different brands of boards is more or
less null. Whichever board you choose the performance will be
very good and the marginal differneces we have seen in the tests
are pretty much impossible to see with the day to day use in
your system.
If
we take a more in-depth look at the MSI board and it s integrated
graphics chip we can tell you without a doubt that the performance
increases as we increase the memory bandwidth of the board,
this was, however not very unexpected. The performance and the
picture quality are totally satisfaction for gaming and such
applications. The performance is however below any expectation
so "gamers" should probably go for an external AGP
graphics card. The performance test results for the integrated
graphics chip on the MSI board are nt included for the MSI boards
final grade as this is a feature that none of the other boards
offer.
Short
and sweet all the nForce2 boards are great and no one of them
will give you less performance than another.
Performance
Thorough
tests show how the performance of the motherboard is compared
to competitive products on the market.
ABIT NF7-S v1.0:
9.5/10
ABIT
NF7-S v1.2:
9.5/10
ASUS
A7N8X:
9.5/10
MSI
K7N2G-L:
9.5/10
Soltek
SL-75FRN-L:
9.5/10
Before
we wrap things up, we have some more performance tests for you,
namely overclocking. For best performance we set our goals to
increase both the clock frequency and bus speed to the max.
But before we proceed with the results, lets look at a summary
of the best performance overclocks we could get out of each
mainboard. Note that only the processor and bus was overclocked,
all the other components were running according to its specifications.
The
performance was very impressive, and although the system’s graphic
card was an obvious bottleneck we still got a nice increase
in 3Dmark. Not surprisingly, ABIT NF7-S v1.2 got the best results
with its high bus and processor speed. Unfortunely, we could
not try it with a higher bus speed since the system’s processor
could not handle any higher clock frequency. Since the results
are pretty obvious, we don’t have much more to add to this article.
First
of all we must admit that the test lab are very at peace with nVIDIA
and their latest achievements on the motherboard market. The NForce2
chipset is really an impressive exploit by nVIDIA which has relativly
small experiences within chipset developing. We have been impressed
not only by the feature and performance way of the nForce2 chipset,
but also by its stability and overallness. Admittedly there has
been some child diseases with the nForce2 chipset too but it is
nothing compared to the problems we had with the KT400 chipset.
There were great differences in performance at our KT400 roundup
(between motherboards) and DDR400 support was something that was
treated in many different ways.
As
we mentioned earlier in the review we can, after having tested all
together seven different nForce2 motherboards, with great certainty
say that the performance of the nForce2 chipset is very good no
matter which board you chose. This is of course very positive for
the consumer who does not have to worry about performance when choosing
between the different models.
As our part grades exposes there are great differences between the
different parts of the tested motherboards even if the final grade
does not differ very much. It can however be worth the effort to
take a closer look at the different parts of the boards and determine
which suits you best.
Among the five tested boards in this roundup there was no really
feature-packed motherboard, like the earlier reviewed board Chaintech
7NJS Zenith.
Instead most boards we tested this time got a good price which is
an important factor for most people.
What we also have noticed during this roundup is that there are
really no fullpointer because every board has one or more notable
weaknesses. In the end it showed that ABIT took the first place
with its two NF7-S models which actually differ more than expected,
only two of the six partial grades was equal of the two boards.
There are also negative parts on these boards too and other pieces
that can be tuned up a little more.
ASUS A7N8X is the cheaper variant of ASUS nForce2 based motherboards
and it can’t make it all the way through. In spite of few
accessories and features the board s price is in the same class
as ABIT NF7-S which for us is unintelligible and lowers the grades
for this budget choice.
MSI K7N2G-L is the only board which uses itself of nVIDIA’s
nForce2 IGP with integrated graphic card. The IGP circuit has it s
fields of application but mayorly within the OEM market and office
work and such. Except the integrated graphic circuit the board offers
relatively few features, but it is also one of MSI’s budget
boards. Unfortunaley the board gets a little too high price due to
the IGP north bridge which contradict this.
In the beginning of the roundup we were like children on Christmas
day because of Soltek SL-75FRN-L, which seemed to be the perfect
candidate for the best budget choice. Unfortunately it feels like
the board stumpled just before the finishing line. The fact that
Soltek SL-75FRN-L is one of the nForce2 chipset based boards best
worth it’s price is inevitable. That the board lacks a great
deal when it comes to features and accessories is not any surprise
considering the price, but we had expected more of the motherboard
layout. Because of this and the fact that the board does not offer
any more than two USB ports in standard version determined that
we would not appoint Soltek SL-75FRN-L to the best budget choice.
But for those who don’t mind these flaws we strongly recommend
this board, which is very cheap considering what you get.
Finally
it is the ABIT NF7-S and the new version 1.2 which wins and are
despite a few downsides with the layout worthy our award, Editors
choice. The board is equipped with a bunch of interesting features,
ABIT have got the most important ones on the board. You have support
for USB2.0, FireWire, SATA, and it is one of few boards with a full
support for nVIDIA’s SoundStorm. Also the price is acceptable. The
NF7-S 1.2 s best quality is the wonderful overclocking potential
which none of the other boards have been even close to.
ABIT
NF7-S v1.2
ABIT
NF7-S v1.0
Pros:
+ Superb performance
+ High overclocking potential
+ BIOS-settings
+ SATA-support
+ Support for the nVIDIA SoundStorm
Cons:
– Many layout problems
Price/Availability: 110
8.5/10
Features/Accessories:
8.5/10
Layout/Design:
7.0/10
Bios/Settings:
9.0/10
Overclocking:
9.0/10
Performance:
9.5/10
Final
mark:
8.6/10
ABIT
NF7-S v1.2
Pros:
+ Superb performance
+ Excellent overclocking potential
+ BIOS-settings
+ SATA-support
+ Support for the nVIDIA SoundStorm
Cons:
– A few details in the design and layout
Price/Availability: 130
8.0/10
Features/Accessories:
8.5/10
Layout/Design:
7.5/10
Bios/Settings:
9.5/10
Overclocking:
9.5/10
Performance:
9.5/10
Final
mark:
8.8/10
ASUS
A7N8X
Pros:
+ Superb performance
+ Good overclocking potential
+ Good layout
+ BIOS-settings
Cons:
– Expensive
– Only support for 4 IDE units
– No SATA-support
Price/Availability: 110
8.5/10
Features/Accessories:
6.5/10
Layout/Design:
9.0/10
Bios/Settings:
8.5/10
Overclocking:
8.0/10
Performance:
9.5/10
Final
mark:
8.3/10
MSI
K7N2G-L
Pros:
+ Very good performance
+ Integrated graphics chip
+ A lot of software included
+ Good price
Cons:
– Only support for 4 IDE units
– No SATA-support
Price/Availability:
9.0/10
Features/Accessories:
7.5/10
Layout/Design:
8.0/10
Bios/Settings:
7.5/10
Overclocking:
7.5/10
Performance:
9.5/10
Final
mark:
8.2/10
Soltek
SL-75FRN-L
Pros:
+ Superb performance
+ An excellent price
+ Good overclockning potential
+ BIOS-settings
Cons:
– The design and layout
– Not many accessories
– Only support for 4 IDE units
– No SATA-support
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