Abit NF7-S (nVidia nForce II) Motherboard Review

ToshiroOC · Feb 10, 2003, 01:17 AM

Immediately after the first nForce II boards were released, this offspring of nVidia's won love and sympathy among experienced users. Its high performance, rich feature set and, most importantly, quite affordable price have made this chipset the best choice for a high-end system. Practically all the largest companies except Gigabyte announced their products on the nForce II chipset. Most remarkable is that it's just the nForce II SPP chipset without integrated graphics that proved the most popular.

Abit presented 3 models straight away all built on the nForce II chipset. The first two - NF7 and NF7-S - are built on the nForce II SPP and differ only by the South Bridge: the NF7-S features a more "extended" version - MCP2-T(urbo). Besides, the NF7-S model has a SerialATA controller onboard and is shipped in a rich package bundle. Of course, it's just that model that is of most interest to us, and we'll be looking into it now. By the way, many details of the nForce II SPP chipset have been disclosed in detail in the Epox 8RDA+ motherboard review.

Another board, NF7-M, is based on the 'nForce2 IGP + MCP2' combination, i.e. has integrated graphics of GeForce4 MX class. This specimen is an order of magnitude less attractive because of its high price and outdated, as per today's standards, level of graphics.

But after the first enthusiastic responses the users gradually became aware that the chipset has its peculiarities, and not all its potentials have been implemented to the full. Well, we are still learning through experience, and this time meet Abit NF7-S.

Now regarding the actual overclocking. Although the board is able to vary the FSB between 100 and 237 MHz, I was able to make it run stably only at 195 MHz in the dual-channel synchronous mode. No doubt, if the memory modules were of better quality I would be able raising the FSB speed.

--By Starter, source: Digital-Daily.com

Article can be read here.

Feb 10, 2003, 01:17 AM	#1
ToshiroOC Unbiased. Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 4,812 Rep Power: 0	Abit NF7-S (nVidia nForce II) Motherboard Review Immediately after the first nForce II boards were released, this offspring of nVidia's won love and sympathy among experienced users. Its high performance, rich feature set and, most importantly, quite affordable price have made this chipset the best choice for a high-end system. Practically all the largest companies except Gigabyte announced their products on the nForce II chipset. Most remarkable is that it's just the nForce II SPP chipset without integrated graphics that proved the most popular. Abit presented 3 models straight away all built on the nForce II chipset. The first two - NF7 and NF7-S - are built on the nForce II SPP and differ only by the South Bridge: the NF7-S features a more "extended" version - MCP2-T(urbo). Besides, the NF7-S model has a SerialATA controller onboard and is shipped in a rich package bundle. Of course, it's just that model that is of most interest to us, and we'll be looking into it now. By the way, many details of the nForce II SPP chipset have been disclosed in detail in the Epox 8RDA+ motherboard review. Another board, NF7-M, is based on the 'nForce2 IGP + MCP2' combination, i.e. has integrated graphics of GeForce4 MX class. This specimen is an order of magnitude less attractive because of its high price and outdated, as per today's standards, level of graphics. But after the first enthusiastic responses the users gradually became aware that the chipset has its peculiarities, and not all its potentials have been implemented to the full. Well, we are still learning through experience, and this time meet Abit NF7-S. Now regarding the actual overclocking. Although the board is able to vary the FSB between 100 and 237 MHz, I was able to make it run stably only at 195 MHz in the dual-channel synchronous mode. No doubt, if the memory modules were of better quality I would be able raising the FSB speed. --By Starter, source: Digital-Daily.com Article can be read here.