Date: |
April 12, 2004 |
Price: |
$115 |
Sponsors: |
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Author: |
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Editor: |
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Score: |
8/10 |
Abit AN7 Motherboard Review BIOS
ABIT decided to use the Phoenix AwardBIOS in their AN7 motherboard. This BIOS has a lot of the features you have come to expect over the years, with a few new additions. The BIOS allows you to save up to 10 configurations and reload them later on, even if the CMOS should need to be reset.
 The first menu that is available for you to choose is ABIT’s SoftMenu Setup. Soft bios configuration has become the norm, and a new generation of computer enthusiasts doesn’t have to deal with a hundred jumper settings just to get a CPU to work. Within the SoftMenu you will find at the top the current settings as they were upon POST. Below this are the CPU settings. Both the FSB and multipliers can be manipulated. The FSB has a range from 100 to 300MHz, in 1MHz increments, and the multiplier has a range of 5x to 22x in 0.5x increments. In order to change the multiplier, the CPU needs to have an unlocked multiplier, either stock, or modified.
Moving on down you will see the AGP Frequency setting. This controls the frequency of the AGP bus, and in this menu it can be set between 66MHz and 99MHz, again in 1MHz steps. The CPU FSB/DRAM ratio setting is next, and this controls the ratio of clock speed between the processor and memory. The next setting is CPU Interface. CPU Interface controls the timings of the FSB and CPU. With CPU Interface turned on, there is a good sized performance increase. This should be left on because if you do turn this off to get a higher overclock your performance will most likely be slower.
 In the Power Supply Control section of the SoftMenu, you will find voltage adjustments for your CPU core, DDR, Northbridge, and AGP. The CPU core voltages allowed are in the range of 1.375v to 2.313v, which should please most. Likewise the voltage for the DDR can be adjusted from 2.55v to 3.2v. Finally, the Northbridge voltage has a range of 1.60v to 1.75v, and the AGP voltage is allowed to run at 1.50v to 1.65v, both in .05v steps.
Another nice feature present is the ability to control, within the BIOS, how the onboard SATA controller acts. What I mean by this is that you can disable the raid chipset when you are using it for non-raided drives. I know myself that there are a few times in the past where I could have used this.
The rest of the BIOS menus are pretty standard fare, with a few key things to address. In the PC Health menu there are the real time temperatures, fan speeds and voltages. There is a submenu labeled FanEQ, which allows you to change how your fans react at different temperatures. In FanEQ you can set a high and low temperature limits and the voltages for the fans at each point. This allows you to make them spin slower, and quiet them down when full cooling isn’t needed.
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