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This is just a bit of
"show and tell", so to speak, on an all new
motherboard from Abit and the new Socket 478 Pentium 4
CPU! The TH7II-RAID is Abit's follow on product
to our favorite P4 motherboard, the TH7-RAID.
The TH7II-RAID is designed around Intel's i850 chipset
as well, except the board comes equipped with an
"mPGA478" (Micro Pin Grid Array w/ 478 pins) socket to
house Intel's latest CPU.
Click
all images for full viewing
On board
ATA100 RAID of course is included and there are a few
more bells and whistles the first rev of the TH7-RAID
didn't have, namely Softmenu III support!
For
full specs of the TH7II-RAID for the Socket 478 P4,
click here!
The PLL
used on the TH7II-RAID is from the same company that
Abit uses for most Softmenu III designs,
Realtek Semiconductor.
Another
very nice feature of the TH7II-RAID is one that was
carried over form the original TH7. The board
has two small momentary button switches, for reset and
power on functions. This makes life ease for
folks, like us here at HotHardware, that don't always
install boards into a case for testing. Simply
plug in your cables, and power supply, hit the power
on button on the board and she'll boot right up!
Finally,
not to be forgotten is our first look at a live Socket
478 Pentium 4 CPU. These things are tiny when
compared to T-Birds or the Socket 423 Pentium 4.
Again, the mPGA 478
version of the Pentium 4 has, you guessed it, 478
pins. There are many more power and ground pins
in this version of the chip, which will help to
stabilize the part at speeds at 2GHz. and higher.
Intel simply didn't have the mPGA 478 ready in time
for launch of the Pentium 4, so they went with the PGA
423 package which was more mature at the time.
However, all furture clock speeds beyond 2GHz. will be
in this new mPGA 478 package. The PGA 423 design
will support speeds up to 2GHz. but no higher.
That about
covers our quick little tour of Abit's new TH7II-RAID
Motherboard and Intel's new mPGA 478 based Pentium 4.
Look for a review of the TH7II-RAID in the days ahead
and stay tuned for more on the mPGA 478 based Pentium
4!
-Dave
Are you talkin' ta
me? Get into the HotHardware Conference Room!
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