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 We're
back again with a look at two new motherboards based on
Intel's recently released i845D chipset with DDR SDRAM
support. Our initial look at the i845D was centered
around some fairly standard issue offerings from Intel and DFI. MSI was the only "tweaker's" board that we put to
the test in that round-up and it certainly shined heads and
tails above the rest. This time around, we have entries
from two strong veterans in the "enthusiast/tweaker's"
motherboard market, Abit and Asus.
We all know Abit's approach with
their Softmenu BIOS technology and on board EIDE RAID
controllers, is often innovative and most likely equipped
with lots of bells and whistles. BIOS driven voltage
tweaks are a expected from Abit, as well as SDRAM timings, diagnostic
LEDs and health monitoring. Asus on the other hand, as
of late, has been steering clear of RAID controllers but
putting real polish on their BIOS and pack in bundle.
Finally, one thing is for certain, with both Abit and Asus
products, you can be sure that the level of quality and
performance will be best of class. Let's dig in and
see how these two boards stack up.
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Abit
BD7-RAID and Asus P4B266 Motherboard
Specifications |
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The i845D Abit and
Asus style |
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Abit BD7-RAID
CPU
Supports Intel Pentium 4 Socket 478 processor
400MHz System Data Bus
Chipset
Intel 845 (ICH2) chipset , AGP 4X 1.5V device only
Memory
Supports
two 184 pin DDR DIMMs
up to 2GB MAX
Audio
AC'97 integrated digital audio controller
BIOS
SoftMenu?III Technology
Multi I/O
2 channels of BUS Master IDE
Port support Ultra DMA 33/66/100
2 channels of BUS Master IDE Port support Ultra DMA
33/66/100/133
Miscellaneous
1 AGP4X slot, 6 PCI slots, 1 CNR slot
Ultra DMA 133/RAID
High Point HPT372 IDE Controller
Ultra DMA 133MB/sec data transfer rate
RAID 0/1/0+1
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Asus P4B266
CPU
Supports Intel Pentium 4 socket 478 processors
400MHz System Data
Bus
Chipset
Intel i845D and ICH2 chipset
Memory
3 DIMMS slots for up to 2GB of PC2100/PC1600 DDR SDRAM
support
Miscellaneous and I/O
AGP 4X slot
2 Channels - ATA-100/66/33 support
2 USB 1.1 ports
6 PCI slots / 1 CNR slot
4 USB 2.0 ports (optional)
Audio
C-Media CMI8738 6-channel audio (optional)
S/PDIF-in/out interface (optional)
Integrated Networking
Intel 10/100 Mbps Ethernet LAN controller (optional)
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As you can see, both boards
are based on the i845D chipset with full support for PC1600
(266MHz.) DDR SDRAM Memory. Refreshingly, they also
both come equipped with 6 PCI slots. However, that's
pretty much where the similarities end. Let's look at
Abit's board first.
A Closer Look At The Abit BD7-RAID
(click images for full view)
As with most all
Abit boards we have seen, the BD7-RAID screams quality.
The board is tight as a drum with good placement of all
components, including the ATX power connector, which is near the
edge of the board and away from the CPU socket. No
cables winding around CPU heat sinks on this board,
thankfully. Also, on board is the next generation HighPoint 372 ATA133 RAID controller, for 2 more channels of
EIDE that support an ATA133 interface and RAID striping for
performance or data integrity. There is also a
diagnostic Alpha Numeric LED display for error status, should
the board not post or some other error occurs. In
addition, Abit added a nice touch, as they did with their
ever fabulous TH7II-RAID board, by installing tiny
micro-push button switches, on the corner of the board, for
reset and power on activation. This simple little
feature alone was enough to make this weary PC Hardware
Tech, smile with delight during setup and testing.
Finally, Abit may not include USB 2.0 functionality on this
board but they did attached 3 hard wired USB connectors on
the back I/O panel. In short, the Abit BD7-RAID is
nicely equipped.
Let's take a
little closer look at the Asus P4B266
Asus P4B266 Closer Look and BIOS
Setups
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