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- Date:
- Tuesday , March 25, 2003
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
ABIT BH7
The BH7 is ABIT’s latest masterpiece featuring the Intel i845PE chipset. Read on to find out why ABIT is convinced that this is the board to pair up with your prized P4...
Introduction
ABIT is renowned in the enthusiast community for their dedication to the art of overclocking. Since its inception, ABIT has been pioneering new ways to get that little bit extra amount of performance out of your computer hardware. Their latest Intel i845PE based motherboards are no exception.
The BH7 is ABIT’s latest offering with the Intel i845PE chipset. The BH7 does not offer many of the frills available with other i845PE boards, but for what it doesn’t offer in add-ons, it makes up for with unbridled performance. The Intel 845PE chipset itself offers support for the latest Intel processors within HyperThreading technology as well as full support for DDR RAM of up to 333 MHz. The BH7 offers 2 ATA 100 IDE ports, 1 SATA 150 port, integrated 10/100 Fast Ethernet, 6 total USB 2.0 capable ports, as well as your standard serial, parallel and PS/2 ports.
Here are some prelim specs on the board:
CPU | Intel Socket 478 Pentium 4 or Celeron |
Chipset | Intel 845PE / ICH4 |
FSB | 100/133 |
BIOS | Phoenix AwardBIOS |
Memory | 3 DDR DIMMS, up to 2 GB |
Expansion slots | 1 x AGP, 5 x PCI |
Onboard IDE | 2 x ATA 100 headers, 1 x SATA 150 header |
USB | 4 rear panel / 1 header supporting 2 ports (6 ports total) |
AGP | AGP 1x/2x/4x |
Audio | 6-Channel AC 97 CODEC with rear panel S/PDIF input/output |
NIC | 1 x 10/100 PCI Fast Ethernet controller in rear panel |
Here’s the entire specification list:
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Board Layout
Overall, ABIT did an astounding job with the overall board layout. However, there are a few areas of concern on the board, including the CPU socket area. Notice that all the capacitors used on the motherboard seem to be from the noted Japanese based manufacturer Rubycon.
The CPU socket area itself has sufficient clearance below the socket, but above and to the right of the socket is a whole different story. The HSF board mount mechanism is flush with the capacitors directly above the socket, which could cause problems in mounting or removing overly large HSF units that are outside of Intel spec. There are also two capacitors just above the northbridge chipset that were found to just touch the HSF when mounted in the board as well. Still, we have never found a HSF that this was an issue with as all the HSFs that we have seen are built to fit inside the defined space.
The i845PE northbridge chipset itself is far enough from the socket to not be a nuisance. The chipset is passively cooled and held down with the standard ABIT hold down mechanism, which allows removal of the chipset heatsink with the motherboard installed. Just above the northbridge is the board’s ATX12V connector. Placement of this connector here is a double edged sword. It is good for board stability, you get a cleaner power signal by keeping traces shorts, but is an issue for cable routing. The ATX12V cable must be routed around the CPU HSF so as not to impede airflow. One other problem with the ATX12V connector is the fact there is a capacitor in very close proximity just above it. This capacitor could lead to problems with removing the connector when engaged.
The CPU socket area also contains three fan headers. The fan headers AUXFAN1 and AUXFAN2 are located just above and to the right of the ATX12V connector, while the CPUFAN1 fan header is sandwiched between the CPU socket and the DIMM slots. Note that of these three fan headers, only AUXFAN1 and CPUFAN1 are monitored through the system BIOS.
The board’s 3 DIMM slots are below the CPU socket area, with enough room to spare between the two components that neither get in the other’s way. A pleasant surprise was the placement of the DIMM slots in relation to the AGP slot. The positioning of the AGP slot allows for use of a full sized card without interfering with memory insertion or removal. Just below the DIMM slots are the ATX and floppy connectors. Just to the left of the ATX connector, ABIT integrated two status LED’s in to the motherboard. The red LED lights when a power source is connected to the board, while the green LED lights when the system is powered up.
The board’s southbridge chipset, the ICH4, is located just below PCI slots 1 and 2. To the right of the southbridge chipset is the board’s only jumper, the CMOS reset jumper. Just above the southbridge is the board’s one USB 2.0 header. Just below the southbridge is the SATA controller chip, with the SATA header just to its right. Below the SATA controller chip are the board’s two IDE headers, IDE1 and IDE2. IDE1 and IDE2 have a very unique placement, since the headers themselves are rotated clockwise 90 degrees, so that the IDE cables are parallel to the plane of the board when engaged. This allows for some very creative cable routing when using non rounded cables. To the right of the IDE1 header is the board’s fourth fan header, SYSFAN1. This fan header is monitored through the system BIOS.
The BH7 has a total of 5 PCI slots, and 1 AGP slot. Between the edge of the board and PCI slots 2 and 3, you find the onboard CD and AUX sound input headers.
The board’s rear panel contains the standard set of ports, with a few nice surprises added in. Ports available included a PS/2 keyboard and mouse port, a parallel port, 1 serial port, 4 USB 2.0 capable ports, a 10/100 Fast Ethernet port, 5 audio ports, and S/PDIF optical input and optical output ports.