[H]ard|OCP

Navigation

• [H] Forums
• Archives
• Search
• [H] Folding

ABIT IC7-G

The i875P, AKA "Canterwood", mainboards are starting to make it to market. We review ABIT's feature packed addition to the line up.

Introduction

ABIT is known for their dedication to the pursuit of quality and speed. The enthusiast community has embraced ABIT since it first broke onto the scene with motherboards that could squeeze every last bit of juice out of our prized CPUs. ABIT continues this trend with their i875P based motherboard solutions.

The IC7-G is ABIT’s latest offering featuring the Intel 875P chipset. The board itself is a complete solution, offering a myriad of features and the performance to match. The Intel 875P chipset offers full support for the latest Intel 800 MHz FSB processors utilizing HyperThreading technology as well as full support for DDR RAM of up to 400 MHz operating in Dual Channel mode. The IC7-G offers 2 ATA 100 IDE ports, 4 SATA 150 ports, integrated Intel Gigabit Ethernet, 8 USB 2.0 capable ports, 3 IEEE 1394 capable ports, S/PDIF digital input and output, as well as the standard serial, parallel, and PS/2 ports.

Mainboard Specifications Overview:

Detailed Mainboard Specification List:

Board Layout

The layout of this board is nothing short of amazing. This is one of the few boards that I have come across that I can find almost no fault in its layout whatsoever. Notice that all the capacitors used on the motherboard seem to be from the noted Japanese based manufacturer Rubycon. This is particularly of interest due to several Chinese manufacturers being pinpointed as selling parts with very short life cycles recently.

A close look at the area around the CPU socket shows it to be sufficiently clear of capacitors to allow easy installation and removal of a HSF unit on the CPU. The CPU socket assembly itself has been rotated counterclockwise 90 degrees from the layout seen on other ABIT P4 based boards. Just to the left of the socket is the i875P northbridge,. The northbridge itself is actively cooled by a colorful HSF unit, held on with a variation on the standard ABIT northbridge hold down mechanism. The hold down mechanism allows for easy HSF removal from the northbridge without necessitating motherboard removal. The northbridge HSF is connected to the NBFAN header, which is monitored through the system BIOS.

Just above the CPU socket is the SYSFAN1 fan header, which is monitored through the system BIOS. Three of the four board jumpers are located just above the CPU socket as well. The PS2-PWR1 jumper, located directly above the SYSFAN1 fan header, controls keyboard/mouse system wake-up. The two other jumpers to the left of the fan header, USB-PWR1 and USB-PWR2, control USB based system wake-up for the rear panel USB ports.

The 4 DIMM slots are below the CPU socket area, grouped in two sets of two slots. Each set corresponds to a single memory channel. ABIT did a great job with color coding the slots to aid the user in enabling Dual Channel mode. To enable Dual Channel memory mode, the user must populate the same colored DIMM slot in each of the two sets. Just above the top set of DIMM slots is the ATX12V connector. The placement of this connector is a bit close to the DIMM slot itself, but should pose no problems to insertion or removal of memory. Just to the right of the top set of DIMM slots is the CPUFAN1 fan header, which is monitored by the system BIOS. Just below the bottom set of DIMM slots are the ATX and floppy connectors, as well as the AUXFAN1 header. The AUXFAN1 header is not a BIOS monitored fan header.

The board’s ICH5R southbridge chipset is located below PCI slots 1 and 2. The CMOS clear jumper is located just below the ICH5R chip, along with the board’s 2 IDE ports. Notice that the IDE connectors themselves have been rotated 90 degrees so that the drive cables plug in parallel with the plane of the board. This arrangement allows for very efficient routing of the bulky IDE cables to maximize airflow throughout the case. To the left of the CMOS clear jumper and above the IDE connectors are the Intel ICH5R based SATA connectors, SATA1 and SATA2. The Silicon Image based SATA connectors are found along the edge of the board to the left of the Silicon Image controller chip.

Just below PCI slots 1 and 2 are the 2 USB 2.0 headers, with the IEE 1394 headers placed to the left of the USB 2.0 headers and beneath PCI slots 2 and 3. The AUXFAN2 fan header is along the edge of the board to the left of PCI slot 5. Note that this fan header is not BIOS monitored. Just above the left most IDE connector, ABIT integrated two status LEDs into 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 IC7-G has a total of 5 PCI slots and 1 AGP slot. Between the edge of the board and PCI slots 1 and 2, you find the onboard CD input connector. The onboard AUX input connector is located just above PCI slots 2 and 3. To the right of the AUX connector is the front audio panel header. Note that you must jumper pins 5/6 and 9/10 for the rear audio ports to function.

The rear panel has the standard set of ports integrated in to it, with some innovative add-ins as well. Ports available include a PS/2 keyboard and mouse port, a parallel port, 1 serial port, 4 USB 2.0 capable ports, 1 IEEE1394 capable port, an Intel Gigabit Ethernet port, 5 audio ports, and S/PDIF optical input and optical output ports.

The IC7-G Packaging

While the box comes with two SATA cables, SATA power adapters, and a bevy of other included extras, the presentation was something new. Mainboard boxes generally don't mean much in the grand scheme of things but this new box from ABIT does deserve notice. Instead of simply dumping everything into a box, they actually organize it, and do a very good job of it.

This of course is not going to be on your list of deal breakers, but ABIT taking the time to finally lay out the entire package in a professional manner is welcomed. This either says their attention to detail is meticulous, or they have their priorities totally out of whack. Of course by the end of the review we will have this figured out.