ABIT IC7-G 875P (Canterwood) Motherboard

Company: ABIT
Product: IC7-G
Street Price: ~$215 USD
Date Reviewed: May 14, 2003
Reviewed By: Joey Chao
Overall Rating: (10/10)

Introduction:

Intel's latest release, the 875P/ICH5, has been generating quite a bit of press. The chipset's dual channel memory performance is excellent. Also official support for the latest Intel 800 MHz FSB CPUs makes it that much more appealing to the high end users. The performance gains from moving to the 800 MHz bus along with the dual channel memory are considerable. More average users are already making the move towards that newer chipset and CPU.  Today we have the IC7-G for evaluation. The board, like most ABIT motherboards, has nice overclocking features along with an attractive bundle.

Since this is our second Canterwood review, it will be interesting to see how the board compares to the Chaintech 9CJS Zenith we reviewed a week ago. Moving on, let us see what ABIT has done with the IC7-G and if the much anticipated motherboard meets our expectations..

Specifications:

• CPU
  Supports Intel Pentium 4 Socket 478 processors with 800/533/400 MHz FSB
  (400 MHz is for Northwood only)
  Sports Intel Hyper-Threading Technology
   

• Chipset
  Intel 875 / ICH5 RAID
  Support Intel CSA Gigabit LAN
  Supports Dual Channel DDR 400 with ECC function
  Supports Performance Acceleration Technology (PAT) function
  Supports Advanced Configuration and Power Management Interface (ACPI)
   

• Memory
  Four 184-pin DIMM sockets
  Supports 4 DIMM Single/Dual Channel DDR 400 memory.(Max. 4GB)
  Supports configurable ECC function
   

• AGP
  Accelerated Graphics Port connector supports AGP PRO 8X/4X (0.8V/1.5V)
   

• Dual Serial ATA RAID
  2 channel Serial ATA 150MB/s data transfer rate with RAID function (0) via South Bridge
  2 channel Serial ATA 150MB/s data transfer rate with RAID function (0/1) via Silicon Image PCI Chip
   

• Audio
  6-Channel AC 97 CODEC on board
  Professional digital audio interface supports 24-bit S/P DIF optical In/Out
   

• Media XP (Optional)
  Supports card reader function for Memory Stick™, Secure Digital™ and Type I/II CompactFlash™
  Supports Wireless Remote Control and S/PDIF Out / Mic In / Headphone Out / USB 2.0 / IEEE 1394
   

• System BIOS
  SoftMenu™ Technology to set CPU parameters
  Supports Plug-and-Play (PNP)
  Supports Advanced Configuration Power Interface (ACPI)
  Supports Desktop Management Interface (DMI)
  Write-Protect Anti-Virus function by AWARD BIOS
   

• Gigabit LAN
  On board Intel CSA Gigabit LAN
   

• IEEE 1394
  Supports IEEE 1394a at 100/200/400 Mb/s transfer rate
   

• Internal I/O Connectors
  1 x AGP PRO, 5 x PCI slots
  1 x IrDA
  1 x Floppy Port supports up to 2.88MB
  2 x Ultra DMA 33/66/100 Connectors
  4 x Serial ATA 150 Connectors
  2 x USB 2.0 headers, 2 x IEEE 1394a header
  1 x CD-IN, 1 x AUX-IN
   

• Back Panel I/O
  1 x PS/2 Keyboard, 1 x PS/2 mouse
  1 x Printer Port, 1 x COM port
  1 x S/PDIF Out connector, 1 x S/PDIF In connector
  1 x Audio connectors (Front Speaker, Line-in, Mic-in)
  1 x Audio connectors (Center/Sub, Surround Speaker)
  2 x USB 2.0, 1 x IEEE 1394a
  2 x USB 2.0, 1 x RJ-45 LAN Connector
   

• Miscellaneous
  ATX form factor
  Hardware monitoring - Including Fan speeds, Voltages, System environment temperature