ABIT IS7 865PE Motherboard

Company: ABIT
Product: IS7
Street Price: ~$120 USD
Date Reviewed: May 22, 2003
Reviewed By: Joey Chao
Overall Rating: (90%)

Onboard Features:

The rear I/O configuration has two PS2 ports, one serial port, one parallel port, S/PDIF in and out connectors, audio jacks, four USB 2.0 connectors, one IEEE 1394 port, and a RJ-45 LAN connector. What we really like about his configuration is how all the sound is put onto the motherboard as opposed to using extra PCI slot cards. Another thing that makes this board unique is the S/PDIF in and out connections. Most boards do not provide both the in and out ports.

The 865PE chipset as we have already said supports 800 MHz FSB, dual channel memory, and Hyperthreadingt.

The ICH5R supports up to eight USB ports, two Serial ATA ports, and also Serial ATA RAID 0. This is the same Southbridge that is paired with the 875P motherboards. The integrated Serial ATA bypasses the PCI bus, which would normally limit the transfer rates to 133 MB/sec even though Serial ATA supports 150 MB/sec. Support for eight USB ports shows that USB is here to stay and eventually will phase out legacy ports such as the PS2, parallel, and serial ports.

The 3COM chip gives the IS7 is 10/100 LAN capabilities. ABIT has chosen not to use Gigabit Ethernet on this board but could have done so and made good use of the CSA bus which is perfect for Gigabit LAN.

Like we saw on the IC7-G, ABIT has decided to go with the Texas Instrument TSB43AB23 chip to provide the onboard FireWire. The chip allows for the connection of three independent IEEE 1394 devices. Though there is only one port on the rear I/O panel; two more are provided on an extra card, along with two extra USB ports.

Onboard audio has become very common on motherboards. Most of the recent boards all support onboard sound. The IS7 uses the Realtek ALC650 to provide the 6-channel audio. The sound provided by this chip is not the greatest quality but it should suit average users. People who spend a lot of money on high quality speakers probably will want to purchase a separate sound card.