ABIT IS7 865PE Motherboard

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

Bundled Features:

ABIT has done a pretty basic bundle. Nothing really extra is provided with the board except the things you would expect. There is one IDE cable (flat) that can hook up to 2 IDE devices, one floppy cable, two Serial ATA cables, two Serial ATA power cables, drivers CD, manuals, and I/O Shield plate. More features could have been added with the bundle. Recently ABIT started providing rounded cables with their motherboards but is not included with the IS7. For the most part, the bundle is functional and will provide most users with what they want.

A bracket for two extra USB ports and two extra IEEE 1394 FireWire ports is also provided in the bundle. It would have been nice to see something like the Media XP that could be used with the IT7 MAX 2 motherboards. This would give the user some more front panel functionality rather than having to hook up devices to the back of the motherboard or case. Having some other features like that could have colored up the bundle a little more like Chaintech's CBOX 3. Since the chipset can support up to eight USB devices and only six are included in the package, maybe ABIT will add another Media XP type panel for the IS7.

Board Layout:

The overall layout of the motherboard is good. We only have a few complaints. The first is the placement of the 20-pin ATX connector. It is located on the far right side of the motherboard which is technically good but it is towards the middle of the board. This place may put the 20-pin cable in a position to interfere with the memory modules and CPU heat sink. Another complaint is the way the IDE connectors are laid out. They are in a vertical position and towards the bottom of the board. People with full tower cases might not have long enough cables to reach the IDE connectors and then the cables have to be twisted to get them into their proper places. The floppy connector is higher up on the motherboard but it is also in that awkward vertical arrangement.

The CD audio connections are situated at the far left corner of the motherboard. This is a very long way for the cable to reach from the drive bay and may also be complicated by cards in the PCI slots. It would have been nice to see these more towards the right side of the motherboard. From personal experience, I have had issues getting the cable to reach these connections because of the PCI cards being in the way.

A common mistake on most motherboards is having the AGP slot to close to the DIMM slots. We see this on many motherboards and the IS7 also has this problem. The issue with this type of placement is that to remove the memory the AGP card will also be removed. There is no possible way to take out the memory without having to pull out the AGP card. This might not be a big problem with average users but it is an inconvenience for people who change out memory a lot.

We are pleased to see that ABIT used an active cooling solution on the Northbridge. This is a feature that will help to prolong the 865PE MCH life as well as aid in overclocking. Some overclockers might change out the cooling but most will be ok with the ABIT cooler. Others might  have just been happy with a passive cooler but we do not think that this fan is very loud at all and since it is quiet, it could only be for the better.