Abit BH7 (Intel 845PE) Motherboard Review
| Abit BH7 |
| Chipset |
Intel 845PE |
| Processor |
Pentium 4 FSB 400/533MHz
Celeron FSB 400MHz
HyperThreading |
| Memory |
PC1600/2100/2700 |
| HDD |
UltraDMA/100 |
| Additional |
Audio AC'92 v2.1
6 USB 2.0
10/100Mbit Ethernet |
| Price: |
~90$ (PriceWatch) |
Some motherboard manufacturers have recently presented quite interesting products built on the i845PE chipset. Of most interest is the unofficial support for the new 200(800QP) MHz bus processors. Only the lazy ones have not produced such motherboards: Abit BH7, Epox 4PEA800 and MSI with the long name "845PE MAX3 800 Edition". What's more, Albatron has come up with its PX845PEV-800 and Gigabyte with its 8PE800/Pro/Ultra series. But the latter hasn't told anything regarding support for the 800 MHz bus.
There is nothing special in supporting new processors by the i845PE/GE chipsets. In fact it means that the memory operation speed will be determined by the 1:1 multiplier (i.e. synchronous operation with the system bus). As a result, a vast majority of i845PE-based boards will run successfully with new Pentium4 processors (by the way, we have recently tested 13 such boards). Moreover, I wouldn't be too much surprised if boards based on the i845E chipset will run the newest processors (e.g. Asus P4B533-E or Gigabyte 8IEXP).
Another factor that determined the emergence of such boards is that Intel postponed the release of the new chipsets (Canterwood and Springdale) to April-May. That means the mass production of boards based on the i865 and i875 chipsets is scheduled for the coming summer, the off season for the whole IT industry (all reasonable people are sunbathing on the beach in that period :). It's natural to renew the assortment before novelties come up and to earn some more for the 800 MHz bus "pseudo-support".
In fact, there are more serious grounds for that: Springdale-based motherboards which are coming out this summer will have a preliminary price around $125 onwards (more often they mention the figure of $150 onwards). So the companies are striving to present new products in the much lower-end sector of the market.
Today, we'll be looking at the first one in this line - the Abit BH7 motherboard. In its development, the main focus was given to the maximum boost in the processor's and memory's overclocking options. Besides, all measures were taken push the board's price down. As a result, its price is now under $100. But the price reduction implies the package bundle will be scarce with the minimum number of integrated controllers.
Abit BH7 Specifications
| Abit BH7 |
| Processor |
- Intel Pentium 4 (Willamette / Northwood) with 400/533/(800*) MHz bus speeds;
- Intel Celeron (Willamette/ Northwood) with the 400 MHz bus speed;
- Socket 478
- Support for HyperThreading processors |
| i845PE Chipset |
- North Bridge Intel® 82845PE Memory Controller Hub (MCH);
- South Bridge Intel® 82801DB Enhanced I/O Controller Hub (ICH4); |
| System memory |
- Three 184-pin slots for DDR SDRAM DIMM
- Maximum memory capacity up to 2GB
- Support for PC1600/2100/2700/(3200*) memory types |
| Graphics |
- AGP slot, supporting the 4X mode; |
| Expansivity options |
- Five 32-bit PCI Bus Master slots;
- Six USB 2.0 ports (4 integrated +2 additional);
- Integrated audio AC'92 v2.1;
- RTL8101L LAN controller |
| Overclocking options |
- FSB adjustable between 100 MHz and 250MHz in 1MHz increments;
- Processor/memory, AGP voltages adjustable.
- Abit SoftMenu III |
| Disk subsystem |
- 2 channel UltraDMA/100/66/33 Bus Master IDE (with support for up to 4 ATAPI-devices)
- Support for SerialATA (1 channels)
- Support for LS-120 / ZIP / ATAPI CD-ROM |
| BIOS |
- 2MBit Flash ROM
- Award BIOS Phoenix with support for Enhanced ACPI, DMI, Green, PnP Features and Trend Chip Away Virus |
| Miscellaneous |
- One FDD, two serial and one parallel ports, ports for PS/2 mouse and keyboard
- STR (Suspend to RAM)
- SPDIF In/Out |
| Power management |
- Wake-up on modem, mouse, keyboard, LAN, timer and USB
- Standard 20-pin power connector ATX (ATX-PW)
- Additional 4-pin power connector |
| Monitoring |
- Processor temperatures, voltages and rotation speeds of the 3 fans are all monitored. |
| Dimensions |
- ATX form factor, 230mm x 305mm (9" x 12") |
* - Unofficial support.
Retail box
Package bundle
- 1x Motherboard;
- 1x software & drivers CD;
- 1x ATA-100 cable, 1x FDD cable;
- 1x SerialATA cable;
- User's Manual in English;
- 1x rear panel cap.
The board's package bundle is minimum: a user's guide, a drivers CD and a set of cables. Besides, there is one SerialATA cable, but support for this standard has already become an integral part in any motherboard.
The quality of the user's manual is up to the mark: it gives a detailed description of all the jumpers and connectors; there is a section to do with BIOS settings and the procedure of driver installation. Much focus is given to the BIOS update. Of the software, there is only a system monitoring utility.
In the upshot: the package bundle is worth the price of the motherboard.
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