Features

As with the VIA Apollo KT133A changes, the ABIT KT7A_RAID has not changed substantially from its predecessor the KT7-RAID. This can be seen as a positive from a point of view, that the previous motherboard has now settled and hence why try to fix it if it works. The main features of the KT7A-RAID includes the rotation of the Northbridge VIA VT 8363A chip by rotating it 45 degrees, which apparently according to the manufacturer results in shorter traces, thereby giving better performance with clearer signals resulting in greater stability. Something we have become accustomed to with Abit motherboards.
Another feature that we are quickly becoming accustomed to is the Heatsink/fan mounted onto the Northbridge chip which is common on the KT7 series of motherboards, although the chip does run hot, it was really not necessary to do so. This is no longer the case, as in the KT133A solution the Northbridge does radiate substantially more heat that normal, hence the use of the Heatsink/fan solution by Abit is a blessing in disguise and becomes mandatory on all KT133A solutions. Abit has also used its initiative whilst locating the FDD/HDD connectors as this allows for the placement of expansion cards easily without any obstruction, the layout of the board is something we congratulated Abit on the last time around. Our only gripe is the CPU socket is too close to the edge of the motherboard, and can cause problems if you are trying to change processors whilst the board is installed, as pressure is required for the removal and insertion of processors. In addition to this the capacitors are relatively close to the CPU socket and hence may hinder the insertion of a larger heatsink/fan solution for processors, we did not encounter this particular problem, but please be aware this may occur.

As previously mentioned in our reviews for ABIT motherboards, many manufacturers offer as standard a 2-Phase power configuration (4 transistor solution), whilst this is currently acceptable (just about), it is difficult to envisage whether this solution would indeed suffice for KT133A based solutions. Excess heat generated by processors and chipsets shortens the processor lifespan, and creates instability within the system environment. ABIT it seems is only too aware of these issues and has made provision for this by providing a 3-Phase power configuration (6 transistor solution), which dissipates heat more effectively, and this was clearly borne out by us testing the heat dissipation on the 1.2GHz processor, it is no exaggeration to say after leaving the system overnight, we had no burned fingers to complain about, it really was cool to touch. Abit has also ensured extra stability by adding as mentioned earlier a cooler fan to the VIA Northbridge VT8363A chipset to ensure optimum cooling stability. Nice touch.

For those of you who still require ISA slot/s the expansion capability of the KT7A-RAID remains the same as the KT7-RAID, the 6/1/1/0 (PCI/AGP/ISA/AMR) combination just about sums up the possible best combination that anyone could possibly dream off. The exclusion of the AMR slot is visionary and ABIT should be congratulated on their vision to exclude it, hence they have taken advantage of this and provided an ISA slot for users still demanding SCSI controller insertion.
The board also allows the use of 4 USB ports with two mounted on to the board, and ABIT includes a header for two more ports for the connectors that are already on the board.

The features that set the KT7 range apart from others are the inclusion of the Highpoint Technology's HPT370 PCI Dual Channel Ultra UDMA/ATA 100 RAID Controller that supports the full features of UDMA/ATA 100 drives. The Controller supports up to four UDMA/ATA 100 disk drives and is backwardly compatible with UDMA/66, and 33 drives. The icing on the cake has to be the inclusion of Hot Swapping which allows the removal of drives without shutting the system down and the inclusion of RAID 0,1 and 0+1 support allowing the connection of multiple drives for data mirroring and striping, an excellent feature which was until recently unheard of for IDE based drives. The System Bios consist of ABIT's innovative SOFTMENU III technology, which provides the highest level of flexibility for setting CPU parameters, signalling ABIT's commitment to overclockers and tweakers alike.

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