ABIT KV7 (KT600) Mainboard

Active cooling adorns the Northbridge in the form of a shiny aluminum cooler.  The KT600 based boards, many running well past a 200MHz FSB really do need some decent cooling to deal with the increased bus frequency.

In the introduction we mentioned the ABIT KV7 having the VIA VT1616 codec on board.  This provides for improved sound quality over the normal Realtek audio codec we are used to seeing on boards with onboard sound.  A true audiophile will tell you onboard sound blows in two shakes of a lamb's tail but I found the sound quality very nice.

With all the experience ABIT has under its belt, we were quite surprised by the positioning of the ATX power connectors.  The ATX Power connector was placed to the left of the Northbridge and the ATX 12v connector in the top left corner.  The larger connector's placement is fair at best.  While we didn't see the 20 pin ATX power line causing problems when a heatsink was installed, it did unfortunately give you that uncomfortable feeling of clutter.  The ATX 12v power connector's placement is downright perplexing.  While the connector and the plug won't be in the way of much, the power cable plugged in there most certainly will.  Those of you who have been with us for a while know I hate cable clutter.  Placement of both these lines unfortunately will create their fair share for each.

  

Both the floppy drive and regular IDE connectors are set a bit differently than you may expect.  The floppy connector is positioned at the bottom right of the board.  Personally, I like this placement because you can run your FDD cable (if you still run a floppy) underneath the board with only the plugged in connector coming out at the base showing.  In the pic below on the right, you can see the placement of the native SATA connectors as well as USB1 and USB2.

  

BACK                    NEXT