Overclocker Cafe - KT400 Mainboard Roundup

VIA KT400 Based Mainboard Roundup

ABIT KD7-G

Layout:

Six PCI slots, one AGP 8x compatible slot, and FOUR DIMM slots grab your attention from the beginning. With an AGP card in place two of those four DIMMs will be blocked in the closed position. The four DIMM slots are a bit misleading as it supports DDR RAM as follows: 2 DIMM DDR 333/400 (max 2 GB); 3 DIMM Un-buffered DDR 200/266 (max 3 GB); 4 DIMM Registered DDR 200/266 (max 3.5 GB).

One thing you have to credit to ABIT is the experience they have with the demands of users on high performance boards. This is most apparent with the subtle things. Notice below how the capacitors around the CPU socket leave a space so installing a heatsink is worry free when you go to pry the clip back with a screw driver.

The ATX power connector is situated between the CPU socket and DIMM slots. The KD7-G also sports an ATX12V1 four pin power connector as you would see on a P4 board. This is for as the ABIT manual puts it to allow capacity for a "heavily loaded system." Think about the multiple fans, devices, 100,000 candle power of neon.. You get the picture.

The Northbridge on the KD7-G has an active cooling solution. The fan is basically a Vantec chipset cooler we have seen here before.

Most boards will give you three fan headers and occasionally one of those will be used by a Northbridge sink. ABIT's experience with high end demands shows itself again with FIVE fan headers (counting the Northbridge.) Two below the ATX Power Connector, one below and left of the CPU socket, Northbridge header below CPU socket, and one in the lower most right of the board.

Two USB 2.0 ports are externally accessible from the rear I/O. The RJ45 jack for the Broadcom 10/100/1000 MB controller sits atop the USB 2.0 ports. The Broadcom Gigbyte LAN opens doors down the road for you if you need to transfer large amounts of data. ABIT uses video as an example in their description.

What was interesting to see was the SPDIF output connector was not a bracket you plug in and attach to a free expansion slot in your case. The SPDIF output connector is permanently mounted in the I/O access port group. Very nice way to loose some clutter for you sound guys who can't live without the SPDIF.