Monday, September 22, 2003

The CPU

The socket retention lever of the processor is made of plastic.

The space available to install the cooling fan for the processor is well located so that it will make it possible to use the largest models without any problem.

North Bridge

The North Bridge, in this case the Intel 82845 (MCH), is cooled by one heat sink only. There is no fan on it, but its temperature is at all times hardly warm. There is nothing here to justify the use of a fan.

The South Bridge

Well, nothing really new has to be said about it. It is an Intel xxxx and it is responsible for the communication between the PCI sockets and the North Bridge. It generates the USB, PCI and all peripherals communication.

Monitoring

The monitoring of the hardware is dealt with by Winbond 83627HF-AW circuit. The latter takes all the measures for the different voltages on the motherboard. These are:

- I/O Tension 1.5 Volts
- Vcore Tension 3.3 Volts
- AGP Tension 1.5 Volts
- Memory Tension 2.5 Volts
- Tension +12 Volts
- Tension - 12 Volts

It is also responsible for taking all the measures concerning the speed of the fans installed such as:

- CPU Fan
- System Fan
- Power Supply Fan

See Winbond 83627HF-AW for more information about it.

All these values are available in BIOS but could be available directly in the OS (Windows/Linux) if a special software dedicated for this task is installed. When installed, the latter indicates to the user, in real time, an insight of the running conditions of the motherboard.
Abit has inserted its own version of that kind of software on the CD that comes with the board. It is called “Hardware Doctor” – guess why?

BUS’S

This motherboard support AGP 1x/2x/4x for a maximum transfer of 1.2 GB/s. The AGP bus voltage is set to 1.5 Volts, so no 3.3 Volts VGA Card should be inserted in that connector. This could harm the system.

Five PCI revision 2.2 connectors are supported on this motherboard.

Infra-Red(Irda) and SMBus are available in standard version. Infra-Red, even if not considered as a Bus, is quite useful when one wants to make communication between a PDA and the system. No wire is required to download or upload your data from or to your PDA and your computer. About the SMBus, a specific I2C implementation, is considered like a Bus.

The USB

Four connectors supporting the USB 2.0 (480Mbps) standards are present on the motherboard. They are located on the back panel. Two others could be adde’d that would make a total of 6.

ATA & SATA Ports

This motherboard supports ATA 100/66/33 norm.

One finds 1 serial ATA port under the control of the Marvel 88i8030. This integrated circuit has been realized for the use of serial ATA drive and can convert parallel PATA drive to serial SATA drive. In order to do this conversion, another device is required and it is included in the box.
See Marvel 88i8030 for more information about it.

Note that, when the SATA is enable in BIOS, only 3 drives will be in force in the system. In this condition, only ATA 0 (IDE 0) and the SATA will be available and running as parts of the system leaving ATA 1 (IDE 1) unavailable and undetected.

Audio

The Audio on this motherboard is based on the Realtek ACL650-F. This integrated circuit, well known now, has nothing to hide from us. Today, the use of AC3 and 5.1 Sound Surroud is quite the norm. Those configurations enable us to use 6 speakers including one as a central voice for the low frequencies. Furthermore, on this board, we have one SPDIF input and one SPDIF output that will please high end sound system maniacs.

One can finds 5 connectors on the back panel that are:

- Input microphone(mono)
- Line Input(stereo)
- Audio Output Back Left/Right
- Audio Output Rear Left/Right
- Audio Output Center/Bass

This 18 Bits stereo Codec supports the AC’97 2.2 norm including AMR/CNR feature.
See Realtek ACL650 ACL650 for more information about it.

Network

A Fast Ethernet 10/100 network port is present and is under the control of the RTL 8101L circuit. Its connector is directly on the motherboard and it is located on the back panel, on top of the USB 2.
See RTL 8101L For more information about it.

Power Supply Connectors

ATX connector is located at the North-East of the board with the result that its conductors do not hinder the cooling of the processor. It is adjacent to the FDC 1 connector of the board which does not cause a problem.
ATX12V1 connector yet is located at the South-West of the processor. It is a bit annoying because its wires could hinder the cooling fan. However, it isn’t very harmful for all that.

Memory Connectors

The memory connectors being far enough from the AGP connector, the retention levers of the memory modules do not come into contact with the graphic board when the memory modules are taken out. The latter are at a distance of approximately 2.5 cm when opened to their maximum. Thus it is rather easy to withdraw a memory bar even with the already installed graphic board.

Fan Connectors

One finds 4 fan connectors on this motherboard and 3 amongst them are under the control of the monitoring of the hardware in BIOS. The one for the CPU, system and auxiliary 1, that could be used for the power supply, are monitored. Auxiliary 2 is left alone concerning the BIOS monitoring.

Regulation

Regulation circuits are quad-phases double Mosfet. Everything is on the motherboard. I don’t see any free pads that could receive other components involved in the regulation process.

Around the processor socket, one finds 8 capacitors of 3300 Mfds and 3 capacitors of 1200 Mfds.

Below, a photo of the Abit BH7.

Next: BIOS Functionalities

Abit BH7