| IntroductionWhen nVidia designed the original nForce way back in the KT266 days, it showed promise for a decent gaming computer using only integrated video. While it fell short of what was hyped, the integrated GeForce 2 MX video was still the best in its class, and indeed it did show promise. Fast forward to today, to the nForce2, and you’ll find a much different type of integrated video. We’ll be having a look at it in the form of Abit’s NF7-M, which is built alongside the success of Abit's NF7-S series boards. Will the NF7-M will live up to it's sibling's greatness, or is it the family runt?
The Abit NF7-M comes packaged in a generic red & black Abit box, the identifying characteristic being a small sticker on the side of the box with model name and version number. Upon opening the box, you’ll find the motherboard in an anti-static bubble-bag, and a sub-layer of accessories. In the cable department, Abit provides a single IDE cable, a floppy cable, and a USB bracket with two USB 2.0 compliant ports. The mandatory driver CD and motherboard manual are also included, of course.
I’m somewhat disappointed with the accessories. Consumers will be shelling out over $100USD for this board, and Abit is too cheap to include an extra IDE cable. Not only that, they forgot to give me the cap which fits into the integrated soundcard’s optical out port. The most important part, of course, is the motherboard, and it will naturally make or break the NF7-M. To start off, here are Abit’s given specs.
"The NF7 series models, based on nForce2 chipset, supports the latest AMD Athlon XP processors with 200/266/333 FSB, and features new dual 400MHz DDR
memory controllers that deliver up to a 50% increase in bandwidth. Three DDR DIMM slots support up to 3GB of DDR memory, and optimized 128-bit architecture reduces memory latency. The advanced memory architecture means that the latest 3D games and multimedia applications are able to run smoother and faster than ever before, giving you unparalleled system performance. With the nForce2 MCP2-T, the APU (Audio Processing Unit) delivers Dolby Digital 5.1
cinematic-quality sound and 3D positional audio to your home PC. By Soundstorm™ technology, the NF7-S supports Real-time audio encoding delivering up to 256
simultaneous audio streams makes games and applications come to life. With cutting-edge features and ABIT Engineering, the NF7 series is the ultimate
multimedia platform for the world.
Features
AGP 8X
AGP 3.0 8X spec supports high performance graphics processing at a peak
bandwidth of 2.1 GB/s.
Serial ATA 150
Serial ATA is an evolutionary replacement for the Parallel ATA storage interface. This new high-speed interface burst data transfer rate up to 150 Mbytes/sec and more flexible power tolerances, cables can be smaller and more efficient
Dual DDR 400
Dual DDR combines the power of DDR400 with two 64-bit independent memory controllers, the 128-bit memory controller integrated on chip provides up to 6.4
GB/sec bandwidth for system memory, and gives you highest performance and cost-effective platform.
5bit FID (Frequency ID)
By ABIT 5-bits FID Override technology, users can get variety of CPU over-clocking sets.
ABIT CPU H.T.P (Hardware Thermal Protection)
ABIT CPU H.T.P. uses pure hardware detection, which not like others use software detection to prevent CPU overheating. ABIT CPU H.T.P provides more reliable result for customers' investment.
ABIT SoftMenu™
The overclocking function includes CPU frequency, Vcore, multiplier, chipset & DDR voltage and AGP VDDQ voltage adjustment available to maximize your system
performance.
SoundStorm™ Technology
Real-time Dolby Digital 5.1 audio encoding delivering up to 256 simultaneous
audio streams
6-Channel Audio and Optical S/PDIF Out
Lets you enjoy 6-channel audio without having to buy advanced sound cards.
These specs are a general description shared by the NF7, NF7-M and NF7-S. The NF7-S is the board with the MCP-T southbridge, Soundstorm Audio. The –S also has a Serial ATA controller, two serial ATA ports and Abit’s SERIELLE adapter. The NF7-M I have here uses the less featured MCP southbridge, and does NOT have those features, although it does have integrated graphics engine equivalent to a GeForce 4 MX440. Also note that while it says “Dual DDR 400”, it misleadingly does not officially support 400MHz FSB, and Dual DDR is pretty much a gimmick on Athlon systems due to the Athlon XP’s constricting FSB. I’ll find out later on in my tests however, that with the NF7-M, Dual Channel DDR does indeed have a great impact on performance.
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