Review: ABIT NF7-S nForce2

Conclusion

With its technical prowess and NVIDIA's excellent driver support team, the nForce2 was destined to be a formidable Socket A chipset. It was simply a question of how various manufacturers would accommodate the design on their respective motherboards. ABIT, like most manufacturers, have gone with the feature-packed MCP-T / Realtek PHY combination. Offering native support for USB2.0, 10/100 LAN, Firewire, 'Soundstorm' certified sound, the NF7-S just misses out on the complete NVIDIA nForce2 feature bundle by omitting the second 3COM LAN (Dualnet). RAID is provided by the Silicon SATA interface. At least we can use one port with the bundled Serillel conveter.

Performance, as our benchmarks have borne out, is exemplary when running the NF7-S in dual-channel, synchronous mode. The latencies that become apparent when we run asynchronous single or dual-channel RAM have a negative impact on performance. With dual-channel DDR266 offering a potential 4.2GB/s of bandwidth for 133FSB XPs, and dual-channel DDR333 offering 5.4GB/s for the top-end 166FSB CPUs, the needs of the processor are met and exceeded. The spare bandwidth on tap allows the nForce2, and by inference the ABIT NF7-S, to set AMD-based benchmark records. It seems especially suited to a 166FSB CPU and dual-channel DDR333. Our hypothetical XP2400D (2GHz/166FSB/dual-channel DDR333) simply outclassed the other benchmarks.

I feel as if ABIT have been a little remiss in a couple of areas. Firstly, the lack of mounting holes for larger coolers, although dropped from AMD's official specification sheets, will deter some of us who look for exceptional air cooling. Further, our sample didn't make use of all the USB2.0 and Firewire ports on offer, although this may change as it's released in true retail form. The other bone of contention with me is relative lack of voltage adjustment. After seeing 2v+ commonplace on other motherboards, the 1.85v Vcore and 2.7v Vmem is a little on the conservative side. Where ABIT are applauded is in provided greater FSB adjustment that competing solutions - up to 237FSB.

I was a little dismayed to see our unlocked XP2400 only booting into Windows XP at a maximum FSB of 188, even though it would boot into BIOS at 205FSB+ with ease (no hard drive). Whether this is a PCI issue is unclear, as a competing nForce2 motherboard definitely has a locked PCI BUS. What's clear, though, is that it can definitely run the 166FSB processors with ease.

Running in dual-channel DDR mode, the nForce2 is, arguably, the Socket462 chipset of choice. The ABIT NF7-S is fine example of this particular platform. Looking to be priced at around £120, it's not too heavy on the wallet.

Highs

• Very quick in dual-channel mode (DDR266 or DDR333 - keep it synchronous)

• Packed with useful features

• Extremely stable with dual-channel memory run at tight timings

• A greater FSB choice than other nForce2 motherboards

Lows

• Voltages are a little conservative for what is an enthusiasts' board.

• Is not currently available in the retail channel - others are.

Overall rating - 9/10. - A SAFE BUY.