QDI KuDoZ 7X
Board revision: 1.0
BIOS version: 1.0LCP (August 31, 2002)
Unlike its competitors, the KuDoZ 7X from QDI is sparsely equipped. Apart from the standard features (six PCI slots; three DIMM sockets; two USB 2.0 ports; a sound system based on AC97; and a network controller), it offers no such goodies as, say, Serial ATA and/ or RAID or FireWire.
QDI provides only rudimentary support when it comes to overclocking, too, and the only option available to the user is to increase the FSB clock up to 166 MHz. We aren't too happy about the Northbridge fan; especially when you're on a bare-bones-only course, as QDI is, you can do without this kind of component.
However, our criticisms notwithstanding, all this translates into a significantly lower price than those of many others that come with all the bells and whistles. So, if you need a board that's as basic as possible, that works simply and is even fast, you'll fare well with the KuDoZ 7X.
It's too bad that we didn't get the items that usually come with the board, which is why we can't say anything about the manual or the software included in the package. Considering its basic level of equipment, though, you shouldn't expect too many add-ons. QDI does offer a nice overclocking utility called StepEasy that makes it possible to easily increase the FSB clock under Windows.
