Motherboard Review - ABIT IT5H

Chipset

Intel 82430HX chipset, Revision 03, consisting of

• 82439HX System Controller
• 82371SB PCI I/O IDE Xcelerator

CPU

Socket: Socket 7

Supported CPUs:

• Intel Pentium Classic, P54C, 75 - 200 MHz
• Intel Pentium with MMX, P55C, 166 - 233 MHz
• Cyrix/IBM 6x86 P120+ - P200+
• Cyrix/IBM 6x86L, the new split voltage 6x86 CPUs
• Cyrix/IBM M2, supports multiplier setting of 3.5 for M2
• AMD K5 PR90 - PR166, according to the manual
• AMD K6 PR2 166 - PR2 233

Automatic detection of CPU type, setup with CPU SoftMenuTM in BIOS setup.

Supported CPU Voltages:

• single 3.60 V
• single STD 3.38 V
• single VRE 3.52 V
• dual 3.3 / 2.50 V
• dual 3.3 / 2.70 V
• dual 3.3 / 2.80 V
• dual 3.3 / 2.93 V
• dua; 3.3 / 3.2 V (from rev. 1.5)

Automatic detection of single or split voltage, setup with CPU SoftMenuTM in BIOS setup.

Supported Multiplier Settings:

• x1.5, x2, x2.5, x3 for Intel Pentium CPUs
• x2, x3 for Cyrix/IBM 6x86 CPUs
• x2, x2.5, x3, x3.5 for Cyrix/IBM M2 CPUs
• x2.5, x3, x3.5 for AMD K6 CPUs

Setup with CPU SoftMenuTM in BIOS setup.

Supported Bus Speeds:

• 50 MHz
• 55 MHz
• 60 MHz
• 66 MHz
• 68 MHz ('turbo frequency' of 66 MHz)
• 75 MHz
• 83 MHz (from rev. 1.5)

Setup with CPU SoftMenuTM in BIOS setup.

Second Level Cache

Pipelined Burst Static RAM Cache

• 512 kB onboard

512 MB cacheable due to 2 onboard tag RAM chips (from rev. 1.2)

RAM

• 4 72 pin SIMM slots

supports ECC

RAM types supported:

• FPM RAM with and without parity
• EDO RAM with and without parity

RAM sizes supported:

• 4 MB SIMM
• 8 MB SIMM
• 16 MB SIMM
• 32 MB SIMM
• 64 MB SIMM

2 168 pin DIMM slots

3.3 V unbuffered RAM

supports FPM and EDO RAM

RAM sizes supported:

• 8 MB DIMM
• 16 MB DIMM
• 32 MB DIMM

Please note, that DIMM does not say SDRAM!! You can get DIMMs with FPM and EDO as well, and only these types are supported by the 430HX chipset!

Maximum RAM supported 512 MB

PCI Bus

4 PCI slots, 3 full length

running at busclck/2

PCI specification 2.1

ISA Bus

4 ISA Slots, 2 full length, 2 2/3 length, one of the 2/3 length shared with PCI slot 4

Board Size

33 cm x 22 cm size AT. This means it's longer than the majority of the AT boards, which has the advantage that the CPU is quite far from the expansion slots. This enables you to use 2/3 length cards in each slot which isn't full length.

Super I/O

• 1 Floppy Port (up to 2.88 MB, Japan 3 Mode Floppy Supported)
• 2 Serial Ports (16550 Fast UART Compatible)
• 1 Parallel Port (ECP, EPP Port)
• IrDA TX/RX Header (= infra red port support)
• PS/2 Mouse connector
• USB port

IDE Controller

2 x PCI Bus Master IDE ports (up to 4 IDE devices)

Support:

• PIO Mode 3 & 4
• DMA Mode 2

BIOS

Award Plug&Play BIOS, tested with latest and so far only revision, flashable

supports CPU SoftMenuTM which makes the board almost jumperless. All CPU settings are adjusted in the BIOS setup! Only one jumper for L2 cache size on board.

supports bootable CDROM and bootable SCSI HDD, additionally you can boot from the first partition of any EIDE HDD connected, which means you can boot up to 4 different OSs via the BIOS setup.

Coming With

• 2 serial port ribbon cables, attached to a mounting bracket
• 1 parallel ribbon cable and PS/2 mouse cable, attached to a mounting bracket
• 1 IDE ribbon cable
• 1 floppy ribbon cable
• floppy disk with
• • Bus Master IDE Driver for Windows95, OS/2, WindowsNT
  • BIOS Flash program
  • SoftMenu as program

Manual

Best manual I've ever seen, very coprehensive, BUT it's missing one thing! It doesn't tell you how you can mix SIMMs and DIMMs.

Quality

• solid metal lever for CPU ZIF socket
• good I/O sockets with ceiling
• good quality DIMM sockets with sturdy fixing clamps
• good quality SIMM sockets where you don't hurt fingers removing SIMMs
• many tantalum capacitors used
• passive voltage regulator, but big heat sinks that don't get too hot