Review of Socket 7 PCI Motherboards

Abit

ABit AB-AX5

At 83 MHz, this board is one of the fastest, at normal bus speeds it is better than average. This board features ’Soft Menu ’, it’s an extension to the Award BIOS 4.51PG, which allows to set the CPU and bus frequencies in the system BIOS. This seems to be made for playing with the different possibilities. Let run your favorite application or OS with 75 or in some cases 83 MHz system bus speed, and write your recordable CDs at safe 66 MHz. Without opening your case, isn’t it great ? As in the prior socket 7 review already mentioned, this board has some difficulties with certain types of SDRAM, e.g. the older Corsair modules won’t work properly. If your are looking for a an ATX board to run at the highest possible external clock speed, think about the AX5.

ABit AB-AX5, Rev. 2.2

ATX format ; ATX power supply ; Intel 430TX ; 4x ISA, 4x PCI ; 4x SIMM, 3x DIMM ; Award flash BIOS ; 512 kB PB-Cache (6 ns) ; external frequencies : 50, 55, 60, 66, 75, 83 MHz ; BF2 function not available, I/O chip : Winbond ; busmaster Ultra DMA 2 or PIO 4 onboard ; FDC onboard ; 2x serial 16550 ; 1x EPP/ECP parallel ; 1x PS/2 mouse ; 2x USB ; IrDA support ; core voltages : 3.2V, 2.9V, 2.8V, 2.7V, 2.5V.

ABit AB-PX5

This board seems to support 75 and 83 MHz bus clock, but I had some trouble with it, even with our latest revision 1.14c. This expressed in hangups and protection errors under Windows 95 as well as blue screens under Windows NT. Particularly the old Corsair memory didn’t want to work properly over 66 MHz. In spite of these problems, performance is not bad at all and the overall results at 66 MHz are satisfactory. Except with the 6x86MX, the board is slower under Windows NT. Maybe a new BIOS can bring the estimated stability at 83 MHz bus.

ABit AB-PX5, Rev. 1.14c

Baby AT format ; AT power supply, ATX power connector not equipped ; Intel 430TX ; 4x ISA, 4x PCI ; 2x SIMM, 2x DIMM ; Award flash BIOS ; 512 kB PB-Cache (6 ns) ; external frequencies : 50, 55, 60, 66, 75, 83 MHz ; BF2 function not available, I/O chip : Winbond ; busmaster Ultra DMA 2 or PIO 4 onboard ; FDC onboard ; 2x serial 16550 ; 1x EPP/ECP parallel ; 1x PS/2 mouse (with connector) ; 1x USB (without connector) ; IrDA support ; core voltages : 3.2V, 2.9V, 2.8V, 2.5V.