Bundle and Presentation
Sometimes boards don't arrive in my hands for review in their full retail box so it's hard to tell what you'll get in your box without extra research. However the AT7 arrived in its proper box with the complete retail box contents.The box itself is a nicely designed affair with a cutout in the box to allow a portion of the nice plastic clamshell case that holds the board and contents to poke through, giving you a glimpse of your new board before you remove it.
Opening the box reveals the transparent plastic clamshell with the board clearly visible. Opening and removing the board makes the rest of the box contents accessible. ABIT also provides a full set of neat, black, IDE and floppy cables. Much better to look at than your usual grey cables and clearly labelled at every junction, ABIT have excelled here. It's a clear concession to those that like to show off their case innards and a nice touch.
Apart from the board and cables, the other sundry items are minimal. The extra USB 1.1 ports, I/O shield, the manual and the driver CD are all that's left.
Flashy presentation but quite low on value added substance. The extra USB 2.0 ports would have been nice. This AT7 also didn't ship with the MediaXP front panel which does ship with some AT7's and provides front panel access to some ports rather than routing cables round the back of your case. Useful for digicams and PDA's that aren't connected all the time.
The most glaring omission from the bundle however is any kind of PS/2 to USB convertor, a low cost essential in this reviewers eyes. Possibly having to spend upwards of £20 and maybe more on top of an already expensive board is quite high and not something that will please everyone. USB keyboards aren't that common so at least a convertor for one would have been excellent. Sadly they don't ship with any.
Onto the BIOS and Manual.
