BIOS and Manual
The BIOS is usual ABIT fodder with SoftMenu III offering truly comprehensive tweaking of almost all board options. Overclocking wise you have up to 1.85V Vcore adjustment for your processor, something the EPoX 8K3A beats with adjustment up to 2.2V without modification. 1.85V is high enough for regular cooling methods, however the enthusiast could be left wanting for more. 2.0V would be a nice balance and with a simple BIOS warning about high CPU voltages, the enthusiast would appreciate it. Something for future ABIT boards maybe?Voltage adjustment on the memory is limited to 2.85V and I/O voltage up to 3.65V is selectable. Lower than its EPoX rival in the voltage adjustment stakes for sure.
Memory tweaking is another big adjustment that ABIT cater for on the AT7 with a mass of options available. Being a KT333 board, SPD, 133 and 166 modes are available for running your memory asynchronous to the processor bus up to 166MHz FSB where synchronous mode is forced. You have full control over the memory timings with an option to let the BIOS detect the values from the modules you use or you can force things if you know what your modules can do.
You have control over CAS latency, bank interleave (4-bank is supported), Trp, Tras, Trcd and command rate (wait states after a memory address locate). You can also fine tune DDR clock feedbacks via the Feedback Delay setting and data input strobe delays (DQS Input Delay).
Comprehensive adjustment over memory timings for sure.
Finally as far as CPU and host clock adjustment is concerned, you have up to 250MHz available on the front side bus (host clock) in 1MHz increments. Being a KT333 board like 8K3A, you have 1/5 PCI and AGP divider to keep the board in spec over 166MHz. Over 166MHz the memory clock is synchronous to host clock but up to 166MHz you can run 166:133 mem:host for a maximum memory speed of 205MHz at 165MHz host clock speed.
There is also an option in the BIOS on the test board to Optimise for Benchmark. Whether that will make it into shipping BIOS's is something else and it was left off in all my tests for a fair comparison.
The manual is your usual ABIT affair with extra care spent on the new features making sure you can take full advantage of them. It's easy to read and find information from and is a credit to ABIT. One of the better manuals you can get for a motherboard, well done to ABIT there.
