Usage Issues
Testing this board wasn't without its issues. It's a new product so some niggles are to be expected but the issues I had with the board are directly related to its selling points. The board only has 3 PCI slots so reliance on at least one of the onboard features, be it sound or network card is pretty much a must.I had small problems with both. Audio first, the codec/driver didn't like high CPU loads with some noticable stuttering and pausing while under heavy load. Not really a big issue but very noticable. No driver that I tried has fixed it as yet. It looks to be ingrained into the audio processor used. I much prefer C-Media or nForce MCP for onboard audio. Hopefully a driver update can fix however.
Still with the audio, not all the channels work with all applications. While I've had some criticism for flagging this as an issue with someone remarking that rear and centre channels mess with a stereo soundstage from a stereo MP3, the features are never the less there and should work all the time.
With the onboard NIC, things were a bit more serious. The driver supplied with the AT7 would lock my machine when it had to route traffic from my machine from another node on my network out onto the internet. Popping my Netgear FA310TX back in cured my problems. Forcing the driver to half duplex mode (even though half duplex is the default detected setting!) seems to cure things but it wasn't obvious and much swearing ensued trying to track this problem down.
Again, I'm hoping a driver update will fix that issue and I can remove the Netgear and go back to the Realtek and free up a PCI slot. With SCSI card, Netgear and modem all in use, I have no free PCI expansion and the free slot I'd gain from a working onboard NIC would be most welcome.
Problems with 2 onboard components when you only have 3 PCI slots is slightly worrying but both are fixable in my opinion so keep an eye on ABIT's website for updates.
Onto the conclusion!
