ABIT IC7: Price and Accessories | i875P Roundup

i875P Roundup - ABIT IC7: Price and Accessories

Motherboards - Published on Wednesday, 25 June 2003 00:39 Written by Christopher Zell

ABIT IC7: Specifications
Motherboard chipset :	Intel 875P (MCH) + 82801ER (ICH5R)
Processor support :	Intel Pentium 4/Celeron Socket-478, 533/667/800 MHz FSB
Memory support:	4xDIMM 333/400MHz DDR (MAX 4GB)
Integrated graphics circuit:	-
AGP:	1x AGP 8X
PCI:	5 x 32-bit bus master PCI
IDE controller:	4 units, ATA 100/66/33
RAID controller:	-
SATA controller:	2x 150MB/s via the southbridge with RAID 0 support
Networks circuit :	-
Audio circuit :	Integrated in the southbridge, AC97 Codec+S/PDIF I/O on the backpanel
FireWire (IEEE-1394):	1x at the backpanel, 2x via bracket
USB 2.0:	4 external ports, 2 internal connections for 2 port brackets, totally up to 8 ports
Price:	~ 1400 SEK (Exchange rates)

IC7 differs from IC7-G in several ways. IC7 is almost 600 SEK cheaper. Of course this has a reason. IC7 has for an example not GigabitLAN or any integrated NIC at all. Also the Silicon Image S-ATA controller is missing. Also the accessories are fewer which we'll find out soon.

Price and Availability

The price is without doubt the boards biggest advantage. A Canterwood board for a such a low price must be very attractive. There are only one board in this roundup which is even near IC7's price, the question is if there are any better "budget-alternatives". Today there are Spingdale based boards for about 1000 SEK, even if they have more or less no features at all the price is very attractive. When it comes to availability it is the same thing here as for the IC7-G, very good.
Great job ABIT!

Price/Availability
We compare the price to equal products and even the accessibility among retailers.

Accessories and Features

IC7 is packed in the same well thought sort of way as its big brother, IC7-G. The only difference between those two is the P-ATA->S-ATA converter with belonging power supply.

Accessories IC7

When it comes to integrated features the two boards are identical except for two details mentioned earlier. IC7 does not have any NIC and offers only two S-ATA ports which is controlled of the southbridge (RAID 0 support). The total lack of NIC's and support for only two S-ATA and two IDE channels lowers the grade a lot. The accessories for IC7 has the same disadvantages as IC7-G. It gets even more boring because IC7 does not have any P-ATA->S-ATA converter. This forces an end-user with many IDE drives to buy converters or a separate controller-card. Accessories/Features is shortly not IC7's strong side, the major disadvantage is the lack of a NIC.