This board is a dream! The nVidia chipset really pays off with great speed and features. Has AC3 audio with center and rear speaker feeds, and optical audio out if you'd rather go that way. USB ports abound - there are 2 on the board itself (I think they are only 1.1), and add-ons included for up to 4 more USB 2.0 ports, and 1 more set of headers for 2 more USB 1.1 ports (i.e. front USB ports in some PC cases). Onboard 10/100 Ethernet works great too.
I did have one IRQ conflict when setting up in Win 98SE. The ACPI BIOS had grabbed IRQ 15 for PCI steering, and the IDE interface wanted to use IRQ #14 & 15. I got around the problem by telling Win 98 that it was a single IDE channel, not dual, and somehow that let it re-figure things and make it all work. Most of this would be no problem once the new drivers had been loaded, but since the conflict was with the IDE, I couldn't get it to recognize the CD-ROM drive. This would have been a major problem for a new user to figure out, but it also might have been just my board that did it that way (I bought it as a refurb unit from NewEgg.com)
Even with this problem, I have to give this board all 5 stars. It's performance has well outweighed any trouble I had with it. Very highly recommended.
Purchased 10/13/02 from NewEgg.com for $56 (refurbished).
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ABIT NV7-133R Athlon (XP) Duron Socket A, ATX, 1.5GB...
Strengths: Speed, strong features, stable drivers.
Weakness: Had 1 IRQ conflict.
This board is a dream! The nVidia chipset really pays off with great speed and features. Has AC3 audio with center and rear speaker feeds, and optical audio out if you'd rather go that way. USB ports abound - there are 2 on the board itself (I think they are only 1.1), and add-ons included for up to 4 more USB 2.0 ports, and 1 more set of headers for 2 more USB 1.1 ports (i.e. front USB ports in some PC cases). Onboard 10/100 Ethernet works great too.
I did have one IRQ conflict when setting up in Win 98SE. The ACPI BIOS had grabbed IRQ 15 for PCI steering, and the IDE interface wanted to use IRQ #14 & 15. I got around the problem by telling Win 98 that it was a single IDE channel, not dual, and somehow that let it re-figure things and make it all work. Most of this would be no problem once the new drivers had been loaded, but since the conflict was with the IDE, I couldn't get it to recognize the CD-ROM drive. This would have been a major problem for a new user to figure out, but it also might have been just my board that did it that way (I bought it as a refurb unit from NewEgg.com)
Even with this problem, I have to give this board all 5 stars. It's performance has well outweighed any trouble I had with it. Very highly recommended.
Purchased 10/13/02 from NewEgg.com for $56 (refurbished).
100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?