ABIT - ABIT AN7 nForce2 ST Motherboard Review

Morry Teitelman reviews the ABIT AN7 featuring the uGuru processor:

The AN7 is the latest ABIT AthlonXP board featuring both the nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset and the much hyped uGuru processor technology. The NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset supports all AMD socket 462 based processors including their performance line of 400 MHz FSB processors. The chipset also offers full support for PC3200 DDR memory running in Dual Channel mode. Similar to most current motherboards on the market, the AN7 is a feature complete solution, requiring only CPU, DRAM modules, video card, and drives. The following components are integrated in to the board itself: 2 ATA 133 IDE ports; 2 SATA-150 ports with built-in RAID0 and RAID1 support through the Silicon Image controller; integrated NVIDIA 10/100 Ethernet controller; 6 total USB 2.0 capable ports(4 in rear panel, and 1 onboard header supporting 2 ports); 3 IEEEE 1394 capable ports (1 in rear panel, and 1 onboard header); 6 channel audio featuring NVIDIA’s SoundStorm technology and S/PDIF optical input and output ports; and the standard serial, parallel and PS/2 ports.

. . . Well, even champions will occasionally trip and stumble, and that is exactly what the AN7 appears to be doing to ABIT. After having first hand great experiences with both the NF7-S v 1.1 and v 1.2, I was expecting an incredible board out of the AN7. With its uGuru processor, diagnostic LED, super high CPU and DDR voltage, and great layout, the board was a no brainer winner at first glance. Boy, was I disappointed.. ..Don’t get me wrong, the board has a great deal of potential. However, at this point, I have serious reservations about recommending the board to anyone. I’d personally wait for either a major BIOS overhaul and/or a newer board revision before jumping on to the AN7 bandwagon.

HardOCP
ABIT AN7