Specifications

abit NF7-M
Written by Stephen
Friday, 04 September 2009 10:42
The nForce2 platform also features NVIDIA’s second generation Dynamic Adaptive SpeculativePre-Processor, or DASP. According to NVIDIA, this second generation DASP has beenimproved with heavily re-architected algorithms for improved performance and latency. There isvery little public information available on the DASP so we’ll make covering this topic short andsweet. Basically, the DASP works very much like the prefetch in today’s CPU’s like the AMDAthlonXP, for example. The DASP will monitor the CPU requests and makes an attempt to findany discernable patterns. If it does happen to come across a recognizable pattern, it will use upany unused memory bandwidth to load its cache with the data that it expects the CPU to wantlater on. If the CPU does indeed need this data in the future, then data can be immediately sentto the CPU instead of having to wait for the memory access. According to NVIDIA, suchrequests result in a 40% to 60% reduction in latency. Here’s a quick quote from NVIDIA on theDASP. “DASP employs a patent-pending intelligent multi-datapath prediction / perfecting technology. Itcan track multiple unrelated streams of data requests and employs a proprietary selectionprocess to select candidate cache lines to read into and on-die cache. Its fully pipelinedarchitecture provides concurrent read / write operations from / to the cache respectively. Thedesign is fully adaptive to ensure the lowest latency access for non-speculative CPU traffic.” ..:: nForce2 MCP / MCP-T Features ::..
The nForce2 chipset comes along with two new versions of their Media & CommunicationsProcessors, the MCP and MCP-T. The MCP / MCP-T is connected to the IGP / SPP via a HyperTransport link. The implementation of this Hyper Transport link allows for a maximum bandwidthof 800MB/s between the North and South Bridges. The regular MCP is geared towards thebudget motherboards, while the MCP-T is geared more towards the high end systems. TheMCP features support for USB 2.0, ATA/133, and the NVIDIA Ethernet MAC. The higher endMCP-T features all of the above, with included support for FireWire, or IEEE 1394a, NVIDIA’sAPU, and a second 3Com Ethernet MAC to allow for something called “router on chip.” Thisallows nForce2 boards outfitted with the MCP-T to boast two available 10/100 Ethernet ports ifso chosen by the motherboard manufacturer. One port can be used to connect to a broadbandinternet connection, while the other is used to connect to a switch which will distribute theinternet access to other PC’s. The MCP-T utilizes the same APU that was featured on theoriginal nForce chipset so the audio quality should be identical to that of the original nForce2MCP’s. How good is the onboard audio? Well, that depends who you ask. Before we get toanswer that question, let’s take a look at the PCB layout of the Abit NF7-M! ..:: Layout: Socket Area ::..
The Abit NF7-M is based off of the "latest" v1.2 PCB revision. Those of you whom own, or arelooking into purchasing an NF7-S v1.2 or higher will notice that the NF7-M is based off of whatappears to be an identical board design with the exception of the IGP Northbridge. The NF7-Mdoes indeed have the four mounting holes that were not included on the earliest board revision.These holes are more or less retrofitted into place, so there may be some minor problems, andindeed there is one. If we look towards the top right corner of the socket, you’ll notice that thereis a chip that is in very close proximity to the mounting hole. This might get in the way of someinstallations that utilize larger washers.
The processor socket itself is arranged lengthwise from north to south and lies along the topedge of the board. We can see that under each set of lugs, Abit has included a small reflectivestrip in order to protect the PCB from any problems that can arise in mounting your heatsink.After all, a cut trace is not something you want to have, right? Along the top left edge of theboard, we can see the red, three-pin power connector for the CPU fan. This connector ispositioned well, and will be easy to access in a mounted situation if ever needed. In the centerarea of the socket, we can see both the temperature measurement device that is used tomonitor the CPU temperature. With temperature measurement devices such as these, manyusers will opt to put a dab of thermal compound onto the tip, and then slightly bend it upwards toallow for optimal connection with the bottom of the chip. If you choose to do this, make sure todo so very carefully!
Yet another difference in this board revision from the previous one deals with the arrangementof the capacitors along the left hand side of the socket. In the first board revision, all five ofthese capacitors were lined up along the side, however in this revision we can see that onecapacitor has been offset down a bit from its previous position. We can see here that Abit hasopted to go with the three-phase power design with the staggered MOSFETs. The design of thisarea is very clean and well arranged. We can see that the NF7 line of motherboards uses thehigh quality Intersil HIP6301CB multiphase VRM. As has been pointed out in other reviews, thisis one of the best VRM’s available. We can also see that the NF7 series of boards uses theAttansic ATXP1 chip for thermal protection. The Attansic chip monitors the diode built into theprocessor to make sure that the temperature does not exceed the maximum threshold for theCPU. If the temperature does indeed surpass this safe point, the Attansic chip will immediatelycut the power. ..:: Layout: Northbridge Area ::..
The area around the IGP Northbridge is very clean and clear of any obtrusive components. Wecan see that the IGP is covered by a fairly large, silver, orb-like heatsink equipped with a smallfan. Whenever you’re utilizing built in graphics, it is always necessary to make sure theNorthbridge is equipped with active cooling in order to make sure the chip keeps as cool aspossible. The heatsink itself is attached to the motherboard via two black push pins. Abit haschosen to use the usual white thermal paste in-between the IGP and the heatsink in order toattain the optimal heat transfer between the two units. Those of you who do plan on takingadvantage of the onboard graphics may choose to use a better thermal compound than thebasic paste that is used in this instance.
To the immediate left of the IGP, we come across both of the ATX power connectors. I don’tmuch mind the smaller four-pin power connector being located in this area, but I would muchprefer to see the larger ATX power connector placed higher on the board. This positioning can,in some instances, cause for a disruption of airflow over the CPU and may cause furtherdisruption in the warmer air being expelled from the case interior. Some users may be able tomaneuver the cable around in there case such as I can to avoid said issues, but some usersmay not be so lucky. Located below the main ATX power connector, we come across anotherred, three-pin power connector for any of your case fans, or for the graphics heatsink if needed.There is also another yellow jumper, but unless you don’t want your USB mouse LED to glow allthe time, this jumper really isn’t of much importance. ..:: Layout: Expansion Slot Area ::..
The next stop on our trip around the Abit NF7-M is of course, the expansion slot area. Theexpansion slot setup will do a good job of pleasing enthusiasts and OEM’s with one AGP 8xslot, and five PCI slots. As you can see, due to the motherboard design, there cannot be six PCIslots as some would hope. The AGP slot comes with the typical locking mechanism, mount yourAGP graphics card, and lock it in place with the clipping device. If we take a look directly belowthe rear I/O ports, we’ll come across two small chips. The first is the Realtek RTL8201BLSingle-Port 10/100M Fast Ethernet PHYceiver, along with the Realtek ALC650 AC 97’ audiocodec. As I have stated many times before, we have experienced high quality sound from thisaudio codec so we’ll see how things go with the NF7-M’s audio later on. We didn’t much care forthe results we received from the Leadtek nForce2 board so we’ll see if anything is different withthe NF7-M. This area also houses a 25.000MHz and 24.5MHz clock crystal.
The area in-between the AGP slot and first PCI slot is home to where the IEEE 1394a headersand controller chip would be located if this option were included on the NF7-M. These headerscan be found on different versions of the SPP based NF7 series; however Abit has chosen notto include them on the NF7-M most likely for cost and production purposes. The area betweenPCI Slot #2 and #3 houses the front panel audio header, along with a single, black CD Audiocable connector. I would much rather see this audio header placed farther down the board,although this positioning is not as high as it usually is. Overall the expansion slot area of thePCB is one of the cleanest areas of the board featuring very few large chips or any main itemsof importance to us. ..:: Layout: Southbridge & Memory Areas ::..
The bottom right portion of the PCB is, once again, very clean and well organized. The first itemof note that will surely jump out at you immediately is another feature that has been axed fromthe NF7-M, the option for onboard Serial ATA support. This feature is supported by the SPPbased NF7-S, and as we can see here, the sticker that would normally be placed on the SATAchip is now placed directly on the PCB. We can also see the solder points for all of thenecessary items for the SATA chip, such as the connectors, capacitors, and clock crystal. Tothe right of these items is the front panel connectors for your power and reset buttons, alongwith the system LED’s.
Located directly above the front panel header is the system battery, and then the yellow jumperfor clearing the CMOS. This area houses a small cluster of both small capacitors and headers.As we can see, there are two headers here that allow for connection of the USB 2.0 expansionbracket that is included in the package by Abit, along with another if you happen to have onelying around. Above these items we come across the system BIOS chip. Lastly, we comeacross the MCP Southbridge, and the two, black IDE connectors. I’d rather see theseconnectors oriented lengthwise from north to south, but that is of course just a personalpreference.
Last up, we have the area around the DIMM’s. Here we can see the usual setup on nForce2motherboards with two DIMM’s grouped together, while the other DIMM which functions off ofthe second memory controller is offset a little to the right. If you plan on using the board’s DualDDR option, you’ll want to fill the two outside DIMM’s (or all three if you choose to do so) withyour memory sticks. Here we also come across the floppy connector which is placed very highon the board. This is nice to see as for once I can actually use a short and unobtrusive floppycable to reach the connector. The last item we come across is the Winbond W83627HF-AWchip. Overall, I am pleased with the layout of the NF7-M / NF7 series of motherboards. The additionof the four mounting holes around the processor socket will surely make a few users out therehappy, but make sure the small chip that is near the top right mounting hole will not interferewith the mounting of your heatsink or you could be in for more fun than you originally bargainedfor if you catch my drift. The design of this board is indeed very clean as we are used to seeingfrom Abit. I can’t really think of any major things that I take issue with for the design. I am a bitdisappointed with the location of the main ATX power connector, but with my case I was able toroute the cable around in order to prevent any airflow disruption. Now that we’ve seen thedesign, let’s get on to the BIOS and the lovely overclocking options it houses. ..:: System BIOS ::.. For the NF7-M BIOS, Abit has opted to go with their well-loved SoftMenu III features. When youenter the BIOS, you’ll come across all of those usual options such as SoftMenu III Setup,Standard CMOS Features, Advanced BIOS Features, Advanced Chipset Features, IntegratedPeripherals, Power Management Setup, PnP/PCI Configurations, PC Health Status, and all ofthe Default Settings, etc. We’ll be primarily interested today in the Integrated Peripherals, PCHealth Status, Advanced Chipset Features, and of course we can’t forget the SoftMenu IIISetup.
The Advanced Chipset Features menu is home to the memory timing settings. Within thiswindow, the user has the ability to adjust the CAS Latency Time, Act to Precharge Delay, RASto CAS Delay, and the RAS Precharge. The timings for all of these available selections are wideand varying from lightning fast to ultra conservative. You’ll easily be able to slowly but surelyfind the sweet spot for your system’s memory timings. You can also choose to enable or disablethe option/s to make the System BIOS and Video RAM Cacheable, AGP Aperture Size,Transfer Rate, FSB and AGP Spread Spectrum, along with several other settings such as theoption for the amount of throttling to be done on the CPU if ever necessary.
The Integrated Peripherals window should as always be self explanatory for what it isresponsible for. Within this window, the user can configure the IRQ settings of the integratedperipherals, along with enabling or disabling the ones that they wish to use or not to use for thatmatter. Within this menu, we can enable or disable several items such as the USB Controller,Onboard Sound, LAN Controller, LAN Boot ROM, Serial Ports, Parallel Port, and the Game /Midi Port as well. Needless to say, if you want to enable or disable any feature of the NF7-M,this is the place to do it.
The PC Health Status submenu should be another easily understood one. Here we have theability to check the system temperatures, RPM readings, and voltage readings. We can alsoselect from several options. Those include whether or not to enable the alert when the case hasbeen opened, the CPU warning temperature, and the fail warnings of the three system fans.Each of these could help keep your system running cool and safe so you might want to leavethese enabled unless you don’t plan on using the three-pin power connectors on themotherboard as I do.
Abit is well known for their SoftMenu III Technology, although in some eyes it is growing old.Within this menu, you have the ability to custom both the processor and DRAM voltages, alongwith being able to select a preset processor speed grade, or manually entering in the speed youwish to run at. Many users were eagerly awaiting the revision 1.2 motherboards from Abit fortheir added support of increased voltages and from the listing we are seeing here, it was wellworth the wait. Abit allows for an astonishing VCore of up to 2.30V! I can’t remember the lasttime I saw any board offer a BIOS adjustable VCore to that high a voltage. They also allow forsetting the DRAM voltage all the way up to 2.9V, and the chipset voltage up to 1.7V. There arealso numerous settings for the FSB to DRAM clock ratio as you can see in the image above.The way to read these settings is rather simple. The FSB is divided by the first number, andthen the answer is multiplied by the second number. Say you want a 4/5 ratio with a 266MHzFSB AthlonXP. You’d have the 266MHz FSB, and a 333MHz DRAM clock. The maximumallowable FSB setting is 250MHz, or effectively 500MHz. Needless to say, this board appears tobe an overclocker’s paradise. ..:: SiSoft SANDRA ::..
We’ll start off the days performance benchmarks with the usual SiSoft SANDRA. We’re usingthe latest release of SANDRA for these tests. In each of the benchmarks, we tested both theLeadtek and Abit the nForce2 boards with the memory in sync with the 266MHz FSB, and theGA-7VAXP Ultra with DDR400. We are testing it in this manner since the nForce2 chipsetachieves highest performance when in sync with the FSB, while this is not true for the VIAKT400 chipset. Starting off with the arithmetic tests, we can see that the Leadtek board holds aslight advantage over the GA-7VAXP Ultra and the Abit NF7-M in both integer and floating pointperformance, although the Abit NF7-M pulls up the rear for floating point performance. As wemove on to the multimedia tests, we see that the story now changes with the KT400 basedGA-7VAXP Ultra holding a healthy lead over the both the Leadtek and Abit nForce2motherboards. In the tests, we can also see that Abit NF7-M is bringing up the rear for bothinteger and floating point performance. When we head back to the memory test however, theLeadtek and Abit boards put up identical numbers and are easily able to best the KT400 basedGA-7VAXP Ultra. So far we are seeing a mixed bag of results; let’s see if any real differencesshow up in the SuperPi tests. ..:: SuperPI ::..
In the SuperPI tests, we run the program seven times at various intervals between 128,000digits and 8 million digits. The numbers in the graph above show the time in seconds that it tookthe system to calculate pi to the set number of digits. In this benchmark, we can begin to seethe performance gain from the nForce2 based system over the KT400 system. As we begin toescalate the number of digits in the calculation, we can see that although all systems do farewell, by the time we reach a calculation of 8 million digits, the Leadtek system holds a lead of 17seconds over the GA-7VAXP and a 5 second lead over the Abit NF7-M. We can see that bothof the nForce2 based boards performed very close to each other, with the Leadtek boardholding a sub 1% lead in most cases. ..:: Specviewperf 7.0 ::..
Another benchmark we’ve recently upgraded to here in the labs is SPECviewperf 7.0 We werepreviously using the more outdated 6.1.2, however we thought we’d punish these boards somemore with 7.0. Anyway, in tests we can see the results that we expected to see. Once again, theLeadtek nForce2 motherboard comes out on top in nearly all of the benchmarks with theexception of a single test. The Abit NF7-M closely follows the Leadtek, but is once again ever soslightly slower in each of the tests. For comparison purposes between the two dueling nForce2boards, we are seeing once again a sub 1% performance lead for the Leadtek board over theNF7-M. The NF7-M does manage to take home the crown by a meager .1% in the USGbenchmark, however. ..:: Cinebench 2000 ::..
The Cinebench 2000 tests show the boards coming in nearly equal in all tests, although theKT400 based GA-7VAXP Ultra does manage to take away the big “W” in two of the three tests.In the Cinebench test, a small margin can mean a good deal of performance difference in theend due to the fact it is indeed a very stressful test upon the system overall. Once again, both ofthe nForce2 based motherboards perform, for all intents and purposes, identically. The Leadtekholds a .22% lead in the Cinema 4D benchmark, a 1.9% lead in the OpenGL benchmark, andlastly a .16% lead in the Raytracing benchmark. ..:: FutureMark 3DMark2001SE ::..
There has been a good deal of controversy over the latest 3DMark03, so I have chosen to notyet adopt this benchmark into our tests. As I have stated previously, my main reasoning for thisis that we currently do not have a DX9 capable graphics card to use for the most accurateresults. Hence, we shall stick with 3DMark2001 SE for the time being. FutureMark 3DMark2001SE shows us some very interesting results indeed. Here, we are seeing the KT400 basedGA-7VAXP Ultra taking home the crown in all but one resolution where the Abit NF7-Mmanages to take home the crown. Here we can see that the NF7-M is finally able to overtakethe Leadtek nForce2 board, albeit by a small margin in each resolution. Both of these twoboards performed practically in unison when it comes to performance as we would expect. Let’ssee if the NF7-M can hold this lead into the UT2003 and Q3A benchmarks. ..:: Quake III Arena ::..
Well, the story that we just read with the FutureMark 3DMark2001SE tests has been debunkedin the first real world tests. The NF7-M wasn’t able to keep up its lead over the LeadtekK7NCR18D-Pro, although it does manage to slightly pull ahead of it once or twice. As we haveseen all day long, the Leadtek and Abit nForce2 motherboards are running neck and neck andneither seems to be budging one bit. Both boards are showing nice performance increases overthe KT400 based GA-7VAXP Ultra in all resolutions, although the 1280 x 1024 x 16 resolution isclearly the closest of the bunch. In the lower resolutions, we see performance gains of roughly4%. In the 1024 x 768 tests, we see a performance gains varying between 2.5 and 3.5%, and inthe final 1280 x 1024 tests, the performance gain dies down to 2.0%. ..:: Unreal Tournament 2003 ::..
Last up for today we have the Unreal Tournament 2003 benchmark. We are using the built-inbenchmarking utility with custom .ini files to make sure all settings are at high quality to allow foroptimal benchmarking results for comparison. In these tests, although the performancedifference between all boards is meager. And, yet again, the story that we have seen all alonghas shown up yet again. It is now readily obvious that the Leadtek K7NCR18D-Pro and AbitNF7-M are nearly identical when it comes to overall performance. The Leadtek board doesmanage to nudge out the Abit NF7-M in each of the tests, although once again the performancedifferent is very small and well within the acceptable range for boards based off of the samechipset. Well, we have seen the performance of both the nForce2 SPP and IGP boards and surprisesurprise, they are, for all intents and purposes, identical. The performance variations that we areseeing between the boards is nearly null with the Leadtek holding the lead by a sub 1% marginin nearly all of the benchmarks. The Abit NF7-M does manage to come out of top in some tests,and takes the lead over from the Leadtek when it comes to 3DMark2001 SE performance. ThenForce2 IGP sports the best onboard graphics on the market today in my opinion, and afterusing the NF7-M this has only a more concrete statement in my mind. Both boards perform verywell when put up against Gigabyte’s GA-7VAXP Ultra, although that board is based off of thenow ageing KT400 chipset. We hope to get in one of the new GA-7VAXP-A Ultra KT400Aboards in the near future to see how well it performs when placed against these two nForce2motherboards. Overall I was pleased with the Abit NF7-M’s performance as it fell right where Iexpected it to. ..:: Conclusion ::.. Well, we’ve seen all that the Abit NF7-M has to offer, and as usual it is now time to round it allup into a nice summary and call it a day. Let’s start off with the stability. The overall stability ofthe system was rock solid. We did not experience a single crash during any of our stress testingperiods, whether or not the system was running in an overclocked or completely stock state. I,as is the norm during stability testing time periods, have been running multiple distributedcomputing programs in the background while gaming and doing other processor intensive thingsfor several days non-stop with no glitches, or twitches. Overall, the Abit NF7-M performed verystably and gave us no noticeable problems. The design of the Abit NF7-M is one of the cleaner ones we have come across, although it doesindeed bring about some issues of note. My only main complaints deal with the fact that themain ATX power connector is located in a position that could inevitably interfere with the airflowover the processor, or interfere with any of the air that is being expelled from the case by a rearfan, or fan mounted within the PSU itself. I was able to route the main cable around said objectswith little to no problems, but I know that many users out there might not have such a luxury andwill be forced to deal with the issue in another manner. The addition of the four mounting holesaround the processor socket was a nice move by Abit, although be sure to watch for the chipthat is located in extreme proximity to the top right mounting hole. Overall I was pleased with thedesign of the NF7-M / NF7 line of motherboards. As far as the package goes, well this never has been the strong point of Abit. The products thatare included are your basic barebones system type of items. I would much prefer to see Abitstart to spice up their packages to make them that much more attractive to potential buyers,especially with boards such as the NF7-M that already featuring high quality onboard audio andgraphics. Adding on a few other features and a few other small items in the package can easilysway one person away from another board to this one. The NF7-M is currently running foraround $125.00 and up at some pretty reputable online retailers, and I’d say that is a fair pricefor what you get. The Abit NF7-M is a good all around board when it comes to the package, butwe have seen far better here in the labs. The BIOS that comes along with the NF7-M is the main reason many users will be looking tothis motherboard for their next system if they require integrated graphics. The insane voltagesand memory timing adjustments that Abit offers are unparalleled by nearly all othermanufacturers and in some case are unmatched whatsoever. The mere fact that Abit allows upto 2.3V for VCore is a clear statement as to who should be taking a look at this board, and whoshouldn’t. Obviously if you plan on utilizing such high voltages you’d better have some seriouscooling to keep the processor from suffering under the load of a voltage that high. The samecan be said for the other voltage settings, such as the AGP, Chipset, and DRAM. Overclocker’s,this is certainly a board you should look at when going to make your next purchase if annForce2 IGP motherboard is on your list of must-haves. Well, to sum things up I’d say that the Abit NF7-M earns a spot on my recommended list forthose looking for an nForce2 motherboard with the best integrated graphics performance todate, and for those looking to test the true limit of their processors and their entire systemoverall. The NF7-M and Leadtek K7NCR18D-Pro put up nearly identical numbers across theboard, although the NF7-M did fall behind most of the time by a whopping margin of under 1%. Ican’t wait to get some of the new KT400A motherboards in so we can see just how well theyperform when placed against these two nForce2 boards. If you’re looking for a nice mix ofperformance, stability, and overclocking features, I’d recommend the Abit NF7-M to you any dayof the week. With a going price of around $125.00+ USD, we’re talking about a pretty good deal.The Abit NF7-M has earned a total of 91 points, just enough to earn it the MBReview.comEditor’s Choice Award. I’d like to thank Abit for all their help in supplying the motherboard forreview, and thanks to all of you for reading! We hope to see you dropping by our website andforums in the future! Stability: 10.0Design: 9.0Features: 8.0BIOS / Overclocking: 10.0Performance: 8.5_______________________Total: 91 Points
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