Is this the Mother of all 845PE Motherboard: The ABIT IT7-MAX2 V2.0

[scharles]

I was back to cruising Newegg for a new 845PE Motherboard. I had been waiting with baited breath for the Granite Bay reviews, and it appears that GB is not as stellar as we all hoped. I have been unhappy with the 845PE selections...until now. All the the 845PE board were missing something: some were missing firewire, some missing SATA, some making IDE RAID impossible, some with too few USB ports. I think I have found the mother of all 845PE motherboards: The Abit IT7-MAX2 V2.0

Check out the SPECS on the board

Was just wondering if anyone has purchased this motherboard, and if it was stable and if there are any issues we should be aware about.

Thanks,

Steve Charles


It has everything:

Serial ATA

- On board 2-Channel Serial ATA interface of 150MB/sec

ATA 133 RAID

- High Point HPT374 IDE RAID controller

Media XP (Optional)

- Card Reader (Compact Flash/Secure Digital/Memory Stick)
- Audio, USB 2.0 and IEEE 1394 front panel

Audio

- 6-Channel AC 97 CODEC on board

USB 2.0

- Supports 10 Ports USB 2.0 at 480 Mb/sec transfer rate

IEEE 1394

- Supports 3 Ports IEEE 1394 at 400/200/100 Mb/s transfer rate

LAN

- On board RTL8100B 10/100M PCI Fast Ethernet Controller

System BIOS

- SoftMenu? Technology to set CPU parameters
- Supports Plug-and-Play (PNP)
- Supports Advanced Configuration Power Interface (ACPI)

Internal I/O Connectors

- 1 x AGP, 4 x PCI slots
- 1 x Floppy Port supports up to 2.88MB
- 2 x Ultra DMA 100/66/33 Connectors
- 2 x Ultra DMA 133/100/66/33 Connectors (RAID)
- 2 x Serial ATA 150MB/s Connectors
- 1 x 6 Channel audio FPIO pin header (for Media XP)
- 2 x USB headers, 1 x IEEE 1394 header
- 1 x CD-IN, 1 x AUX-IN

Back Panel I/O

- 1 x PS/2 Keyboard, 1 x PS/2 mouse
- 4 x USB connectors
- 2 x IEEE 1394 connectors
- 1 x S/P DIF Out connector
- 1 x Audio connectors (Center/Sub, Surround Speaker)
- 1 x Audio connectors (Front Speaker, Line-in, Mic-in)
- 2 x USB, 1 x RJ-45 LAN Connector

Miscellaneous

- ATX form factor
- Hardware monitoring - Including Fan speeds, Voltages, CPU and System environment temperature
- Supports Wake Up by LAN, Modem Ring, RTC Alarm
- Supports Keyboard and Mouse Power On
- Supports STR (Suspend to RAM)

 

[LouPoir]

Nice board - and it comes with 1 serialATA to IDE connector. Has it all.

Lou

 

[SupermanCK]

i wonder why only 1...i know they have 2 connectors...
i am also looking into this board for a while now...just don't want to put out ~$180+tax...$195

 

[SFang]

no AGP 8x though.

 

[Chief Wahoo]

It doesn't have any serial or parallel ports. I need them for my printer and Palm. Does anyone make a PCI serial/parallel board?

 

[Jojo1971]

well this is what i replaced my p4b533 with.....im running a 1.8 with pack date 7/10/02 (OLD STOCK from newegg) @ 2.7 @ 150 fsb using xms 3500 512 mb using HSF that came with the processor- 1.65 volts..... ... it's very stable @ 2.7 ... im looking @ upgrading my cooling system --either alpha 8942 or i might try innovatek watercooler..i also upgraded my radeon 8500 to 9700.....so far i feel contended with my current setup -this one "feels" faster than my older setup of p4b533 with 2.5 @3.0 .. i guess its because of higher fsb.. one thing i dont like is i cant use my 4 yr old HP printer because it doesnt have a parallel port.. i will have to shell out an extra $20 to buy a PCI card that has a parallel port..
I have a question for our GURUS, how much more MHZ will i be able to gain if i upgrade my HSF into alpha 8942/ or anything of equal/ or greater capability? will it be worth spending $40 more for the alpha?

 

[SinfulWeeper]

Originally posted by: Chief Wahoo
It doesn't have any serial or parallel ports. I need them for my printer and Palm. Does anyone make a PCI serial/parallel board?

Visit Dalco, they have every little thing you can think of for a computer. Including the card you inquire about.

You may way to just request a free catalog though. Using their web site for product searches is teedious... almost to the point of impossible. Also when you make a order, never use the internet or their mail-in catalog order form. I found that 95% of the time when you phone in a order, you get a lower price than listed on the catalog or online.

 

[SinfulWeeper]

Originally posted by: Jojo1971
I have a question for our GURUS, how much more MHZ will i be able to gain if i upgrade my HSF into alpha 8942/ or anything of equal/ or greater capability? will it be worth spending $40 more for the alpha?

I have been wondering the same thing. However I think this is more appropriately posted in the case/cooling or the overclocking forums.

 

[Hamburgerpimp]

I'll stick with the Asus P4PE

 

[BDawg]

Originally posted by: Hamburgerpimp
I'll stick with the Asus P4PE

Exactly. What does the IT7 have that the P4PE doesn't?

P4PE has
6 USB 2.0
2 Firewire
7 ATA drive support
SATA
Gigabit ethernet
SoundMax audio

What else is there?

 

[scharles]

It has a reasonable IDE RAID Configuration with 2 Parallel IDE Ports, where as the P4PE only has the 1 IDE Parallel Port. You need a Serial to Parallel IDE Converter to get a RAID IDE solution.

ASUS should have put 2 Parallel IDE Ports...would have made it the perfect board.

Steve Charles

 

[SFang]

Exactly.