setting up the Abit IT7...official thread would be nice !!

[looper]

Could the guys here who have this board do the following to help me out...I have it on order, and will be setting it up end of next week. And it's been a long time since I "fooled" around with the bios. (Abit BH-6 @2 1/2 yrs. ago)

* Go thru the whole setup procedure, bios settings, to do what in
what order...I want to push it hard, but with total stability...

* Will have the 1.8a cpu, Gainward GForce 4400, Corsair XMS-
512-3200 memory, with Alpha 8942 or Sunflower HSF, Antec
830 case w/430W PS...

It would be neat to have an official thread to set up this board, as I have seen this for other boards here... Thanks for any help...

 

[maverick24]

OK - how about we make this the official thread - Just change the title and lets kick it off!!

I recently got a Gigabyte 8IEXP board - which crapped out on me - so replaced it with an ABIT IT7 MAX which is rock solid.

Everything about the board is cool (including the lack of PS/2 ports) and excellent on board USB support.

Only gripe with the board so far is that the RAID controller does not support ATAPI devices. So you have to put all the CDROM/DVDROM devices on the IDE1/IDE2 channels. If you have more than 2 ATAPI devices, you need to chain them on IDE1/2.

The HighPoint 374 Raid Controller works only with high speed IDE devices such as hard disks (despite the manufacturers claims of ATAPI support - according to them the lack of ATAPI support on the ABIT motherboard is due to the 'implementation' of the HighPoint chip on the ABIT motherboard.


Other than that a rock solid board. I will be starting my overclocking experiments as soon as I find some good PC2700 RAM for cheap.

Keep you posted.
Cheers!!

 

[looper]

Hey Maverick...

Glad you're happy with the board so far...I actually have the Thermalright AX-478 HS with Enermax adjustable 80mm fan...4 fans in the Antec case...

I haven't had time to do any OC'ing yet...I'll tell you, this thing is super-fast...I play Links 2001 golf game, and the screen-redraws/rendering takes a while on the old machine...yikes, on this it's like lightning...

Please post your specific steps when and if you OC the board...I'll need some "handholding" as I haven't OC'd anything since my BH-6 Abit about 2-21/2 yrs. ago...

Thx...

 

[kENNYC28]

I just switched from the bg7 motherboard to the IT7 and I am very happy with this board. compared this to the bg7 and the bg7 is crap
I get ddr400mhz with my xms 3000 with all intel chipset drivers and detonator drivers installed no driver issues or any issues at all.
Im at 150mhz with my 1.6a costa rica out of the box I havent tried higher yet but I guess if I feel I need for more speed I will bump it up.

 

[maverick24]

my only gripe with this motherboard is lack of ATAPI support in the HighPoint ATA133/RAID controller.

so i have my system set up as follows:

IDE1 -> Primary Master -> LiteOn 40x12x48
IDE2 -> Secondary Master -> LiteOn DvDROM

ATA133 IDE3 -> Master -> Maxtor 80G 7200rpm ATA 133
ATA133 IDE4 -> Master -> Maxtor 80G 7200rpm ATA 133


I set up to boot from ATA133RAID in the BIOS - its actually two settings:
(a) Set boot up to ATA133RAID in the BIOS
(b) Select BOOT HDD in the HighPoint BIOS -> Control-H during bootup (you should see the message)

Now i think my configuration is set correctly as far as hard drives and ATAPI devices go.

Cant wait to get some cheap PC2700/3000 DDR - im out of bucks big time - spent too much on my rig

Oh well! BTW: DDR prices seem to have come down today on pricewatch.....

 

[ALstonLoong]

anyone know when is It7 max2 start shipping ? It come with ps2 port ! Look nice to me. forget to mention ..it has serial ata !

 

[maverick24]

yeah - i saw the it7 max2 - havent seen it in stores yet....ps/2 is ok...but as for serial ata - the drives are not out yet...

personally i think its too early for serial ata - illl wait till serial ata drives are out and prices are reasonable...

let us know if anyone finds the it7 max2 in stores...curious how much its going to cost...

 

[ALstonLoong]

well i think there should be a convertor allow you to use current HD on serial ata . It is just cost a little for the convertor....why not ?

 

[maverick24]

well i think there should be a convertor allow you to use current HD on serial ata . It is just cost a little for the convertor....why not ?

yeah but legacy ata100/133 hard drives wont go faster than specs...so hoking it to serial ata via adapters is a waste of serial ata ports...might as well keep them on ide freeing up the serial ata ports...

just my opinion...

 

[Nilonym]

Love my IT7 (P41.6a@150fsb/3:4dram).

How did you guys get USB 2.0 drivers installed for the Intel chipset? Everything I read states that Windows Update should just "detect" them, but it never does.

Nilonym

 

[maverick24]

Nilonym check out my post on the USB 2.0 Drivers for the ABIT IT7.

I downloaded the drivers off the website (see below) and sucessfully set it up on my home system.

Everything works just fine now...the Windows XP errors I used to get are gone and the USB Controller shows up just fine in Windows Device Manager.

Here's the link to the thread:

ABIT IT7 Intel ICH4 USB 2.0 Driver Install Thread

 

[Big8oy]

i just had a question. I am about to build a new comp and was deciding on a MB. I was thinking of the Asus P4B533-V originally, but then i recently read that there is no hyperthreading support on any 845G chipset boards. I think i would like to have that so i was thinking of maybe getting the Asus P4B533-E board, since it has the 845E chipset which will have hyperthread support with a future bios update. But then I saw the Abit IT7 and since I am currently using the Abit BH6 board and never had any probs with it, i was thinking of maybe going back to Abit again. I was wondering what u guys thought. Which board would u recommend? I am not sure if it will be biased since this is the IT7 semi-"official" thread, but just thought I'd put it out there. Thanks.