Intro

Abit products are well known among the more discerning computer performance aficionados. Abit's NF7 series motherboards took the performance community by storm and have become one of the most commonly used platforms for overclocking. With a board so widely recognized as being top-notch, why would anybody want to change it? Especially now; as the skies of 32 bit computing start to darken ominously with the approaching shadow of 64 bit computing. Most other motherboard manufacturers realize that the Athlon CPU is now passing into history and have adjusted their R&D accordingly, but not Abit. Never one to sit on their laurels, Abit is mocking the impending doom of 32 bit computing by releasing an updated version of the NF7 board, called the AN7.

The Abit AN7 motherboard is targeted squarely at tweakers and tuners who love to fiddle with their FSB (no offense intended) and keep tabs on every aspect of their system. The highlight of the AN7 is a new processing unit that has been added, the µGuru chip (µ is a symbol meaning "micro"). The µGuru isn't just a chip added to the motherboard to provide information, it is an actual processor that allows control over functions normally found in the BIOS. We'll see if there is any added functionality or advantages of using a hardware chip over using nVidia's own System Utility.

Package and Contents

If I were to see this box sitting on a shelf at Best Buy, I would probably wonder why was it mixed in with the motherboards. Nowhere on the top does it say that there is a motherboard inside. I would assume that there was a µGuru CPU inside, which would pique my interest, but I wouldn't guess that the box contained a nVidia-based motherboard.

The contents were packed very well, with an individual box for the manuals and software, and another for the hardware.

Abit spared no expense with the manuals that are included; you receive a well written user's guide, a quick installation guide, a µGuru quick guide, a jumper and front panel connection guide (printed on peelable adhesive so it can be placed on the inside of your case door), a SATA driver floppy disk, and a CD containing the user manuals, Acrobat Reader 5.0, motherboard drivers, and Abit utilities.

The hardware seemed a little skimpy compared with other high end nForce2 boards I've seen. There was a single 80 pin IDE cable, a floppy cable, 2 SATA cables, a 4 pin Molex to serial power adapter, and an ATX motherboard backplate. This is the first board I have ever received that didn't include any mounting hardware at all. I have plenty of mounting screws myself, but a n00b would be lost without them. It would also be nice to get cables for the internal 1394 and USB ports for cases with front panel connections.

Specs

Here are some specs for the board straight from the Abit website:

- Supports AMD-K7 Socket A 266/333/400 MHz FSB Processor
- NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset with MCP-T
-Accelerated Graphics Port connector supports AGP 8X/4X (0.8V/1.5V)
- Support 2 channels SATA 150 RAID 0/1
- 6-Channel AC 97 CODEC on board
- Professional digital audio interface supports optical S/P DIF In/Out
- NVIDIA SoundStormTM Technology with real-time Dolby Digital 5.1 encode
- On board Realtek 10/100 LAN

Internal:
- 3 ports IEEE1394 Supports 400 Mb/s data transfer rate
- 1 AGP 8X/4X slot, 5 PCI slots
- Floppy Port supports up to 2.88 MB
- 2 x Ultra DMA 33/66/100/133 Connectors
- 2 x SATA 150 Connectors
- 2 x USB headers, 1 x IEEE 1394a header, 2 x CD-IN

External:
- 1 x PS/2 Keyboard, 1 x PS/2 mouse
- 1 x Serial Port connectors, 1 x Parallel Port connector
- 1 x S/P DIF Input, 1 x S/P DIF Output
- Audio connectors (Front Speaker, Line-in, Mic-in, Center/Sub, Surround Speaker)
- 2 x USB, 1 x IEEE1394 Connector
- 2 x USB, 1 x RJ-45 LAN Connector
- 245 x 305mm ATX form factor (9.6in x 12in)