Part Four: The BIOS...
The BIOS is infinitely tweakable and Abit has a great history
of providing many options to gain every last bit of performance
out of your system.
The temperature monitoring facility is a must
for today's immensely quick but hot running CPUs. The KR7a
includes all the temperature options you could wish for including
the excellent option to shut down your computer should the
CPU's fan fail. This motherboard does not however support
the Athlon XP's thermal diode.
Here we see Abit's Soft Menu 3 options. These
BIOS settings are an overclockers dream as they incorporate
the ability to change the CPU's multiplier, FSB and voltage.
Full support is also added for DDR voltage, I/O Voltage, DQ
Control and the CPU's Command speed. Truly an excellent feature.
We shall see later just how this helped my overclocking with
this board.
Here are the memory timing options. An often
overlooked factor but the more experienced among you will
know just what a difference these settings can make to your
system's overall performance.The BIOS incorporates a DRAM
clock divider meaning that memory speeds can be set at either
133 or 100MHz. Users wishing to seek the maximum stable FSB
should find the task easier knowing their memory isn't the
factor holding them back.
The BIOS also includes all the usual settings
for your UDMA timings etc. which is very useful as the board
can support up to eight IDE drives. Placing extra components
upon your two RAID channels is fully supported.
Overall the BIOS on the KR7a RAID will not disappoint.
It only adds further to the quality feel of this product and
any option you need to tweak can be found. Whether you need
all out aggression for 3D games or if you prefer a more stable
setup the KR7a can accommodate your every need. It's hard
to explain in words just how well treated Abit owners are
in the BIOS department. Suffice to say you will be happy with
this board!
Page Four: The Package
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