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Thread: Motherboard: Abit AT7-MAX2... possibly the worst board i've ever used...

  1. Jun 16th, 2003, 07:31 AM #1
    VisionIT
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    Motherboard: Abit AT7-MAX2... possibly the worst board i've ever used...

    As i'm sure everyone's now aware from previous posts, I am a firm user of Gigabyte parts. As i've been unable to get Gigabyte motherboards from our normal suppliers, I puchased an Abit AT7-MAX2.

    Oh dear...

    The highpoint RAID is terrible. The stability is dreadful. Speed is not bad, although the Gigabyte 7VAXP is far quicker. I've only sold one Abit mobo to a customer, and had nothing but trouble since it left the store.

    There are NO midi/parallel ports AT ALL. Not even on a riser. This means at least 2 PCI slots have to be taken for extra IO cards, which simply bumps up the (already high) price even further. So with both an SB Live 5.1 and a QTEC PCI Parallel card to hand, I fitted them and rebooted XPH. IRQ conflicts all over the place, and the system stability suffered which is fairy common with IRQ conflicts anyway, but it still shouldn't have happened.

    After several BSOD's, I decided to reformat the drives an re-configure RAID0 again (We had 2x40Gb 7200's BTW). After a full re-install, the system was seriously quick, and seemed to be stable for a while, then a few moments later...

    BSOD!!!!!!

    After pressing the reset button again, windows refused to boot with the error

    "Unmountable boot partition"

    So we reformatted again... but with the hard disks in IDE not RAID. Now the system restarts automatically at different times, and the graphics are dead slow.

    You are probably thinking it's a faulty mobo... but it's not! The exact same error occurs with our mobo's here... (also AT7-MAX2's). We have a MediaXP add-on with remote control, and what a waste of space that is!

    Anyway... i've moaned for long enough! Anyone else had these sorts of problems with Abit's?

    Cheers peeps...
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  2. Jun 16th, 2003, 10:52 AM #2
    Sastraxi
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    You're right, the AT7-MAX2 is horrible. That's why I went for their KD7 line of Motherboards... Also the NF7-S is an excellent motherboard, but then again none of them have RAID... I usually opt for putting RAID on a PCI card anyway, seems to save me some trouble...
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  3. Jun 16th, 2003, 11:18 AM #3
    VisionIT
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    Cheers m8y, that's all I needed to know!

    If the first reply agree's with you, it's usually a sign it's a common problem!

    Unfortuanately, the 7VAXPU/A-U is discontinued now, so i'll have to wait a week for the Gigabyte 7NNXP to arrive. It has the NForceII chipset, which i've heard some great reports about.

    Sorry Abit... but it's just not up to the same standards as Gigabyte's 7VAXPU! Lot's of lovely features with the board, but they have spent too much time&money on things which don't matter (like pretty printed badges around all the ATA cables), where that money should have been spent elsewhere.

    The only other Abit mobo i've EVER used is the KT7A-RAID, which as far as I remember... was far from reliable.

    Anyone else care to comment?

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  4. Jun 16th, 2003, 11:51 AM #4
    Sastraxi
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    All my experiences with ABIT have been positive though... so I suppose you're just expecting too much from budget boards, as that's what ABIT usually makes...

    Think of it this way. Would you buy a gourmet meal from a fast food restaurant?
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  6. Jun 16th, 2003, 01:18 PM #5
    VisionIT
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    Chinese take-away only zone! But nice description though
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  7. Jun 16th, 2003, 01:23 PM #6
    Sastraxi
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    You probably won't believe it, but over here we have a Chinese restaurant that sells hamburgers and chips (fries).
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  8. Jun 16th, 2003, 09:12 PM #7
    siyan
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    *eagerly awaits widespread canadian availability of a GA-7NNXP*

    Either that or its a NF7-S 2.0. At least the NF7 is reportedly very good.
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  9. Jun 16th, 2003, 09:37 PM #8
    Sastraxi
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    NF7 is very good. A friend showed me a board he got that he bought in the US...
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  11. Jun 17th, 2003, 04:35 AM #9
    VisionIT
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    Originally posted by siyan
    *eagerly awaits widespread canadian availability of a GA-7NNXP*
    Give it a few days... and distributors should have them available. Nice mobo though! NForceII * drool *
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  12. Jun 17th, 2003, 09:05 AM #10
    JungleMan
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    NF7-S is "supposedly" good, but I hated mine. It was fast...but PROBLEMS. Sold it and bought an Epox 8RDA+. Problems-- gone. As soon as I add more cooling to this board, my 3DMark scores will be flying high

    Sorry, I'm not a real Abit fan, but I will give them another shot when it's Hammer time. Until then, I am going with what has done me well for the past 2 years...Epox. Epox 8K7A+ was my first board...moved to 8KHA+ then 8K3A+, now 8RDA+ is in both my computers. I'll make it my business to get Epox's KT600 board as soon as it is released. I'm skipping the 8RDA3+.

    Anyway, I have never been a real Gigabyte fan. Their boards are NOT good overclockers; so I generally tend to avoid them. They are good for people who just want features though.
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  13. Jun 17th, 2003, 10:49 AM #11
    Sastraxi
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    PLEASE tell me you didn't just say "when it's Hammer time".
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  14. Jun 17th, 2003, 04:10 PM #12
    siyan
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  15. Jun 17th, 2003, 04:13 PM #13
    siyan
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    Originally posted by JungleMan
    Epox 8K7A+ was my first board...moved to 8KHA+ then 8K3A+, now 8RDA+ is in both my computers. I'll make it my business to get Epox's KT600 board as soon as it is released. I'm skipping the 8RDA3+.

    Anyway, I have never been a real Gigabyte fan. Their boards are NOT good overclockers; so I generally tend to avoid them. They are good for people who just want features though.
    I wish Epox would name their boards something more intuitive...E7N2-(insert features tag here)... or E7V4, E7V6, E8--....etc....you could figure out the chipset right away and stuff.

    I read a review that got a 7NNXP up to 240FSB stable, and 250 with slower RAM timings and not entirely stable (1.5 hours of Prime95 and then it errored). *shrug*. Maybe it was a fluke.
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  16. Jun 17th, 2003, 07:16 PM #14
    parksie
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    My KR7A-RAID is pretty good, not had any stability problems with it, any BSODs I've had have been due to either the ATi or Creative drivers (in each case, upgrading drivers fixed "repeatable" things).

    I don't use it for "RAID" though, I just enjoy the extra IDE connections.
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  17. Jun 17th, 2003, 07:51 PM #15
    JungleMan
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    Originally posted by siyan
    I wish Epox would name their boards something more intuitive...E7N2-(insert features tag here)... or E7V4, E7V6, E8--....etc....you could figure out the chipset right away and stuff.

    I read a review that got a 7NNXP up to 240FSB stable, and 250 with slower RAM timings and not entirely stable (1.5 hours of Prime95 and then it errored). *shrug*. Maybe it was a fluke.
    No kidding? Interesting. From what I have heard, the dual BIOS really makes it a huge pain to OC...

    Sastraxi, yes I said Hammer time
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  18. Jun 17th, 2003, 08:36 PM #16
    JungleMan
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    Ugh...how the hell did i get 2 SNs anyway. grr
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  19. Jun 17th, 2003, 09:51 PM #17
    siyan
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    Originally posted by Jungle-Man
    No kidding? Interesting. From what I have heard, the dual BIOS really makes it a huge pain to OC...

    Sastraxi, yes I said Hammer time
    Yeah, cause they put it on automatic when the system hangs instead of a hold-insert sort of thing. But I guess the guy just has patience...
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