Motherboard Review — ABIT IT5V — THG.RU

Features and Specifications

Chipset

• Intel 82430VX chipset, consisting of
  • 82437VX System Controller
  • 82371SB PCI I/O IDE Xcelerator

CPU

• Socket: Socket 7

• Supported CPUs:
  • Intel Pentium Classic, P54C, 75 — 200 MHz
  • Intel Pentium with MMX, P55C
  • Cyrix/IBM 6×86 P120+ — P200+ (P200+ support according to the manual)
  • Cyrix/IBM 6x86L , the new split voltage 6×86 CPUs
  • Cyrix/IBM M2, supports multiplier setting of 3.5 for M2
  • AMD K5 PR90 — PR166, according to the manual
    • Automatic detection of CPU type, setup with CPU SoftMenuTM in BIOS setup.
• Supported CPU Voltages:
  • 3.60 V
  • STD 3.38 V
  • VRE 3.52 V
  • 2.50 V
  • 2.70 V
  • 2.80 V
  • 2.93 V
    • Automatic detection of single or split voltage, setup with CPU SoftMenuTM in BIOS setup.
• Supported Multiplier Settings:
  • x1.5, x2, x2.5, x3 for Intel Pentium CPUs
  • x2, x3 for Cyrix/IBM 6×86 CPUs
  • x2 , x2.5, x3, x3.5 for Cyrix/IBM M2 CPUs
    • Setup with CPU SoftMenuTM in BIOS setup.
• Supported Bus Speeds:
  • 50 MHz
  • 55 MHz
  • 60 MHz
  • 66 MHz
  • 68 MHz (‘turbo frequency’ of 66 MHz)
  • 75 MHz
    • Setup with CPU SoftMenuTM in BIOS setup.

Second Level Cache

• Pipelined Burst Static RAM Cache
  • 0 kB onboard, 0 kB in COAST slot
  • 256 kB onboard, 0 kB in COAST slot
  • 512 kB onboard, NO COAST slot
  • 0 kB onboard, 256 kB in COAST slot
  • 0 kB onboard, 512 kB in COAST slot
  • Maximum of 64 MB cacheable RAM, as usual for VX boards.

RAM

• 4 72 pin SIMM slots
• no ECC support (VX chipset)
• RAM types supported:
  • FPM RAM without parity
  • EDO RAM without parity
• RAM sizes supported:
  • 4 MB SIMM
  • 8 MB SIMM
  • 16 MB SIMM
  • 32 MB SIMM
  • 64 MB SIMM
• 2 168 pin DIMM slots
• 3.3 V unbuffered RAM
• supports FPM and EDO and SDRAM
• RAM sizes supported:
  • 8 MB DIMM
  • 16 MB DIMM
  • 32 MB DIMM

Please note, that DIMM doesn’t say SDRAM!!

Maximum RAM supported 128 MB, only to be accomplished via the SIMM slots. Please note, that you can’t use any of the SIMM slots in case you are using both DIMM slots, due to the only 4 external (5 altogehter) CAS lines of the VX chipset. Each DIMM slot uses 2 CAS lines, each SIMM slot uses one CAS line.

Maximum of 64 MB cacheable RAM due to VX chipset.

PCI Bus

4 PCI slots, 3 full length

running at busclck/2

PCI specification 2.1

ISA Bus

4 ISA Slots, 2 full length, 2 2/3 length, one of the 2/3 length shared with PCI slot 4

Board size

33 cm x 22 cm full size AT. This means it’s longer than the majority of the AT boards, which has the advantage that the CPU is quite far from the expansion slots. This enables you to use 2/3 length cards in each slot which isn’t full length.

Super I/O

• 1 Floppy Port (up to 2.88MB, Japan 3 Mode Floppy Supported)
• 2 Serial Ports (16550 Fast UART Compatible)
• 1 Parallel Port (ECP, EPP Port)
• IrDA TX/RX Header (= infra red port support)
• PS/2 Mouse connector

IDE Controller

2 x PCI Bus Master IDE ports (up to 4 IDE devices)

Support:

• PIO Mode 3 & 4
• DMA Mode 2

BIOS

Award Plug&Play BIOS, tested with revision ‘1S’, flashable

Supports CPU SoftMenuTM which makes the board almost jumperless. All CPU settings are adjusted in the BIOS setup! Only one jumper for L2 cache size on board.

Supports bootable CDROM and bootable SCSI HDD, additionally you can boot from the first partition of any EIDE HDD connected, which means you can boot up to 4 different OSs via the BIOS setup.

Coming with

• 2 serial port ribbon cables, attached to a mounting bracket
• 1 parallel ribbon cable and PS/2 mouse cable, attached to a mounting bracket
• 1 IDE ribbon cable
• 1 floppy ribbon cable
• floppy disk with
• Bus Master IDE Driver for Windows95, OS/2, WindowsNT
• BIOS Flash program
• SoftMenu as program

Manual

Best manual I’ve ever seen, very coprehensive, BUT it’s missing one thing! It doesn’t tell you how you can mix SIMMs and DIMMs.

Performance

ctcm Benchmark results

The bus speeds 50, 55 and 60 MHz would all run at the fastest timing settings. Higher bus speeds, however, may required the tuning of the BIOS timing settings. In my case (45 ns EDO or 12ns SDRAM) I could leave the same maxed out BIOS settings for all speeds.

Other Benchmark Results

Winstone 97 ran at the following configuration: Windows 95, built 950, Resolution 1024x768x256x60, Bus Master DMA drivers, Diamond Stealth 64 Video VRAM 2MB, Quantum Fireball 1280A

The Winstone 97 results show that there’s hardly any difference between EDO and SDRAM equipment, due to the bad design of the VX chipset, which is unable to use SDRAM properly. It also shows that 187.5/75 is equal to 205/68 in terms of Windows software. However, Quake is able to show the right way by running considerably faster at 187.5/75.

The Winstone results are slightly slower than the results of the IT5H.

Advantages & Disadvantages

The Advantages of the ABIT IT5V

• CPU SoftMenu, ‘jumperless’ design
• 75 MHz bus speed ability
• ‘turbo frequency’ for 66 MHz bus speed
• supports SDRAM and has two DIMM banks rather than one
• extremely overclocking friendly, due to SoftMenu
• very well equipped
• P55C support
• Cyrix/IBM 6x86L and M2 support
• coming with Bus Master Drivers on floppy disk
• very good quality and high stability, more stable than Asus P/I-P55T2P4 rev. 3
• high reliability
• good web site, but difficult to access from the western hemisphere. Often ridiculously slow from here (UK)
• definitely much better support than Asus
• easy access to Flash BIOS upgrades

The Disadvantages of the ABIT IT5V

• no 83 MHz bus speed option, although it would be brilliant as it supports SDRAM.

Tips and Comments

Recommended BIOS Timing Settings for the Different Bus Speeds

These settings are only for EDO, they are meaningless if you use only SDRAM.

You may have to disable ‘Fast EDO Path Select’ for 66 or 75 MHz bus speed in case your EDO RAM isn’t really fast. Don’t care about it in case you are using SDRAM.

Summary

The IT5V is the board you want to buy in case you think that EDO RAM is waste of money now. There is no doubt about it, that it is the top board of all VX boards. Reliability, flexibility and easyness of use are outstanding amongst all other VX boards. In fact, due to a lack of 64 MB EDO RAM it is the board which I use permanently in my system, since I have 64 MB of SDRAM. However, if I had 64 MB EDO RAM, the IT5H would be my choice.

In can’t pronounce it often enough, that the HX chipset is the faster choice and in case you only want to use EDO RAM, the IT5V is the wrong choice. For everyone who thinks that SDRAM is a must now and who doesn’t care about the higher price of SDRAM for a little bit less performance due to the VX chipset, the IT5V is the right board to choose.

The advantage of the IT5V over the IT5H is the support of SDRAM and that’s about it. You will have to decide for yourself if this is important to you or not. However one other thing could make your decision for the IT5V a little bit easier: It is available now — you won’t have to wait as for the IT5H.

Compared with other boards even from the same manufacturer it is the best one to get. As long as there isn’t a VX board coming out soon, which will support 83 MHz bus speed and has also 2 DIMM banks. However, maybe we better wait for the first TX boards for that matter. I’ll receive the first one hopefully next week and it will have 3 DIMM banks and 75/83 MHZ bus speed support.