With the release of the Pentium 4 "C" 800FSB CPUs, there was also the release of the Intel 875P. As we've seen here at VL, the ticket to top Pentium 4 performance comes with the Canterwood, but a quick look around though, and you'll see that this performance comes at a price. Some people are willing to splurge on it, whereas others are a little more hesitant.

Shortly after, the more mainstream oriented i865PE chipset was released, codenamed Springdale. The Springdale offers almost every feature the Canterwood does, at a much lower cost. Could this be the P4 based mainboard to buy? We'll try to help you decide with our look at the ABIT IS7 Max II Advance.

Specifications

Processor
- Supports Intel® Pentium® 4 Socket 478 processors (800/533MHz FSB)
- Supports Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology

Chipset
- Intel® 865PE / ICH5-R RAID
- Supports Dual Channel DDR 400 Memory
- Supports Advanced Configuration and Power Management Interface (ACPI)

Memory
- Four 184-pin DIMM sockets
- Supports 4 DIMM Single/Dual Channel DDR 400 memory
- Supports 4 DIMM DDR 400 up to 4GB

AGP
- Accelerated Graphics Port connector supports AGP PRO 8X/4X (0.8V/1.5V)

LAN
- On board 10/100MB LAN

Serial ATA RAID
- On board 2 channels Serial ATA 150MB/s data transfer rate
- Supports RAID 0/1

USB 2.0
- 8 ports USB 2.0 supports 480MB/s data transfer rate

Audio
- 6-Channel AC 97 CODEC on board
- Professional digital audio interface supports 24-bit S/P DIF optical In/Out

Media XP (Optional)
- Supports card reader function for Memory Stick™, Secure Digital™ and Type I/II CompactFlash™
- Supports Wireless Remote Control and S/PDIF Out/ Mic In/Headphone Out/USB 2.0/IEEE 1394

IEEE 1394a
- Supports IEEE 1394a at 100/200/400 Mb/s transfer rate

System BIOS
- SoftMenu™ Technology to set CPU parameters
- Supports Plug-and-Play (PNP)
- Supports Advanced Configuration Power Interface (ACPI)
- Write-Protect Anti-Virus function by AWARD BIOS

Looking at the Canterwood based IC7 Max II Advance, you'll see a lot of similarities between the two. However, the notable difference is the omission of Intel's Performance Acceleration Technology (PAT). There's been a lot of discussions, reviews and benchmarks done, and although the PAT is a nice feature, the performance gains may or may not be something you'll be able to justify as a must have, considering the price difference. Like the IC7, the IS7 supports 800MHz FSB processors (and 533MHz FSB for backwards compatibility), Hyper-Threading technology, Dual Channel DDR (up to 400MHz).

Packaging and Contents

Our box arrived a little banged up (good job UPS), but otherwise, everything came intact. Blue, black and white are the colours of the day, with everything neatly packed inside.

Other than the motherboard, ABIT throws in a replacement IO back panel, IDE and floppy cables, a couple SATA cables, power connections, driver CD, a manual, and a reference sticker with the mobo layout on it. What's nice about this sticker is you can just place it on the interior of the case, and you no longer have to rummage through your manual to figure out how to connect your case cabling.

Intel 865PE Brief

Before getting into the IS7 itself, we'll talk briefly about the brains behind the Springdale's brawn. You can grab the specifications from Intel's site, but in short, one of the big features is support for 800FSB CPUs. As enthusiasts know, the Front Side Bus is what really determines the overall system performance. In other words, when you're overclocking, 18x133 (2.4GHz) will not be as fast as 12x200 (2.4GHz). Performance will actually be pretty close though, but Hyper-Threading isn't something that is present in older 2.4GHz P4s, but is so in the P4 "C" CPUs.

The other notable feature of the 865PE is Dual Channel DDR400. Your PC3200 ram can now run full bore, and in Dual Channel mode, offering up to 6.4 GB/s of bandwidth. As we've seen with the nForce 2, and the Canterwood, this technology can add a significant boost to system performance. Ideally, you'll want to run matched pairs to get the most out of it.

Along with the Intel 865PE, and just as important is the ICH5/ICH5R Southbridge. Some of the supported features are USB2.0, SATA, 10/100 LAN, Intel's Communication Streaming Architecture, and six-channel audio. There are two items that will be of most interest though, and that's Soft SATA RAID support (present only in the ICH5R) and Hyper-Threading. The Integrated Intel RAID Technology is interesting because board manufacturers no longer need to add a 3rd party RAID controller. This should save money (for manufacturer and consumer), and PCB real estate. Our review board adds a third party controller though.

We've gone over Hyper-Threading before, but in no small words, it's a free performance boost (well, technically not free, since you have to buy a HT enabled CPU) over older, comparably clocked P4s by optimizing a system's ability to multitask. With proper software and OS support, it enables a single processor to run two separate threads of software simultaneously.

The ABIT IS7 Max II Advance

Targeted at the mainstream user, you'd think that i865PE motherboards wouldn't appeal to the enthusiast. A quick look at the the i865PE, and initially we'd say that there isn't anything special about it, but upon closer examination of the ABIT IS7, and you'll realize that ABIT designed this board for the power user. Unlike the IC7, ABIT reverted back to the orange PCB we're used to seeing on their boards. There are five three-pin fan headers (one which is used by the Northbridge fan), which should be more than enough for the majority of users.

The CPU socket is setup in a more traditional manner that we're used to seeing on Pentium 4 boards, with the key facing to the right (as pictured) of the motherboard. There's nothing noteworthy about the alignment, other than it may be a little to close to the edge. There's enough clearance for most heatsinks, and the capacitors don't get in the way when installing the retail heatsink clips. As with past ABIT boards, Rubycon capacitors are used here, and they are of high quality.

Moving to the left, we get a look at a sweet looking Northbridge HSF, which is the same one used on the IC7. There are clamps used to hold the heatsink down, which makes swapping it, or reapplying thermal paste, an easy task since you won't need to remove the motherboard as you would if there were push pins. ABIT used a thermal pad, but we recommend removing it and applying some quality thermal paste.

Next up is the AGP slot, which also has the AGP card retention clip we're normally used to seeing. One design issue I see is that the AGP slot is lined up with the edge of the ram slots. You will most likely have to remove your AGP card when removing/reinstalling your ram in DIMM1 (and possibly DIMM2). A minor nuisance, but I just call it like I see it. In practice, it is possible to jimmy the ram out with an AGP card installed, which I have done, but it isn't easy.

You also have five PCI slots, which should be more than enough for most users. There is a fair amount of space between the AGP slot and PCI#1, which means that unless you use an aftermarket VGA cooler that is excessively huge, you will not lose PCI#1 as you normally would. Again, ABIT is thinking about the enthusiast.

Just below the PCI slots are your SATA and IDE connections. Like the IC7, the IDE connections are aligned at the edge of the motherboard, facing away. Personally, I like this alignment, as it makes hiding IDE cables easier, but it is certainly not as easy to work with if your hard drives cover the connections. For the SATA connections, two are controlled by the ICH5R, and the Silicon Image SATA controller controls the other two.

Moving to the right, the power connection is located near the edge of the motherboard, just above the floppy connection. The location is good, as it is far away from the CPU socket. It is possible that your power cable may drape across your ram if you're the type who just plugs things in without routing it neatly.

Speaking of which, the IS7 supports up to 4GB of ram. Dual Channel support is available by using two sticks of ram in either slot 1+3 or slot 2+4. Feel free to read our Corsair TWINX review if you're wondering what Dual Channel is all about. Keep in mind the notes made earlier regarding AGP card and ram access.

One issue I have is the location of the CMOS reset. What is good is you don't have any capacitors grouped around the jumper, which makes it a simple affair to grab on to it. However, the location puts it int he vicinity of CDROM drives in standard ATX cases. Add the IDE cables and power connections, and if you have more than one CDROM drive, you can imagine it's a bit of an inconvenience to get to it.

Although the primary power is kept away from the CPU socket, the 12v AUX connection is not. Normally, I'd mention how this is an inconvenient location, but the 12v connection does supply the extra power to the CPU, and the shorter distance will keep the Pentium 4 itself happy.

For the rear panel I/O, I think there will be plenty here that should make people happy. You have your PS/2 ports, serial and parallel ports, S/PDIF and five audio ports, four USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire connection, and a Gigabit LAN connection.

The last items worth pointing out are the onboard peripherals. Above, left to right, is the Intel 865PE, the ICH5R, the Realtek ALC650, and a 3Com Gigabit NIC. I've never used the 3COM Gigabit NIC before, so it'll be interesting to see how it performs. I'm not too wild about the Realtek solution though. Sound quality has always been good, but CPU utilization has also always been higher than others.

ABIT is renowned for having a BIOS that allows for plenty of tweaking. You have your usual items like Power Management, PC Health Status, and the PnP/PCI Configurations, but let's look at the areas that will be of most interest to our readers.

The ABIT SoftMenu

To access CPU overclocking options, you'll have to set the CPU Operating Speed to "User Defined". Once that's done, you can adjust the Ext. Clock, N/B Strap, DRAM Ratio, AGP Ratio, Fixed AGP/PCI Freq to your heart's content.

Remember that 99% of you only have access to retail Pentium 4 CPUs, so in that case, these CPUs are multiplier locked so you cannot change that. The FSB is another story, and the IC7 offers plenty of headway, allowing you to go as high as 414FSB. Now, the reality is you'll be hard pressed getting above 250FSB without some great cooling.

The AGP Ratio, Fixed AGP/PCI Freq is handy since overclocking the FSB overclocks everything, which can wreak havoc on your system, so it's a good idea to keep those areas within spec.

You got some good voltage options, which is a must when overclocking. The ability to add some extra juice is sometimes the difference between a constantly crashing setup, or a rock solid PC. You can go as high as 1.925v for the CPU, 2.8v for the memory, and 1.65v for the video.

The only other area of note (they are all important, but for those who like to dabble in the art of voiding their warranty…) is the Advanced Chipset Features. It is here you can adjust your memory timings, and if your ram can handle it, you can really tweak it here.

One item you may not see, unless you've updated the IS7 to the latest BIOS (or if you've purchased a recent revision), is the Game Accelerator options. It is possible that boards you buy as of today may already have it, but the BIOS is official, and ready for download now. We covered the Game Accelerator just over a week ago, but in a nutshell, it's a series of memory optimizations. You have a choice between Auto, Turbo, Street Racer and F1. The latter two nets the largest performance gains, but toughest to implement if your ram cannot handle it.

We've covered the importance of the Game Accelerator recently, and let me just say it is very much worth your while to download it and update your board.

Overclocking

An ABIT board wouldn't be an ABIT without the ability to overclock like a champ. How was the IC7 then? Considering the multiplier is locked, we did quite well. We've had some good luck in the past with the stock Intel cooler, so for the initial tests, we'll be sticking with that.

Out of the box, the 2.4C runs at 12x200.

Stock Speed

There's a free 6MHz OC for you as you can see in the WCPUID screenshot. We can see the CPU is running along at 2405.99MHz, which is slightly ahead of the IC7 tested earlier. The next OC we went for was 225FSB, which was done without any problems. Stock voltage remained the same, though to run our Corsair TWINX ram at 1:1, we needed to tone the timings down to 2.5-2-2-7.

The next overclock was 250FSB, and in order to do so, we needed to run the ram at 5:4 (200MHz).

250FSB OC

I should mention that early in our IC7 tests, a bump to 1.7v was needed for the CPU, but this was not required after a couple weeks. Out of the gates, the IS7 handled the 250FSB with no adjustment in vCore. This goes to show you that occasionally, your CPU needs to be burned in.

The stock cooler topped out at about 258FSB. It worked with varying levels of success between 255 - 270FSB, but it wasn't stable. It was time to bring in the water.

301FSB OC

Using our Swiftech H20-8500, equipped with a couple 68cfm fans blowing trough the radiator, the best OC we managed was 301FSB. I should mention that the system was not stable enough for benchmarks here. I managed to take a screenshot, and save it, but a few minutes later, the system locked up. The temperature was about 58C in the BIOS, so I don't know if heat was an issue, so this may be the breaking point for the CPU or the IS7. At 290FSB, things ran much better, but after about 30 minutes, the system would lock up again. It's no secret that the Swiftech H20-8500's radiator is a bit on the small side, so a larger radiator may make the difference between getting to 300FSB, and running at 300FSB.

Test Setup

ABIT IS7 Max II Advance: Pentium 4 2.4C (12x200: 2.4GHz), 2 x 256MB Corsair TWINX PC3200 Ram, AiW ATi Radeon 9700 Pro, 80GB Western Digital, Windows XP SP1, ATi Catalyst 3.4

ABIT IS7 Max II Advance: Pentium 4 2.4C @ 3GHz (12x250), 2 x 256MB Corsair TWINX PC3200 Ram, AiW ATi Radeon 9700 Pro, 80GB Western Digital, Windows XP SP1, ATi Catalyst 3.4

ABIT IC7: Pentium 4 2.4C (12x200: 2.4GHz), 2 x 256MB Corsair TWINX PC3200 Ram, AiW ATi Radeon 9700 Pro, 80GB Western Digital, Windows XP SP1, ATi Catalyst 3.4

Test software will be:

AVI-to-MPG Encoding
CPU Tests
Unreal Tournament 2003
Quake 3: Arena
Jedi Knight 2

Now, I mentioned the Game Accelerator BIOS earlier, and I want to make it clear you WILL be seeing benchmarks with the Game Accelerator set to Street Racer. The same goes for the IC7... Street Racer settings as well. I will also be presenting pre-Game Accelerator benchmarks for both motherboards to illustrate the improvements a simple BIOS update can make. The key will be as follows:

IS7 - Pre = IS7 @ 2.4GHz with no Game Accelerator
IS7 - SR = IS7 @ 2.4GHz with Game Accelerator @ Street Racer
IS7 @ 3GHz = IS7 @ 3GHz OC with no Game Accelerator

The above key applies to the ABIT IC7 Canterwood as well, where IC7 replaces IS7 above.

Just a quick plug to for hooking us up with the 2.4C used for testing. Bob is a super guy, and tell him VL sent ya and he'll hook you up. Let's get on to testing, shall we?

SiSoftware Sandra 2003

Although a synthetic benchmark, it's a popular one, freely available if you wish to make comparison benchmarks. We will be testing the CPU, MMX, and memory speeds.

CPU Arithmetic Benchmark

	Dhrystone ALU	Whetstone iSSE2
IS7 - Pre Game Accelerator	7361	4532
IS7 - Street Racer	7390	4554
IS7 @ 3GHz	9213	5683
IC7 - Pre Game Accelerator	7399	4386
IC7 - Street Racer	7338	4552
IC7 @ 3GHz	9229	5677

CPU Multimedia Benchmark

	Integer iSSE2	Floating Point iSSE2
IS7 - Pre Game Accelerator	11093	17068
IS7 - Street Racer	11091	17343
IS7 @ 3GHz	13869	21107
IC7 - Pre Game Accelerator	11094	17009
IC7 - Street Racer	11088	17086
IC7 @ 3GHz	13874	21603

Looking at the numbers, performance between the IS7 and IC7 are very close, though the Canterwood holds a slight edge, be it with Game Accelerator enabled or disabled. Still, the Springdale makes a strong showing here, and is not embarrassed at all.

Memory Benchmark

	Int Buffered iSSE2	Float Buffered iSSE2
IS7 - Pre Game Accelerator	4119	4153
IS7 - Street Racer	4864	4848
IS7 @ 3GHz	5368	5374
IC7 - Pre Game Accelerator	4339	4658
IC7 - Street Racer	4903	4911
IC7 @ 3GHz	5414	5434

Here we can see the Game Accelerator make a larger impact, which it should given it's a memory optimization. Here we can see the IS7's strength with the BIOS update, as it clobbers the non-updated Canterwood. Good thing for ABIT that they released the same BIOS update for the IC7, or there would have been problems justifying the more expensive board for enthusiasts.

PC Mark 2002

	CPU	Memory
IS7 - Pre Game Accelerator	5907	7449
IS7 - Street Racer	5957	8944
IS7 @ 3GHz	7479	9022
IC7 - Pre Game Accelerator	5998	8374
IC7 - Street Racer	6009	9362
IC7 @ 3GHz	7512	9045

The IS7 continues it's strong showing here, staying within reach of the more expensive IC7. One thing worth pointing out that memory performance is better when at Street Racer, rather than OC'd to 3GHz @ Auto. Other than that, performance trends are in line with those found in SiSoft, so maybe it's time to checkout some real world benchmarks.

PiFast

A good indicator of CPU/Motherboard performance is version 4.2, by Xavier Gourdon. We used a computation of 10000000 digits of Pi, Chudnovsky method, 1024 K FFT, and no disk memory. Note that lower scores are better, and times are in seconds.

Lower is Better

	Time in Seconds
IS7 - Pre Game Accelerator	60.33
IS7 - Street Racer	56.05
IS7 @ 3GHz	47.81
IC7 - Pre Game Accelerator	57.52
IC7 - Street Racer	55.22
IC7 @ 3GHz	47.30

Here we can see similar performance between the two boards. Before the Game Accelerator update, Intel's PAT gave the IC7 the edge. After the updates, both boards performed within split seconds of each other.

TMPGEnc MPEG Encoding

Video editing is a taxing chore, and we'll be testing the IC7 using TMPGEnc 2.512 to encode a 7.78MB, 1:30 movie trailer to a 23FPS MPG file. Note that lower scores are better.

Lower is Better

	Time in Seconds
IS7 - Pre Game Accelerator	27
IS7 - Street Racer	26
IS7 @ 3GHz	22
IC7 - Pre Game Accelerator	27
IC7 - Street Racer	26
IC7 @ 3GHz	22

No performance differences between the Springdale and Canterwood here, as either board will serve you well when it comes to video editing.