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Final Words
The IS7 Max II Advance is another winner from ABIT. Performance is outstanding, as is the overclocking ability and stability. It seemed to handle the overclocking a little better than the IC7, but we hit the familiar 300FSB ceiling again here. Still, I don't think anyone will complain about the OC headroom, as 100FSB over stock should be more than enough to cover what most Pentium 4 "C" CPU's are able to manage right now.
The feature set of the board is excellent. Everything an enthusiast needs is here, such as the SATA RAID, Gigabit LAN, Hyper-Threading support and dual Channel memory. The price is right also, although I should point out that this is a fully loaded IS7. There are several versions of the board, starting as low as for the IS7, to for the IS7 Max II Advance. Note that the IC7 used in comparison today is , but it lacks SATA RAID and Gigabit LAN. Add those to the IC7, and you have a . With the Game Accelerator BIOS, the various versions of the IS7 should perform identically, so it's up to you how much you want to spend.
Is there a downside to the IS7? Well, I'm not too wild about the location of the CMOS jumper, but that is a minor nuisance. The AGP slot location is a bit too close to the memory slots, and this is a problem I would hope ABIT, and most manufacturers, would address in their future boards. Basically, these are simply board layout issues, and the IS7's strengths greatly outweigh these annoyances.
Let us remind you one thing that was obvious today… make sure your . Not everyone will have an ABIT Canterwood to compare against, but it seems likely to me that an ABIT IS7 with the Game Accelerator BIOS will make a strong argument of considering a Springdale, specifically the IS7, rather than a Canterwood. Let me make it clear though that the IC7 is still the better performer, though it will also need the Game Accelerator update to maintain it's lead. I'll let the IS7's numbers speak for themselves, though, if the extra cash for the Canterwood is worth it.
Pros: Excellent performance, overclocking and stability. Low price point.
Cons: Sound eats into the CPU, and some annoying areas in layout design.
Bottom Line: The IS7 is simply the best overall package for the P4 we've tested in quite some time. It's extremely quick, and even when pushing our memory with the Street Racer settings, the board never hiccupped once. The BIOS is an enthusiast's dream, and considering the pricing, the IS7 will certainly not disappoint you.
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ABIT IS7 Max II Advance Motherboard: We take a look at the ABIT IS7 Springdale today, and if our benchmarks are any indication, this mainstream board demonstrates that the Canterwood is not the only game in town.
