Considering that the default FSB of 200.48MHz on IS7-G and other boards overclocked to 202.xx by default, the performance levels of ABIT IS7-G is impressive with its fine tuned BIOS that we used. With the new betabios which will go official soon, it boosts the performance levels by a substantial amount.

ABIT IS7-G is the only board that bundles more SATA RAID and no IDE RAID (on board). This doesn't seem to be a good choice since not many people has SATA HDD. There is also no Seriellel converter bundled with the package. If 2 are provided, then you can use the SATA controller provided by SiliconImage to do a RAID 0 or 1. No RAID 0+1 nor 5 possible.

Installation of this board is quite easy but the only complain I have is the AGP retention clip. It is so difficult to remove the AGP card as there are capacitors around blocking it. I like the horizontal mounting of IDE devices. No more bending of wires

The ABIT IS7-G is rock stable when we pair it up using 2 x CAS 2.5 DDR 333 Corsair TWINX512 pairs. Surprisingly at CAS 2, 5-2-2, it still works very well at 2.7v. The Kingston DDR400 C2.5 sticks works well too even at F1 settings. Do take note that not all sticks will run well at this setting (F1), StreetRacer is generally ok with most DIMMs.

This board provides a range of FSB that you could choose from. 100~412 FSB is selectable and voltage adjustments can be made for Vdimm, Vcore, VAgp through the BIOS. With a P4 2.4C, 275MHz FSB is achievable.

Overall, this board seems to have overthrown most of the Springdale and Canterwood, but do take note that if you run at F1 or SpeedRacer mode, your overclocking will be affected since ratios might not work since it is a workaround. A springdale is still a springdale (or you want to say a crippled canterwood). It offers a cheaper alternative to workstation class canterwood. If you are not into overclocking, both IC7 and IS7 are pretty good boards. If you have spare cash and love to overclock, the Canterwood which offers the FSB:MEM ratios works and would not impact the performance that much.

Suggested Retail : -

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Pros 好处:

• 6 Channel audio
• USB 2.0 
• 1394
• 2 S/PDIF ports
• 2 ports SATA RAID 0 + 2 ports SATA RAID 0/1
• Overclocking - up to 412Mhz FSB, PCI /AGP FIX selectable
• CPU Vcore range is higher than most boards up to 1.9v

Cons 坏处:

• No Wireless LAN
• No IDE RAID
• No RAID 0+1, RAID 5

Ratings

Here are my ratings out of 10 stars.

Gold Award