AnandTech
Motherboard Rating
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Rating
(x/10)
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Performance
The BX133-RAID is
a bit slower than other i440BX boards, although the difference is minimal,
making it more or less average.
Interestingly, it
actually slowed down when we used the onboard HighPoint HPT370 Ultra
ATA/100 controller. Of
course the real performance advantage of the HPT370 shows up when it's
setup for RAID operation and/or with an Ultra ATA/100 hard drive
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5.0
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Price
ABIT boards have
generally been priced a bit less than competitors, but the BX133-RAID
is quite a deal at under $150 for a solid i440BX board and an Ultra
ATA/100 RAID controller.
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7.5
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Stability
Stability used to
be ABIT's weak point, but their recent releases have been rock solid.
They started this renewed focus on stability with the KA7 and it continues
here with the BX133-RAID.
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8.0
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Quality
ABIT has never been
known for producing the highest quality products and our standard metric
puts ABIT quality at approximately average. In spite of this, the board
was still extremely stable during our tests.
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5.0
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Features
While other manufacturers
seem to be focusing on adding little frills to their products, ABIT's
actually worked on some useful features. First it was SoftMenu III,
the most flexible jumperless CPU setup for overclockers we've ever seen.
Now it's the addition of onboard Ultra ATA/100 RAID.
Of course, it's
still an i440BX board, so there's no AGP 4X (regardless of how useful
it may or may not be) and no official 133 MHz FSB speed.
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8.0
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Layout
ABIT has finally
moved the ATX power connector away from the very back edge of the motherboard,
a location that required you to run the power cable over the memory
and CPU. It's now on the side of the board, although still towards the
back.
Otherwise, the BX133-RAID
layout is very good, with all 5 PCI slots available for use with full
length cards, HDD/FDD connectors in the proper place, etc.
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6.5
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Availability
Finding ABIT motherboards
isn't a difficult task at all, most people have heard of them and when
you have a large demand for a particular brand, you'll always find vendors
that stock them.
The BX133-RAID should
be available within a few weeks of the publication of this review, but
it could be a short lived product if Intel decides to cut off supply of
the i440BX. We've seen no indication that this will be happening soon,
but it is something to be aware of.
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8.5
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Documentation
& Software Bundle
ABIT has always
had strong written documentation bundled with their motherboards and
the BX133-RAID is no exception.
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7.5
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Overall
Rating - not an average Click here
to find out why |
8.0
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