Fig 2. The ATX power connector is located somewhat inconveniently.

As is typical of Abit boards, the layout is quite clean, and clearly geared toward power users. With the exception of the CD and Line In connectors, which might interfere with the first and second PCI slots, all PCI slots are capable of accepting full-length cards. In addition, Abit leaves plenty of room around the CPU socket and socket lugs in order to accommodate larger heatsinks. Our only concern with the layout is that the ATX power connector is positioned somewhat inconveniently at the back of the board.


Fig 3. Plenty of room around the CPU socket and socket lugs.

The board boasts on-board RAID, courtesy of Highpoint’s popular controller. Abit once again employs the HPT370 RAID controller, which provides support for two additional ATA100 IDE channels, and supports RAID levels 0, 1, and 0+1 using anywhere from two to four disks. In addition to the two channels supported by the 82801BA ICH2, a total of eight ATA100 IDE devices are supported.


Fig 3. The board's standard IDE channels, and two additional IDE RAID channels.

The rest of the hardware features are fairly routine. Three DIMM slots, an AGP, and six PCI slots round out the expansion options. The board also boasts a CNR slot, a somewhat rare occurrence on performance-oriented Abit boards. It’s not a big deal, but an ISA slot instead would’ve perhaps been an idea.

We should reiterate that this is an 815EP B-step board, and thus supports Tualatin and future 0.13um processors.