Introduction

As one of the last boards to appear on the KT266A scene, the KR7A had better show the benefits of a few extra weeks in development. Many of the other manufacturers have already released KT266 boards. Do note that Abit only has a KR7A and no KR7. It seems that Abit has gotten wise to VIA’s production methods. For the last year VIA has released a second version of the same chipset only a scant month or two after the initial release. VIA has started to go out of its way to market the first chipset as the lower-end version; but we’ve yet to see a price difference, at the release, delivered to the consumer as a result of this. Add to that, historically what company releases a low-end item before their high-end?

But I digress, back to Abit. Traditionally the board of choice for the overclocker, Abit hasn’t fallen off the ball in the release of this product. The features within will make most drool. Some of what’s not there will make most happy. So let’s get on with it.

Abit KR7A

The Board

Abit KR7A RAID
Chipset	VIA KT266A/VIA VT8233A
Memory	4 184-pin DIMM sockets - up to 3GB unbuffered/ 4GB registered modules
BIOS	SoftMenu III - AWARD BIOS
Drive Connectors	1 FDD, 2 ATA100 Channels, 2 ATA133 RAID Channels - Highpoint 372 (RAID 0,1, 0+1
Slots	1 AGP, 6 PCI slots
Fan Headers	4 Fan connectors
USB	3 USB Controllers - 6 USB connectors