Motherboard Review – ABIT IT5H – THG.RU

Features and Specifications

Chipset

Intel 82430HX chipset, Revision 03, consisting of

• 82439HX System Controller
• 82371SB PCI I/O IDE Xcelerator

CPU

Socket: Socket 7

Supported CPUs:

• Intel Pentium Classic, P54C, 75 – 200 MHz
• Intel Pentium with MMX, P55C, 166 – 233 MHz
• Cyrix/IBM 6×86 P120+ – P200+
• Cyrix/IBM 6x86L , the new split voltage 6×86 CPUs
• Cyrix/IBM M2, supports multiplier setting of 3.5 for M2
• AMD K5 PR90 – PR166, according to the manual
• AMD K6 PR2 166 – PR2 233

Automatic detection of CPU type, setup with CPU SoftMenuTM in BIOS setup.

Supported CPU Voltages:

• single 3.60 V
• single STD 3.38 V
• single VRE 3.52 V
• dual 3.3 / 2.50 V
• dual 3.3 / 2.70 V
• dual 3.3 / 2.80 V
• dual 3.3 / 2.93 V
• dua; 3.3 / 3.2 V (from rev. 1.5)

Automatic detection of single or split voltage, setup with CPU SoftMenuTM in BIOS setup.

Supported Multiplier Settings:

• x1.5, x2, x2.5, x3 for Intel Pentium CPUs
• x2, x3 for Cyrix/IBM 6×86 CPUs
• x2 , x2.5, x3, x3.5 for Cyrix/IBM M2 CPUs
• x2.5, x3, x3.5 for AMD K6 CPUs

Setup with CPU SoftMenuTM in BIOS setup.

Supported Bus Speeds:

• 50 MHz
• 55 MHz
• 60 MHz
• 66 MHz
• 68 MHz (‘turbo frequency’ of 66 MHz)
• 75 MHz
• 83 MHz (from rev. 1.5)

Setup with CPU SoftMenuTM in BIOS setup.

Second Level Cache

Pipelined Burst Static RAM Cache

• 512 kB onboard

512 MB cacheable due to 2 onboard tag RAM chips (from rev. 1.2)

RAM

• 4 72 pin SIMM slots

supports ECC

RAM types supported:

• FPM RAM with and without parity
• EDO RAM with and without parity

RAM sizes supported:

• 4 MB SIMM
• 8 MB SIMM
• 16 MB SIMM
• 32 MB SIMM
• 64 MB SIMM

2 168 pin DIMM slots

3.3 V unbuffered RAM

supports FPM and EDO RAM

RAM sizes supported:

• 8 MB DIMM
• 16 MB DIMM
• 32 MB DIMM

Please note, that DIMM does not say SDRAM!! You can get DIMMs with FPM and EDO as well, and only these types are supported by the 430HX chipset!

Maximum RAM supported 512 MB

PCI Bus

4 PCI slots, 3 full length

running at busclck/2

PCI specification 2.1

ISA Bus

4 ISA Slots, 2 full length, 2 2/3 length, one of the 2/3 length shared with PCI slot 4

Board size

33 cm x 22 cm size AT. This means it’s longer than the majority of the AT boards, which has the advantage that the CPU is quite far from the expansion slots. This enables you to use 2/3 length cards in each slot which isn’t full length.

Super I/O

• 1 Floppy Port (up to 2.88MB, Japan 3 Mode Floppy Supported)
• 2 Serial Ports (16550 Fast UART Compatible)
• 1 Parallel Port (ECP, EPP Port)
• IrDA TX/RX Header (= infra red port support)
• PS/2 Mouse connector
• USB port

IDE Controller

2 x PCI Bus Master IDE ports (up to 4 IDE devices)

Support:

• PIO Mode 3 & 4
• DMA Mode 2

BIOS

Award Plug&Play BIOS, tested with latest and so far only revision, flashable

supports CPU SoftMenuTM which makes the board almost jumperless. All CPU settings are adjusted in the BIOS setup! Only one jumper for L2 cache size on board.

supports bootable CDROM and bootable SCSI HDD, additionally you can boot from the first partition of any EIDE HDD connected, which means you can boot up to 4 different OSs via the BIOS setup.

Coming with

• 2 serial port ribbon cables, attached to a mounting bracket
• 1 parallel ribbon cable and PS/2 mouse cable, attached to a mounting bracket
• 1 IDE ribbon cable
• 1 floppy ribbon cable
• floppy disk with
  • Bus Master IDE Driver for Windows95, OS/2, WindowsNT
  • BIOS Flash program
  • SoftMenu as program

Manual

Best manual I’ve ever seen, very coprehensive, BUT it’s missing one thing! It doesn’t tell you how you can mix SIMMs and DIMMs.

Quality

• solid metal lever for CPU ZIF socket
• good I/O sockets with ceiling
• good quality DIMM sockets with sturdy fixing clamps
• good quality SIMM sockets where you don’t hurt fingers removing SIMMs
• many tantalum capacitors used
• passive voltage regulator, but big heat sinks that don’t get too hot

Performance

ctcm Benchmark results

The bus speeds 50, 55 and 60 MHz would all run at the fastest timing settings. Higher bus speeds, however, required the tuning of the BIOS timing settings. I’ve hence been distinguishing between the fastest settings, which ctcm would run at and the settings, which Windows 95 would run Winstone 96 flawlessly at. For everybody, who is using Windows 95 or who wants to be safe, the ‘Windows 95 setting’ results are the only ones that are realistical and really interesting, because they are the ones to certainly be free from crashes due to memory timing problems at these high bus speeds.

Other Benchmark Results

Winstone 96 ran at the following configuration: Windows 95, built 950, Resolution 1024x768x256x60, Bus Master DMA drivers, Diamond Stealth 64 Video VRAM 2MB, Quantum Fireball 1280A

The Winstone 97 results are slightly higher than the results of the IT5V with SDRAM. The Quake results are the exact same as with the IT5V.

Advantages & Disadvantages

The Advantages of the ABIT IT5H

• CPU SoftMenu, ‘jumperless’ design
• 75 MHz bus speed ability
• ‘turbo frequency’ for 66 MHz bus speed
• supports modern DIMM RAM design
• extremely overclocking friendly, due to SoftMenu
• very well equipped
• P55C support
• Cyrix/IBM 6x86L and M2 support
• coming with Bus Master Drivers on floppy disk
• very good quality and high stability, more stable than Asus P/I-P55T2P4 rev. 3
• high reliability
• good web site, but difficult to access from the western hemisphere. Often ridiculously slow from here (UK)
• definitely much better support than Asus
• easy access to Flash BIOS upgrades

The Disadvantages of the ABIT IT5H

• This board would be perfect if it had 8 instead of 4 SIMM slots, however it’s pretty close to perfect already
• no Ultra-DAM support due to HX chipset
• no SDRAM support due to HX chipset

Tips and Comments

Recommended BIOS Timing Settings for the Different Bus Speeds

a) 50, 55 and 60 Mhz Bus Speed

b)66 MHz and 75 MHz Bus Speed

c)83 MHz Bus Speed

Summary

I personally fell in love with that board from the first minute I’ve been using it. Abit has listened to each of my complaints about this board and since revision 1.5 it now supports 83 MHz bus speed and 512 MB cacheable RAM without the hassle of getting an additional tag RAM chip or a special COAST module as in case of the Asus P/I-P55T2P4. The IT5H is definitely the best HX board available and it’s one of the fastest Socket 7 boards still.

The reasons for that are simple.

• nothing compares to the convenience of the CPU SoftMenu setup. After you once used it, you are really annoyed using any other board without it. However, this is only for tweak freaks. In case you just want a decent motherboard, set up and done with, you won’t take much notice of SoftMenu.
• The board is a miracle of stability. I’m using it as my own system board and I’m running my P166 rock stable at 205/68 MHz, the ‘turbo frequency’ selection for 200 MHz CPU speed. It runs just as stable and at the very same BIOS settings at 188/75 MHz, which I’m always switching over to, in case I’m running graphic intensive games. These games benefit a whole lot from the 75 MHz bus speed. The K6 runs rock stable at 250 (3×83) MHz and so does the Pentium.
• The turbo frequency option is also a feature I wouldn’t like missing anymore. However, after several trials I found the same setting for the Asus P/I-P55T2P4 rev. 3, FIC PA-2006 and the FKI SL586VT II. Hence it isn’t really unique.
• The architecture and memory timing of this board makes it faster than any other HX board I’ve seen so far. The Asus is considerably slower at the same bus and CPU speed and at 166/83 the Asus runs definitely slower than the IT5H at 188/75 or 205/68 in winstone. Of course you can’t beat the 83 MHz bus speed in Quake or other graphic intensive games.
• No other board seems to support that many of the new and upcoming CPUs. This makes the IT5H most future proof.
• I like the new BIOS option, where you can choose each differnet EIDE HDD to boot from.
• It’s the perfect K6 high performance board to date. You can run your K6 at the proper voltage, at 83 MHz bus speed and you can use up to 512 MB RAM without the penalty you get in TX boards when crossing the FX/VX/TX chipset’s 64 MB cacheability limit.