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KT-7 RAID, Athlon Thunderbird Gaming System Build
By Len "Viking1" HjalmarsonKT-7 RAID: Mainboard Madness
I've always liked Abit's mainboards for overclocking. Overclocking is no longer a black science, and Abit makes it something of an art with their SoftMenu III. The SoftMenu setup on the KT-7 RAID is the best yet, with some incredible tweaking abilities.
The KT-7 has some other things going for it as an overclocker's dream. First, it is the only mainboard available with active cooling of the VIA VT8363 logic chipset (equivalent to Intel's BX). Yep, that's right. This mainboard has the same active cooling on the board as you'll find on high end video boards. This allows for some pretty high system bus speeds without lock ups.
Active Cooling
The KT-7 also has an onboard HighPoint HPT370 IDE RAID controller, running at either ATA 66 or ATA 100. The difference RAID striping makes is astonishing. I went from a 24 second load time with a new game beta to 14 seconds just by connecting and enabling the RAID system.
Windows load times? No longer a headache. I also installed WIN ME with its fast boot capabibility. My Celeron II at 733 took almost 1 minute 30 seconds to get me a finished desktop. With all the same software installed, running my new system gets me there in 40 seconds. Both systems are running ATA 66.
Abit's latest mainboard also includes a thermistor ready installed at the base of the CPU mount. This will give you the most accurate temperature reading you are going to get. The VIA hardware monitor shows my system idling at 32C, and 50-52C under heavy load. More on this later.
Other cutting edge features of the KT-7 include FOUR USB ports and six PCI slots. You may be able to save the price of that USB HUB.
Storage Solutions
I have been a Quantum fan for the past three years. The drives are reliable and fast and usually sport the latest features. In fact, the latest Quantum drives are considerably quieter than earlier drives, an important difference depending on where your box is located.
Quantum Fireball Plus LM
I choose the Quantum Fireball Plus LM for high performance under RAID. I debated going with the latest ATA 100 standard, and if I had to do it again I probably would. However, with a 7200 RPM spindle speed and running RAID 0 (striping) ATA 66, the performance is incredible. This really is the perfect match for a high end CPU in order to eliminate data bottlenecks.
I chose the Kenwood Multibeam CD ROM as the best price/performance hardware short of going with a DVD/CD combination. This device screams along and is quiet to boot. Since it uses beam splitting technology the drive is able to run at a lower RPM than other drives in its class and you won't get the nasty vibes and hum that other drives produce. I have to warn you, however, that my first Kenwood drive failed and this was a replacement.
