ED#05 : AMD Barton Compatibility In ABIT Motherboards

Sometime ago, ABIT sent out a press release stating that certain ABIT motherboards have been certified to support the new 400MHz FSB AMD Barton processors. Actually, the word "new" should be replaced with the word "upcoming" because AMD didn't announce the new processors yet! So, ABIT accidentally let the cat out of the bag! However, that's really not the topic of discussion today.

Today, we will be touching on the topic of AMD Barton compatibility in ABIT motherboards. According to ABIT, they have tested and approved several of their AMD boards for use with the new AMD processors. Below is ABIT's table of their motherboards' support of the new Barton processors :-

The press release left us wanting for more details so I popped a few questions to ABIT. You can see the results of our enquiries below.

Do All Revisions Of The NF7-S Motherboards Support The New 400MHz FSB?

Thankfully, ABIT will offer official 400MHz FSB support with all revisions of the ABIT NF7-S motherboard. And why not? After all, the only difference between Revision 1.2 (or older) and Revision 2.0 of the ABIT NF7-S is the use of a new stepping of the NVIDIA nForce2 chipset.

However, a BIOS update will be required for the older revisions to "officially" support the new 400MHz FSB. This is more than just updating the CPU table. Apparently, the new BIOS will feature some tweaks as well. So make sure you get the BIOS updates when they are released if you want to fully support the new 400MHz FSB processors.

What About The Other Motherboards?

The absence of the 400MHz FSB Bartons from ABIT's motherboard support table was notable. Although the press release mentioned that the NF7 motherboards will support the new 400MHz FSB, there was virtually no mention of 400MHz support in the other motherboards. So, will the other motherboards support the new 400MHz FSB?

Some digging revealed that the ABIT KD7 and AT7 MAX2 motherboards will not boast official support for the 400MHz FSB. Of course, ABIT will be releasing a new BIOS for these motherboards which will allow the user to reach 400MHz through overclocking. But whether the user can actually run the motherboards at 400MHz is another matter.

So, the final table of Barton support in ABIT motherboards should look like this :-

Conclusion

If you are looking to upgrade to an AMD Barton processor with a 333MHz FSB, you can use any motherboard from ABIT's NF7, KD7 and AT7 MAX2 series. They have all been tested and certified to run the 333MHz FSB Bartons. You may need a minor BIOS upgrade to update the CPU table but other than that, all those ABIT motherboards can run the new Barton processors right out of the box!

However, if you are thinking of getting a 400MHz FSB Barton, your safest choice would be a motherboard from the ABIT NF7 series. They offer full support for the 400MHz FSB although older revisions will need a BIOS upgrade.

The ABIT KD7 and AT7 MAX2 motherboards will not officially support the 400MHz FSB. But, as mentioned earlier, ABIT will provide a new BIOS which allows you to overclock to that speed.

Questions & Comments

If you have any questions or comments about ABIT motherboards' support of the new Barton processors, please feel free to post them here! We look forward to hearing from you! :)