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Ultra DMA-66 Bus master IDE
Practically all newer design motherboard now have Synchronous
Ultra DMA mode, which provides data transfer rates up-to a maximum of
66Mb per second. Which roughly is twice the data rate of enhanced IDE or
ATA-2. Ultra ATA requires a special (included) hd cable. Although the
cable has 40 pins, it actually uses 80 wires.
TIP - always connect the cable in this
fashion: Blue to mainboard, Gray
to slave and black to master.
Health Monitoring
Another option that stroke my attention as important is the
exceptionally good HEALTH MONITORING. See for yourself what this
motherboard monitors:
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Monitoring of +/-5v,
+/-12v, and CMOS battery voltages
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Monitoring of
connected CPU, power supply, and system fans
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System health status
reporting via BIOS, LDCM & SIV
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Auto processor speed
reduction and speaker alarm if CPU overheats (OS independent &
driverless). Lovely!
BIOS - Furthermore
the Bios is very easy to use and all functions are set at default to
it's best. However, it really is a bit like going back to the basics.
Nothing fancy here, while most manufacturers have moved to BIOS-based
FSB bus modifications, all changes have to be made via DIP switches on
the 7ZX. So no overclocking in the BIOS here. What we also miss is
voltage regulation and clock multiplier control. This is needed for the ones
that have a unlocked Duron/thunderbird or decide to unlock them.
The BIOS is very basic. On the other side, not everyone likes a BIOS
with too much options.
 EasyTune
III - To engage and for full the market demand of tweakers and
overclockers Gigabyte will allow you to overclock your CPU from within
windows. It's controlled bij a small piece of software called EasyTune.
EasyTune is easy to use, hit a button and your CPU will be slightly
overclocked. My experiences with this util are a bit diverse, I could
not get the CPU stable at a 105 MHz or higher bus speed. Anything over
the 735MHz setting would halt the system. It's a fun utility but
personally I believe that overclocking is something that should be controlled in the BIOS. The 7ZX is not a
good mainboard to overclock your CPU.
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