Supports Advanced Configuration and Power Management Interface (ACPI)
Accelerated Graphics Port connector supports AGP 8X/4X (0.8V/1.5V)
Memory
Three 184-pin DIMM sockets
Supports 3 DIMM DDR 200/266/333 (Max. 3 GB)
Supports 2 DIMM DDR 400 (Max. 2 GB)
Serial ATA150 RAID
On board SATA 150 PCI Controller
Support 2 ports SATA 150 RAID 0/1
Audio
6-Channel AC 97 CODEC on board
Professional digital audio interface supports optical S/PDIF Out
NVIDIA SoundStorm with real-time Dolby Digital 5.1 encoder
IEEE 1394
Supports IEEE 1394a at 100/200/400 Mb/s transfer rate
LAN
On board 10/100M LAN Physical layer interface
As with the NF7-M, the S has a rust coloured PCB and its layout is precisely the same. This means that it is, overall, pretty decent with a few annoyances. Unlike the revision 1.0 board, all versions of the NF7-S 1.2 and above feature the four mounting holes around the socket. This allows super-sized coolers like Swiftechs and SLK-900s to be utilised, certainly a welcome addition. Again the ZIF socket is curiously rotated around 90 degrees. I have not seen this layout since the Iwill XP333 and, although it makes good use of the board's space, it is entirely likely that to install/replace the CPU cooler you will annoyingly have to remove the power supply.
If you are using a small case then the proximity of the RAM slots to the edge of the board might interfere with the CD-ROM drives if they are long (like my TEAC CD-RW), but the floppy connector is mounted high on the board which is a welcome inclusion for full-tower users. Just below the memory slots you will find the two primary IDE ports which are both black, so make sure you read which of the two is the primary controller. Unfortunately, if you want to upgrade the memory, you will likely have to remove your AGP card first if it is a long one (GeForce 4, GeForce FX, etc)
There are a total of five PCI slots and one 8X AGP slot present on the NF7-S. Between the PCI and AGP ports you will find the two firewire internal headers and, to the right of the top PCI slots, the nVIDIA MCP-T chipset. This provides excellent on-board audio with full Soundstorm certification. Abit has included all five 3mm jacks (3 for surround speakers, mic and line-in) directly on the board so there is no need for a backing plate and you will also find an optical audio port for diskman or Hi-Fi connectivity. A digital COAX would be nice, a la Soyo's C-Media on-board sound, but I’m not sure if this is a capability of the MCP-T chipset, as not even the fully featured MSI K7N2G-ILSR (which has no less than FOUR PCI backing plates) has this capability.
Just below the PSU connection (which has the 4 pin P4 PSU supply for extra stability) you will find a jumper that allows you to force the BIOS to boot into 100MHz mode, handy if you push the overclock too far and don’t fancy re-entering ALL of your other settings again like you would with a CMOS clear.
Speaking of power, Abit uses a 3-phase design common to all of their recent AMD motherboards. Capacitors are thankfully Rubycon all around, something that cannot fail to improve a boards overclockability.
The Board's Northbridge is actively cooled with a Blorb style fan. It's not obtrusively loud, but I can't help thinking a more sizable northbridge heatsink would be welcome. Case fan are catered for by two extra headers, although they are both in the middle-left part of the board. One for a front fan at the lower right would be appreciated.
Serial ATA makes its way onto the NF7-S, absent from the M version we reviewed before. Provided by a Silicon Image SataLink controller, it allows you to connect SATA drives in standard, RAID 0 or RAID 1 configurations. Let's take a brief foray into the NF7's performance.
