Mainboard Review

abit iL-90MV - Intel 945GT + ICH7m-DH

Introduction

The iL-90MV is described by abit as an MoDT-HTPC Intel ViiV certified mainboard, namely a product that uses mobile components (Mobile on Desktop) intended to be use as an Home-Theater PC. Consequently, abit equipped its iL-90MV mainboard with the Intel 945GT chipset (the desktop version of the 945GM) and made it compatible with the very performant Core 2 Duo Merom, packaged in a socket 478 form factor. This couple ensures good performance, whereas the use of mobile components means less power consumption and less noise.

Packaging


Cables and accessories
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The mainboard is provided with the following accessories :

  • 1x IDE flat cable and 1x floppy flat cable.
  • 2x SATA cables.
  • HDMI to DVI cable.
  • connector for additional USB and Firewire ports.
  • I/O shield plate.
  • "OTES STREAM" CPU cooler.
  • Manuals, drivers CD and RAID driver floppies.

Mainboard Presentation

Layout diagram


iL-90MV mainboard layout.
(click for a large view of the layout diagram)

Feature summary

Form Factor
  • Micro ATX 245 mm x 245 mm
RoHS Compliancy
  • This mainboard complies with the European Union’s Restriction of use of certain Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive that limits the use of lead, mercury, cadmium and other hazardous substances in electronic products.
CPU
  • Intel Core Solo/Duo (Yonah), Core 2 Duo (Merom) and Celeron M CPUs (socket 478).
  • 667/533 MHz FSB supported.
Chipset
Memory
  • Two 240-pin DDR2 DIMM memory slots, up to 2 GB total memory size.
  • DDR2 667/533 unbuffered non-ECC memory support.
  • Dual channel.
Graphics
  • Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 (supports DirectX 9).
HDMI 1.2
  • Supports 1080p and UXGA 1600 x 1200 @ 60 MHz.
  • Supports 7.1 channels HD audio.
LAN
  • Onboard Intel 82573L 10/100/1000 Mb controller.
Audio
  • Onboard 7.1 channels Intel High Definition Audio Codec.
  • Supports auto jack sensing and optical S/PDIF In/Out.
  • Dolby Master Studio Certifcated.
Storage
  • 2x SATA 1.5 Gb/s ; supports RAID 0/1.
  • Supports SATA AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface, new interface specification that allows the SATA controller driver to support advanced features like Native Command Queuing and Hot Plug).
Expansion slots
  • 1x PCI Express x1 slot.
  • 2x PCI slots.
Internal I/O Connectors
  • 1x Floppy port.
  • 1x ATA 100/66/33 IDE connector.
  • 2x SATA 1.5Gb/s connectors.
  • 2x USB 2.0 headers.
  • 1x IEEE1394 Firewire headers.
  • 1x FP-Audio header.
  • 1x CD-IN connector.
Rear Panel I/O
  • 1x VGA connector.
  • 1x PS/2 keyboard port and 1x PS/2 mouse port.
  • 1x HDMI 1.2 connector.
  • 1x Optical IN connector.
  • 1x Optical OUT connector.
  • 1x Audio connector (Surround L/R, Read R/L, Center/Subwoofer, Mic-In, Line-In, Line-Out).
  • 1x IEEE 1394 connector.
  • 4x USB 2.0 connectors.
  • 1x RJ45 LAN port.
CPU voltage regulator
  • 2-phase.
Power Connectors
  • ATX 24-pin Power connector (ATXPWR1).
  • ATX 12V 8-Pin Power connector (ATX12V1).
Super I/O
Clock Generator
Headers
  • 4x 3-pin fan headers.
Cooling
  • abit OTES STREAM Thermal Solution.

Photos gallery

abit uses different PCB colors depening on the taget of its products. Black is reserved for high-end mainboards, like the AW9D-MAX that we previously tested. Red is the signature of FATAL1TY mainboard series. And orange for mainstream products (that will become blue on upcoming abit mainstream boards).


The abit iL-90MV uses a Micro ATX form factor, that makes it very compact, even with the cooler installed. Such a form factor does not offer a lot of room,especially for slots. Hopefully, did not choose to use 200-pin SO-DIMM slots to save space, but standard 240-pin DIMM slots instead. However, there is only one PCI Express extension, and it is a 1x slot.


The HDMI 1.2 connector takes place near the two PS/2 ports.
(click to enlarge)
Orange PCB, meaning that this is a mainstream mainboard.
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Processor voltage regulator uses a 2-phase system
and relies on solid state capacitors.
(click to enlarge)
The board accepts Merom Core 2 Duo, like this T7600G.
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Like for many other desktop boards based on Mobile components, the abit iL-90MV is provided with a CPU cooler. Named "OTES Stream", this cooling device relies on a 45 degrees fan, that creates an air flow through the CPU radiator and the chipset radiator as well.


2 classic PCI slots and one PCI-Express 1x slot.
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2 SATA ports.
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Components

The Intel 945GT chipset supports all features of the Mobile Intel 945GM chipset, but is targeted for use in desktop design. Henceforth, it supports standard votlage Core Duo and COre 2 Duo processors, as well as a higher performance integrated graphics controller in comparison to the 945GM.

Supported FSB
  • 667/533 MHz.
Memory
  • Single-/dual-channel DDR2 SDRAM.
  • Up to 4 GB at 400, 533 and 667 MHz.
Internal Graphics
  • Intel Gen 3.5 Integrated Graphics Engine.
  • 400 MHz core render clock and 320 MHz core display clock at 1.5V core voltage.
  • Supports TV-Out, Dual-channels LVDS (Low Voltage Differential Signaling), CRT and SDVO (Serial Digital Video Output).
  • DirectX 9.1 compatible.
Southbridge
  • Support for Intel 82801GHM and 82801GBM.

The datasheet of the 945GT Express chipset is available here.

The Intel 82801GHM (ICH7m-DH) is the Digital Home Mobile version if the ICH7 southbridge. This southbridge supports PCI revision 2.3 and PCI Express revision 1.0a. It provides :

  • 2 Serial ATA ports with integrated AHCI controller.
  • Intel Matrix Storage Technology for support of RAID 0/1.
  • Intel Active Management Technology. Intel AMT is a set of advanced manageability features.
  • Intel High Definition Audio interface.
  • Integrated LAN controller (10/100 Mb/s Ethernet support).

Its datasheet is available here.

The W83627EHG is a Pb-free multifunction LPC interfaced Super I/O chip. It features monitoring functions : 3 temperatures inputs, 10 voltage inputs, 5 fan inputs, 4 fan outputs (PWM & DC speed control) with SMARTFAN III, alert output and 6 VID input/output.
It also acts as floppy, mouse and keyboard controller.
  • IEEE 1394 OHCI controller Texas Instruments TSB43AB23
The Texas Instruments TSB43AB23 is an IEEE 1394 FireWire controller, compliant with the Open Host Controller Interface (OHCI) standard, meaning that it is natively compatible with the operating system's OHCI driver. It provides three 1394 ports.

Its datasheet can be downloaded here.
The IDT CV115-2 is a CK410 compliant clock generator for Pentium 4 processor, driven by a 14.318MHz crystal. It includes three programmable PLLs, one for the CPU, one that can be configured to drive the PCI and the PCI Express busses, allowing to keep them constant regardless of the FSB frequency, and one for the SATA.

Its datasheet can be downloaded here.
The ICS 9P952 is a zero delay clock buffer, designed to address high-speed clock distribution applications. It is here used to synchronize the memory channels.
The SiI1390 transmitter accepts Intel's Serial Digital Video Output (SDVO) input and offers a fully compliant HDMI output capable of supporting video resolutions up to UXGA and 1080p with up to eight channels of 192kHz audio.

SiI1390 presentation on Silicon Image website.

BIOS

The abit iL-90MV offers a very conservative BIOS. No uGuru chip here to control clocks and voltages.

General BIOS settings

These pages contain the BIOS basic features : date & time, drives boot sequence.


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CPU & Memory settings

The BIOS of the iL-90MV does not allow overclocking : no FSB change, no voltage tweaking. Our test CPU, a Core 2 Duo Merom 7600G, has an unlocked multiplier. Unfortunately, the BIOS does not offer any chance to change the multiplier.


CPU features include C1E, SpeedStep and XD bit.
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Memory timings can be automatically and manually set.
(click to enlarge)

Monitoring

The monitoring page shows voltages, temperatures, and fan speeds.


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Modify the FSB

The BIOS of the abit iL-90MV does not allow to choose the FSB, however the IDT CV115 PLL allows fine tuning. We consequently built a console-mode application dedicated to the programmation of this IC, that you can download here. Its interface is by command line only. Open a command prompt ("as administrator" if you run Windows Vista), change the directory to the one that contains PLL.exe, then type :

PLL.exe -M=ABIT_IL90MV -FSB=[target FSB]


Conclusion

The abit iL-90MV is a convincing product that fullfills its target specification. It benefits from the abit quality, namely is rock stable, performant, and based on high-quality components. No problem was noticed during our tests, except the HDD LED that is sometimes misfunctionning, for an unknown reason. The lack of overclocking is not really an issue, and it defintely not the aim of this product. However, the possibility to reduce the FSB would have been fine, to reduce temperature in a HTPC case.


abit iL-90MV

+ -
  • Support for Core 2 Duo Merom.
  • Overall quality (PCB, components).
  • HDMI 1.2 connector.
  • abit support and users community.
  • No PCI 16x slot.
  • Some minor bugs (HDD LED disfunction).

Useful links


Article Updates

Date Author Modifications
07/09/2007 Franck Delattre First version.