I have been impressed with Gigabyte's past offerings, they were fast, stable,
and relatively tweakable, let's see if they can build upon that tradition with
their latest offering.
The Gigabyte-60MM7 is a micro-atx motherboard utilizing the new Intel 815E
chipset. The Gigabyte-60MM7 is a socket 370 motherboard, therefore it can
support Celeron PPGA processors starting with the the 300A all the way up to
533. Naturally, FCPGA CPU's are also supported, Celeron 533A's and up to
the 700Mhz model should function properly.
FCPGA Pentium III's are supported, ranging from the 500E model, all the way
up to the 1Ghz model. The Intel 815E chipset calls for integrated video,
manufacturers can opt to include the AGP slot for expandability. Gigabyte
has done just that, despite the cost cutting measure of having integrated video,
Gigabyte has included the AGP slot as well as three bus mastering PCI
slots. The AGP port uses Gigabyte's exclusive clip that helps to
stabilize your AGP video card during shipping. They've also included an
AMR and a CNR slot.
Memory expansion is provided for via three 168pin DIMM sockets, supporting
PC-66/100/133Mhz modules, in sizes varying from 32MB, 64MB, 128MB, 256MB, and
512MB. The maximum supported memory is 512MB.
Connectors:
As with all motherboards, the Gigabyte-60MM7 has a few external connector's,
including two PS/2 ports (one for a keyboard, the other, for a mouse).
There are two USB ports readily accessible externally, you can add two more
ports via an onboard connector-bracket. Unfortunately Gigabyte does not
include this piece of hardware.
There is one serial port, but another one is available
with an optional connector. A VGA port is included to utilize the onboard
video, the onboard soundcard has four ports available as well, these include the joystick/midi port, the line-in, line-out, and mic-in ports. In this
day and age, where USB has become so important, it's a shame that
Gigabyte opted not to include the extra USB ports. I myself have three USB
devices, a Microsoft Intellimouse Optical, a Gravis Game pad Pro USB,
and a Umax Astra 2000U Scanner.
While it's true that USB devices are supposed to be
hot swappable, and easy to interchange. It's still a big nuisance to
poke your head behind your desk to unplug a scanner just so that you can
plug in your gamepad for a little bit of NBA Live 2000 action.