Layout/BIOS Comparison

Board Layout

One of the first things we noticed was the use of heatsinks on the voltage regulators near the Slot A interface on the K7 Pro. The K7M on the other hand uses voltage regulators without heatsinks. Because of this, we thought our K7 Pro would run a bit more stable than the K7M when overclocked. We couldn't reveal this in our overclocking tests though.

Voltage regulators with heatsinks present on the K7 Pro

On the other hand the K7M doesn't use heatsinks

Both motherboards have 3 fan headers; ASUS chose to place 2 near the DIMM sockets at the top of the motherboard, with the third on the bottom right side. The K7 Pro has one fan header just above the AGP slot, with a second located immediately on the other side of the first DIMM socket and the final fan header at the bottom right of the motherboard.

Neither motherboard has serious layout issues unique to it that could lead to problems installing certain components or even the motherboard itself. While we could criticize ASUS for not including heatsinks on its voltage regulators, we weren't able to justify this criticism during overclocking testing.

Likewise, the K7M is a little larger than the K7 Pro, but still shouldn't pose any problems during installation in the system case.

BOARD LAYOUT WINNER: Tie

BIOS Implementation

While both motherboards use AMIBIOS, we prefer the implementation on the K7 Pro over the K7M. While we were able to adjust settings with both interfaces in a matter of minutes, the interface for the K7M is just too clunky in our opinion.

For instance, rather than accessing the settings to manipulate the system bus directly from the Main Menu, you must select the "Advanced" menu and then the "Advanced Chipset Setup" submenu.

With the K7 Pro BIOS you can be manipulating the system bus in a matter of 2 or 3 keystrokes. In addition, some K7M submenus require scrolling down to view additional settings.

Advanced Menu on the K7M

Advanced Chipset Setup Menu

While it isn't difficult to adjust these settings, it can be hard at times to navigate around the K7M BIOS; we'd assume it's even worse for those less familiar with BIOS settings. In contrast, the K7 Pro settings are usually within a few keystrokes, and don't require any scrolling to find them.

K7 Pro Main Menu

Everything you need, all with no scrolling

BIOS IMPLEMTATION WINNER: K7 Pro