News ABIT goes back to what it does best

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2006/03/11/abit_goes_back_to_its_roots/

 

I'm lovin the layout, I really like the jumpers on the edge along with everything else

 

Me too, ABIT made some great mobos. I'm glad to see they're going back to how they were. Maybe they've been plagerizing from Roto's ultimate motherboard thread

 

Good old Abit; they certainly do know how to design a great motherboard. Look at their recent AN8 revisions - they're superb for quiet, cheap builds. If I take the leap to AM2 then this will get serious consideration

 

Im using a NF7-Sv2 right now and I have been waiting to make the jump to 64bit ever since I heard about the AM2 socket. Hopefully this mobo preforms as well as its designed. This is the board I want when I upgrade (I hope)

 

Yeah, my Athlon XP rig runs like a dream with the very same board. Excellent layout, great overclocker and it looks pretty nice too

 

It's a shame that their financial issues left them being late to market with some products & thus largely ignored.

AN8 series in general is very good & the new AN8 32X is getting excellent user feedback.

The AT8 looks to be probably the best RD480 board (certainly better than the Asus A8R) although admittedly there aren't too many of those.
RD580 AT8 32X due out shortly though.

 

Youre not picky enough Tim; there isnt a second PATA slot (there are a lot of us out there who use IDE hard drives still), and there are only six SATA ports; there should be seven IMO. Otherwise, it looks like a fantastic board

 

it's a mainstream board.
Having more than the 6 that afaik the chipset supports means adding another controller > increased cost>increased selling price.

 

I meant eight - and IIRC, the chipset only has four, so a second controller is already in place; however, it only adds two ports.

 

About time they made mobo. I feel sorry for the sales in K8 were ****. I hope they make some nice Mobo in AM2. Its funny how when DFi got bigger so many mobo companies are hurting now.

 

As I just said to roto over messenger: looks far too much like one of the previous designes in the bit mobo design thread.

Though if they did utilize the basic design, they didn't pay attention too much

 

Ah, but there are two PATA ports, there's just no floppy port. Which if you ask me is just fine. I haven't had a floppy drive installed in 7 years or so. The second PATA port is at the bottom of the board, closer to the HDs, whereas the top PATA port is much closer to the CD drives. A great idea if you ask me.

 

Try again The bottom one has a bit of a flop to it, don't you think?

 

MCP55P is reputed to have 6 SATA ports ...

 

You dont know whether it's a chipset limitation. The KN9 with NForce 580 (or whatever the **** it is) could be only single P// and 6 SATA support. Admittidly they dont have an extra lot of SATA ports, but that takes up space and I for one would never use more than 6! 7!? where the hell did you pick that number up from?? Why not 8 then??

No e-Sata, no RCA s/pdif, and something like a 512GTX will possibly negate the use of the top 3 SATA sockets but if you can afford the 512GTX then you will probably buy a high end version, not a mainstream board.

Im glad I bought a SATA DVD drive now

Looks as good as my AW8-MAX I love Abit boards to bits, apart from the god damn uGuru crap that I cant run Speedfan with

 

Seems like a pretty solid design, sort of playing it safe but still not having any serious problems, although the 4 pin 12v connector could be maybe located nearer to the atx connector...but I suppose that's just a matter of taste.
In a case like Antec P180, that design isn't exactly the best solution, but you can't win them all =]

I don't see a reason why any normal (as in no dual core or something) card in the market would interfere with the use of the sata ports.

 

The length of the dual slot cooler on the 512s is the full length of the card.

 

Nice mobo design, but why just 8x PCI-E and not 16?

They make great boards, the IS7 was awesome value for money considering its capabilities.

Hope they get the overclocking sorted out...I mean they are fantastic overclockers but getting them to do it was a beeeeatch!

 

I was noticing the same thing as roto. There appears to be only one IDE port, unless of course that one at the bottom is another IDE port, not a floppy port. Can anyone confirm this?