Computex 2006: Abit is back, Biostar expands, and Thermaltake dazzles
by Gary Key on June 10, 2006 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
Abit: AMD Motherboards
All of the following motherboards are expected to be available within the next few weeks. Here are Abit's offerings for the various price ranges.
The AN9-32X is Abit's mainstream NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI board featuring two additional SATA 3Gb/s ports from a Silicon Image 3132 chipset along with the AudioMax riser card. The target price is around US $185.
Abit's lone ATI AM2 board is the AT9-32X featuring the ATI Xpress 3200 and SB600 chipsets along two additional SATA 3Gb/s ports from a Silicon Image 3132. Pricing has not been finalized but expect it to be in the US $150~$175 range.
Abit's AMD AM2 Fatal1ty board features the NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI chipset, Guru 2005, and AudioMax technology. Pricing should be around US $200 dependent upon options.
Abit's KN9-SLI board features the NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI chipset, Realtek ALC-883 HD audio, and will be aggressively priced in the US $115~$125 range.
The KN9 Ultra board features the NVIDIA nForce 570 Ultra chipset, passive cooling, and Realtek ALC-883 HD audio. Expected pricing is US $90~$105.
Last but not least is the Abit NF-M2 micro-ATX board featuring the NVIDIA GeForce 6100 chipset, and Realtek ALC-883 HD audio. This will be a value offering targeting the US $65~$70 price range.
All of Abit's new release motherboard products now feature passive cooling, a trend we witnessed with other manufacturers at the show. Abit will be aggressively pricing their products this summer so expect to see some very good price to performance ratios along with excellent product quality. In fact, the price targets we listed were very early estimates and could drop further at release.
The general tone around the Abit booth was one of excitement, certainly not the air of depression we witnessed last year. We were told that the first boards coming off USI assembly lines last week were approved without reservations and the quality even exceeded internal expectations. We expect to see some great products out of Abit shortly and hopefully the boards will perform as well as they look.
All of the following motherboards are expected to be available within the next few weeks. Here are Abit's offerings for the various price ranges.
The AN9-32X is Abit's mainstream NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI board featuring two additional SATA 3Gb/s ports from a Silicon Image 3132 chipset along with the AudioMax riser card. The target price is around US $185.
Abit's lone ATI AM2 board is the AT9-32X featuring the ATI Xpress 3200 and SB600 chipsets along two additional SATA 3Gb/s ports from a Silicon Image 3132. Pricing has not been finalized but expect it to be in the US $150~$175 range.
Abit's AMD AM2 Fatal1ty board features the NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI chipset, Guru 2005, and AudioMax technology. Pricing should be around US $200 dependent upon options.
Abit's KN9-SLI board features the NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI chipset, Realtek ALC-883 HD audio, and will be aggressively priced in the US $115~$125 range.
The KN9 Ultra board features the NVIDIA nForce 570 Ultra chipset, passive cooling, and Realtek ALC-883 HD audio. Expected pricing is US $90~$105.
Last but not least is the Abit NF-M2 micro-ATX board featuring the NVIDIA GeForce 6100 chipset, and Realtek ALC-883 HD audio. This will be a value offering targeting the US $65~$70 price range.
All of Abit's new release motherboard products now feature passive cooling, a trend we witnessed with other manufacturers at the show. Abit will be aggressively pricing their products this summer so expect to see some very good price to performance ratios along with excellent product quality. In fact, the price targets we listed were very early estimates and could drop further at release.
The general tone around the Abit booth was one of excitement, certainly not the air of depression we witnessed last year. We were told that the first boards coming off USI assembly lines last week were approved without reservations and the quality even exceeded internal expectations. We expect to see some great products out of Abit shortly and hopefully the boards will perform as well as they look.
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Operandi - Sunday, June 11, 2006 - link
Lian Li and SilverStone need companies like Thermaltake to make ugly ass cases to make theirs look good. ;)Griswold - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
Or the all-time classic:Optimus Prime called, he wants his chest armor back!
Lonyo - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
Putting passive cooling on their "max" motherboard. It makes me sad.vailr - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
Only one PCI slot on Abit's "Top of the Line" board? No thanks. Would need at least 2, or preferably 3 PCI slots.And regarding the passive/heatpipe chipset cooling: these won't work with some of
the Lian-Li mid-tower cases where the motherboard is oriented "upside-down".
Chernobyl68 - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
That was my first thought when I started seeing all of the passive cooling solutions out there...how would it work with the Lian-Li case I plan to buy? do I need to reconsider my options? I thought all I was waiting on was an acceptable motherboard to be released before I make my new system but I may be waiting a bit longer.Chern
Gary Key - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
We discussed this at length with Abit, too late to change now but we told them there would be a backlash. Also, if you run CrossFire or SLI, that single PCI slot is gone.
LoneWolf15 - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
Major case of "Aim gun at foot, pull trigger".
Unless Abit is willing to come up with some high quality PCIe peripherals to match, their high-end single-PCI slot boards are worthless, and releasing them will be a major monetary loss. With Crossfire/SLI, this means no Creative X-Fi (or insert other better-than-onboard-sound-card here), and limited choice of any other peripherals.
Universally stupid.
JarredWalton - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
The only major loss is sound card support, as you can currently get Theater 550 TV Tuners in PCIe format. I'm personally finding onboard audio sufficient for my needs, especially with the latest HDA solutions. X-Fi sounds better and cleaner, but it's not something you really notice unless you have really nice speakers/headphones.It's sort of like integrated NICs - is there anyone out there that really cares about the difference between 700 Mbit vs. 950 Mbit GbE performance? The only time I touch those speeds is when doing theoretical tests; HDD speeds are the limit otherwise, and gaming? Don't make me laugh: games don't even stress a 10 Mbit Ethernet connection in most instances, and certainly don't need more than 100 Mbit.
Anyway, my point is that integrated audio is fast nearing the point where few people worry about add-in sound cards. Get some digital speakers and use the S/PDIF connections on nice motherboards, and I'd love to see some people do a "blind" listening test. I'm sort of curious about what percentage of our readers still use add-in sound cards - I would be surprised if it's more than 10%.
Odeen - Tuesday, June 13, 2006 - link
There are a few problems with onboard audio. The sound quality is one of them. The second problem is the PERFORMANCE hit and the 3d sound rendering features available.Basically, onboard audio (and outboard audio processors without hardware DS3D and EAX support can emulate EAX, but not perfectly. EAX 4.0 is a no-go at all. And this emulation is tantamount to doing software 3D rendering - it's very slow, especially when dozens of sounds need to be located in 3D space and processed.
Any gamer owes it to himself to use a sound card capable of 3D sound processing, or they're cheating themselves out of frame rates.
BPB - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
Did they really think that people running Crossfire setups wouldn't at least want better-than-onboard sound? That alone is one PCI slot. The onboard sound looks good, but is it that good?