From The Tiger Woods of Gaming to you!
PC Enthusiast gives the Fatal1ty AA8XE Editor's Choice Award

January 18, 2005 Fremont, CA. How do you build the Ultimate Gaming Platform? You find the Ult1mate Gamer. PC Enthusiast recently took a close look at the Fatal1ty AA8XE motherboard and got a kick out of it! Before getting to know this impressive hardware, we must get to know who Fatal1ty is. After snatching many consecutive championships, the name Fatal1ty has become synonymous with the Tiger Woods of Gaming.

"In every sport, superstars become the authority in their given profession. They inspire onlookers to watch, and they spread their knowledge of the sport to their beloved fans. The perfect example of this is Tiger Woods, who inspired the "golf's so boring" guy to hit the links the day after watching him play. In a sense, we are witnessing the same transition in our world. PC enthusiasts are slowly shedding the nerdy, no-lifer image, and most of it can be attributed to this generation of gamers. This brings us to the product you are staring at now. ABIT's Fatal1ty AA8XE, the first of many products "Built to Kill".

Even before PC Enthusiast editors began testing, they were already impressed with the packaging alone. "This was far from the bargain-bin, econo-line boards you come across on a daily basis. In fact, the Fatal1ty AA8XE radiates the aura of an enthusiast product, and the box portrays the image of a premium product. First off, the AA8XE uses the latest and greatest Intel 925XE chipset. This chipset is the gateway for Intel users holding out for a 1066MHz FSB processor. Combining the cooling features on this board and the 925XE provides plenty of headroom for the overclockers out there. These features include an improved dual-fanned OTES, the OTES AeroFlow, the OTES RAMFlow, and of course the renowned OC strips. The dual-fanned OTES keeps the MOSFET power chips cooler, and its unique shape allows the stock Intel cooler to fit like a glove. Another interesting cooling feature bundled with the Fatal1ty board is the OTES RAMFlow."

Originally, the editors at PC Enthusiast thought this would prevent them from installing larger memory modules like the Corsair XMS Pros, but after attaching the RAMFlow onto the memory slots, their doubts were instantly tossed aside. The only surprise they got was the incredibly low amount of noise all of these fans produced.

"Once we got past these overclocking aids, we examined some of the other features unique to this board. The audio riser fits into a reversed PCI-E slot and allows the use of Intel's 7.1 channel HD Audio with support for Dolby Digital Live – a nice bonus even if you don't have that many speakers. Among these new features is one that we've never seen before – red LEDs all over the bottom of the motherboard. If you're a modder or have a clear side panel, this can definitely tip the scales in favor of the Fatal1ty board – it's nearly impossible to duplicate.

And the verdict...Overall, this board embodies everything an enthusiast strives for: overclockabilty, excellent cooling, and drop-dead gorgeous looks. While most people will argue that the P4 is not the best platform for gaming, there are some people that won't take a second look at AMD platforms. For those people, the Fatal1ty AA8XE should definitely be one to contend for their cash. Although this board does require a little bit of tweaking to get the higher speeds, once you do it'll run beautifully afterwards."

To read the full article, get the January 2005 issue of PC Enthusiast magazine.

For more information on the Fatal1ty AA8XE motherboard, go here: Fatal1ty AA8XE

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