AG8 motherboard receives Gold Award from PC Perspective
"The Best Overclocking 915P motherboard"

February 14, 2005 Fremont, CA. Hardware enthusiasts know that with it comes to top-notch quality, stability and performance, ABIT motherboards are tough to beat. But with the release of ABIT's AG8, beating out an ABIT board just got a lot tougher. This time, PC Perspective compared AG8 to other 915P boards, and after a gauntlet of tests, gave it a Gold Award.

"The first thing I have to say about the ABIT AG8 is that it is the best overclocking 915P motherboard we have tested on PCPerspective so far. It was able to do an amazing 261MHz clock (1044MHz bus speed) with just a small bump to the voltages and stock Intel air cooling."

Other notable features are 3 Firewire connections (all usable), SATA RAID (using Intel's Matrix RAID), 8 USB 2.0 connections (6 usable out of the box), and SPDIF input and output. There is also ABIT's trademark μGuru microprocessor that gives enthusiasts many options to adjust performance, cooling, and system health.

The ABIT AG8 is a top performer. Somewhere ABIT has done some engineering to this motherboard that has given it a kick in performance. Compared to the more expensive 915P using DDR2, it performs essentially the same. In most tests we have run, the AG8 matches the scores of the more expensive configuration.

Impressions & Conclusions

ABIT supports the AG8 with a 3-year warranty and free spare parts service. Regarding the free spare parts, all you pay for is the shipping and handling for small parts like CMOS chips, chipset fans, and even CPU retention clips. This is an amazing convenience since it no longer means sending back your board and dealing with down-time for a small problem. This service however is limited to USA and Canada. You can find more information here: http://www.abit-usa.com/abitparts/.

The ABIT AG8 is a well packaged, executed, and supported product. The company boasts enthusiast features and it really does deliver. Though I feel the audio could be stronger, it allows the AG8 to hit a sweet price point just above $100 USD. With 64-bit Socket 775 Intel CPUs hitting the market in a month or two, this AG8 is going to be a hot item.

All things considered, we are giving the ABIT AG8 a Gold Award for its performance, affordability, and great support by the company.

For the full review, go to: http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=115&type=expert&pid=1

For more information on the AG8, go here: ABIT AG8

Thanks for you vote
Top News