Insanetek Recommends ABIT NF8 motherboard

March 14, 2005 - Fremont, CA. Insanetek has Here are the highlights:
When performance is top priority, there's nothing out there like a quality ABIT motherboard. Known for legendary performance, rock-solid stability, and nearly limitless tweaking options, ABIT motherboards are the preferred choice for top system builders. John Chen, a.k.a. poiuy223, recently had a chance to test drive the new NF8 motherboard, and see if it continues the legacy of NF7. After a battery of tests, found it worthy of the Recommended Award!

"Much like the rest of ABIT's motherboards, the NF8 comes in a sexy orange/red PCB. The NF8 uses NVIDIA's nForce3 250Gb chipset; and like the rest of the nForce3-based motherboards, it's placed at the lower right corner of the motherboard. ABIT provides a passive heatsink to cool the chipset. While the chipset does get rather hot during load, the passive heatsink does a good job at keeping the motherboard stable. Although the nForce3 250Gb chipset is feature rich, ABIT still provides 5 PCI slots for future add-ons.

There seems to be ample space around the CPU socket on the NF8. The DIMM's are a little too close to the socket, but I didn't have any troubles installing the Zalman CNPS7700-AlCu. As usual, next to the CPU socket are the MOSFET's. A little while back, many complained that capacitors started blowing up on old ABIT motherboards. ABIT has fixed that problem by using 100% all Japanese capacitors. Around the MOSFET area are what ABIT calls "overclocking strips". These tracings are thicker and wider to allow better heat dissipation and maintain stability under stress. These strips can also be found on the back of the motherboard, near the CPU socket area. Like the KV8 Pro cousin, the NF8 comes supplied with a whopping 5 onboard fan headers. This is great, because now you can monitor the RPM's of the two intake fans, two exhaust fans, and the CPU fan.

Conclusion and thoughts:
In the end, does the ABIT NF8 continue the legacy of the NF7? It sure seems to. The NF7 is considered to be one of the best nForce2 motherboards available. It is very stable, provides great performance, and overclocks very well. The NF8 follows the same characteristics. The board is very stable…, provides great performance, and overclocks pretty decently…Overall, I'm very pleased with the NF8. The package is light and doesn't feature ABIT 's μGuru™, but the price makes up for the loss. Coming in at well below $100, the NF8 is a great board to own. The features of the nForce3 chipset along with ABIT 's performance makes the NF8 a great recommendation. Sure ABIT is a little late to the Socket 754 nForce3 game, but there's nothing wrong with that. They did bring a good competitor to the field".

Pros:

• Attractive orange/red PCB
• Excellent price tag
• BIT's excellent official support
• Great performance
• Decent overclocking potential
• Decent BIOS options
• Includes 5 fan headers

For the full review, go to: http://www.insanetek.com/index.php?page=abitnf8

For more information on the NF8 motherboard, go here: NF8

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