ABIT Fatal1ty AN8 wins "Must Have" award from Insanetek

March 25, 2005 - Fremont, CA. Top hardware review site Insanetek has recently reviewed the ABIT Fatal1ty AN8 and awarded it with "Must Have" award! Here are the highlights "There you have it. The rundown of the Fatal1ty's performance and overclocking potential is definitely exceptional. The most attractive part of the motherboard is the fiery red PCB paired with the red LED's. Gamers like to have modded cases and windows to show off internal parts of the system. The motherboard LED's add to the overall effect. Its glow is nothing like a mod you can do inside a case. Pair it with the Corsair Xpert or Crucial Ballistix Tracer memory and you'll have one dazzling gaming system."

Let's hear what Insanetek says about the layout of ABIT Fatal1ty AN8 "Right off the bat, I can tell you that the AN8 has a great motherboard layout. I mentioned earlier that the motherboard has a great layout because of the position of the motherboard chipset. Unlike nForce3 and some nForce4 motherboards that have the chipset sitting at the corner of the AGP/PCI-E slot, the chipset on the Fatal1ty sits above the PCI-E slot. This allows enthusiasts to swap out for a better aftermarket cooling solution, like the Swiftech MCX159 or Thermalright NB-1, without interfering with the graphic card. The stock chipset cooler is all copper and does a good job at cooling the chipset."

Another innovative feature from ABIT engineering "Dual OTES" – the fans are controlled by the uGuru chip on the motherboard and it only spins up when the system gets hot. "On the back I/O panel are the Dual OTES exhaust system, where two 40mm fans draw heat away from the heatsinks that sit on the MOSFET's. The top left corner screw hole is covered by the duct and requires the duct to be removed for proper installation."

The moment of truth; how well can the ABIT Fatal1ty AN8 overclock? Insanetek has achieved an incredible 350Mhz FSB with the ABIT Fatal1ty AN8!!! "Ahhh, here comes the good section. Overclocking the Fatal1ty was like nothing I've ever experienced with any other motherboard. The CMOS jumper was not used a single time during the overclocking process. If the overclock failed, a restart of the system allowed me to go back into the BIOS. I proceeded to find the highest HTT allowed with dual sticks of memory installed. The first test will be conducted with the memory divider at 1:1. The second test will be with a divider, so that the RAM wouldn't pose as a bottleneck. All memory timings were left at 3-4-4-8 2T and the LDT multiplier at 1x and CPU multiplier at 6x. I made sure that nothing would bottleneck the chipset and motherboard potential. I tested with dual channel sticks in slots 1 & 2 and 3 & 4 with the same results. Unlike some motherboards that are DIMM slot picky, this board can take whatever you throw at it."

• Highest overclock 1:1: 315HTT
• Highest overclock with divider: 350HTT

ABIT is honored to receive the Must Have award from Insanetek and here is the conclusion.

Conclusion and thoughts:

As for now, the Fatal1ty provides great performance and overclocking headroom for the gamers. The board is free from unused peripherals and provides features that the gamers actually find use for. The OTES for MOSFET's is a great help. It only turns on and exhausts heat when the motherboard senses high temperatures. When on, the fans do put out extra noise, but not enough to put on ear muffs. If I could hardly notice a difference on my testbed next to me, you won't notice anything in a case on the floor. The most attractive part of the motherboard is the fiery red PCB paired with the red LED's. Gamers like to have modded cases and windows to show off internal parts of the system. The motherboard LED's add to the overall effect. Its glow is nothing like a mod you can do inside a case. Pair it with the Corsair Xpert or Crucial Ballistix Tracer memory and you'll have one dazzling gaming system. In the end, despite the lacking VDIMM, the board was awesome. It's definitely the motherboard to use for your gaming rig.

Pros:

• Beautiful fiery red PCB
• Red motherboard LED's
• Extremely high overclock potential
• Great BIOS options
• Good voltage options
• OTES RAMFlow helps keep memory running cool
• OTES at the back I/O helps keep MOSFET's running cool and stable
• Excellent location of nForce4 Ultra chipset

Cons:

• VDIMM lacking
• AudioMax doesn't provide highest onboard sound solution
• Bad location of floppy connector

For the full review, go to: http://insanetek.com/index.php?page=abitfatal1tyan8_2

For more information on the Fatal1ty AN8 motherboard, go here: ABIT Fatal1ty AN8

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