Hardcoreware; a dedicated hardware tech site that focuses only on the most hardcore hardware recently reviewed the ABIT AN8 SLI motherboard and gave it an editor's choice award. Let's hear what Hardcoreware has to say about the ABIT AN8 SLI motherboard "There are two main ways to go about designing a hardcore overclocking motherboard. One way is to pack it full of extra features. This includes auxiliary Ethernet controllers, RAID controllers, FireWire, plenty of USB ports, etc. And in the box, you'll usually find things like specialized cabling, 5.25" expansion bays, and even PC transportation bags. Perfect examples of this type are the DFI Lanparty series, and ABIT Fatal1ty series of motherboards."
 The Silent OTES technology not only offers the best cooling performance, it also provides users an absolute quiet environment. Hardcoreware also complemented on AN8 SLI's great layout "Silent OTES allows ABIT to maintain a low profile heatsink for the chipset that does not require active cooling. Looking at the top half of the board, you can see that the superb layout continues. The DIMM slots are placed well above the top PCI-E x16 slot, so ram installation is a breeze with a video card installed. The 2x12 and 2x2 pin headers are also placed well, although I personally like to have them situated closer to one another. Still, they are both out of the way of any other cables, and it should be easy to tuck these airflow-impeding cables out of the way with this layout."
 Hardcoreware was very impressed with the μGuru features and options. "Many a chair was wet when overclockers first discovered ABIT's innovative μGuru BIOS controller. It added an unprecedented amount of control and monitoring over fans and voltages all across the board. μGuru has been tweaked since then. As usual, this ABIT board is absolutely loaded with voltage and clock settings. None of this matters if you can't keep an eye on how the hardware is affecting temperatures and fan speeds though, and this is where μGuru truly shines"
Overclocking and conclusion. "Armed with an amazing amount of CPU settings, we took our OCZ PC4400 memory to the absolute limits; all the way up to 275 MHz, with a multiplier setting of 6.5. This isn't a CPU overclocking test, so we kept the multiplier low to find out how hard this board can be pushed. And if you can push OCZ ram to the limits, you know you're doing something right. By the way, this beats our previous socket 939 overclocking record of 269 MHz (which was held by another ABIT board; the VIA based AV8). So you decided to go with an SLI setup for your next rig. Probably going to pair it up with a 3000+ Venice, which can be had for under $150 at such places as Newegg.com. Obviously you're intending on overclocking that Venice to the absolute limits. To take it there, you're going to need some capable memory, like OCZ's new Enhanced Latency PC4800, with timings as low as 2.5-4-4-10 at 600 MHz. A gig of that goes for $255 at Newegg.com. Now you need a motherboard.. What are your choices? The Asus A8N SLI is absolutely everywhere. But can it OC like a bitch? Does it have absolute full control over fan speeds? How about integrated temperature and voltage monitoring like you've never seen before? Nope."
ABIT is honored to receive the Editor's Choice award from Hardcoreware
- μGuru. Nuff said.
- Low price for an SLI board
- Superb overclocker
- Great layout
- Silent OTES eliminates the need for a small noisy chipset fan
- AC'97 audio, no matter how you package it, still sucks
- Some people may have to buy extra components that other boards already have
- Only one USB bracket is included
Final Score: 99%
Recipient of the "I AM HARDCORE" Editor's Choice Award!
For full review go here: http://www.hardcoreware.net/reviews/review-297-1.htm
For more information on ABIT AN8 SLI, go here: ABIT AN8 SLI |
