 August 29th, 2005 - Fremont, CA. Top hardware review site Insanetek has recently reviewed the ABIT AW8 motherboard and awarded it with "Recommended" award! Here are the highlights "The overclocking options and headroom of the AW8 is magnificent. The board overclocked so well that it maxed out what my CPU's GHz can handle. Abit's reputation of making great overclocking motherboards is definitely shown through the AW8."
Insanetek was really impressed with ABIT Engineered Feature – Silent OTES' performance. "This passive heatpipe cooling solution is known as Abit's Silent OTES. It's actually used in quite a few of their other motherboards. Throughout all intensive tests, the Silent OTES kept the Northbridge cool; it was barely warm to the touch. It's always a benefit to have one less fan running in your system, especially when your system is dedicated to silence."
 ABIT Audio Max technology not only offers great qualify of 7.1 channel surround sound, it also reduces interference because it comes with its own daughter card. "At the very bottom is a slot dedicated for Abit's daughter sound card called AudioMAX. Instead of implementing the audio codec on the motherboard itself, Abit makes a separate sound card to reduce electrical interference and static noise."
Insanetek also has great luck overclocking the AW8 motherboard. "The AW8 booted just fine and ran fine with a maximum of 280FSB. I have no doubts that the motherboard can go further, but unfortunately my CPU seems to be the bottleneck. Sadly, I cannot afford such an expensive CPU like the Extreme Editions, where even lower multipliers are unlocked. It would have been great though."
Conclusion and Thoughts: "The AW8 is a good motherboard for those who wish to go the Intel route. The AW8 sample I received was not the most feature rich, however the AW8-MAX version does come with all the kicks for the enthusiasts who need it. If you do not need all the extra features, then the AW8 would suffice. The motherboard's Silent OTES does a great job of cooling the 955X Northbridge. It is passive so there are no moving parts and that is a huge plus for enthusiasts who look for silent computers."
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Pros:
- Sexy black PCB
- Silent OTES provides great cooling to Northbridge
- Great overclocking features
- Great overclocking headroom
- Uses separate daughter sound card to reduce noise signal interference
Cons:
- Non-MAX version is not feature rich
- No working 1:2 memory divider!!!
- Performance slower than competition
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For the full review, go to: http://www.insanetek.com/index.php?page=abitaw8_1
For more information on the AW8 motherboard, go here: ABIT AW8 | 
